Help People Buy

Today, I have a few key tips for anyone in the business of sales, which is not limited to people who sell for a living, but nearly all of us.  The three words I want you to remember is: Help People Buy.

This month, the company I work for, Federated Media, experienced a tragic loss with the unexpected death of Charly Butcher, the host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO Radio.  Charly began his career with Federated Media in the 1980’s on WOWO’s sister station, WMEE.  His life touched countless numbers of people as made evident by the stories and tributes.

One story I heard from my coworker Tracy was how a car salesperson was struggling with a sale but then Charly stepped in to Help People Buy:

We were at a remote at Fort Wayne Subaru and they just got in one single BRZ sport coupe in bright red that was stunning. This guy about 23 was looking at it with lust and the sales person just could not close the deal no matter how hard he tried. Charly went to the guy and said “I tell you what…you buy this car now and I will put you on the air live on Monday to brag about it. You can tell all your friends you will be on WOWO Monday morning.” The guy agreed to it on the spot and sure enough he got his 5 minutes of Fame on Charly’s show that Monday. We had a happy customer, happy sales person, happy manager and Charly was so proud of himself.

I’ve recently told you about my most recent car buying experience, which was filled with unnecessary sales pitches, because by the time I went to the dealership, I already decided exactly which car I wanted and all they really had to do was take care of the paperwork.

Today, I’m going to share with you another bad buying experience I had.

The afternoon after attending Charly Butcher’s funeral, I needed to visit some funeral homes for a brother-in-law who was just transferred to hospice care.  Yes, it was a dreadful week, but sometimes you have to plow through it to get things done.

I visited 3 places and told each exactly what I was looking for:

I am here to get price information for direct cremation for the upcoming passing of my brother-in-law who is likely in the final week of his life.  I am getting this information for my wife who will be making the decision of who we use. No public funeral or additional services are needed, just the bare bone basics.  A family memorial will take place in a few months out of town.

That was the story I told all three funeral homes.  From what I said, if they were listening, they would know that I am looking only for their price and I was not going to be buying anything today.  I told them I was price shopping only.

So what happened?

At funeral home number one, I get what I am looking for, the bottom line price, in writing, but first the guy shows me his powerpoint on who he is, how many funerals they have done over the past 10 years complete with the standard bar chart.

He was not listening to what I said, he was stuck in selling mode.  I redirected him to get the info I needed and left.

Funeral home number two was worse.  Two guys, teaming up to sell me, after I told them exactly why I was there.  They even asked questions about my wife and I that had absolutely nothing to do with why I was there.  Like,  “how long have you and your wife been married?”   I almost walked out.  In the end, I got the answers I wanted and a bad taste in my mouth to never do business with these two salespeople.

Funeral home number three was actually the best.  When I told him the same story I told the other two, he actually listened and told me that they are not the least expensive for cremation services.  I appreciated his honesty instead of his sales pitch and we talked more.  I learned a few things that made me want to transfer some of my own business to them in the future.

I learned a few lessons that day about the sales process that I am going to apply to my work, and hopefully you can apply these same lessons in your company:

How to Help People Buy

1. Listen first to find out what they think they are shopping for so you can focus on what they want.
2. Ask questions to clarify what they are looking for as an end result.
3. Answer their questions first, then ask how else you can help them.

Funeral home number two, almost had me walk out in the middle of their sales pitch, can you imagine having a potential customer come to you and then walk out because you were too salesy?

I bet it happens more than we realize.

By the way, I wrote a piece about Charly Butcher and his impact with WOWO and the community, but did not create a podcast for that article because it contains a few videos.  I invite you to read and watch by clicking on the link to this article on my website at ScottHoward.me

Here’s the link: https://www.scotthoward.me/remembercharly-butcher-of-wowo-wmee-fort-wayne/