If the engine increased in RPM in 1 minute, I was proven correct. If not, I was proven wrong and I would walk away and the merchant/mechanic owed me nothing. If I was right, and I could increase the RPM by 50 in 1 minute, than my product had valuable characteristic and the merchant could make lots of money using it and selling it. I had no turndown in 35 attempts! I averaged 100% cold call sales. I didn't work a miracle. I simply attempted to satisfy or solve the merchants's problem by increasing the quality of the work the merchant was performing on the customer's car.
Was I a "born" salesperson? Those who sell poorly would say yes. Those who are professionals would say no. What is cold-call selling? What is therefore, a cold-call selling ratio?
Cold-call selling means not contacting a firm in any way before approaching it for a sale. According to White's tutorial book on selling, a professional sells 95% of the time, and a college student majoring in sales/marketing sells 80% of the time.
Within a few years, I had my own consulting firm, and took on Tephguard. I hired 15 field sales people, who I learned after bringing them into the office a month later, sold nothing. I inquired why they had a unanimous record of 0 sales. Each told me it was a tough field, no one was buying, and that getting an appointment was a bear itself.
I asked how many demonstrations they had conducted and a few said they had conducted one and most had conducted none. Tephguard was a demonstrator's dream.
I terminated all the sales people on the spot, took all their merchandise out in the field myself the next weekend and used the techniques learned from White, Joe Girard, Bettger, Stone and others who are experts in the science of selling. How did I do? I sold all 25 cases at my full retail price and got cash. I had no turn downs! I simply studied, of those who had auto repair shops, who was repairing cars and who wasn't. I examined my "potential market" and conducted a demonstration at each place I visited.
If I had offered to sell my oil/metal treatment, I am sure I would have sold no more than one of my 25 cases. Instead, I went to each merchant/mechanic and said I simply wanted to see if I could increase the client's engine RPM by "x" percent without me touching the engine at all. IF I could do this, the client's car was sure to work better. The product worked perfectly the first time every time because I had tried it on my car and naturally, received the same consequences/benefits.
Perhaps insurance salespeople have the toughest "road to hoe". I don't know. I realized when I moved to Arizona, the highest cold call sales ratio I found was 8%, not 98%! People thought I was a genius or a nut case when I told them what my highest ratio was before I left field sales. Each sales person naturally felt their respective field was too extraordinary or special for cold call closing ratios to have any meaning. I did not agree then and I do not agree today. Selling is a science. No one is expected to cold-call close, 100%, but there is no excuse for any ratio or percentage less than 85% for those who:
understand intimately their product, use their product, succeed as users of their product, believe in the company selling the product to the salesperson, understand that merchants and consumers do not like feeling that anyone is selling anything to them. People need help buying, but, like the physician and dentist, one needs to help show the positive side of taking instructions. Realtors need to show the beauty and financial benefits of home ownership (not how much down payment do you have?) Car sales people must have a desire to find out more about what the customer wants WAY before a car is even shown to the customer. Computer salespeople need to demonstrate what a computer can do, not ask the customer what the customer needs or wants unless the customer is very technically oriented. (I have never had a computer salesperson demonstrate a computer's software--the main if not only reason for having a computer! Most computer store salespeople show hardware sitting on a counter and expect people to buy it and then take lessons on its use at some college--wrong, wrong and wrong again! One place I was going to buy a computer said that he doesn't even warrant his equipment, it's too expensive for him to do so--unless the customer is wiling to bring in the computer to his shop--he sells low cost hardware--not any recognizable service and he is proud of his cost cutting ways!
Your author's required reading demands/expects the reader of this material to read a few issues, if not directly subscribe, to Venture and Inc., magazines. These are the motivators, the testimonials of successful merchants from whom a potential entrepreneurs can study!
A few additional points of view:
Usually, a customer can afford more than what they say they can afford, if the product/service is geared to making them money.
Customers do not buy features, they buy benefits (16 bands, 400 lbs of pressure, +- 2 db, and a myriad of other features mean nothing to most people unless a technician is buying. The average customer buying for personal use wants to know the BENEDICTS of the features the manufacturer wishes to tout. Maybe the 16 bands can provide greater variety of sounds to an audiophile. Maybe the 400 lbs of pressure will expedite the removal of paint or the placing of a chemical on something. Maybe the +- 2 db will give the listener a cleaner, truer sound without fuzz.
Don't ask what you can do for someone. Wait to see what they are looking at, or listen to their questions if they come to you. How may I help you is also lame. A greeting is fine, people do like to be greeted, most of the time. If a person says they are just looking, it is not a lame comment. Potential customers are looking before they are able to make up their mind! Unless you are visiting a pizzeria or a hamburger joint, you likely need to study the merchants's wares before you decide. Maybe yous aren't sure whether this or that option better services your need. Perhaps what you think you need you don't need. Listen to sales people and then ask questions.
Let's say you have made the sale. You have won the confidence of the customer. To increase the customer's satisfaction and your firm's net profits, it's just fine and reasonable to introduce complimentary goods to the customer. In fashions, salespeople automatically try to sell a shirt with a suit, socks with shoes, belts with pants, etc.
