Sales Lesson
Yesterday, I went out looking for some simple kitchen chairs. I didn’t buy any but I did get an excellent lesson in sales from a real pro. The pro in question is Marty from Marty Millionaire. He gave my friends and I about three minutes to look around and then he came over to chat to us. His sales technique was so engaging that we all agreed — the next time we need furniture — we’re going to to Marty. Here’s what I learned:
- Be honest – The most important part of sales is establishing trust with your customer. That means that you have to be willing to be honest. Marty was quick to point out that some of his stock was low-quality junk. He told me that certain chairs were likely to break the first week I used them. But you know what — when he told me about other quality chairs — I was listening.
- Be knowledgable (and share) – Marty knows more about chairs than I ever will. He told me that it’s a bad sign if a chair is being held together by too many allen-keys. This is a piece of information that I’ll always remember when I’m looking at chairs and I was greatful to him for sharing it with me. He also told me some things about the furniture business that convinced me that Marty knew what he was talking about. My trust in Marty continued to grow.
- Be funny – Marty had us laughing. It felt good to be in that place. He also engaged us in some good-natured ribbing telling us that it was “time to leave”. He then told us to get out. It’s natural to like people who make you laugh. After a few choice funny remarks, all of us really warmed up to Marty.
- Be interested – Marty also took an interest in the table that these chairs were for. He asked me to describe it and showed me some other tables that he thought were like it. Finally, he asked me if I’d take a picture and bring it back for him to see. I don’t get that kind of service at IKEA. He took a real interest in the problem I was trying to solve and established himself as a credible expert. Most of the other used furniture stores around town don’t get inside your head like this. Rather than saying “What about that one?”, Marty was able to say “These are the chairs that go with your table.” What sales technique do you think is more effective?
- Be confident – Marty was confident enough in his inventory to basically say something like: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy today. Check out the competition and I’m confident you’ll be back.” His store and the selection was immediately elevated in my mind. More importantly, it got me thinking that maybe he’s right. Perhaps it’s silly to look around because this is the best place anyway.
If you’re ever in Toronto, give Marty a visit. It’s a great store staffed by a great salesman.
Technorati Tags: sales, salesman, martymillionaire, Toronto, furniture
Brian,
I wholeheartedly agreee. With some companies you get the very real sense that they are focused on squeezing as much out of you until you finally can’t take it. Cultivating a customer base is something that takes time, and only really seens to happen if the person actually cares about the customer.
On a somewhat related tangent to how one makes a choice for furniture, there was a very interesting study based on humans and choice. It was found that human happiness increased once the number of choices increases. Once the number of choices increases to much, then people become unhappy. The professor of psychology who made this link first looked at the reaction of his students. He noticed that most of his students were not excited by the prospect of leaving university and feeling empowered with the number of jobs available. Rather, most felt overwhelmed by too many choices and did not know how to move forward.
In a more specific test, the professor set out a number of jams to taste test. In the first test, he set out 24 jams, offered free samples, and offered people the chance to buy jams. Very few did. In the second iteration of the test, the professor set out only 6 jams. The number of sales increased by 10 times.
Part of the expalantion for this behaviour was that for every positive choice made, there is a sense of an option lost. Thus, if you chose one jam when there were 24 out, there were 23 missed opportunities, which was simply too high. With only 6 jams, there were only 5 missed opportunities.
To relate this point back to your original post, it’s great to have a person who loves their product, and his customers. This way, he can listen to your needs, and based on these, refine a number of meaningful alternatives from which one can feel comfortable to choose. If the guy actually cares, and is helpful in applying your needs, that’s a service that is invaluable.
Thanks for your post - maybe I’ll visit Marty’s furniture when I get back.
P.S. There is a link that gives a little more information about the psych experiment and people’s increasing unhappiness wwith too many choices:
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1615006.htm
Andrew,
Thanks for the comment. Professor Schwartz’s book The Paradox of Choice is a must read for anyone who finds themselves miserable with the amount of choice our society offers.
You’ll learn that choosing something that is just good enough — is sometimes the best choice of all.
Brian
Query whether Marty Millionaire could impress my wife with the admonition that “it’s a bad sign if a chair is being held together by too many allen-keys”, or that some of his stock is “low-quality junk”. Right, so do you think this distressed pine sitee would fit with my mission-style demi bed? It’s all down to knowing your customer, I suppose.