The following blog post is taken from the transcript of a workshop I ran recently with a media client. I hope you enjoy it:
The Sale
I was in telesales, and I was selling a web-based alumni management and fundraising program. It was way ahead of its time, before Facebook, before social media. It was creating online groups for schools, alumni, and they had this forum where they could talk to each other, and the school had access to all of that data, and they could use it for fundraising. Brilliant idea!
With one particular school the main contact was a very-difficult-to-get-through-to head teacher. Now, if I try and call the head teacher of my daughter’s school, forget it. They’ve got too much to do. On one occasion I did manage to get through to the head teacher, and he said, “I have seven minutes, do you want them?” He didn’t even say hello! My normal approach to these calls is, “How’s your day?”. I got lucky. If I’d said that I think he would have likely hung up on me. I said “Yes please”, and he replied, “Then continue.”
So, I said, “Sir, we are marketing and selling this package in your schools in your area, I thought it might be interesting to you. It’s a way that you can connect with your alumni and actually use that data to fundraise.”
He started asking me questions, “How much is it? How many staff do I need to run it? Will it fit with the school’s IT system? How many records can I have online?”. So quite factual, this was in the space of literally 25 seconds. “Give me lots of facts!”.
The Flex
Now, when people with this personality type ask you a question like “How much is it”, be very careful of the salesman answer, “It depends which package you choose.” They don’t like it. I gave him all the facts he needed, and I look at my watch. Six minutes had passed. So I said, “Sir, I’ve used six minutes of your time, you said you had seven. Would you like me to summarise and close, and then we can put a date in the diary for when you’ve got more time?”.
He said, “No, no, no. Tell me. Which school did you go to?”. So I told him. “I taught there last summer!” he said. “Oh, did you? What was it like?” He said, “The food was disgusting.” “You should have tried it when I was there!” I replied!
The Dance
The conversation went on. I looked at my watch and I said, “I’m really sorry, that’s twenty-five minutes gone, do you want me to hang up now?” And he said, “No, no, no. Tell me, these other schools that you’re talking to in the moment, what are they saying about your product?” I told him, “They love it, think it’s absolutely fantastic. Let me tell you a story about the school I visited yesterday.” So this is storyville. Anecdote, case study, it’s great! So the went on for about 45 minutes. Now, did the school buy it? No. Because the school was worried about having their data on the internet!
The point is, at the start, we often say this to people, “I’ve only got two minutes.” What do we really mean? “Get on with it. Are you worth it? If in two minutes I think you are I’ll give you two more. I’ll give you five more. I’ll give you ten more. Actually, this is good, I’ll give you an hour”. These initial connections are really, really important because people make judgements like that. How quickly do you judge somebody in a given situation?
The Lesson
The lesson here is learning that ability to quickly get that first connection right by judging their personality type, then flex. Sometimes, you have so little evidence, you’ve got to be quite agile to go, “Okay, who is this person, I sense they just want me to get on with the pitch”, or “I sense that they want to get to know me”.
And if you can do that right, they will dance with you!
If you’d like Sun and Moon to help you Tango, drop us a line.
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid
Photo copyright: belchonock / 123RF Stock Photo