Hey!

I just had to share this...

A few days ago, a gentleman came to our door to ask if we were interested in receiving a free quote for a new soffit and fascia.  Steve answered the door and told the man that we weren't considering having that done at the moment.  The man said that they had someone in the area this week giving quotes that they would honour for 6 months, and so Steve said OK.

A couple of days later, the salesman turned up. 

Perhaps I should explain that the interest and knowledge Steve and I have in soffits and fascia amounts to, erm, zero.  So we were expecting him to look at the soffit and fascia and give us a quote - we thought it would take a minute or two and would be done in the porch.

Well, we were wrong.

The salesman came into the living room and insisted we both stay and listen.

First Mistake - he stank of cigarette smoke.  I actually sprayed air freshener in the room when he had left!  I don't want any salesperson in my home smelling of anything other than a subtle perfume or aftershave.  Since I'm a non-smoker, and heavily pregnant, that got him off on the wrong footing with me.

He then launched into his sales pitch - educating us about soffit and fascia, and even using a scaled-down model of a house for demonstration purposes.  This lasted around 30 minutes.

Second Mistake - he was incredibly dull.  His talk was completely focused on the features of his product, not the benefits we would gain by using it.  And we had no interest in what he was saying!

He then went outside and looked at our soffit and fascia, and came back in to write our quote.

The quote was for around £4,500. 

He asked what we thought of it.

Steve decided to be honest, and said we had absolutely no knowledge in the area, so the quote could have been for £1,000 or £10,000 and we wouldn't really have known whether it was a bargain or a rip-off. 

This angered the salesman, who became very defensive about how, considering all of the features he'd already discussed with us, it was a very good price.  Steve repeated that we hadn't had any expectations in terms of price and so couldn't say whether it was a good or bad price.

Third Mistake - the customer is always right!  Don't become defensive.  A much better way of handling the situation would surely have been, "the job will cost £4,500, and you could definitely find companies who would charge less than that, but we do use the highest quality materials and offer a 20 year guarantee while our competitors generally offer a 5 year guarantee.  Our motto is to do the job well so it only needs doing once".

We thanked him for his time and explained that we weren't considering having the job done yet, but that we would save the quote and consider it in the summer.  He didn't like this at all.  He was clearly here to make a sale, whether we wanted to buy or not.

He began to tell us that if we wanted to book in now to have it done in April... Steve interrupted him and said, "if you're going to discount the price, it's still not something we'll consider before the summer, if that saves you some time".  The man carried on, saying he could give us a 20% discount.

Fourth Mistake - this is my pet hate with all salespeople... tell me the price, the lowest price, and stick to it.  I hate the idea that just by saying 'no' to something a few times, you can end up paying so much lower than someone who accepts the first price offered.  As soon as he offered this discount, he lost any future order from me.

We stood our ground and said we wouldn't be considering the work until the summer.  The salesman said, "so there's nothing I can offer to make it affordable for you today?"

Fifth Mistake - how dare he assume that our reasons for not ordering immediately were financial?

There were other things... but he eventually left and, should we decide in the summer that we want our soffit and fascia doing, his company will not be getting our business.

This salesman obviously hadn't heard Bob Burg's saying; "people do business with those they know, like and trust".  Maybe his company are the best around, maybe they are the cheapest... none of that matters now because he was so unlikeable.

Hopefully I've never come across as badly as he did!

Katie Williams

http://www.MakeMoneyThisYear.com