I traveled to Haiti and I had the amazing experience of shopping in their markets. I learned one very important sales tip while I was there. As you walk into their market, you are bombarded by people trying to sell to you. They all surround you and literally pull you to come purchase things from them. As I walked in and out of the vendors, trying to find a handmade birthday card for my mom, I was completely overwhelmed. I could not think straight and I was ready to leave, having not bought anything, just so I could get away from the people pulling and yelling at me. I was going to say that I learned the importance of never giving up, but sometimes it is important to give up a sale. The thing that I did learn though was the importance of standing back. There were several salespeople in the market, who seemed to have learned how to sell. They stood back. They let me come to them and look at their products without bombarding and yelling at me. They let me purchase several items from them, making more money than probably any of the other vendors. They seemed to have figured out that bombarding people was not working for the other vendors so they sat back and waited for people to come to them.
I think that this is a good example of how we should handle sales sometimes. Often times, we seem to always see advertisements from the same people and get overwhelmed by certain companies. Although, we are not physically puled on by people in stores, the pushy salespeople can make us feel this way. However, the better companies are just waiting for us to reach out and we often times want to do business with them because they have not been annoying and in our face. I think that as salespeople this is an important lesson to learn. It is better to be the person waiting behind all of the people that annoy the customer, so we can be the friendly face that does not overwhelm the customer. Instead of being pushy, be the salesperson that takes our time and really gets to know the customer. As we have learned, it is important to build a relationship with the customer instead of just shoving ourselves in the customer’s face!
BoweryJE22
That sounds like drinking from a fire hose – which totally isn’t pleasant! This goes back to Pink’s concept of Clarity – the pushy vendors just wanted to force you down a certain path and wouldn’t settle until you did what they wanted. But the nice, calm vendors gave you the option of perusing their goods – and thus you probably felt more like you chose that route – and that’s what closed the sale.