Sales and marketing skills

Last week I went to do some shopping....

Called in at MFI and was aware of five pairs of eyes scanning me as I entered. I stopped by the first kitchen display and, after I had been there for about 30 seconds, Pair of Eyes (POE) 1 just happened to arrive to busily open some drawers in the display, before turning to me and saying: "You alright there?" In the ten minutes I was there, POEs 2, 3, 4 & 5 repeated this with slight variations: "You ok there?", "You alright?", and my favourite, "You alright mate?".

Later, in PC World, it was three times the same: "You alright there?"

In Dixons - or Curries Digital as it seems to have become - I had just walked in the door when the scruffy guy with greasy hair bounded up and said: "You alright?"

Apart from an abject lack of grammar (and politeness), where are all the sales skills these days? Does no-one know the difference between an open and closed question? Are there any real sales persons out there or just formulaic hucksters?

At home this week, I had three phone calls (actually I had about 23...) each advising me that someone was in my road doing quotations on new soffits and pvc doors. I asked one person how long they had been in my area; she blustered a little and said she thought a few days, to which I replied: "Then your Marketing Dept will know that the houses within a radius of 100 metres of this road are Grade 2 listed, not allowed pvc doors and are stone built without soffits." This morning I had a call from Bike magazine - my third I think. "We have a special offer on...." said the bright voice. "STOP now" I said, "I like to get my magazine from the newsagent." Bright Voice seemed to think this was terribly odd...

What is the point of Colleges and Universities etc running Marketing courses if no-one does research? Is the only game in town script-reading direct teleselling? How will customers learn about products when no retailer stocks them for examination and evaluation?

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Sales and Marketing skills are seen as totally unnecessary these days.....


So.

I think it's because the job pays peanuts, so they get monkeys.

I imagine all the decent sales people are out selling stuff that a) requires a skillfull salesman and b) will make them some decent money.

You should go to my local Currys, no one will bother you in there.

I had a good a telesales one the other night, phone rings about 5:30 in the afternoon.

"Hello is the Miss Treeky"
"No its Mr Tricky"
"I represent Acme telecoms blah blah blah would you be interested in changing your current telephone supplier to us etc"
"No sorry I dont have a telephone"
"err errm err err......."
"Goodbye"

I like the bit in Seinfeld where it goes,

"Hello, would you like to buy our blah blah?"
"Oh, I'm a bit busy at the moment - give me your home number and I'll ring you back later."
"I'm afraid we can't do that..."
"Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you and bothering you at home.."
"No.."
"Well now you know how I feel." *Click.*

MFI are selling up anyway Mike aint they - so i read in my financial times...

there is gonna be a grand sell off or a possible MBO .. !

[Bluepete]

S ales and M arketing..... S&M someting there I think

I have been in sales over 20 years, and it still amazes me how some "sales" people stumble from month to month without getting anywhere near their target.

I had one last week..... I've recently taken on an existing sales team, I went to see a customer with the Account Manager. We have had a "relationship" with this account for 2 years with said AM at the helm.

Last week was the first time he had met the main decision maker (I arranged the meeting) and I knew from the outset that we just weren't close enough, the relationship wasn't strong, and we knew very little about the account. It was clear that they had a preference for a major competitor, they even mentioned their name in the meeting.

I made a decision not to go ahead with a major tender as it was a waste of resource. It caused a few questions to be asked but, on Friday we were notified that our competitor got the business. It turns out they actually help write the technical requirement in the first place. So, after 2 years this guy had failed to establish a relationship with the man that says "yes", had failed to find out about their business, and failed to identify who the competition are.

He won't last long working for me......

Sales isn't about "the gift of the gab", it's about identifying customer need and putting yourself in a position to provide for that need, in a way that the customer would prefer. Simple really.

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