A few weeks ago, I started an internship with a company called Warren Industries. They are a supplier of kitchen appliances, cabinets, water pipes, hot water tanks, and a huge variety of other products. I will be working for them after graduation in a few weeks and I’ve gotten some chances to speak with customers already.
One of the first people I got to talk to was a sales rep from a company that sells hot water tanks to us in bulk so that we can sell them to contractors and other people that would buy them from us. I have only been there a few weeks but apparently my company had switched suppliers and this sales rep was not happy. So they gave the intern the meeting with him so that they didn’t have to listen to him.
I am new to the industry and have no idea what a hot water tank costs. It turns out after listening to this guy ramble on and plead with me i talked him down to a cost of about $250 per tank. It turns out we were paying another company $315 for the same tank. So I told my boss what he offered and he called the rep and ordered a bunch of these tanks at a huge discount. All it took was someone to talk this company down and to say we aren’t going to buy from them anymore and they cut their price drastically.
BoweryJE22
It amazing how a new perspective can alter the outcome of a situation. Since you were able to come in fresh and not have dealt with this man before, I bet it made it easier to tell him how it was and what direction your company want to go.
As well as just listening and making the awkward silences where the person ends up “having” to fill the silence with words.
It’s super cool how your fresh perspective allowed you negotiate with this guy and end up getting a significantly better price. It just goes to show how much listening and working with a sales rep can get you.