Sales 101: Make that Sale!

Yesterday, I got a crucial lesson in sales. And from an uneducated man! I have years of experience doing sales; pleasant and unpleasant, successful and unsuccessful, difficult and hard but I added a crucial one to my repertoire from the unlikeliest of sources. I will share the lesson but first permit me to tell the story that produced the lesson.

Coming back from work I stopped by my roadside vulcaniser’s to inform him that I have finally purchased the new spare tire and rim that the car I was using needed. No, he didn’t need to do anything because part of the customer service package included fitting the tire and the rim.

But the vulcaniser of about 60 years insisted I stop. I had to. He insisted to see the tire. His boy brought it out from the boot. He surveyed it around and immersing it in water he proceeded to check for holes. None. His bill started reading. He then instructed his boy to gauge the tire. I was like… Little air and I knew the bill had changed to the next level.

Next, he asked if I had tested the new tire and rim on the car. I hadn’t because I assumed I was given the right 205/65/15 tire (if you don’t know what that means then it is not my fault) fitted to the wheel. He discovered a jack and began to check the new tire fitted the hub. The bill? The counter added a few more nairas.

Now the car was recently bought and so the wheel bolts have not been tampered with so they were very difficult to loosen. Papa offered to loosen the remaining three tires and oil them so I won’t have difficulties if I had a flat tire.

I called a halt during the operations on the second tire and promised to bring it back since I was just coming back from work and was dog-tired. Papa acquiesced knowing full well that I have learnt my lesson. I paid him for his unsolicited and unbilled work and l left before papa fell into another fantasy.

I paid not really for the work because I could say I didn’t ask him to. But I paid because a 60-year old uneducated man thought me a crucial sales lesson: Never, ever, let a person come into your shop (website, phone call, church, party) without giving a service that you get paid for.

How many times have you told a client that you are about to close for the day and could she come back the next day? Because your salary is still constant whether you deliver that service to her or not. How many times have you felt “offended” when “intrusive” business calls come in during family hours? Now, if it was your business would you conclude that sale or push to the next day? Would you feel offended when business calls come at weekends? The answer is no. Learn the art of selling while now in paid employment. It becomes easier when you are an entrepreneur.

Make that sale!

Go the extra mile!