Selling in a Difficult Market

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Selling Is Difficult, Or Is It?

Just imagine having to sell brushes like these from door to door…talk about selling in a difficult market! I haven’t been selling brushes. But I’m sure that many of you can do that.

Selling in a Difficult Market On The First Day

Let me tell you a story. In the 80′s I belonged to a sales team. Our product was an absorbing doormat that we sold and then made a service agreement for that mat, or a mat system.

It is a seemingly expensive product to buy, when you compare it without a closer look to real expenses. We compared that to rented mats, of course.

Maybe you believe me when I say that  is selling in a difficult market.

One of my sales team pals told me this story. He was being trained that day, and he and his mentor went to a suburban Helsinki gas station.

They shouted around to find staff. Then they heard a noise from the grease pit. There was someone working under a car. They could not see the guy but they heard each other.

The Man In The Pit

When the salesmen had explained the reason to their visit, the man in the pit ( he was the owner of the station) sticked his finger out of the pit and enthused: “Yes, I want you to put them there, there and then there in front of the desk. Measure and tell me how much.”

The novice salesman’s jaw dropped. They took the measurements, prepared a contract and then the greasy workshopman asked for a pen so he could sign his name… still standing in the pit.

Once they got out this novice asked his mentor: “It’s not really this easy, is it?” And the answer was, “No it isn’t.”

And he went on to make many more deals, but the first one was the easiest and he never encountered such a customer again.

Of course, selling those dirt& water absorbing mats is a difficult market and doesn’t happen like on that day in this story. You must meet six customers every day and keep in contact with them.

Whether they buy on your first visit or later, or never, you need to manage a bookkeeping of your contacts so you never lose any one of them because you forgot. Consistency is the key to success.

And from time to time you can have such bright days when selling in a difficult market.

Ilkka