Trust and Respect

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacquesWerth

It rained here last Friday and, while driving home from the office, my car was losing traction on the wet roads. That reminded me I had been putting off getting replacement tires for my car. So, on Saturday I went to the consumerReports.org website and looked up their tire ratings.

Consumer Reports rated tires made by Falken and Nitto highest. Nitto is the one that seemed to suit my driving style best. I never heard of either brand, but since most tires are made offshore now, that did not bother me.

I looked up both websites to find dealers. Falken is sold by Sears and Nitto by a relatively small number of dealers. I called a Nitto dealer and he said, “Nitto doesn’t make tires in the size your car needs. They make tires for racing and high performance sports cars. A few of them fit some other cars, but not many. What you really want is Michelin and we have them in stock. They are less expensive and we install them immediately. When do you want to come over?”

I said, “I haven’t decided yet.”

He said, “What are you concerned about?”

"My car came with Michelins and I want something better now."

"What don't you like about the Michelins?"

"I just want something better."

"You don't have any better choice than Michelins, but we can get you any tire you want.” I ended that conversation quickly.

Then, I called a large local dealer and spoke to Colleen. I asked her, “Do you have a tire in my size that is close in performance to the Nitto tire?”

Colleen said, “The only one that we sell, which is in the same ball park, is the Michelin. However, you can get the Falken tire at Sears for about the same price as Michelin, and it is rated higher than MIchelin. We can provide you with General Tires that are very good, but not as highly rated as the Falken.” That will save you about $200 for a set of four. She then gave me a short explanation.

I said, “Thanks for the suggestion, but the price difference is not important for this car.”

Colleen said, “In that case, good luck with your Falkens. Please try us again when you want tires, shocks or brakes for another vehicle.” The conversation with Colleen took about four minutes.

My wife’s 740-IL will probably need tires in about six months. She does not put much mileage on her car and she doesn’t drive very fast. You can bet that we will buy her tires from Colleen.

Here are my thoughts regarding the scenario you posted, Jacques:

1. Colleen will probably not be employed at the tire store if/when you call in six months, because either her owner or her manager will tire of her referring prospects who call in (at great marketing expense) to their competitors, or else her sales will dip to a level that is not acceptable for her to make a living. Colleen may do extraordinarily well in a customer service or non-profit environment, however.

2. Almost anybody who has been in sales for any period of time knows that prospect talk is cheap. You, Jacques, as the prospect, may today say "you can bet we will buy tires from Colleen" when your wife needs tires on her car, but experience tells me that you probably won't. In fact, in reading your post, I was reminded of an incident about 2 years ago where the "check engine" light came on in my wife's Bentley*, so she took it into the dealership. They were kind enough to tell her she didn't tighten the gas cap when she filled up with gas. I was so impressed, I promised we would do future service business with this dealership. Since then, my wife's car has been serviced maybe a half-dozen times, and none has been with this dealership. We quickly forgot about them and their nice gesture, as do many consumers. I would guess that most prospects in your situation would forget about Colleen over time, and buy their tires elsewhere.

3. Jacques, you seem to hold in high regard sales situations where salespeople walk away from a sale in hopes they will make a future sale instead of an immediate sale. I don't hold those situations in as high a regard as you. In your scenario, I would prefer to suggest to the salesperson who you first called to have asked you "what would make a tire better than Michelins, in your thinking" after you said "I don't know, I just want something better." In that way, the salesperson would have had a chance at understanding your real need, and clarify what you were looking for, and could have possibly sold you some tires.

4. In another thread you suggested to someone that he/she "don't just pretend not to sell...don't sell." I don't believe the wheels of commerce turn very profitably when salespeople focus on "not selling" instead of selling. Putting your best foot forward is not anti-respect nor is it anti-trust.

Skip Anderson

*Just kidding about the Bentley, but since you mentioned your wife's 750il in your post, I thought I'd throw the Bentley reference in there.

That was an Isuzu 750il, right?

Just kidding...

Confrontational post removed by Moderator.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skip Anderson

Wrote - in small part.
Here are my thoughts regarding the scenario you posted, Jacques:

1. Colleen will probably not be employed at the tire store if/when you call in six months, because either her owner or her manager will tire of her referring prospects who call in (at great marketing expense) to their competitors, or else her sales will dip to a level that is not acceptable for her to make a living. Colleen may do extraordinarily well in a customer service or non-profit environment, however. Skip Anderson

The way I see it is that it was obvious to Colleen that it was not worth her time attempting to talk me out of the Falken tiires. Nor did she have any reason to alienate a potential customer who lived within 1.5 miles of her dealership, by doing so.

Perhaps her company has a lot more prospects than other dealers and they are more selective about who they devote their time and resources to.

Contrary to your assumption and prediction, I doubt that Colleen is doing anything that management does not approve of. She has been working at that tire dealership, which takes up about half a city block, for 12 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JacquesWerth

The way I see it is that it was obvious to Colleen that it was not worth her time attempting to talk me out of the Falken tiires. Nor did she have any reason to alienate a potential customer who lived within 1.5 miles of her dealership, by doing so.

Perhaps her company has a lot more prospects than other dealers and they are more selective about who they devote their time and resources to.

Contrary to your assumption and prediction, I doubt that Colleen is doing anything that management does not approve of. She has been working at that tire dealership, which takes up about half a city block, for 12 years.

What's the name and location of the dealership?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Closer

MitchM, AIDCA was primarly an advertising model. The template was grabbed by some sales training organizations as a convenient way to outline their view of what a sales process should look like. Among them was the Dale Carnegie sales training program.

It was probably more viable in its original purpose--advertising.

As a selling model, I think it has its shortcomings.

I don't think its original purpose was advertising and I found this in another thread;

Quote:

Originally Posted by SalesGuy

In 1898, the American advertising and sales pioneer, E. St. Elmo Lewis developed a practical sales tool using the latest Scientific Management insights. He created his AIDA funnel model on customer studies in the US life insurance market to explain the mechanisms of personal selling. Lewis held that the most successful salespeople followed a hierarchical, four layer process using the four cognitive phases that buyers follow when accepting a new idea or purchasing a new product.

Originally entitled "Trust & Respect", this thread really seems to have meandered.

For those of you who have endured this lengthy thread, I have a few observations:
1. there seems to be an over-abundance of statistics being quoted without source material ... for example: "... prospective customers will trust and respect salespeople by default how do you maintain your belief in the light of this empirical data?" My concern here relates to the source data (the base data included what range of SRs, what type of clientele were surveyed, etc.) ... in my experience, this is not "empirical data";
2. when these posts grow, stories are offered-up to define/support/defend but frequently we have absolutely NO idea how/why the story relates to the thread or what sort of industry/selling cycle is implied;
3. the real world contains a broad stripe of SRs and, yet, some posts seem to insist that there is a "wrong way" to sell without any insight into what sort of product or service is being sold;
4. some individuals seem to bully their way into the thread possibly intimidating the rookie sales-types out there;

SUGGESTIONS:
>> when composing your input to a thread, put the commentary into perspective for the rest of us;
>> if you're going to use statistics, provide the source link (so that those of us who are interested can interpret what's been provided);
>> when providing a supporting anecdote, try including "in my experience" and give a BRIEF sense for what that experience implies so that we know if it's door-2-door consumer vs 18 month selling cycle to industry;
>> avoid making broad, inclusive statements about sales as this really puts-off the truly experienced types (implying that only 4% of customers trust and respect sales reps);

Personally, I'm hoping that we get to 100% participation and with the above in-place, perhaps that's not unrealistic.

Good luck & Good Selling!
Pat

Admin Note: "Flaming" post along with follow-up posts removed on 12-20-2007.

Admin Note: "Flaming" post along with follow-up posts removed on 12-20-2007.

Trust and Respect

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