That One Important Lesson Learned from That One Shopping Experience

My colleague and I walked into a well-known IT retail store. We were looking to replace an old hard disk that was damaged (ouch!). We all know how it feels to have your data lost.

We made our way to the shelves where a host of brands greeted us.

Large and small ones.

Brands A - Z with varying capacities and capabilities.

We looked at the offerings intently, but concluded that we need the recommendation from a sales associate. And decided to call for one.

First impressions of the associate wasn't too impressive. Perceived as a skinny, quiet person, he was dressed in a white polo-tee that was half ironed. (well, we can still ignore that for the moment).

Us : "Hi, wondering if you could help us. We are looking at buying a hard disk. Could you recommend us?".

Sales Associate : "What brand do you like?"

Us : "No particular, as long as it is reliable."

Sales Associate : "What capacity are you looking for?"

Us : "Around 1 tera or 2?"

Sales Associate : "Any size preference?"

Us : "2.5 inch perhaps"

Sales Associate : "What's your budget?"

Us : "About $200."

Sales Associate : "Well, this brand ABC has a one-touch backup button. It is small and has many colors to choose from."

And the monotonous "conversation" went on.

Needless to say, we left the store without buying any. We went on to a few other retailers, but got the same interrogation routine. In the end, we consequently selected one, paid and made our way back and feeling uncertain if we made the right choice and quietly blaming ourselves for not doing our research online first.

So what really went wrong here?

Time and time after, we come across sales who are very typical of what was described above. It does not matter if it is in retail, IT or hospitality. Many of them do not realize that the engagement with the prospect could be better.

It might be a good way of serving a prospect in the past, but in today's competitive landscape, businesses need to seek ways to help their customer-facing employees stand out from the rest of the competition.

Many factors could have attributed to this less-than-average performance :

1) He is in a bad mood or had a bad day ;

2) Your remuneration package do not encourage the additional effort ;

3) You are not skilled or are unaware of this.

We all have a certain degree of moods everyday. But it should not get in the way when it comes to our work, especially when service is involved.

What is the right and wrong remuneration package for an individual, it really depends on many factors. We shall not dwell on this topic here to day as it is a broad one.

We discuss around the constraints of sales engagement skills, we shall zoom straight into the third point.

If we look into the conversation above with the prospect, we do not see any any values offered by the sales associate, other than asking what we call as product-centric questions.

Product-centric questions usually evolve around features, functionalities and benefits, and are often about US. In today's world, we need to drop US and starting thinking about THEM.

So how do we change the above conversation to something that sounded more about them? Here's a recommendation :

Us : "Hi, wondering if you could help us. We are looking at buying a hard disk. Could you recommend us?".

Sales Associate : "Sure! By the way, my name's Jeff and how can I address you?"

Us : "Oh! Name's John and he is Fred"

Sales Associate : "Hi John and Fred. I hear you are looking for a hard disk. I assumed you are buying for yourself right, John?"

Us : "Yes Jeff."

Sales Associate : "Great! Why are you looking for one in the first place?"

Us : "Ah. I have one that died on me. All my data's gone."

Sales Associate : "Ouch! That must feel painful! I had a similar experience years ago and I totally understand how it feels."

Us : "Yeah. Tell me about it."

Sales Associate : "What kind of information do you intend to store in this new hard disk?"

Us : "Well, photos, videos, music files and documents."

Sales Associate : "Pretty typical. If you do not mind me asking, what profession are you in?"

Us : "I am in sales and I usually travel a fair bit."

Sales Associate : "Awesome. You must have seen quite a few places. How envious! Do you need to bring the hard disk along with you while you travel?"

Us : "Yes!"

Sales Associate : "Got it. Sounds like you need something really travel-worthy and it needs to be robust enough to handle the moving around. Do you have any expectation or wishlist for this new baby?"

Us "Well, I got a rough budget of about $200, and I intend to store more videos in the near future."

Sales Associate : "I see. Here are 2 brands, ABC and XYZ. Both are 2.5" in size so it easy for you to move around, especially when you travel alot. Both are 3 TB so they address your storage concerns. ABC is just below your budget and is only $190. It is pretty basic and meets your generic requirements. XYZ however is $250 but it has a casing that protects the disk in case you drop it. This is crucial if you travel. On top of that, it has a one touch button that backups your data not only locally but on the cloud as well. If I would need to recommend, I would say go for XYZ. It is a bit above your budget, but paying $50 for an additional piece of mind, it is a no brainer. This so especially when you are still fresh off the pain of losing the data."

Us : "$250 sounds acceptable. I'll take that."

There you have it. A real conversation took place. The sales associate's approach is all about the prospect and their concerns, and the concerns were addressed one at a time in a proper dialogue. More importantly, he converted the prospect into a customer by justifying the additional cost as well.

I guarantee you that the next time John and Fred considers buying an IT equipment or device, the first organisation they would think of is Jeff's, and the first sales person they would probably think of is also Jeff.

In addition to that, both John and Fred would very likely b advocate of Jeff whenever the opportunity arises.

The power and impact of being customer-centric and asking the right questions.

In today's digital world, sales has evolved from one of "not taking NO for an answer" to one of dialogue and "not taking YES for an answer". And this applies to all industries.

"In today's digital world, sales has evolved from one of "not taking NO for an answer" to one of dialogue and "not taking YES for an answer"

- Cherry B

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How would you have the conversation differently in this case? We would love to hear from you.

#Consideration