Over-Pitched?

The goal of my blog and my business is to help people sell better. Whether you are an entrepreneur starting your own business or a manager trying to get more out of your people, you need to know how to sell NOT how to pitch.

I don’t know about you, but I have been OVER PITCHED.

I've purchased books and products that promise to quickly and miraculously solve my problems. I once spent almost 30 minutes reading a freaking sales pitch on how I too, could potty train my toddler in 3 days before I had to buy the book that actually did not give me any information I did not already have - in fact after spending 18.95 for this multi paged instruction manual, the actual advice amounted to about four paragraphs.  Four paragraphs that were almost word for word what my mother did to get us out of diapers.   Should have trusted her advice and gone out for a nice lunch.

What is my take away from this? Sales pitches are an empty fruitless time suck that work and work to build me up and make me believe the answer to my problems plus dessert is behind curtain number 1 and costs ONLY 10.95 plus shipping. I then spend my 10.95 to realize I've been duped again. I sell for a living and damn it I got sucked into spending my money on something I realized that though could be useful to me was not in fact necessary and nor did it solve any problem for me. In fact it created a problem because somehow my credit card is being charged some strange subscription fee to a company I’ve not heard of and the only way to stop the charge is to cancel the card and get a new one.

Ironically I do love to be sold to properly.  I love it when I spend my money on something I like from someone I like.  I love walking out of a store with a smile on my face or receiving a package in the mail that meets or exceeds my expectation.  Because I sell for a living I love giving the sale to a sales rep who deserves it.  I respect a good sales person and more often than not would love to coach some people who try to sell to me and do not succeed.  Believe it or not I find myself often in situations where I actually have time to hear more, I’m in an open minded frame so when someone calls or a clerk asks if I know about an offer, I don’t close the door, I leave it open a crack and see what they do.  More often than not they shut the door not realizing they could have closed a sale.  There are times I want to say to the person – “did you know had you pressed me a little more I would have listened?”.  That’s not saying I would have bought, but I may have listened and if I had related to what I’d heard I may have bought…. OR had I liked what I’d heard and found the offer or product interesting but not for me I may have REFERRED this person to a friend or colleague… or boasted about them on my facebook page…. Or just kept them in mind for a time when I might be interested.  A not now is not a no.

Because of these personal experiences I am pretty confident that most businesses and business owners are leaving money on the table simply because they can’t tell for sure if the door is open or closed and try to kick it open when it’s shut or shut it when it’s open so I want to help you gently nudge it open and grow your business.

Today's take-away is this:  Stop pitching and start listening. 

My question of the day is:  Did the door actually close or do you just think it did?