I recently was shown a YouTube video by one of my friends and, though I consider this video to be a modern masterpiece, I recognized some bad selling by the vendor. In this video a knight is going into battle and approaches a potion seller in the hopes of obtaining a potion of sufficient power to carry him through. The potion seller, a wise yet crotchety man, flatly refuses to sell him his strongest potion on the grounds of it being too powerful for even a dragon. Instead of trying to find the knight’s pain and his need, the potion seller listed reasons as to why he could not give him his strongest brew. If he had listened to the young knight the potion seller may have been able to find him a suitable product and could have made a tidy profit. By refusing to compromise or build rapport with his client, the potion seller may have missed out on a man who would have been a repeat customer. On the other hand, the potion seller didn’t simply want to push across his product. He could have simply sold the knight his potion and let him die from drinking it. The seller realized that this product was not the best fit and, though the knight pleaded for him to sell it, refused to go through with the sale. In the end, we don’t really know how the battle went for the knight, but we do know that the seller missed an opportunity. The moral of this story is that a salesperson must always take the time to uncover the pain if they want to have a successful pitch.
BoweryJE22
The customer in this situation actually had a lot more patience than I would. This seller could be looked at two ways as you pointed out: 1) That he didn’t take time to understand the customers pain or 2) That he was in fact looking out for the customer’s best interest by realizing his product would not solve the customer’s pain. Whichever way you view things, this seller could definitely use Professor Sweet’s class I think!
This is a truly legendary post. Who knew that this video reflected such an important sales truth? After all, sales are not just about getting people to buy the best, most expensive thing you’re selling but rather to find the best fit between customer and seller. Maybe referring a traveler to a seller of weaker potions is the best thing you can do!
This post is fantastic. In watching the video a while ago I never realized how poor a salesperson the potion seller truly was. Understanding the customer’s need should be first order of business when it comes to selling.
Hey this is so cool. The selling in this video is just hilarious. Great pick!