“Always be closing” is a popular slogan in sales. While some elements of the slogan may be helpful, we’ve all probably seen instances where it led to pushy salespeople just trying to get a deal out of us.
The Aggressive Salesperson
A few years ago, my family and I were on a family vacation to the beach. On our way, we stayed in a hotel one night and were told we would receive a discount if we attended a short breakfast promoting a membership program the hotel chain was running. The next morning, they sat us down in a fancy room and two hotel representatives spoke to us about the program as we ate breakfast. After breakfast, they assigned each family with a salesperson who gave a tour of the hotel grounds and showcased some of their high-end, fancy suites. While the sales interaction started out in an open and friendly way, we quickly realized we were not getting out of it quickly. A short breakfast turned into several hours of being pushed by an over-eager hotel representative toward buying into their expensive program. Any questions we asked were brushed aside and the salesperson would try to push us into a deal. When my parents asked for time to discuss it, we were told that time was of the essence and we would probably lose our chance if we did not buy then and there. As you can probably imagine, we did not agree to close a deal and we left feeling irritated, realizing we had just wasted several hours of our day.
What Went Wrong
Several things went wrong in this interaction. While I am sure the hotel chain has gotten some sales out of their sales strategy, they probably didn’t get any loyal buyers. There are a few important takeaways from this story.
Pushy selling doesn’t work.
As a salesperson, you want to avoid annoying your customer at all costs. Your potential client should not feel accosted or pushed into a deal. Your goal should be to make them feel like you are there to help them (which should be your purpose in the first place!).
Be there for your prospect.
Your role as a salesperson is to answer questions and close the deal. But the way you go about this is just as important. If your prospect feels like you are unwilling to answer questions and help them make sure the sale would be a good fit, you probably need to reconsider your sales methods.
Make your prospect want a partnership with you.
Relationship is key in the sales process. You should be trying to cultivate a relationship with your prospects making them want to partner with you. One-time sales are good, but loyal customers are better. Make your customer feel like they are being genuinely helped and you are someone they and others should want to exchange with.
There are helpful things we can learn from every sales experience. Fundamentally, remember that you are there to help your customer succeed. Make them feel like this is true!
testacr22
This is such a cool story to tell. I would be very frustrated in the situation as well. You are so right in saying that pushy selling doesn’t work and that you should always be there for your prospect. Great post!
Cool article! I like that you included a personal example of the negative sales experience that you had and how you tied it back to some lessons that you have learned and we can apply to our sales experiences.
-Asher
I think this is very important because being a salesman has so many different opinions of others. This is also one of those things we learned about that can be outdated because of technology. I think its a great point to bring up the fact that you should make relationships instead of focusing on making the sell.