"Shoot First" Sales Attempts - Shoot First and Ask for the Sale Later

This morning I woke to the noise of a lawn mower near my window. I rolled over to view the clock and saw that I had 3 more hours to sleep before time to hop out of bed. Is someone mowing my lawn? my sleepy brain questioned. Then I reasoned Eh probably the neighbors having theirs mowed with one of those loud commercial mowers. Part of me knew better that part of me was still mostly asleep.

I rested my head once again and fell into a rather shallow sleep for about half an hour only to be woken up by a loud knock on the door. The man at the door was dripping wet, red faced, and sprinkled with grass clippings. He had taken it upon himself to mow my lawn and was now looking for payment.

This had all the sales and marketing thought of the guy who jumps in front of your car at the red light and washes your windows before you can even say Stop! I just came from the carwash! No more washie! No washie!

This can even be compared to the sales associate who says And youll want the insurance plan great value and selects it for you before you can consider if you actually do want it.

Or when you are handed a contract to sign with boxes checked and options selected that you were never even notified were possible. How are you expected to sign off on something without knowing what you are agreeing to?!

Shoot first and ask for the sale later? It may work for some of the people some of the time, but it will not earn you a customer. If it earns you a sale, you lucked out. The sale happens because the customer felt uneasy about speaking up, felt sorry for you, trusted your opinion, or decided they wanted the sale anyway. More than likely, it will be one of the first two and you are likely to lose the customers trust while annoying them. There are many customer out there who would be so appalled at the tactic that they would cancel the sale all together or say I didnt agree to this! making the completion of the sale nearly impossible.

Anyone willing to perform such thoughtless service isnt very business minded. Why? Because getting a sale is temporary. You have to constantly sale in order to maintain your job and finances. What you should try to get is a customer. If a customer feels pressured, annoyed, or cheated they wont be your customer for much longer. What you gain in the moment, you lost for the future.

You must, and I cannot stress this enough, include the customer in your sale. After all, without them there would be no sale at all. If you explain the options, offer a service, and value their opinion they may turn down the extras but they wont turn down you.

When the man mowing lawns showed up to collect his payment, he received his asking price but I let him know that we have other means of lawn care. While we appreciate his efforts, his services are not needed. Sad thing, too, since just a few days before my roommates and I were discussing hiring someone to cut the lawn on a regular basis and maybe do some landscaping. He proved to us that he would choose to mow the lawn without our consent; I cant imagine the horrible decisions that would be made if he had the job of planting, pruning, trimming, or designing my pretty little lawn!

Make customers, not sales and include them in the process or risk losing everything.

~:Taking care of business really means understanding people. Lola has worked in areas of Customer Service for nearly a decade, including CSR Training Coordinator at a major dot com. Her articles will show how every moment can be an opportunity to provide better service to the people around you:~

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