Soropa Blog

Assumptions can kill a sale. In my sales training workshops, I
frequently discuss the importance of not making assumptions
about a person before, during, or after the sales process.
Participants frequently nod and tell me that they NEVER make
assumptions. One person (Doug Maquire, www.MaquireMarketing.com)
sent me this story of a situation that occurred in a department
store he worked in many years ago.

“I was the ‘young kid’ who had signed on to take the 9 month
Management Training course for a department store chain. Sales
people were generally assigned specific areas to cover within
the store but being a ‘management trainee’ I had to learn all
departments.”

One day, a rough looking middle aged fellow entered the store.
He was dressed in well-worn workpants, work boots, and a soiled
red and black plaid shirt just like you’d expect a lumberjack to
wear. No one approached him (I guess he didn’t look like a good
sales prospect) and he didn’t move from the front entrance; he
just stood there surveying the store from left to right. I
walked up to him and asked if I could help. He said, “I need a
pair of wool socks. No nylon, no cotton, just wool socks.” We
went to the Menswear Department and both watched as the sales
person assigned to that department walked away from us so he
wouldn’t have to waste his time going through the full selection
of hosiery just to find a single pair of wool socks.”

I then started asking questions about style, colour, size, price
range, etc., to help narrow down exactly what the customer
needed. “It don’t matter.” he replied, “Just wool socks. I work
back in the bush and we only come to town every three weeks.
Nylon makes my feet sweat. Cotton’s okay but it don’t last long.
I need socks I can wear at work everyday and that’s wool.”

So, I checked the content label of every style and colour of
sock that we had in stock and eventually found a pair of 100%
wool socks. “Good”, he said, and we walked up the checkout
counter to ring in the $3.95 pair of wool socks. The man left
and I got a bit of ribbing from the sales person in the Menswear
Department about my ‘big sale of the day’ and how ‘not to spend
my commission all in one place!’”

Three weeks later the customer returned. He then walked over to
me and said, “I need more wool socks like that last pair”. This
time he decided that he’d take 6 pair. We took the socks up to
the checkout counter and rang in the six pair of $3.95 socks.
The customer paid cash, said thanks, and walked away with his
purchase. This time I didn’t get quite as much ribbing from the
sales person in the Menswear Department.

Exactly three weeks later the customer came back. He walked
through the front door and made a beeline for me. “I need more
of them wool socks”, he said. “The boys at camp want to know
where I got them and want some too. How many have you got?” I
checked the display area, the stockroom, and our new stock
shipment and told him I had 58 pair. He paid cash and bought
them all.

I never found out exactly how many people he worked with, but
every three weeks he’d show up at the store and ask what I had
in the way of tee-shirts, long johns, plaid wool shirts, work
boots, gloves, caps, toques, coveralls, work jackets, etc., and
each time he arrived, he’d walk right up to me for service and
we’d both go to the proper department and select what he needed
for himself and for the guys he worked with. He always paid cash
and always thanked me for my help.”

If Doug had made the mistake of following his coworker’s
footsteps and made the same assumptions about the customer, he
would have lost thousands of dollars in sales. It is easy to
make assumptions about our customers and prospects. A person’s
appearance, age, gender, nationality, or role within the
company, often influences us. I have made this mistake when
speaking to companies in the past. Upon learning that they only
had a few salespeople, I made the assumptions they would not be
willing to pay my standard fee. I later learned that this
assumption was completely inaccurate and that they were fully
prepared to invest in their teams’ development.

As a consumer, I have often noticed that most sales people will
approach well-dressed customers before they talk to people who
are attired in jeans or casual clothing. Avoid this fatal
mistake and go into every sales interaction with an open and
clear mind. This will definitely have a positive impact on your
sales.

Copyright 2004 Kelley Robertson, all rights reserved.