Hey salespeople, listen up. I want to give a perspective from the other side. If you ever wonder why you might not land that job you submitted an estimate for, there may be a few reasons why.
1. You don’t fully listen to your customer. I had several salespeople come out and give me pricing on a fire alarm system for my home.
I explained what I wanted and the rep seemed to understand the key items I wanted to purchase. Then he returned with a commercial rep. He was asking about all kinds of things that just didn’t apply.
I was so frustrated by the time he left. I was repeating myself, over and over like a bad rerun of the movie “Groundhog Day”. I mean this respectfully, but yo dog, give me a little respect and actually listen to what I want. Just because I am a woman who ordered this doesn’t mean I am Jo Ann clueless. When salespeople don’t listen to a potential customer and run them over with an attitude of they ‘know better’, they reserve a spot in my circular file called the trash can.
2. Little communication about when your estimate will actually be ready. This guy told me he was going to provide an estimate by the end of the day. Three days later he showed up at my house with no phone call to let me know he was working on the estimate. So, no show means a no go. I had already ordered it from someone else by the time he dropped his off.
3. Overselling yourself in the sales meeting. Two out of three reps oversold themselves in the meeting. They tried to sell themselves based upon price and bashed their competition in the process. I went with the one who was personable, gave me pricing on the spot, and never said a word about the competition. The other two said how economical they were. However, they were totally overpriced, didn’t have the same nationwide coverage, and were hard to get a hold of when I had other questions. Never sell your services with price as the main focus. You never know where you will really end up based upon that criteria. Value is a better place to live in the long run.
