Is It OK to Buy For the "Wrong" Reason?

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

•  
  1

  colinparker

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  Great post Geoff and a great way to present it. As more and more information got layered on top, the tougher it got to make a decision on what was the right thing and you could see that in the poll results.
  
  Colin

•  
  2

  Bob Wileman

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  Interesting
  It highlights the way we go through all sorts of so-called analysis as to why the customer bought, when in fact we have to guess many of the reasons, because we don't know what's really going on in the customers head, and apparently neither do they.
  
  You have made me wonder if my sales are due to my excellent service and selling skills, or simply the fact that I'm... irresistable!

•  
  3

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  Re: Note 2:
  There are no lack of sales professionals who are successful, at least in part, because they look good. Or to be more precise, they send out the semiotic signals that create credibility or build rapport.
  
  Some firms manipulate such semiotics mercilessly. I've noticed that ad agencies, for example, always make sure that there's an attractive, young female on the account team whose (real but unstated) job is to distract the middle-aged male executives.

•  
  4

  Sid Herron

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  The key phrase here is this one: "Your job isn?t to probe a customer?s motivation, but to help the customer accomplish what he or she wants to accomplish." If you want to be a crusader against social injustice, then go build a career around that, as opposed to being a salesperson. (And I don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with doing that.)
  
  In a real world situation, you are rarely in the position to know the things about a customer's motivation that are laid out in this scenario. That said, if a customer has made his/her prejudices clear in things that s/he has said or done, then you have an ethical decision to make: whether you're willing to continue to work with someone whose behavior is offensive to you. And that may depend on a lot of things, including whether your business model is a one-time sale with little ongoing involvement vs. B2B sales that involve relationship-building and repeat business, and how badly you need the job (i.e., whether you're willing to tell your boss that you simply won't call on Tracy anymore, and stick to that position regardless of the consequences).

•  
  5

  Sid Herron

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  Re: Note 3:
  Back in the 80s, I was involved in the telephone systems business. It was widely recognized in the industry that attractive females were far more successful at selling telephone systems to small businesses. Why? Because the sales was typically made to the owner/entrepeneur, who was typically male, and would typically prefer to deal with an attractive female that another middle-aged guy.
  
  A similar kind of "manipulation" (if you want to call it that) was at the root of the whole Dress for Success concept.
  
  In either case, the point wasn't whether it was "right," or whether the world "should" work that way. The point was that the real world did work that way, and you could either take advantage of it and be more successful or try to fight it and be less successful.

•  
  6

  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  06/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  Re: Note 4:
  Actually, I ran a poll on this very subject in this post:
  
  Would You Sell to a Racist Bigot?
  http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=235
  
  The majority of respondents were willing to sell to a bigot, even if they were 100 percent certain the prospect was a bigot.

•  
  7

  DBDee

  06/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  The opening statement noted that Tracy would prefer to buy from Chris because he/she was trustworthy. Would you not be prepared to pay a premium for trustworthy - i assume Chris has either proven it in the past or has been referred along those lines. None of the other criteria took that trustworthiness out, thus we keep voting yes. If trust is worth nothing, I'm outa here.

•  
  8

  RaulR

  07/16/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Is It OK to Buy For the

  I agree with the DBBee opinion. In fact the trust in a B2B selling is one of the main things that a customer seeks when buying, when on this example we see that Tracy wants to buy from Chris because the trust all other things are accessories (and if they are good, that?s better). Tracy will pay 10% more? Ok, how many projects does we all know that the customer buys what appears to be cheaper and then for many reasons he will spend more in the future?? In a B2B sales whe all want to repeat business again and again with that customer.