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Why is it so hard
to Buy?
For anyone who likes to shop,
you may think I'm in an enviable position. My brother is moving
part of his company here - I've been asked to help him find space,
buy furniture and get settled. I've got about a $400,000 cash
budget to make it happen.
On my other clients' behalf,
I've been trying to buy a number of different products and services,
from mailing services, a $10,000 software program, and thousands
of dollars of printing and advertising space - all in all, probably
another $100,000 budgeted by my various client companies.
So why isn't this fun?
The short answer -- salespeople
don't know how to sell!
When I started shopping for furniture,
about a $250,000 proposition, I called all four of the big corporate
furniture dealers. I explained the situation, including the fact
that I didn't know much about buying furniture so might need
a little extra help, and asked them for their assistance.
First
thing they all did was to load me up with a lot of furniture
catalogs -- who cares? I'm trying to buy help, and they're trying
to sell me furniture. We have a fundamental problem from the
get go -- they haven't listened to my needs. I'm far more interested
in how they can help me plan this project and how they'll make
sure it will go smoothly.
I don't take a quarter million dollar
purchase lightly, and neither does my brother. But, I practically
had to beg just to get a meeting with these supposedly reputable
firms. I met with each, reiterating that I needed 'help' not
furniture - not yet anyhow.
To add insult to injury, because
I live in a remote area, I had to go to them to meet - that way
they could make me sit on chairs that I didn't care about. When
asked "Why should I buy from you instead of your competition"
their standard pat answer was "service," of course.
So I thought, 'OK', let them put their money where their mouth
was.
Their 'help' at this point was
to offer to do a preliminary bid. So I said 'OK' thinking this
must be the right next step or they wouldn't all have insisted
on it. So I waited. And I waited. No calls. No mail. No bid.
And NO help. So I called them - didn't reach any of the reps
direct, but left messages on their voice mail.
And I waited. And waited…..
three days later I got a call back from one rep who apologized
all over herself. When I told her I needed help, she sent me
a 15 page fax of product specs and prices that I could take "somewhere
between 40% & 50% off… she'd let me know". And
she promised to stay in closer touch. That was a week ago. No
calls saying "did you understand it?" or "Can
I be of help?"
The other reps returned my calls
7 days after my 'do you want my business' call to them. Now I
don't know about you, but I'm not spending a quarter million
dollars on anything with any company who doesn't show me better
service than that! When I've spent my money, will they take 7
plus days to respond to problems? Will I have to fight about
everything because they obviously don't listen? Will they force
me to spend lots of extra time documenting everything - just
to cover my bases? No thanks! If my money's no more important
than that, then I'll just give it to a company who demonstrates
that they want my business - and will follow-up after the fact.
Similar stories have occurred
with approximately 10 potential vendors in the past 30 days.
They didn't return calls, they didn't listen, and they didn't
follow-up. But, luckily, I did find a furniture company that
worked hard to help (I guess 1 out of 4 has to be OK). And I
have taken care of my other purchase needs - but I had to literally
force most of the sales people to do their job and enable me
to buy from them.
Believe me, if you think you
like to shop, these people would change your mind in a heartbeat.
Now, as a marketing expert and
sales trainer, let me give you some facts:
- In fact, 80% of all
sales occur on the 5th or subsequent sales call after an initial
inquiry. Yet studies show most salespeople only persist through
2 or 3.
- Twenty six point six
percent (26.6%) of all inquiries result in purchases, one-third
of them occur within three months of inquiring; and, 21.6% were
likely to purchase in the future.
- Yet in 18 percent of
the requests for information, none was received; 43% of the time
the material was received too late to be of use, and only 28%
of the inquirers were ever contacted by a salesperson. Click
here for more details.
Think about how much money and
energy you've put into developing strategies and advertising
campaigns. If you drop the ball here, you've just thrown your
money out the door.
According to studies, the percentage
of sales made on a contact that was aggressively followed up
was over 80% -- more than twice that of the group that got no
follow-up.
Cahners Advertising Research
reports that while 94% of advertising inquirers received a reply
of some sort, only 11% received a telephone call and only 4%
received a salesperson's visit.
My recent experience tells me
that not nearly enough sales people and managers know these vital
facts. If they do, they fail to do anything about them in how
they service their prospects. And, from my experience, how they
service prospects is very much how they service customers. If
you don't get help to buy, then rarely will they put much energy
into keeping you happy once you do purchase!
If sales success is what you seek, this article is just the tip
of the iceberg. If you want to take the bull by the horns…
...review my article on follow-up
at this site.
If you take the initiative to
master this aspect of sales, you'll outperform 90% or more of
your peers and reach much higher levels of income than ever before.
Happy selling!
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Jody Hornor
By:
Jody
Hornor
(800) 989-8112
Associated articles:
The
Art of Business Gift Giving
Tradeshows: A Picture is Worth More
Stop Polishing the Cart...
Feed the Horse!
Test Your Future
The
Buyer is Dead:
Radically Re-positioning the Sales Force
Selling
is Changing - HELP!
What
Do You Say After You Say Hello?
Follow-Up Techniques That Make Sales Soar
Would
You Like Fries With That?
Suggested
Books:
To order from Amazon, click on the cover image.
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