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Sales Lessons Learned At The Dinner Table

Written by: Laura Posey

Article Overview: At dinner with friends one night, I learned a most valuable sales lesson

Sales Lessons Learned At The Dinner Table

Sometimes the most incredible things in life are right under your nose and you don't even see them.

Case in point- dinner last night with friends I've known for years. Among the assembled cast was an accountant, a doctor, a risk management analyst, a marketing manager for a bank and a realtor. We're the kind of friends who talk about everything, including work occasionally. Last night the topic of conversation wandered away from dating stories and tales of our recent vacations to marketing and sales and why people buy stuff (something near and dear to my heart).

Now, two of the folks at dinner are in marketing full-time so you might expect some good things to come out of the discussion. One of them was Holly Buchanan, a copywriter for Future Now Inc in Brooklyn. Holly's new blog is about marketing to women online. Now, I've always known Holly is a great writer and a fine thinker but because we're friends I never noticed she is BRILLIANT. She has a way of getting to the heart of the matter, the essence of things, and that is a rare quality. If you get a chance and are interested at all in understanding how women use the web to buy, check out her blog at http://marketingtowomenonline.typepad.com/blog/. You’ll learn a lot about consumer behavior and why people buy the things they do.

What was incredible, though, in addition to Holly's giant ideas, was the amount of insight and wisdom on the topic of marketing that came from each of my other friends. I mean these women have nothing whatsoever to do with marketing in their work lives. But they are consumers. They understand marketing from the receiving end and what a difference a little perspective makes! They talked about how they like to buy, what catches their eye, and what makes them run screaming from the room (hint: it's pushy salespeople). I learned as much from them as I did from the two who do marketing for a living.

The point of this little story is that everyone you meet has some value to add to your life and the work you do. If you are trying to sell something to someone, the best thing you can do to help yourself is ask them how they want to buy. The view from the other side of the table is always different than yours and always beneficial. Remember one of our basic tenets: People always buy what they want to buy. Your job is to figure out what they want and find a way to give it to them.

Here’s a little exercise to get you started on the path to figuring out what people want to buy. Get a pencil and some paper and make a list of your 25 best clients. “Best” means they buy from you repeatedly, they are profitable for you and they refer you business. If you don’t have 25 of them, you really need to do this exercise!

Next invite each one out to lunch individually (yes, you’re buying) and, after the usual catching up and reconnecting (somewhere about halfway through the main course) ask them the following questions:
• Before you ever bought our product, why did you agree to see me for our first appointment? What did I say or do that caught your attention?
• What is it about us that makes us easy to refer? Is there anything that makes it difficult?
• What causes you to refer business to us? Is it particular situations or something about us and our product?
• What is one thing you’d suggest we do better in our business to make it easier to work with us?
You’ll now know how to become more magnetic and attract more sales than ever. Who better to learn from than people who already love you?

Do the same thing with several of your friends and family and ask them about products they buy repeatedly and refer to others. Find out what it is that makes them come back for more and send new customers to the product. Then apply what you have learned to your own way of doing business.

The lesson here is that they are brilliant people everywhere if you keep your eyes open and look for them. Don’t be afraid to ask them to share their insights. They’ll thank you for the attention and recognition of their intelligence and you’ll make some money in the process. Now, that’s working smarter!

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