How completely things have changed.
It used to be my job was to get in front of a lot of people who I had never met and PITCH them hard and close them even harder.
If I did that, the result would be a bunch of those people would give me money for something they didn’t know they needed, I would get a big commission check and so would my boss.
Things have changed so completely no one even has a phone at home. No one delivers me a phone book to look those people up, and if I find someone to call, I am blocked.
On those occasions I do get to try my pitch, only the blue-haired lady is willing to listen, and she has NO idea what I said most of the time. The times when the blue haired-lady listens and understands she has already heard about my product, my company and is looking me up on LinkedIn while we talk. This lady has read everything about my products, the features, the prices, the BBB score we have earned and how we compare to our competitors.
She knows so much my PITCH becomes a Q&A with me asking her questions. This lady knows more about my product than I do, so when she asks me “what does she need me for” that is a harder question than the product questions I didn’t know the answers to.
Finally, after I am red faced, embarrassed and freighted for the next question, she says to me “ You Might Have Something I Might Want to Buy.” For a second, fear turns to pride, and I have won. She will write me a check. Why did she put me through all of this pain? I really “still got it.”
That one second of pride was way too long because now she is talking to me. She is starting a conversation about her needs. She is talking about the problem she has that she hopes my product, company and knowledge will solve. She wants me to join the conversation (about her problems) as her partner (whatever that means).
I did the only thing I could do at this point. I pretended I had a customer call on my cell phone and left to help the imagined customer, with a promise I would be back (at least in the next lifetime).
My boss and I had a very serious conversation at Patty’s (local pub) about how to avoid customers like this blue-haired lady. After enough beer, my boss confided that she too had heard “You Might Have Something I Might Want to Buy” just before she had a serious stomach pain and had to leave.
My boss told me she had checked with our company, and lots of sales people were hearing You Might Have Something I Might Want to Buy. Our company said we are transparent, and the suspects learn about details, price, product, location, reputation, and technology from the market, the industry and our website. The company said when we PITCH those details, it is too late – the customer either knows or doesn’t care.
Those that know and care want to be sure what they read means what they thought. They want to know we can actually make their world better and that we can be trusted. My boss said we don’t have to cold call. The company has hundreds of people who have opted in, and our job is to have conversations to decide if we should be working together.
I am not sure about transparent, opt-in, solving real problems, understanding my customer and having customer-focused conversations about them instead of my need for more commission. No matter what my boss says or the company tells us “You Might Have Something I Might Want to Buy” is just plain scary and may mean I need a new job where I sell people stuff they didn’t really need, and I get to do all the talking.
I just don’t like this change!