{"id":15,"date":"2013-04-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/?p=15"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:04:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:04:56","slug":"selling-in-a-difficult-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/selling-in-a-difficult-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling in a Difficult Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Selling Is Difficult, Or Is It?<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

\"selling<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just imagine having to sell brushes like these from door to door\u2026talk about selling in a difficult market! I haven\u2019t been selling brushes. But I\u2019m sure that many of you can do that.<\/p>\n

Selling in a Difficult Market On The First Day<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

Let me tell you a story. In the 80\u2032s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Maybe you believe me when I say that\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is selling in a difficult market.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Man In The Pit<\/h3>\n

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: \u201cYes, I want you to put them there, there and then there in front of the desk. Measure and tell me how much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The novice salesman\u2019s jaw dropped. They took the measurements, prepared a contract and then the greasy workshopman asked for a pen so he could sign his name\u2026 still standing in the pit.<\/p>\n

Once they got out this novice asked his mentor: \u201cIt\u2019s not really this easy, is it?\u201d And the answer was, \u201cNo it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Of course, selling those dirt& water absorbing mats is a difficult market and doesn\u2019t happen like on that day in this story. You must meet six customers\u00a0every day\u00a0<\/em>and keep in contact with them.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And from time to time you can have such bright days when selling in a difficult market.<\/p>\n

Ilkka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Selling Is Difficult, Or Is It? \u00a0 Just imagine having to sell brushes like these from door to door\u2026talk about selling in a difficult market! I haven\u2019t been selling brushes. But I\u2019m sure that many of you can do that. Selling in a Difficult Market On The First Day Let me tell you a story. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[55,56,57,58,59],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-advice","tag-absorbing-mats","tag-grease-pit","tag-market","tag-selling","tag-selling-in-a-difficult-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/isaarisalo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}