Recently I had the opportunity to watch a master in action. Not only does this man teach sales, but he puts his money where his mouth is. At an antiques show in Butler, I saw Professor Sweet in a very natural environment. He had his booth set up so that people could walk all around without having to confront him. As people came into the booth he greeted them if there was an opportunity and otherwise he waited for customers to come to him. As a customer would find something they liked, they would bring it up to him and ask about price. If they though the price too high, they would try to haggle with him. In a few instances, the price would be lowered when there was still a good enough margin. Once, a woman who was very interested in an item couldn’t decide if she wanted it or not. Instead of lowering the price, as a poor salesman would do, Professor Sweet read the situation and determined that his price was fair and that the woman would pay it once she convinced herself. Although I do not know if this sale went through, judging by what I saw, it most likely did.
After leaving Professor Sweets booth, I began to meander throughout the show and look at other interesting antiques. Soon after, I found a gun very similar to one that I own. After asking the man at the booth about the firearm, I began to discuss mine with him. When I told the man that I wasn’t completely familiar with the markings on the gun as its been hanging on the wall for a while, the man became almost belligerent with me. He could not believe that I would hang a gun like that on my wall and immediately warned me about rust and dust. My immediate emotional response was defensive. Who was he to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do with my property. This turned me off to further conversation with this man. However, prior to leaving his booth, I picked up a WWII bayonet at the table and inquired about what firearm it was for. The man told me it was from an M1 Garand and I examined the item with some curiosity. Before ever saying anything further to the man (I was mostly curious what the bayonet was from, not really interested in a purchase) he dropped his price. As I was not really interested in purchasing the item, I set it down and began to walk away. Before I could leave the table he lowered the price to me again. I begrudgingly told the man “I would think about it” and walked away. His aggressive approach of trying to sell to me when I wasn’t even interested left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Also the fact that he lowered his price twice for no reason led me to believe that his price was quite high (and so was his margin). Overall a negative sales experience; when I wasn’t even trying to buy.
It was a great experience and a fun time however. I got to see the stark contrast between a sales master and a stereotypical salesman.
BoweryJE22
These are great examples! Lecturing a potential customer or throwing out the budget topic before you analyze the need is a huge mistake. I’m glad you were able to contrast these poor techniques with Professor Sweet’s selling!
It’s always fun to see the classroom come alive in real life. I tagged along with a salesman at my parents’ company over Christmas break and saw a lot of similar things. It’s surprising how aggressive some people can be in their sales pitches. Do they actually think it works? Seems silly, but they must.