I just had a really positive retail experience!
Last week, I visited my local branch of a well-known, nationwide retailer to buy a new projector. Shane, the salesman had already organised a printing job for me, and knowing that I was looking to purchase a projector had emailed me details of three models in advance.
The print job collected, we moved to the IT section. I had already, sort of decided which one to buy and assumed we’d get the whole thing sorted in a couple of minutes. But Shane was not going to take the easy quick sale, without first understanding what my needs were.
Instead, he started asking me a series of questions. “How many people do you present to at a time?”, “What is the size of the screen?”, “Do you need to play videos?”, “Do you need audio?”, “What graphics does your presentation have?”, “What level of picture quality do you expect?”.
He quickly understood the things that were important to me and successfully planted enough seeds of doubt about buying the cheaper projector I’d had in mind. The more expensive machine would “future proof” me, offer the capability to do things that I might want to do further down the track, give the best quality picture. I don’t have to think about possibly upgrading in a year or two.
Shane opened the box to check all the right cables were included. He knew I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. I needed an extra one. He asked me how far it might have to stretch and I bought the longer, more expensive cable, just in case.
I was really impressed by his professionalism. He’d tapped into my desire to have the best and avoid any nasty surprises.
Once the paperwork was done, we started talking about sales training, he’d read the sales workbooks they had printed for me. Shane explained that all the store’s salespeople take part in half hour training sessions every day and a full hour of training every Saturday. They learn about new products in their own area and other departments, so they can maximise any cross-selling opportunities.
Compare this with another situation that also happened last week. A sales person I have known for a couple of years rang me for advice. I naturally feel pleased when someone asks me for guidance and we spent about 20 minutes on the phone. He was concerned about his future career and what to do. I asked him a lot of questions, one of which was “what specific sales training and coaching have you had since joining 5 months’ ago?”, to which he replied “I haven’t spoken with the sales director in 5 months. The only training, he gave me was a 30 minute OH&S training session”.
The sales director has recently been moved out. The business in question is not small or inexperienced, but part of a multi-national organisation.
The first story is a terrific example of what every sales team should be doing. The second, is indicative of a big problem that is far too common.
Developing your sales team is not a “nice to have” which may depend on a discretionary budget. It’s an essential component of running a sales group, it must be budgeted for and be set as a corner-stone for every business that employs salespeople.
