Years ago, I had an unusual interaction with a sales person. It was winter, about 7:30 PM so it was already dark. My house is set back away from the road, and my driveway is over a 10th of a mile long. Not expecting any one, my outdoor lights were out.
I’m in my office when suddenly there’s a loud, frantic banging at my door. Remembering that there had been a bad accident on the road in front of my house only a couple weeks before, I ran down the stairs full of dread and threw open the door.
Standing there was a gentleman in parka and gloves, grinning and pointing to a large picture.
“What? Can I help you?”
He continued to grin, pointing to the pic and nodding at it. Obviously no-one was hurt. My anxiety level started to drop.
“It’s a picture.”
“Yep,” he said. “It’s an aerial picture.”
“Uh huh.”
“Of your house. I’m selling it.”
“I’m not buying it.”
His happy demeanor instantly turned to anger-tinged sadness.
“Jeez man, you don’t have to be so rude about it!”
I was dumbfounded. I didn’t think I’d been rude at all. I didn’t visit his house in the dark, pound on the door like there was someone on fire, and then expect him to automatically buy what I was holding in my hand.
“Good luck elsewhere. Have a nice night.” I shut the door, shaking my head.
It’s true – a picture is worth a thousand words. And I suppose when you’re selling one, the prospect should recognize it’s worth instantly. But even when you’re looking to sell something you think of as basic and self-explanitory, it’s always a good idea to educate your prospects. I know I’ve used this example before, but look at the places in your local mall food court giving away samples on a toothpick. You’re hungry, it’s food, buy it! But the sample is the most basic form of education: “This is what it’s like.”
Providing any type of education prior to a sales attempt allows you to separate the merely bored from actual prospects. It also provides the prospect with a better understanding of your product or service, and how it relates to their lives right now. Delivering educational information about your product or service also allows you to build a story around the pitch, and involve yourself and the prospect in the story.
“Hi, I’m Joe. Earlier this year, I went up in a two-seat plane with my pal Dave. You should see how clean and green everything looks from just a few hundred feet in the air! We were flying over your neighborhood when I began snapping pictures of some of the houses. Once I saw how nicely they came out, I knew I had to offer the owners of those houses the opportunity to share the experience of seeing their property from the air.”
Five sentences to build that story and offer some education, as well as pre-frame the sale. Now he can begin asking the sales questions. The whole thing could take less than a minute.
