In my previous post I talked about how our various guest speakers talked about how to always be closing and to not give up on a sale. Sometimes the right question or the right set of words get incline a client to a sale when they have not seem interested in the product the entire time. It is good to be persistent as a salesman because it shows that you care and that you are doing whatever you can to sell your product and find the right question or the right angle to approach that will get that final sale.
In the office, Jim Halpert is a paper salesman for Dunder Mifflin and usually he is very relaxed in his style and is a successful salesman because clients like his personality and feel comfortable doing business with him. In this one instance, there is a big sales that Jim could make when he goes to play a game of golf with one of his clients. He has made previous calls to this client about reaching a sale over the last couple of months but the client does not seem interested at the time but he does leave the window open. Jim focuses on his short game and plays golf with the client without talking about business. He casually mentions it again later in a form of a joke to show his personality and trying to make the client feel comfortable but yet again the client denies him. Then, after the game they sit down for drinks and Jim pitches his product again and breaks down more of his features for the client. He is starting to move away from his resources by saying that they can talk about it again in the next couple of months but then says he is going to leave. While he is pulling out, Jim goes out to his car and stops in front of it which prevents him to leave and continues to pitch to him and eventually gets the sale.
As I reward Jim for his commitment to the sale, I do not exactly like the way he did it. I like the relaxed approach he had in the beginning where it was not all business but once in a while he would drop the idea of pursuing a deal and seeing where the client was at. Jim was persistent through this process and he was definitely doing a good job of moving the client away from his current resources. The part I did not like is when he went outside and stood in front of his car to try and make the sale. It ended up working but to me at this point he seems more pushy than persistent. In real life I see the client becoming freaked out and Jim ends up losing the sale. I like the idea of pursuing even after he said we will talk in a couple of months after drinks but not one so aggressive.
BoweryJE22
I agree that long term the laid back and relaxed approach will result in a better relationship with the customer. Short term, being pushy can possibly help to close a sale or two but there is a good chance that the relationship will be done after that exchange and the customer will probably go to someone else for the next time.
First, Office references and examples are always the best in my opinion. I think that Jim definitely probably pushed too hard to make the sale, but one could argue that he did exactly what was necessary to meet the needs and expectations of his clients (maybe they wanted a big “push” or for him to go out and stop the car). Nice article and good example, thanks for sharing.
-Asher