Jakarta Post - Once a salesperson wandered into the office I was working at, and proceeded to hawk his wares. My colleague hollered continuously at the salesperson not to approach her at her computer work station, but to no avail. The salesperson ignored her, determined to make a sale of his products he was promoting. Needless to say, he did not make a single sale at all when he left the office.
Later, my colleague remarked rather angrily that the salesperson was rude and that, had he not been so aggressive in his sales approach, she might well have listened to what he had to say. Ironically in the end, it was the salesperson's approach which entirely ruined his chances of making a sale.
This is the tragedy of thousands of traveling outdoor salespeople attempting to promote their products by word of mouth. They tote their wares, fork out transportation money from their own pockets first, going from place to place, house to house to urge potential customers to buy their wares. Yet at the end of the day, they may not even be likely to make a single sale. Tired, frustrated and no doubt very thirsty from having done so much talking, many a salesperson wondered what went wrong.
Tough job of outdoor salesmanship
Outdoor salesmanship is the most difficult and least effective method in persuading customers to buy a product. This is the callous truth, because, first, people do not appreciate stopping and responding to someone who asks, "Hello sir or madam, can you spare me two minutes of your time?" Many people regard such overtures as an utter waste of their time. Most people on the street respond negatively even to part-time surveyors who merely need them to spare the effort to fill out a simple form, where they need only put a few ticks and scrawl in their names, without even parting with a single coin.
Second, a customer only buys an item he or she needs or wants, and provided the price tag is reasonably within the market price range. Most selling prices of products sold by outdoor salespeople, however, are even higher than the equivalent market price, in order to cover traveling expenses and other overheads. This violates the simple rule of competition in sales. Why should a customer pay more for a watch sold by an outdoor salesperson when he or she can easily purchase one from a department store?
Third, many outdoor salespeople violate a most fundamental and simple rule in the art of buying and selling. A deal is sealed only when the buyer is interested in acquiring the product. Many outdoor salespeople simply ignore this fact, launching straight into tirades praising their sales product without stopping to find out whether the potential buyer is interested in the first place.
Worse, persistent pestering or subtle threats when attempting to make a sale could be interpreted as touting and therefore violating the local law.
Many salespeople adopt a similar tactic used by fund raisers for charity, by essentially incurring sympathy from the donor. This is the biggest mistake that can be made. I came across salespeople who approached and begged me to buy their goods or products on the basis that they needed only to sell one more item to meet their quotas. Such an explanation simply does not work, nor does it interest the potential buyer.
What is to be done?
In the case of fund-raising, whereby the normal person on the street is more inclined to drop a coin or dollar in the collection tins held by young student volunteer fund raisers, most would callously ignore fund raisers attempting to hawk handmade products or charity draw tickets at rigidly fixed prices. This is because no one likes to be forced or coerced into buying something he or she does not want or need. However, most people will not mind contributing to charity by giving away amounts of money according to their own wishes. Hence, I argue that the tin collector fund raiser is always more successful than his or her ticket or product-selling peers, even though the raised amounts are far much smaller.
Supermarkets, on the other hand, never need to resort to hawking their wares. Does this mean that all of their stock is easily sold? No, there are many unwanted or unattractive products stocked in supermarkets as well. However, most supermarkets adopt the tactic of slashing prices on these products or selling them off as free gifts packed alongside stocks with higher consumer demand.
Salespeople, instead of wasting their efforts and time on disinterested individual buyers, should adopt selling tactics similar to the fund raiser with collection tins and supermarkets. They cannot afford to operate on the economy of scale available to supermarkets or department stores. Therefore, they must identify interested distributors and convince the latter to help them sell their wares. Like the supermarket, the salesperson can offer incentives or privileges such as free gifts to motivate the distributors to help them sell their wares. Through a proper distribution channel, there naturally will be customers attracted to come buy the product they might want or need. In any case, it beats attempting to sell on one's own to individual parties who may or may not be interested in buying.
The writer teaches business studies at an international school in Jakarta and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London. He can be reached at erickoopk@yahoo.com
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