The Pitch – How to Sell Ice to an Eskimo without really trying

Life and Death of a Salesperson?

It’s interesting, when we’re asked to assist a client with a digital sales campaign trying to sell a product seeking to maximise their returns, when they’ve outlaid an investment in a product they’ve bought believing it’s an absolute bargain from a supplier, when in fact most competitors have either the product in stock, or declined to sell the product because the business owner knows he or she simply can’t sell it because of either price, or customers aren’t interested in such a product.

Most salespeople learn from previous sales mistakes buying products from suppliers when the supplier simply just wants to offload junk stock and raise some capital to buy new stock, for the upcoming summer season as an example. 

Other salespeople buy stock from suppliers quickly to maximise competitive advantage when having a product the competition doesn’t have and wants to be the first kid on the block to have for sale the product and sell it at a higher profit margin because the retailer is the only shop selling this amazing new product.

But, having stock for sale that is readily available from local and global suppliers could be difficult to sell if all your competitors are selling the same product and a price war erupts and the retailer ends up selling the product at near cost to be the cheapest retailer selling the product. 

Clearly the retailer cannot sustain selling products this way.

What could the salesperson do to better sales and be a sustainable retailer? Sell cheaper products? Have longer opening hours than Competitors?

How about better sales methods or training, or marketing, or data analysis to understand your target market, demographics or daily spending habits of customers locally?

How about just simply listening to your customers and create a sales method based on each individual customer and their needs of having that product to be used in their home or office?

Negotiation Skills & Emotion  

We all have negotiation skills and we have developed these skills since we could speak as a child when we would try to negotiate with mum or dad to try to worm our way out of eating Green Eggs and Ham, or those awful Brussel sprouts or Cabbage and we always failed because we didn’t have any bargaining power except, for crying out loud or throwing a tantrum and going to bed without dinner and not getting our rewarding desserts because we didn’t eat all of our dinner.

As we grew older we would try to negotiate with friends to try to swap toys, or sell old things we no longer needed to buy more stuff we eventually didn’t need but felt as a consumer, we wanted more and more or because a friend had that product we needed to have it also no matter the cost.

Then we matured and wanted a car, a house, a husband or wife also and we realised that what was the real needs of others and how can we discuss how both parties would be interested to satisfy each other’s needs, without both parties walking away and going somewhere else, to be satisfied emotionally as a end user, husband, wife or consumer.

Sell me this Pen!

I’m not sure if all have had the experience of being asked at an interview “Sell me this Pen” but it’s an opportunity to gauge if the candidate has the ability to sell a product and the way or methods the candidate would use to sell the pen.

When we’re asked “Sell me this Pen” as an example to see just how we could sell a pen to a potential customer most people say “This pen is on Sale for Today Only” or “This Pen is absolutely amazing, it writes upside down and never runs out of Ink.” 

The salesperson believes this is how to sell a pen but, he or she hasn’t taken into account the emotional needs of the customer and continues to try to sell the pen at a discount trying to make the sale no matter what the cost just to make the sale and the customer walks away not satisfied and frustrated that the salesperson has not understood why the customer wanted to buy the pen in the first place.

Now, we can start to understand it’s not about making the sale or money for your business, but having each customer’s needs satisfied with each sale made.

A better sales approach would be:

May I ask why you need a new Pen?

The customer may say “it’s a gift, or I’m wanting to write a journal of my thoughts or life goals as an example.”

Now we’ve broken down why, we can recommend a personalised pen that suits the customer, “May I ask who’s the Gift for” “It’s for my wife and my wife’s favourite colour is purple” “Do you have a purple pen? but it needs to have a very fine tip”

“Ok what’s you budget? can I recommend this gift boxed pen with refills or we have slightly more expensive stainless steel pens that are elegantly styled in various colours including purple.”

What if the customer wanted to buy a pen and a writing journal as well, we can now suggest other products or gift packs bundled with a slightly more expensive stainless steel pen that are elegantly styled in various colours including purple and have a matching purple coloured journal to write the customers thoughts or life goals in.   

Suddenly we have made a close rapport with the customer and the customer has felt the salesperson was very sincere and thoughtful in taking the time to find out exactly want the customer wanted and the customer was very happy in the sales process and will come back if the customer needed any other pens or stationery.

Sell me this Block of Ice!  

Have you ever been asked at an interview “How can you Sell Ice to an Eskimo?”

Well, here we go and hope you enjoy this simple example in how ice can sold directly to an Eskimo when there’s more ice than Eskimo’s available and readily free.

Ageing Population of Eskimo’s in Alaska

With many Eskimo’s or Inuit’s as their commonly know as, ageing in Alaska many Inuit’s leave the land to live in aged care or homes in local suburbs due to their age, physical frailty or poor health. 

The average life expectancy of an Inuit is around 68, 10 years lower than those Inuit’s in Canada and therefore need to leave the land their ancestors have lived on for millions of years living in hand made Igloo’s made from block ice as the traditional way of living on the land.

Due to their ages many become empty nesters or ice nesters (no children, or children have left the family dwelling or Igloo for work or education) and therefore the elderly cannot maintain the family Igloo and due to state of disrepair of the family’s long-standing Igloo and faced with the perils of freezing to death, the Inuit’s leave the Igloo for a safer dwelling in local suburbs.

But how can we sell ice to an Eskimo?

With traditional ways of living and wanting to die on his or her land as their forefathers have for millions of years before, naturally the Inuit’s would prefer to live on the land but cannot build or maintain their existing Igloo’s, due to their age and they cannot physically build or maintain the family Igloo as they did in their younger days.

The answer is simple, why not provide an Igloo building and maintenance service to allow an Inuit to live longer on the land in a safe dwelling just as their forefathers have and the Inuit’s will need to buy the ice made Igloo’s directly from the builder including all the costs associated with making the Igloo’s including wages and machinery.

Igloo building and maintenance Services

In order for my new Igloo building business to make Igloo’s on the land, I’ll need materials to build Igloo’s including, ice cut and delivered to the building site to erect the new Igloo’s for the customer.

My costs and profit for each project would be:

But if I choose also to provide Igloo maintenance services, I’m also selling ice ensuring an ageing Igloo can be repaired with new fresh ice maximising the life of the ageing Igloo.

As you can see its quite possible to sell ice to an Eskimo, you just need to change your sales strategy in line with the demands of the consumer market and how you can sell a product or service that initially may not sell, or not needed by consumers until you revise the sales strategy.

Hope you enjoyed my latest post.

Look forward to any comments.

Cheers!