Lately I’ve started to observe myself in the capacity as “customer” of goods and services, and I must admit it is not a pretty sight. In supermarkets I find myself checking out the yellow signs indicating sales and reduced prices instead of the quality of the product. When buying goods online the first thing I do is check out Amazon for the lowest possible deal for the iPod, my new digital camera, interesting books or music. Hypocritically, I claim to support local businesses because I purchased that birthday card for my friend at the book store downtown. Then, on other occasions, when I’m looking for ‘important’ things such as winter jackets, strollers or computers I suddenly turn into the obnoxiously fastidious customer who is appalled at the lack of interest most sales people show about my needs. My frustration is often caused by bad sales people who don’t even ask one single question in the sales process, either because they haven’t learned how to sell or because they simply don’t care.
But one day I realized that the disinterested salesman might be mirroring my own attitude, or better, the collective attitude of today’s customers.
Our Sales Culture …
Let’s look at it from a bird’s point of view. Inefficient sales people in shops, department stores and sales offices around the globe practically make the same mistake: they act as if they don’t want to get involved with the nature of customer’s needs and rather just sell whatever they think they can get away with. What we experience is a complete lack of questioning techniques, resulting in insufficient knowledge about the client’s needs and circumstances and in the end: loss of clients to competitors with lower prices, lower customer satisfaction or decline in sales altogether. Panicky, these same businesses then try to lure customers back with apparent sales offers, quick deals and pushy sales people, because ‘competition is too tough’ to be handled otherwise.
It’s not quality or uniqueness of the product anymore that counts, but price, price, price; that’s what the customers want, after all.
+ Our Buying Culture
And we apparently do! We queue at 3am in the morning in front of Wal-Mart’s to purchase stuff at fantastically low prices (even oblivious to the fact that some of us just trampled a salesman to death), and we buy four oven cleaners because we get the fifth for free. We think that most sales people are nuisances who can’t be trusted anyway, so we rather avoid their fake smiles when hunting for the cheapest mattress in town. We just love a bargain, even if what we bought wasn’t exactly what we needed. It was nearly for free, after all!
= Detachment
So where is the product in this whole spiel? And what about the sales experience, the positive and proud feeling that we experienced when we were helped to find the perfect vacuum cleaner by that charming and trustworthy salesman? Wasn’t it nice to choose the nicest fur coat out of the fifteen that we tried on, whilst the friendly sales woman patiently advised us on color and style? Yes, it was. And we enjoyed the occupation with the product itself, the human touch of the sales interaction and the interest the sales person showed in our needs and possibilities.
In my opinion, many of us (customers and sales people alike) have entered the realm of complete detachment: we are detached from each other during the sales interaction, and we are detached from the product or service. Salespeople don’t want to know and customers don’t want to tell; price instead of products rule the market. What sounds like a Marxist premise is simply an observation of sales processes in the 21st century: It is a vicious circle of disinterest, avoidance of the other person and the product, and greediness increasing by the season. What we have created ourselves, we can only escape together: by focusing again on why we have accepted our role as salesperson and customer in the first place: to purchase and sell unique products and services. (Because that’s what we claim anyway, so we might as well do it.)
Buying back our souls: how to become a better customer and salesperson
Simple steps can be taken by all of us to counteract the detachment of our precious sales/purchase:
For salespeople: Ask, ask, ask. Ask yourself and your customer what he/she really needs. Try to put yourself in their shoes in every transaction. Hint:look below for what your customers might me interested in! Then, make yourself knowledgeable about your product and then, show interest and act upon it!
For customers: Be aware of what you buy where and why. What questions would you like your salesman to ask you? Think about what other dimensions apart from price can determine your choice of product and maybe share your thoughts with your sales person:
Quality? (Maybe longer-lasting, better looking and safer makes you happier?!)
Where was it made? (Maybe it's worth supporting your local economy?!)
Less or more Packaging? (Maybe environmental friendliness is important to you?)
By both parties taking more accountability, we can become competent customers as well as competent sales people - instead of one-dimensional selling- and shopping machines!
I look forward to your suggestions for many more dimensions that might be important to you!
If you are interested in how to make your sales positive again, please contact me at andrea@derlercoaching.com
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