The Office is a phenomenal show about a paper supply company. This episode features salesmen going on out sales calls and trying to sell to potential customers. I would like to focus on the difference between Ryan, the first salesman, and Jim and Dwight, the salesmen after Ryan.
The first sales call Ryan asks if he can lead the pitch. He heads into the meeting and the first thing he does is freeze up. He is intimidated by the potential clients and does not have any type of prepared presentation. Because of this lack of preparedness, he can’t get into anything to do with his product and fails the presentation. You could have the best product in the world, but it wouldn’t sell if you can’t talk about it. Having a deep understanding and knowledge of your product, business, and services are key to an effect sales pitch. Knowing where your company excels can be the difference between making sales and failing every time.
For example, the next presentation in this clip shows a great example of a sales team that is fully prepared. Jim and Dwight come into the interview and are very professional from the start. The best part about their sales pitch is knowing their competitive advantage over other companies. They call a competitors customer service and get put on hold for a long time. This provides a real world example for their client to see how long difficult it can be to get help. While they do admit that their prices are a little bit higher, they prove their quality through great customer service. They understood that knowing their company in and out and being fully prepared can lead to great results.
“Traveling Salesman.” The Office, season 3, episode 13, NBC.
testacr22
I’ve never made it past the first episode of The Office, but from the clips I’ve seen it is amusing how well it can represent the way people really act. Obviously some sacrifices are made for the sake of comedy, but it’s not spoiled by it. Something I noticed in the clip was that Dwight and Jim went as a sales tag-team. I think we often think of sales as an individual endeavor, but it’s worth noting that teamwork can be as valuable here as anywhere else!
Love the aspect of prep for sales. Unfortunately, most companies do not train their lower level sales employees about the actual product that they are selling. They just assume that the employee will take the time out of their own day to learn.
I love looking at juxtaposition between good and bad sales and The Office does an excellent job of this. Ryan definitely forgot to do the first step of any sales call: the pre-sales call. Nice work!