I had a personal experience that delivered a Client Path angle I hadn’t thought of. Prior general assumption: Selling is selling, and its goal is attaining a new customer. At that point, loyalty building should take over as a primary focus, eventually delivering the new customer to the lofty ground of steady customer, even word-of-mouth advocate.
But what if the sales process is really obnoxious?
On reflection, this is a common situation, and companies make their own strategic decisions — or maybe just let it happen without thought.
My wife and I went shopping for a flat screen digital TV. We tried a couple discounters where prices were good, but help was dismal; and we felt the need for some information to make a solid decision. So I said, “Let’s go to _______________ (prominent area electronics retailer that promotes itself as a place where top-notch professionals help you make good decisions).”
On the sales floor, our guy began well. He asked a couple questions about where the TV would be located, how far away our viewing chairs were…seemed like good, customer-oriented salesmanship. But then he launched, unprovoked, into a highly technical discussion about the differences between the two primary alternatives. (I think he was pitching LCD, but I’m a bit fuzzy on the technical side). Whichever it was, we soon headed toward its part of the store; whereupon he launched into rationale for our needing at least a 47″ TV, maybe 52″, but surely not the pathetic little thing we had been considering.
Bottom line: at the discount place, the pathetic little thing looked okay to us and cost about $475. Now we were looking at alternatives ranging from $1250 up. We tried to rein him in. “Listen, we aren’t communicating,” I tried to explain. “This is for our hearth room. It’s small. It’s where we do our casual viewing. If we want to do any heavy-duty watching, we go to the basement where our big-screen is. We can shop this area when it’s time to replace the big guy.”
He pressed on, apparently not wanting to wait until our big screen conked out. I told him, “Whoa,” that we were more in the $500 price range, and were pretty sure we could be happy there. He pressed on, eventually telling us that he couldn’t really live with himself if he sold us a piece of junk like that, and (by inference, not very veiled) we were a pitiful pair if we could possibly consider it.
At that point, I lost a bit of my Irish temper and walked off, heading toward the parking lot, leaving my wife alone and unprotected with a guy who had just earned my vote as worst sales person I’ve ever encountered. She joined me in the parking lot, a bit miffed at me, asking “What was that all about?” But upon review of the experience, she sided with my judgment if not my chosen style of exit.
Here, though, is the key question: Is that well-known retailer using good judgment? Their tactic was clear, and I don’t doubt that the sales guy’s approach was consistent with the strategy: Sell up, and sell hard. It’s high-risk, I would argue. If it works, I hopefully become satisfied through time, maybe even loyal; because the high-priced TV was, indeed, higher resolution and might delight me after the pain of $800 extra wore off.
But if the tactic failed, which it did in our case, the odds are EXTREMELY high that I’ll never set foot in that store again, and I’ve already told the story several times, not counting this time. So the odds of my ever becoming a loyal customer have declined to near zero; I’m spewing negative word-of-mouth; and I once thought highly enough of them to seek them out for help.
For my money, selling that strong is not a good idea.
Epilogue: We drove straight to Fry’s, spent $439, and are very happy with the product.
What’s your view?
