My wife (Erin) and I are thinking of renting a storage place so we went on the hunt to see what’s out there. For the most part, the prices were similar across the two storage facilities we saw, but the salespeople were different.
Salesperson #1:
As we approached the front desk, the guy asked if we made a reservation. Erin jumped in and said she did, blah, blah, blah. From there on, I almost didn’t exist. Seriously, he might have missed me as throughout the whole tour of the place, he barely made eye contact with me.
He handed a small brochure to my wife, and on he went with his sales pitch saying that his place is the best and that the prices will go up if we don’t reserve right away. You know, typical salesman, selling the wrong way.
The interesting part was that I mainly asked all the questions. I asked about their insurance, security, etc. Yet, he focused his attention to Erin. Umm, that made me wonder! He was almost ignoring me like I wasn’t going to add to the final decision of renting there or not.
He was also very pushy, his final words were “if you don’t reserve by latest tomorrow, 9:30 A.M, the price will go up.” Listen pal, go tell that “fairy tale” to someone else.
Salesperson #2:
Similar to above but with the only difference that the guy actually had a more even eye contact between my wife and me. He also asked for our names and called us by our names. Unlike the first guy, he wasn’t pushing for us to rent, but instead, he told us about how much people have enjoyed it there and that they are a new facility, etc.
He was also trying to encourage a conversation and avoid quite awkward moments. Finally, he gave us his business card, wrote down the price information on it and shook our hands goodbye.
What a difference between salesperson #1 and #2! Obviously #1 should take some lessons from #2.
From my experience, usually salespeople try to target and work harder on convincing the person they think is the decision maker and this sometimes could cost them their commissions. When trying to sell something consider all parties involved on the other side.
Don’t conclude that the person that acts more graciously and smiles more often is the easy come decision time. If the buyers don’t feel comfortable or don’t think they were given the attention they needed, they won’t buy.
If we had to rent somewhere, we’ll certainly go with salesperson #2.
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