I was watching “Last Man Standing” a couple of days ago, and the episode highlighted a great example of spilling your candy in the lobby. I was unable to find a video clip, so my summarized description will have to suffice.
On the episode, Kyle, an employee was promoted to boat salesman. While he was on the job, his boss observed him begin to work on a sale. It was quickly evident that his sales techniques were failing. One positive was that Kyle very clearly demonstrated the opposite qualities of the stereotypical salesman, as he spoke nothing but the truth. That being said, instead of focusing his pitch on the benefits of the boats, he went off at the customers on all of the things that could possibly go wrong if the boat were to be purchased.
Kyle spilled his candy in the lobby by immediately spurting out loads of unnecessary information that the prospect never inquired after. Now that being said, I’m not saying Kyle should have suppressed information or lied to the customer, because that would have also been exemplifying poor sales techniques. However, instead of pegging the boat as unaffordable, etc. Kyle should have done more to uncover the needs and budget of his prospect, so that he could steer him towards an affordable boat that met the prospect’s needs.
Very clearly, Kyle could have benefited from listening to his prospects more and talking less. That would have allowed him to better understand his customers’ concerns, so that he could focus his pitch on those instead of a multitude of concerns that had previously never even crossed the prospects’ mind.
Overall, though Kyle’s heart was in the right place, he could really benefit from a lesson in sales techniques!
BoweryJE22
Great points on selling techniques! I also love Last Man Standing!! Kyle is the best. I guess he spilled his candy in the lobby in the sense that he shared too much information but its almost as if he did for the opposite reasons most people do which is interesting. But then again, Kyle is a pretty interesting fellow.
I love how you took something in your own life and made the connection to school. This is such a great example of “spilling your candy in the lobby,” and poor Kyle has some work to do haha. He will have to work on listening to his customer’s needs before he spits out unwanted information. Great post!