Sell More by Giving Customers Room to Buy

Although my positioning and brand messaging work is mostly for B2B and SaaS companies, I love finding lessons in the sales interactions of daily life. Recently, I experienced a doozy! A vendor almost failed to sell me a piano even though I really wanted to buy one. It’s a cautionary tale for any salesperson or marketer.

THE NEED: A PIANO

During the pandemic, my wife Cynthia returned to learning the piano. After starting with an electronic keyboard, we decided we wanted an actual acoustic piano.

This quest brought us to a semi-retired piano tuner, I’ll call him Larry, who fixes and flips instruments. Larry’s business seemed ideal for our needs. And it was, if only the guy had just given us space to buy one!

THE SALES SCENARIO

Picture the scene!

We’ve driven an hour to the coastal town of St. Augustine to meet our seller at his shop. We think we’ve taken a wrong turn into Storage Wars when the “shop” address turns out to be a self-storage facility. But his partner, who I’ll call Mary, meets us at the gate, and in we go.

They roll up the door of his first storage unit to reveal a half-dozen pianos – from the pristine to the disassembled. There are uprights, baby grands, and one full-on big ass concert grand. It isn’t luxury retail, but our best-fit piano may well be here.

All we want now is to test-play some pianos and choose one.

And Larry basically won’t let us!

Our fervent desire to buy is nearly blown away in a hurricane of unnecessary selling, and just plain noise.

FEATURES & BENEFITS SOUNDING GOOD

Larry tells us that he worked at big piano store for 30 years. He can tune any piano in an hour, he tells us. And they’ll deliver and tune the one we choose, he tells us.

And we believe him. All of it.

Our ratings so far:

●      Technical competence = 5 stars

●      Delivery = 5 stars

SELLING ISN’T PITCHING

But Larry won’t stop pitching his bona fides; won’t give us space and oxygen to make our choice. Keeping up a running monologue that wholly fails to “read the storage unit,” he continues to answer concerns that we no longer have.

All we want to do now, is choose a piano.

SELLING ISN’T SHOWING OFF

Instead of giving us space to do this, Larry goes to the first piano before Cynthia can, and HE starts playing it. Not a quick tinkle of keys to show off the sound, but a full-on Rachmaninoff concerto! It’s impressive, and the exact opposite of what will move the sale along.

Finishing that, he springs up and tells Mary to play Fur Elise on the same piano! At this point, we as the buyers have touched zero keys – literally the only thing we want to do.

New rating:

●      Space given to buy = 0 stars

We point to another nice-looking upright and say, “let’s try this one.” Meaning, “stand aside and actually let US try it.” This subtlety is lost on our host, who tells Mary to play Fur Elise again on that piano. While she plays, Larry is now regaling us about Mary’s illustrious musical career – complete with old concert posters. Storage Wars has now met Sunset Boulevard.

THE NEVERENDING STORY

If we were doing an oral history project, this material would be gold. But we are trying (and failing) to buy a piano. Between non-stop patter and the revenge of Fur Elise, all oxygen is being sucked out of storage unit number one.

Somehow, we elbow our hosts aside and Cynthia manages to play a few bars on a couple of pianos. We manage to extract prices and specs, mixed with additional autobiographical digressions. None of these pianos are the instrument for us.

Doors up on storage unit two, which includes a nice Baldwin upright. The minute we point it out, Larry starts playing it, and then exhorts Mary to follow. I am now developing a deep hatred of Fur Elise, and wondering if we will be able to test any of unit two’s piano’s without resorting to violence. Finally, we manage to herd the “diatonic duo” outside while Cynthia claims the Yamaha’s bench as if it were the crucial beachhead on D-day.

The pattern repeats through storage units three and four. Had we not driven more than an hour, we would have walked away to escape the sale-stopping hurricane. But we are every seller’s dream – motivated buyers who really want to purchase a piano. By the final unit, I have honed my skill at body-blocking our hosts from reaching the pianos Cynthia wants to try. This doesn’t stem the monologue but does allow us to march through the storm and hit some keys.

LET THE DEAL CLOSE

Finally, we find it! A lovely black Yamaha with great key action and a nice tone. The price is fine and condition excellent. We are ready to pay up, schedule delivery and make good our escape.

Not so fast! Completing the transaction takes yet another half hour that we will never get back. There is more playing by our hosts, more posters to establish credentials we had long since accepted, just plain more. Hearing that Cynthia is learning to play “Secret Agent Man,” Larry produces from somewhere an electric guitar sans amp and begins to sing that song! Battered and punch-drunk by now, we join in. Of this, we shall never speak again.

SUCCESSFUL SALE? SORT OF

Was this a successful sale for us and the vendor? Yes and no.

In the end, we as the customer got a nice product at a good price. But we emerged exhausted and dreading the verbal hurricane that would blow in when Larry and Mary delivered our purchase. For their part, the sellers spent nearly 3 hours making a sale they could have closed in 45 minutes. This is hardly the definition of sales efficiency.

In addition, Larry lost valuable word of mouth referrals. I would hesitate to send any piano-seeking friend into this maelstrom.

THIS IS NOT A CORNER CASE

Although the hard-won piano is a colorful example, I’ve seen versions of this pattern in all kinds of B2B and B2C businesses. Piano’s aside, here are a few antidotes to selling yourself out of a sale.

3 TIPS FOR NOT SELLING YOURSELF OUT OF A SALE

1. Don’t sell past the micro-close

Every substantial sale contains more than one “yes.” Recognize when a “yes” has happened in a particular area. Don’t keep hammering on points the buyer has already checked off. In our buying experience, Larry continued to hammer on professional competence and reputation long after we had said “yes” to those points.

2. Answer the questions your customer still has

Moving on from the micro-closes that are already done, answer any remaining concerns. Check off all remaining micro-closes to get to the big close. In this example, our remaining concerns were selection, price, and delivery.

3. Above all, give your customer space to buy

People love to buy but hate to be sold. If the customer is moving in the right direction, stand back and let them. If they are veering off course, it is your job to gently take the wheel. But if they are driving toward a purchase, don’t put roadblocks in their way. A demo, trial, or test drive should be well-supported but not suffocating.

When your customer is ready to buy, don’t slow them down by continuing to sell. You’ll both be happier for it.

HOW MARKETERS CAN HELP

On the ground sellers aren’t the only ones who commit these sins. As in so many aspects of sales, marketers set or fail to set the table.

Do your positioning, messaging, and campaign content help sellers by answering the questions your prospect has at each stage of their buyer’s journey? Or does your content frustrate the buyer by re-answering concerns that have long since been addressed.

Are you clear on when to message “why buy one” vs. “why buy mine”? Can you confidently say when it really is time to talk about features?

If you’d like an outside opinion, feel free to get in touch.