I had an interesting sales experience last weekend. It involves 12 contractors and my quest to remodel my pool and patio to something that is more enjoyable.
I am in the midst of doing the dreaded contractor thing to have my pool remodeled and some patios built, so far I have had 12 contractors come out the house to give me some estimates. All of these contractors (sales people) are really nice and want to be helpful.
(Of course they are, they want me to sign their contracts.)
The first four contractors arrived, glanced a look at my pool and surrounding area and then asked me, “What do you want to do sir?” I would obviously reply with well, we want to do X, Y, and Z with the pool, patio, etc. They would ask a few questions here and there to clarify some things and then they would launch into their dreaded “I am so Great Speech,” which made these meetings balloon out to 90 minutes. After that, they either sat down and try to put together a bid for me or they told me it would take a few days. Funny thing, they all said they were overwhelmed with work right now (yeah right).
The fifth contractor came to my house. I found myself not letting the contractor ask me what I wanted; as soon as they showed up I just started into my own dissertation about what I wanted and needed for the pool and patios. Amazingly, they listened, took notes, asked a few questions and maybe wrote up a bid or left and will send me the bid. This was great I had these meetings down to 20 minutes or so. I thought I had figured this game out, I have to say I was pretty proud of myself!
Everything changed when the last contractor showed up. I am quite glad he came, he changed my entire outlook on this project. Chris came walked in, we exchanged pleasantries with each other and I walked him out to the pool, I started into my normal routine that I was quite proud to have down by this point. Then he did it.
He actually interrupted me and asked me to share with him my vision for my entire backyard. I was quite stunned, I said, “Why does that matter?” I mean I only wanted my pool remodeled and some patios built. He overcame my objection by helping me see that what I plan to do with this section of the yard would likely dictate what I do with the rest of the acre I have yet to landscape.
Wow! Chris was actually going to take concern about my entire vision and not just the pool I want to remodel? There has to be a catch here, well there was and I am glad there was. Chris, my lovely wife Luanna and I spent two hours walking the backyard, he got us to open up to about what we really wanted to do, why we wanted, agreeing with us on some points, but respectfully disagreeing with us on other areas. It was great to have someone that was that interested, that knowledgeable spend the time with us to understand our true vision. You see when Chris asked the question of what our vision was we thought we knew, turns out we didn’t.
Two hours later, I gladly handed a check over to Chris to design our entire backyard for us, and oh yeah, he is going to give us a bid on our pool as well.
This is a great example of question-based selling and not trying to sell a product, but to sell a vision of what your buyer needs and wants. Chris was able to discover what the value was to my wife and I, and ultimately earned my business.
How do you sell, are you using value-based question selling?
P.S. You can now follow me on Twitter, I’m @ACRossAZ.
–Adam
[Image Credit: Bartek Kuzia on Flickr]
