Riddle me this, Batman – if you’re a salesperson and you come upon someone who isn’t buying what you’re selling, what do you do? Do you A) automatically turn off the sales pitch, the charm, and leave that person standing? Or do you B) continue to treat that someone as though he or she is a potential customer? If you answered B, I want to know you.
I ask because as my kid and I were standing in a local car dealership last week waiting to transfer a title, the salesperson came up to me and started going on about the features of the car in front of me. I explained that we’d come in to transfer a title. Gone went her smile. Gone went any interest beyond shouting over to her manager, “Hey Lou (names changed). Can you get Patty? They need a title transfer.” Then as I commented that the car in front of me really was nice, she turned and walked back to her desk. Big mistake.
However, her coworker, who’d heard we weren’t looking, took the time to come over and talk with us. He carried on a nice conversation with me about about muscle cars and about how he thought his company’s new Camaro compared to the Mustang. Okay, he was biased, but he was engaging. As we left, he came over to my car and handed my daughter and me both a business card. If I ever buy another Chevy, who do you think is getting my business? And my daughter’s too, for she said, “He was really nice.” More to the point, if I run into this guy at another dealership, or in another sales position, I’ll remember him. He spent ten minutes with me, knowing full well I wasn’t buying. He didn’t care. I was a person. I was a new contact who may some day buy something he’s selling. That, my friends, is how to network.
We’re all in sales. We have to take the same care with clients that we would with friendships. These are real people, not just clients attached to projects and checks. They have interesting lives and they enjoy someone paying attention to them beyond how much we can get out of them (or vice versa). You can’t turn off the charm just because you think this person isn’t going to net you anything.
That may even go for jobs that are low-ball in nature. I ran into an old client’s cohort a few weeks back when he asked me to consider working with them. I left their employment on contentious terms (long story involving a missing contract and no intentions on their part of signing one). I knew I’d acted professionally. I knew I’d not get the job because the person I’d dealt with was still at the helm. But some day I may, only if the management changes and I’ve been fair in my dealings and my communications. If I don’t, that’s fine. These people talk to other people who hire. If I make a stink unnecessarily, that’s going to get around. If I quietly walk away from a raw deal, that’s going to be forgotten much sooner, and there won’t be any water-cooler stories to tell.
What do you think? Have you come across charmers who lose the love the minute they see you’re not responding? Have you done it yourself?
Funny, a freelancer friend and I were just talking about this concept. We've both run into a third freelancer in an area we all write about (real estate). My friend and I dished about how this third freelancer is an unpleasant bear who's been unwilling to share the slightest bit of information.
We were both saying how stupid that is, especially since sharing the information wouldn't have hurt her business in the slightest. But not sharing will certainly hurt her someday because we'll never want to do anything that will benefit her.
As you said, you never know when we'll be asked to recommend her, refer a big client to another freelancer, or whatever. She's dug her grave with both of us, and it's so stupid on her part!
That's so absurd, isn't it? I never understood why other writers (and I've only come across one in my day, thankfully) look on the writer community as nothing more than stiff competition. Stupid. If I didn't have you guys, I'd go nuts!
Salesman Chuck here….
The car business differs quite a bit from most others in that what you were dealing with is what's known as "a system house"…and the car deals are accomplished in a number of steps.
Most likely the first person who approached you was a newbie and it was her only responsibility to say hello and get you to talking before she turned you over to a more seasoned sales person who brings all kinds of wit and charm into the dialogue This transfer usually happens transparently.
It's psychologically calculated to ruffle your feathers at some point in the initial stages of the conversation, and then here comes Mr or Ms Empathy.
Unfortunately the car dealers sell more cars using this method than the typical sales routine of building a relationship.
Chuck