My car’s a tech..
My last blog will make sense of that statement. I took it to my trusted mechanic this morning, and it had a broken suspension spring. More to the point, it had a very sharp point about to pierce the front tyre, which he showed me. He wouldn’t let me take it home. Instead he ordered the part, drove me home and said the car would be ready tomorrow.
Now this level of service is not because he is short of work! It’s because he puts customers first. He makes it easy to keep going back to him because he never gives me duff advice, never exaggerates and always delivers. And this is a one man business!
I asked him if he’d worked through the ‘hurricane-force winds battering Scotland’ yesterday, to which he said he’d decided to finish ‘early’ at 5.30pm.. And by the way, my husband was at work for a full day, and came home on the bus, at the normal time.
In summary, it seems to me we can decide to be committed to hard work, excellence and putting customers first, if we really want to..
By the way, if you’re in the Edinburgh area, and want a fantastic mechanic, go to Iain McLennan, Clerk St Motors, 0131 440 4719.
My Trusted Car Advisor
“This plane’s a tech” said the airline representative, as we weary travellers sat at the gate, hopefully looking at the said plane just outside on the tarmac.
We all looked at each other enquiringly, but thankfully the young man gathered his thoughts, and put on his proper customer voice. “We apologise for the delay but this plane has a technical fault, which we’re trying to fix as quickly as possible.” His first phrase reminded me of a couple of things, and as we all switched our phones on again, I thought I should call the mechanic who looks after my cars about a technical fault of my own.
Something fell off the bottom of my car. Now, it doesn’t seem to have affected its performance at all. In fact, something that was clanking rather annoyingly has stopped. However I recognise that it probably had a purpose. Therefore I called my friend Iain, who has been my car guru for 17 years or so. As usual, he quickly identified what was likely to be the problem from my sketchy description, and said I should drop by and he’d have a look.
He is brilliant! He is always calm, always helpful, has fixed absolutely everything I’ve thrown at him, and is always cheaper than I had expected. He has a large and loyal client base and is never short of work. We have a long-term, profitable relationship. What can we all learn, I wonder?
As for second thing: ‘the plane’s a tech’, that’s one of my pet hates- using obscure jargon.. More on that soon.
Just a sales call…
I was following up on a business development campaign this morning, and spoke to a partner in a law firm. He said that he was a bit wary of ‘sales stuff’. Is that interesting? Every business needs to sell, but selling has become a dirty word. A bit like the labels bankers and politicians have received recently. Bankers, politicians and salespeople are pretty much essential, but regrettably, but as usual, the poisonous few have tarred everyone else with the same brush.
Personally, as an experienced buyer and seller now, I have no time for dishonesty, unreliability or manipulative techniques. As a buyer I’ve been delighted, surprised, pleased, confused and horrified. If someone lies to me, there is a long road back into my trust, if it’s possible at all.
As a business developer, the same principles apply, and I think the time has come for a bit of a moral crusade about doing business ethically, honestly and with your clients first and foremost in your mind. Of course selling discussions in business are ‘conversations with a purpose’ to use a phrase I once heard, as are interviews, board meetings, annual reviews etc. But there is no need for them to be based on anything other than mutual respect, openness and honesty. Great selling is being clear about what you can (and can’t!) offer, but then putting all your energy into understanding your client’s world so that if there is a fit, you can agree on a way forward. This doesn’t need any manipulation, closing techniques or other pushy tactic. Most professionals would be deeply uncomfortable with such an approach anyway. Join me in making selling a legitimate and pleasant thing to do again!
Please buy – I’m desperate..
I heard someone appearing in the Edinburgh Fringe being interviewed today. She was talking about ‘flyering’ which, if you’ve ever been in Edinburgh in Festival season, you’ll know gets through several forests of trees during August. Many of these flyers may go into a pocket or bag for a brief stay, but inevitably end up in a bin.
The performer talked about hating selling, and when she was asked why someone should go to her show, she wanted to say “because it’s good, and the venue costs a fortune and I’m desperate.” Of course, she didn’t say that – or hopefully not before a couple of hours in the rain. She presumably had a quick and engaging description of her show (I’m being optimistic here), but the reality is, most people will make decisions on what show to attend based on reviews, friends’ recommendations and their own interests. One comedian admitted that he’s fine at chatting to people one-on-one to promote his show, but he hates trying to force flyers into peoples’ hands.
The business moral in all of this? For flyers read brochures. For flyering, read scatter-gun marketing and business development. It’s better to build one-to-one relationships with the people who might reasonably buy your service. It would also help to be able to tell them what they would get from working with you.
Or you could try standing on a bollard in Edinburgh High Street, shout a lot and have heavy-weight flyers which at least make an impact when they hit people…
Short Term Selling (or push your product and run!)
I went to the Ideal Home Show at the weekend and came back with a selection of gadgets. I experienced ‘selling at the sharp end’ – out and out pressure selling from people wanting to take my money almost any way they could. To be honest – some of it was fun (hence my purchases) and it was an actual pleasure to be on the receiving end of some of the patter.
Selling techniques ranged from:
- Stepping in front of me as I walked along.
- Following me as I tried to continue.
- Inviting me persistently to try out the product there and then.
- Extravagant claims about the product’s capabilities – how could I ever have survived without it?..
- Suggestion that I was being negligent and irresponsible not stopping to hear more.
- And so on…
As I unpacked and tried to use some of my purchases, I began to realise that I had been naive at best about how easy some of them were to use, and almost downright lied to with others. However, I knew I wasn’t going to drive another 100 miles and pay an entrance fee to the show to demand my money back. I guess they knew that too. I often wonder how some salespeople can sleep at night, knowing that what they’re selling won’t live up to the hype.
However, I have to smile at my own gullibility and think about what did work and what I can learn from. The salespeople were all very enthusiastic. They used vivid language to paint a picture of what their product could do for me – how I would feel after using it, and what would resonate with my needs. All good stuff. We could probably all do better with that. However, they’ll probably never see me again; they have no real understanding of the technology or knowledge that went into their offering, and all they were concentrating on was their sales figures.
The opposite of consultative selling and building long-term, profitable relationships!
PS There’s also an interesting debate on the PACE LinkedIn Forum on manipulative selling.