A few months ago, a friend of mine, Paul Tomlinson (pictured below), shared the following true story with me. Paul, who lives in Rush Limbaugh’s part of Missouri, is a Regional Manager for a multi-state consumer services franchise. I think what he experienced that day was important enough for you to hear, so I am recounting the event that occurred that day, mostly in Paul’s own words:
I went to a local battery shop in search of some hard to find power cells. I was sitting on a stool at the counter waiting on the guy to locate the items I needed when an older man came in carrying a white plastic bag. He sat the bag on the counter and pulled out a Black & Decker® 18 volt battery, and held it up in front of one of the clerks. The old man asked if the shop carried such a thing and the clerk told him that they didn’t stock that battery, but that they could rebuild that one for him.
The old man replied, “Well how much would that be?”
“That battery would cost $58 to rebuild,” the clerk said. The man immediately grabbed the battery, stuck it back inside the bag and said, “I can buy two of those at Wal-Mart for that price!”
Almost apologizing, the clerk tried to provide an explanation as the man headed toward the door, but all he got out of his mouth was, “I totally understand, but with those new ones you will only get half the battery power too.” The old man didn’t even acknowledge, much less stop to listen.
As I sat there on the stool seeing this unfold, it really sparked my interest. I watched as a $58 sale simply walked out the door. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know anything about batteries, so to me one is just like another. So for the clerk to tell this guy that it would cost him $58 to get a “used” battery rebuilt, when he could buy two new ones down the street for that same amount of money, raised my curiosity. Either there was something different, maybe even special, about that particular battery, or the clerk was just responding with a sour-grape, cheap shot to the old man’s backside on his way out of the shop.
So, being an inquiring mind, I decided to ask the clerk to tell me what he meant by saying that the old fellow would only get half the battery power at Wal-Mart?
Over the next couple minutes I discovered that this guy was extremely sharp, at least in battery-land. He sounded to me like he knew everything there was to know about batteries as he used all kinds of technical terms during his explanation that just blew me away. I learned a lot about batteries that day and after hearing his explanation, it made perfect sense.
To sum it up, batteries off the shelf have 1300-1800 milliamps, while rebuilt batteries have 3000 milliamps. As the clerk explained it, the more milliamps, the longer the charge lasts, which means the rebuilt ones provide nearly double the run time! In addition rebuilt batteries are designed to withstand the “memory” that a NiCad battery develops over time. Boiling it down to the lowest common denominator, the rebuilt battery will last much, much longer. In fact he said they guarantee the battery for 1 full year! If it won’t hold a charge, all the customer has to do is bring it back and they will rebuild it again for free. It didn’t take me long to do the math and sell myself on the rebuilt version, but as I sat listening to this clerk, I kept thinking about the old fellow who walked out the door without hearing the whole story and all these relevant benefits.
What I saw was $58 that just up and left the shop, basically because the clerk gave the price prematurely. He obviously knew his stuff about batteries but he didn’t cover the features and benefits of the product he was selling before stating the price. By just blurting out the price before the explanation, it was almost like he was apologizing for charging that price for the rebuilt version. On the other hand, I got it and saw the value in what he was offering, primarily because I listened to the story.
Immediately I had a flashback to the sales team I am responsible for. As I saw their faces in my minds eye I told myself that they are all professionals and would NEVER do anything like that…or would they? It sure gave me something to think about.
Then it dawned on me that I’ve done it myself. The old, “they won’t be able to afford this” or “nobody will ever buy something that expensive,” echoed through my mind. It reminded me that our job is to help the customer buy, if there is a need, regardless of “our price”. That day I recommitted to coach our team to present solutions to problems rather than just providing prices for services. Shame on us!
Hey, before you go back to work, won’t you Speak you mind below and share a thought or an experience that might help other salespeople avoid making the mistake that Paul just spoke about?
By the way, SINAFLW addresses 116 topics like this one we just discussed in this post. Check it out here.
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