WEEK 10
KNOW YOUR PRODUCT
My wife, Kathy, and I have been settled happily for the past several years in our dream house in metropolitan Detroit. We had it built to our special wants and needs. It has many rooms and a special place for my enormous collection of electric trains. When I had the photos taken for my personal brochures, I was photographed standing in the middle of this train set. Our home is equipped with computers for us and the kids and a beautiful entertainment center where, among other things, I display my collection of special edition bottles of bourbon, including one that the folks at Jack Daniel’s sent me after I wrote them a fan letter.
But here’s my point. We’re putting down roots now, but it wasn’t always like that. During the first 20 years I spent in the real estate business, I moved about once a year. Twenty houses in 20 years. After I got married in 1985, I think I almost drove Kathy nuts with this practice. But still it was absolutely necessary for me to move a lot. It taught me what was happening in my marketplace. Nothing else could have provided such training. I got to see houses the way my customers do—as a product that I might be moving into myself.
USE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE . . . IF POSSIBLE
Getting to know your product and marketplace is crucial. I don’t care what you sell, I’m a firm believer that you have to know your own product or services. Not just have a general understanding of it, but know it inside and out. And that means you have to experience it firsthand. If you sell Corvettes, you better drive a Corvette. If you sell guitars, you ought to play guitar.
Let me tell you about a travel agent here in metro Detroit—Patty. She was president of a company that was one of the oldest and largest trainers of travel agents in Michigan. She had also been a travel counselor herself. When I asked Patty what a good travel agent needed to do, she replied that a successful travel counselor first must be well-traveled: “You have to know the destinations, cruise ships, and resorts you will be recommending.”
Patty had been to over 50 different countries and sailed on more than 15 cruise ships. With this base of experience, Patty could recommend a cruise line or a hotel or a destination to a client and talk knowledgeably about it. Not many travel counselors ever had that kind of extensive product knowledge, but it was a key element to Patty’s success.
It may be easier than you think to come by your expertise. When I was moving every year, I could often reduce the sales commission because I acted as my own real estate agent. In Patty’s case, she could take advantage of steep discounts offered to travel agents by airlines, hotels, and so forth. At the time, travel agents received discounts such as 75 percent off coach airfare, 50 percent off hotels, and cruises for as little as $35 a day. They were offered these discounts so they could experience these travel options firsthand.
If you’re in sales and have an opportunity to be a customer as well as a salesperson, I strongly encourage you to take the opportunity. Buying and using what you sell gives you a unique perspective—your customer’s perspective.
Of course, if you sell pacemakers, I don’t expect you to have one implanted just so you can gain your customer’s perspective. You may need to take another approach—talk extensively with patients who have pacemakers and surgeons who implant them and have to maintain them. The closer you can get to the end user of your product or service, the better.
RECRUIT REFERRALS
By the way, Patty practices another of my recommendations, which is to not be shy about passing out her business cards along the way.
“I met one of my best clients on an airplane from Miami coming back from a cruise,” Patty said. “She travels a great deal and was impressed with my own travel experiences. Since that flight, based on my personal service for her, she has referred over 50 new clients to me. Similarly, I met a couple in line checking in for the same flight I was on to Manzanillo, Mexico. We chatted for a while, and I gave them a card. When we arrived home, they called me and booked a very nice Alaskan cruise and a tour to France.”
Choose a product you enjoy selling. Selling requires more than just providing information; it helps to have an emotional attachment to what you sell. When you love your product, prospective customers feel the love. They quickly pick up on your enthusiasm and passion. If you aren’t convinced that the product or service you’re selling is the best thing since sliced bread, you’re going to have a difficult time convincing someone else.
I pride myself in being a great salesperson, but just like anyone, if I discovered that the product I was selling had weaknesses that the client should know about, I wouldn’t be able to get past it and would have to find the product that overcame the issues and sign up to be their salesman.
Integrity is of the utmost importance. Before you sign on to sell a product or service, ask yourself whether you would be comfortable recommending the product to your mom. This test keeps you honest.
Ralph’s Rule: You can’t fake product knowledge, and your customers will detect your lack of expertise. To succeed in sales, you’ve got to know what you are selling. The only way to do that is to experience your marketplace firsthand. Not only should you get out there and sell, but you ought to get out there and buy, too.