My new Shiny Polished Thumb Nail and New Sunglasses. I just got hard and soft selled today at Westfields Chatswood. Have a wild guess which one I liked the most?
Don’t you love being hard sold too?
You are minding your own business then someone interrupts to give you some lame product or put you into a manipulative sales pitch?
Don’t you love being sold something you don’t want?
I bet all your answers come to a big fat “NO” and this very funny experience I just had at Westfields Chatswood inspired me to write about this experience.
I broke yet another Pen on my Surface 3 Pro (dropped it again!) and I was off to JB Hi-Fi to purchase another one. As I was on my way, a girl at Westfields interrupts me. She actually called out from behind me with a manipulative sales pitch.
She asked:
[Sales Shark] “Sorry I got a quick question?”
[Silly Me] “Sure what is it?”.
[Sales Shark] “Do you celebrate Christmas?”.
[Confused Me] “Sure”.
This girl then took my hand and said she has a great present for me and my “Girlfriend”. She took my thumb, started polishing it’s nail, then did the sales pitch and put this “Dead Sea Oil” on there which got rid of my cuticle.
She then told me there was a “Super Special” and all this lame ass stuff. I was getting impatient and said no thank you and walked off. She didn’t stop! Kept wanting to stay and saying there is a great special and the like.
Even though my Thumb Nail is REALLY SHINY (which is a fair point) I walked off thinking it was great to get away from her! It reminded me as to annoying sales people and how at times they just don’t stop.
Bringing it back to Small Business Selling Success I have found many key things in business over the past few years. You got to sell. Sure. Yes. But when it comes to say Business to Business Selling you got to be very careful.
Sure, you can push at the start and get some “Sales” in, but if you get known as that “Annoying Person” your game can become very unsustainable. I know plenty of people that have come in, tried to hard sell everyone, failed badly (as everyone was sick of them) all to just move on and try something else.
What was quite sad was that some had some great products / services, BUT as they were so annoying they couldn’t get any lasting sales in what they were doing. My thumb nail is polished for sure, but do I want to buy from that woman who hard sold me? NO WAY.
I even purchased a beautiful pair of new Ray-Ban Sunglasses and the girl selling them rocked. She took her time, was really nice and I loved it.
My advice and thinking? Sell in a way that people like so you last the long game especially in B2B. I get in some industries you may be a little “Bit Pushy”, but watch it – it doesn’t last! You want to be the person that people like and want to buy from all the time!
Love your work and thanks for the read – here’s to nice selling!
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