Getting A Taste Of My Own Medicine
February 1, 2005
If you are a salesperson, sales manager, or someone involved in sales, then you'd better read this. I'm about to share an experience that epitomizes the phrase, "getting a taste of my own medicine." Having made my living as a sales professional, I got a "flavor" of how some of my customers must have felt while I was selling, courtesy of my son.
My son has been trying to help me identify "the" car that I am absolutely going to need to buy, sometime around the time he reaches his 16th birthday. While my lease is indeed up at that time, (so I do need to think about what the next vehicle will be), the time is several months from now. I just haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it.
Pretend that you are a sales person, (or my son in this case), and you have a strong "driving" need to get me to make my choice. How would you approach the situation? How would you create the right conditions for me to want to discuss the available options and features that your automobiles might offer me? How would you do this, knowing that I am the least mechanical person you'll ever meet, and that I really don't like thinking about cars until a few short weeks before the lease is up?
Let me give you a sample of the dialogue that my son utilized with me in this exercise:
Son: "So, Dad. You know that you're lease is coming up in just eight months. Have you thought about what kind of car you're going to get this time?"
Dad: "Not really. It's so far away."
Son: "Well, Dad. Like my 16th birthday, it isn't really that far away. We better start thinking about what's available. Now, there are some great new SUV's coming out which have all kinds of power."
Dad: "Hold on a minute, son. I'm really not looking for cars right now, and I drive a convertible. Plus, I don't like to drive fast, you know that."
Son: "I know, Dad. But you need a bigger car. You've got four kids, and a bunch of animals. Now, the new SUV coming out from Ford has got an incredible engine. It's got eight cylinders, fuel injectors, and an overdrive feature that really accelerates. It goes zero to sixty in 4.3 seconds on dry surfaces, and ..."
Dad: "Son. I'm not thinking about cars right now. Let's talk about this in a few months."
This didn't go too well, did it, at least from the sales person's, (or my son's) perspective? Remember when I referred to this article's reflection on the phrase, "getting a taste of my own medicine?"
When I was a sales representative, I made a lot of the mistakes that my son made in approaching the car decision. Not that he did anything "wrong." He attempted to get me to recognize a need for a new car, and proceeded to let me know, based upon his extensive research, the exact product that he was sure I had to have.
