I observed a great example of a good sales technique in “The Office.” In season 3, episode 7 the group splits into several different groups to go out and sell. There are various examples of good and bad selling techniques used by a couple of them. The technique that I want to focus on was done by Dwight and Jim. While they were in the customers office, the customer was heavily denying their product. The customer mentioned that the main reason is that the price of the big paper company he already uses was way better than Dunder Mifflin’s price. Dwight and Jim had a great technique to combat this objection from their customer. They asked the customer something along the lines of, “how much does customer service and relationship mean to you?” The customer responded with, “it is everything, of course.” What they did was call the big paper company their customer currently uses and they were put directly on hold. They then called Dunder Mifflin and their customer service person answered instantly and was ready to assist. Dwight and Jim effectively used a counterbalance technique that showed, that they knew they couldn’t compete with their competitors price, BUT they could offer something their competitor could not (amazing customer service). This was a great selling technique example that I observed from watching The Office. Although it is a funny comedy show, it has some valuable selling lessons to be learned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEl2d8Me6VQ
BoweryJE22
It’s so interesting that while The Office is a great show for laughs and entertainment, it actually teaches many valuable sales lessons for what to do and NOT do as a salesperson. This is a great example of how asking the potential client/customer a question regarding what they value most, or how important something is to them can help you better target their needs/wants. Great post!
I always really liked this episode. It showed that even though Dwight and Jim fought a lot, they both understood that building a personal relationship with their customers is incredibly important to getting the sale and they could work together to attain that goal. It shows that teamwork with one another can achieve great things.
Great post Nick! It’s interesting how many lessons you can take away from this show that aren’t just for laughs. This scene in particular display a great amount of leveraging and chemistry.