Since junior year of high school, I have worked in a family-run business, focusing on sales. We sold power systems (backup generators) to companies, schools, and residential homes. My role in the business was to help keep track of customers we were working with and call potential/prospective customers. I was also able to work with the salesmen in the office when they would go to meet clients, and it gave me a good perspective on salespeople.
When I called potential/prospective customers, I would introduce myself, the company I worked for, and why I was contacting them. Then, I would ask if it was a good time to talk to make sure they could give me their full attention and I would make sure not to pressure them in any way. I wanted to make sure they felt comfortable talking to me and I would always try my best to help them. If they had questions that I couldn’t answer, I would either put them on hold and ask the salesmen in the office, or I would transfer the call for them to takeover. Since both of my parents are in business, they have always told me that customer service is important, especially in sales.
There were always customers who thought I was a telemarketer, others who weren’t interested in our product anymore, or those who were still interested. It was harder to talk to the people who thought I was a telemarketer, but I would end up explaining that we had their number on file from previous calls. This would help me explain the purpose of why I was calling them again.
When I would go on sales calls with salesmen in the office, I could tell which salesmen were more authentic and which ones were putting on a show. The more authentic salesmen took the time to get to know the customer and build trust with them. They were able to answers the customers questions and help them feel confident that the purchase was an investment. The salesmen who was putting on a show didn’t seem to care about the customer as much. They would tend to talk about the business and what we specialize in. They would pitch their product and almost pressure the customer into making the costly purchase. I could tell which salesmen were more authentic based off of how many more customers made a purchase through them.
testacr22
That is pretty cool you were able to get a lot of sales experience through your family’s business. Having to call people cold turkey and just start a conversation over the phone had to be so difficult becoming comfortable with it and learning what to say. I know when I get a call from a random number I either say something really stupid or I listen to see what they have to say and just hang up. Doing sales over the phone is definitely some awesome experience to have.
This is really sweet that you’ve had the opportunity to go through this and have the experience. And it definitely gives you an insight from personal experience on what works in sales what doesn’t and how it should be done. I feel like it is just as important to be able to witness others and see what they do right and wrong in real life situations so that you can understand their mistakes or successes critically and be be able to implement the things that worked best accordingly and drop the things that didn’t. Very cool that you’ve been able to do this.