A Salesman's Dilemma

By Thomas Sim, 28 April 2004

Once I was taught to be humble. Then, I was told to be courteous but firm. Next, I found out I have to be deadly persuasive. After ten years of doing sales, my boss told me that I am not yet a good listener. All these I was not surprised. Although the most important ingredient of sales - asking for commitment in a sales process (Sales Closing) I have done many times, I was shock the way my new boss asks for sale lately.

May be I won't be a good businessman after all. There is a common trait - all good businessmen are good beggars. Instead of wearing nice suits and sitting in a grand office, many good businessmen are out there pretending so poor and so desperate for help to 'survive' and make even. It is a hypocrite to say I don't ask for help and I am successful as a salesman. Tell that to your customer and you may be sorry to find out there is an overnight switch to your competition. Unless, again the law of the pyramidal society comes into its extreme situation which, in usual circumstances, would not happen.

This article is not about the necessity to ask for a sale. It is a fact that in sales, you must be humble, able to lead a clear direction on the sales discussion, courteous and persuasive to bring to a common ground for you to ask for a sale. In between, there is lots of listening. Inability to listen or unintentional refusal to hear your customer can cause failure to the whole effort of making a sale.

The issue of a salesman's dilemma in the making is his ego to open the conversation to ask for favour (negative connotation) or come to a fast tract commitment of a sale (positive connotation). This is the purpose of this article.

I find that many salespeople make sales by asking for help or favour too easily. It becomes a parasite to the customer every time an insurance sales person approaches you and asks for a commitment without investigating if there is a need or a benefit for you to sign up for the policy. This is too much a relationship selling which holds no water. Nevertheless, to many it is the only way to get a sale - what an irony of life.

In fact, I find that putting effort to show the benefits of the sale and hence, ask for a commitment of sale is the least to indicate some respect to the person's decision making capacity. It also feels good to evaluate and decide by our customer. It gives him a sensation of - I'm in charge, which also shows some respect of his intelligence. To him he may be making this decision beneficial to himself and others. He is not just helping you because he pities you. It also feels professional and impartial.

The dilemma is that when you do that, you might take a longer time and not necessarily would arrive at a successful sale. A lot of people would do the so called smart way, having to ask for help or begged for a sale and if rejected, only to find that he has to restart back at the beginning of a sales process, many a time with a negative mark.

Is it right and effective to do a sale this way? To me, it's a dilemma.