"But I'm not Selling Anything Sir!"

Sitting at home last night there came a knock upon my door. A young man who looked to be in his early 20's and dressed in polo shirt with company logo, a pair of khaki shorts, work boots and some "official" looking ID badge and a tool belt with some electronic device was waiting on the other side. "Hello Sir, you wouldn't be the home owner would you?" Okay, stop right there, you NEVER ask a negative question to start a conversation, instead you say "Hello, I am speaking with all of the homeowners in your community tonight, are you one of the homeowners?" A little tweak but an important one. Now back to the story... I told him I am indeed one of the home owners and he goes right into his pitch. It's hard and it's fast and it's aggressive. And it is very familiar because I used the same pitch when I sold security systems back in 1997. So I know what's coming and (unfortunately) I know what kind of company he works for, a boiler room. A Turn and burn straight commission company that works their reps to the bone and only gives them a week of "sales" training, which mostly involves memorizing a "pitch" and then a list of rebuttals for when the customer says no. The likelihood that he will still be working there in 6 months is less than 25%. So I said "I understand that you need to get 7 no's to get to yes but I'm not interested." before I could finish he started to say "not trying to get through 7 No's sir we did some work for your neighbor (probably a lie) and we are setting appointments." So  I told him "look I'm trying to be nice. There are people in this neighborhood that would call the cops on you for soliciting."  To which he quickly replied "But I'm not selling anything sir." So here is the problem with these companies. They teach these kids that this methodology is not only effective, but it is acceptable. I told him he was soliciting and very indignantly he said "No, I'm not." To which I replied, "if you like I can call the cops you can tell THEM you're not soliciting."  A look of fear washed over his face and he said "Okay man, okay." and walked on to my neighbors house. I really hated doing that but he has yet to learn one of the Key factors to sales, "know when to back off."

The Security sales job I mentioned earlier had a mantra "porched or paperwork." Which meant that you walked out of their home with a signed order or they threw you out for being a jackass. Great business model right? Not surprisingly, this company has been out of business for several years. and You don't see ADT and companies like that selling franchises to just anyone to go sell their products anymore. For more examples of this process and what not to do please watch the movie "Boiler Room" and the Baltimore Classic "Pushing Tin."

I think what is truly sad about this methodology is that a significant sector of the home improvement industry still really enjoys using it. They think bullying customers into working with them is a smart practice because they know there is very little chance they will still be in business in 5 years and they have even less chance of getting repeat business.

So what can we learn from this story.

Train your salespeople to care about the customer and what they need

Build your business on trust and a quality product at a fair price.

If you know someone getting ready to graduate from High school or working their way through college tell them "don't take this job." Believe me, they will thank you later.

Thanks for reading today

Mike S.

BTW, be sure to read my fundraising blog www.40milesforautism.blogspot.com