Sales Lessons from a 'Jack of all Trades'

My wife: “let me get this straight… A COMPLETE STRANGER KNOCKS ON OUR DOOR AND YOU’VE GIVEN HIM ￡300 TO FIX THE ROOF?”

Me: *sheepishly* "yes...”

Michelle: *points her finger in my face* “MORON” and storms off. 

Me: chasing after her “he’s going to paint the front and back of the house too”

Michelle: in an upbeat tone “REALLY?!"

Me: "yeah, he's doing it tomorrow" 

Michelle: "oh... well that’s brilliant! I’m really pleased that’s finally getting done. Good work, Mark”

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The above is an accurate transcript of a recent conversation I had with my wife. On reflection, it's a conversation that had I given it an ounce of thought, and explained properly could have been a pleasant exchange, no finger pointing, no raised voice, no storming off... I should have started with what she cared about, the external wood on the house to be painted and then, once she knew the house was finally being painted, I could have explained and dropped the ￡300 bomb. 

Here’s the back story...

For the last 3 years, my wife has 'nagged' me to paint the wood on the outside of our house. It’s always bothered her and I’ve never done it … if I’m being honest with myself I never planned on doing it either.

Last week I was working from home and there was an unexpected knock on the door. 

A local ‘handyman’ called Rob was cleaning next door's guttering and thought he'd see if I wanted mine doing as well – this was essentially a cold call, he had 20 seconds to get my attention and earn more time, ultimately his goal was to make the sale.

Rob’s opening was great, he acknowledged he interrupted my day, got immediately to the point and told me he’d cleaned the gutters of 5 other houses on my estate. His body language, tone, appearance and pitch led me to say ‘yes’ – it was a job I needed doing and I immediately trusted Rob.

45 minutes later Rob knocked again.

"I've cleaned the gutters but noticed you have a big crack in the cement on your porch roof... I think you should take a look".

He then showed me, and in fairness I could see the crack – Rob who already had my trust subtly shifted from making me aware of the problem into ‘expert’/ ‘problem solving mode’ telling me he’d seen this many times and explaining how the crack would have occurred. He also went on to say what I needed to do in order to get it fixed.

Rob wasn’t daft, he was confident that he knew way more about this subject than me - I made that clear as well asking all the buying questions:

“How bad is it?”

“What happens if I leave it”

“Is it easy to fix”

“Is it something that can be done quickly:

I would have literally accepted anything Rob said, and he knew it. He answered all of my questions calmly and explained that the crack was pretty bad and if I were to leave it and it were to snow or if rain was to freeze in the crack it would cause a lot of damage, ultimately Rob suggested I get it fixed as soon as possible – following his recommendation up with a pause…

 There was a silence for 20 seconds.

Rob had said all he needed to, he told me the problem, he knew it was worth fixing and that it needed fixing ASAP.

In this period of silence and awkward staring at each other, a lot was going through my mind – all worst-case scenarios.

I surrendered control.

I broke the silence.

‘crap, this needs to be fixed’.

Rob then hit me with the perfect line “the good news is I can fix this for you and I can do it today”.

“How much?”

“￡250”

I hesitated and Rob predicted my objection and said with a cheeky smile and tone

“let me guess, you need to speak with the wife?”.

That was really annoying as that was exactly what I was about to say and the little voice in my head said ‘show him who’s boss’ - damn that little voice.

The decision wasn’t really about money (even though it was a lot) my concern was too high and I needed to fix the problem. Here’s what was going through my mind.

Can I fix this? No.

Does it need fixing? Yes

When? Now.

Can I afford it? (Begrudgingly) Yes.

Do I trust this complete stranger? Yes.

With my ‘thinking time’ objection predicted and removed by Rob and my answers to the internal questions I knew we were going ahead – I just wanted to feel like I was getting a good deal and one I could sell to my wife.

I replied to him (do I need to ask the wife phrase) with                         

“No, it's fine I can make the decision but before I commit… what else can you do? Can you paint the front and back of the house?”

“Aye mate, I can do anything, Jack of all trades me” … of course you can Rob.

I then asked for a quote to fix the crack, paint both the front and back of the house and to factor in the guttering work he’d done – I up-sold myself. 

Rob wanted ￡400, we shook hands on ￡300 - that felt, considering 50 minutes ago I was sat happily in the house in bliss like good value.

Rob then got to work and a couple of hours later was ￡300 better off.

All from a knock on the door.

What’s the sales lesson here? Well, there’s a couple…

1: Cold calling does work! Of course you’re interrupting someone’s day but if you call the right person, have a great initial message, demonstrate confidence and competence you’ll earn enough time to pitch what you do and ask if its relevant to your prospect.

2: Rob acted like an expert – we, as sales people are experts in our product and services and we need to remember that! Rarely do our prospective customers know more about what we sell than us, so act like an expert, talk like one, ask the right questions, build on the pain points, offer recommendations and advice to remedy their problem, build trust and close the deal.

3: Starting small isn't always a bad thing - if Rob knocked on my door saying 'Hello, i've spotted a crack in the roof, shall I fix it? theres no way I'd have agreed there and then... its very conceivable he spotted the crack when cleaning next doors gutters. Rob started small, cleaning my gutters and once he built trust and credibility he landed the big one (and I up-sold myself!) - In sales, starting with a proof of concept or a smaller project with an ideal customer is a great way to start a working relationship.

4: Fix your customers actual problems, not what you think they should care about…

I’m sure anyone reading this, now knowing the full story now would have told my wife I’d spent ￡300 differently.

 Here’s what I should have said to her:

“Guess what, you know you’ve always wanted the front of the house painted – I’ve had it done” I could then have gone on to explain why that happened and delivered the good news that I’ve also fixed a crack in the roof and imagine if we hadn’t and it snowed over Christmas etc – all of that for ￡300.

That would have been a far better and more pleasant conversation – I should have had my sales cap on and put her interests and needs ahead of mine.

When speaking with your ideal customer, make sure your messaging is tailored to what they care about - not what you think they should care about/ what product or feature you like.

In reality, my wife would have been happy paying ￡300 just to get the house painted! That’s how much it meant to her. I’m just glad Rob didn’t knock on the door when she was in and offered to paint the house for ￡300!