I was watching Donald
Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice” recently and was dumbfounded by what most
people consider salesmanship. Great salesmanship is always about an attitude of
service. The derivative of the word sell means, “To serve.” This message seems
to always be lost in images seen of salespeople. The image of salespeople that
we are shown over and over again is the slick, fast talking, pushy, slam-bam
salesperson. Salesmanship is a magnificent mixture of art and science when practiced
correctly.
On the episode I was watching, two
teams were given an assignment to sell, “Donald Trump Bottled Water.” The
leader of one team was referred to as a ‘super salesperson’. The credentials of
this salesperson were supposedly excellent. I expected a person who not only understood
sales but could execute as well.
The so-called super salesperson
exclaimed, that the rest of the team, “Could get on his back and ride him to
victory.” The so-called superstar announced he was better than anyone at
sales.My anticipation and excitement
was high.
Unfortunately, Mr. so-called sales
superstar was an uninformed imbecile. One of his team members suggested doing
some research on their market and the potential customers. Mr. Superstar just
shrugged it off and said, “Trying to teach me to sell is like trying to teach
the Pope to pray.” After watching his misinformed sales philosophy and sales
approach, it became apparent that he needed help in both sales and prayer. In
fact, Mr. Superstar practiced what I call the, “Spray and pray” method of
selling. Mr. Superstar should practice being, “More interested, than
interesting.”
Every sales opportunity must come
from a position of TLC- “Think Like a Customer.” Because Mr. Superstar was so
unprepared and uninformed, he began to do what many salespeople do. He let his
mouth run before his brain. Immediately, with zero rapport or proper profiling
questions, he began to tell people about Mr. Trump, his buildings, casinos and
massive wealth and that now he was selling water and they should want to buy a
whole truck load of it from him. Blah, blah, blah.
The customers reacted as anybody would;
they got angry and felt like they were the targets of manipulation, greed and
arrogance. The expressions on the customers face showed their feelings. They
felt they were being talked down to and they should buy the water simply
because it was, “Donald Trumps.” The customer faces showed disgust and their
brains were crying out, “Who cares.”Mr.
Superstar could have done several things differently that would have mad a much
bigger and better impact.
First of all, Mr. Superstar should
have taken the advice of his fellow
salesperson and done some research. He would have known that his greatest
opportunity might have been selling to distributors rather than restaurants
because restaurants have limited space for storage in Manhattan. Mr. Superstar might have found out
what his competitors offered and then developed his own SDP – Specific Defining
Proposition that defined his product benefit and story. Tell your story and
tell it well, facts tell stories sell. But always tell your story based upon
the customer’s benefit. Secondly, Mr.
Superstar should have had a value proposition statement based upon the customer
that he could use to get their attention. Next, he should have profiled the
customer with intriguing and meaningful questions to find pertinent information
and develop his selling advantage. All of this would require work, patience and
listening skills and Mr. Superstar seemed to believe that all that was
unnecessary. He believed that he could open his mouth and he would have God
granted rights for people to buy from him.
Forget the usual images you see and
hear of salespeople. When was the last time you saw a positive image of a
salesperson on TV.The truly great and
long lasting salespeople are caring, empathic and honest people.Fast-talking, self centered salespeople don’t
have the right mixture of ego and empathy to be truly great. Salesmanship is a
thing of beauty when it is practiced with professionalism; thought and devotion
based upon helping a customer solve their wants or needs with your product or
service.
