We all
hate job interviews, don't we? There's nothing like being analyzed
under a microscope wondering if we'll receive a stamp of approval
or the cold fist of rejection.
I had
a job interview once that was a little bit different. Sales
has always been right up my alley. I'm not very good at making
smalltalk or talking about myself, but put a product in my hands
and I can sell it for you. Fortunately, that's exactly what
happened in this job interview for a sales position.
This
interview began with the interviewer asking me to sell him a
pencil: a plain yellow run-of-the-mill #2 black graphite pencil.
At first I had to chuckle inwardly. I thought about how many
poor men and women walked into this man's office completely
unprepared for the task of selling something so meaningless
as a pencil. But I was up for it.
I also
got the feeling my interviewer Mr. Dawkins (not his real name)
enjoyed surprising people so I decided to give him a surprise
of his own.
Mr.
Dawkins took a pencil out of a box and set it down in front
of me.
"Let's
see how good you are at sales. Sell me this pencil," he
said.
"But
Sir!" I exclaimed, my eyes wide with surprise.
The
interviewer Mr. Dawkins smiled. He looked at me like I was just
another of the many spineless weasels he enjoyed springing this
trick on.
"But,
Sir," I continued, "This has to be the finest pencil
I've ever seen. Why on Earth would you give away a pencil like
this?"
He laughed.
I could see by his expression he was surprised and even a little
bit disappointed that I didn't get up and walk right out in
embarrassment.
"Do
you have another pencil?" I asked.
"Sure,
right there," he said, pointing at the box on the table.
"No,"
I said, "These are my pencils and I'm going to sell them
to you. I asked if you had a pencil of your own."
He pulled
one out of his drawer and held it up at arm's length.
"Now
what can you tell me about that pencil in your hand, Mr. Dawkins?"
I said.
He was
playing along. "Well, it's kind of chewed up."
"Is
it tasty?" I asked.
"Nah,
it tastes like wood, but it gets the job done" he said.
"Wouldn't
it be nice if they made pencils that don't taste like wood?"
I asked.
He nodded
in agreement.
"Now
let me ask you a personal question. Why do you chew on your
pencil?" I asked.
"Why?"
he asked, laying back in his chair. "Well this job is kind
of stressful. The hours are long and my boss is not an easy
man to please."
At this
point his boss strolled in. He'd been listening from the other
room and was becoming interested.
"Well,
hello, Sir, my name is Ron. Who might you be?" I asked
coolly.
"I
might be Mr. Fleming," said the boss.
"Well
nice to meet you Mr. Fleming," I said. "You're just
in time, would you please have a seat? Mr. Dawkins was just
telling me how he gets nervous and chews his pencil. But he
doesn't like the pencils you give him because they taste like
wood."
Then
I turned back to Mr. Dawkins. "Do you know what I do when
I get nervous, Mr. Dawkins?" I asked.
"No,
what?" he asked.
"I
chew this pencil," I said, holding my pencil up in front
of him. "I chew this pencil because this pencil does not
taste like wood. In fact this pencil tastes like candy and its
guaranteed to knock 30 minutes a day off your writing time.
You like candy, don't you Mr. Dawkins?"
"Yes,"
he agreed.
'Of
course you do," I said. "Everybody likes candy. And
you'd like to go home a half an hour earlier every day, now
wouldn't you?"
"Of
course," he said.
"Now
how much money would you say you spend on aspirin every month?"
'Well,
I probably go through a bottle a day!", he said jokingly.
"A
bottle a day," I said. "Well what if I were to tell
you I don't buy any aspirin at all? In fact, what if I were
to tell you that this pencil had aspirin built right into the
handle, and that just chewing this pencil will make your headaches
go away?"
"Wow,"
he said. "Did you hear that?" he asked of his wide-eyed
boss.
"Think
about how much money you'll save on aspirin every month. Now
we also make versions in Tylenol and Motrin. But do you know
what else is bad about that pencil you're holding?"
"No,
but I can't wait to hear it," his boss said.
"Well
by the looks of that pencil, you're lucky if it'll last you
three more days. Now this pencil in my hand: a) never loses
it's shape, b) can make your teeth three shades whiter, and
c) is backed by a lifetime money-back guarantee. Do you like
the sound of that Mr. Dawkins?"
"Yes,"
he said.
"That's
right. If for any reason this pencil ever stops writing like
the best pencil you've ever written with, we'll replace it absolutely
free. No questions asked."
"Wow,"
said Mr. Dawkins. His boss was clearly impressed too. But I'm
still not sure what was impressing them more: me or the pencil.
"Now
how much would you expect to pay for a pencil like this?"
"Well
a pencil like that would be worth at least $20 dollars,"
Mr. Dawkins said.
"$20?
For a pencil that saves you $250 a month in aspirin and whitens
your teeth and is guaranteed to write for the rest of your life?
Duly noted, Mr. Dawkins. And you sir," I said to his employer.
"How much do you think this pencil would cost if you were
to buy it in a store?"
"I
don't use pencils," he said, trying to be a hard sell.
He was really testing me now.
"Would
you use this pencil, Sir," I asked, "if it wrote like
a pen?"
"Why
yes, then I might," said he, having no choice but to agree
with the logic in that statement.
"Not
only does this pencil write like a pen, sir, this pencil writes
like a space pen. Even better! This pencil writes upside down,
inside out, and writes in the deepest shade of black you've
ever seen. This pencil is no less than a pleasure to write with.
Go on," I said as I got out of my seat and approached the
men. I put one in the interviewers hand then I picked one up
from the box and put it in his boss's hand too. "Write
something," I said.
The
next thing you know they were both happily writing away. The
owner scribbled "hire this man" and the interviewer
wrote "O.K."
"Try
writing upside down!" I said.
At this
point they were becoming giddy.
"Now
Mr. Fleming, how much would you pay for a pencil like that?
A pencil that gets rid of headaches and can take 30 minutes
off the writing time of every employee in your company? How
much would you pay for a pencil like that?"
"Well
something like that is worth $50 at least," said Mr. Fleming.
"Now
there's a man who knows his pencils," I said.
Mr.
Dawkins quipped, "Well you didn't tell me it wrote like
a space pen!"
"So
you changed your mind then?" I asked Mr. Dawkins, and he
nodded in the affirmative.
"Now
Mr. Dawkins," I said, "that pencil in your hand is
cherry-flavored, and Mr. Fleming, the one in your hand is chocolate-flavored.
Now this one here," I said as I set another pencil in front
of them, "is Strawberry."
"Now
you're right sir this pencil would run $50 -- if you bought
it in a store. If you bought it in a store Mr. Fleming, but
you cant buy this pencil in a store, and neither can you Mr.
Dawkins, because we've got the only ones in the country. Now
we overstocked this month and we got in a little bind with the
manufacturer so we're letting go of these pencils for only $10
a piece.. but only this month, not next month, and they're a
steal at anything under fifty. But what's more is if you were
to buy two of them, even though I'm not going to ask you
to buy anything today, but if you were so inclined to buy
two... I would give you one more for free so you can give it
to that pretty little lady in the other room," I said about
a stunning little lady who was shyly watching, amused.
"Now
like I said you're not going to buy anything today. In fact
I'm going to leave this building right now and give you time
to wear these pencils out. They're yours to keep absolutely
free for 30 days. And if you don't still love these pencils
after 30 days then you just pick up the phone and call me and
I'll send someone over to pick them up. But if I don't hear
from you, I'll know you're crazy about these pencils and I'll
send you some paperwork in the mail. But only then and not a
day sooner. Good day sirs."
And
with that I tipped my imaginary hat and walked out of the room.
I didn't
get far down the hallway of course because they came out to
get me and I was hired on the spot.
-------------------------------
I'm
so glad I have a chance to tell that story to a real marketing
audience. I've only told it to my non-marketing buddies before,
and they get a real kick out of it, but it doesn't do them as
much good.
I think
this story will do you a lot of good if you really analyze it.
Why
did Mr. Flemings and Mr. Dawkins agree that the pencils were
worth all that money?
Well,
for one reason it saved them money and improved the productivity
of their staff. If your product can save someone money or time,
or improve their productivity, it's an easy sell at any price.
What
else?
Well
for another thing, I listened to the customers. I knew what
they wanted and I fabricated a product that did exactly what
they wanted it to do. Now I never get headaches, really. I haven't
popped a Tylenol in years. But I never would have known that
my customers swallowed Tylenol by the handful unless they told
me about it first. Once I knew that I added it to my product
and my presentation. Listen to your customers! They'll tell
you everything you need to know to sell them.
What
else?
I made
them answer me over and over in the affirmative. Slowly I allowed
them to convince themselves that the product was for them. This
is very powerful. Use it in your sales letters and advertisements.
What
else?
I got
them involved. I got them writing with my pencils. Never miss
a chance to get your customers using your own products before
they buy them.
What
else?
I've
made my product rare. I've told them that they couldn't buy
my pencil in any store. They couldn't purchase it from anyone
else even if they wanted to. That meant there would be no use
looking around for better offers. You can do this too if you
create a unique product that nobody else can offer. If your
product is not original, write a free-book that is and add some
instant uniqueness to your product.
What
else?
I've
given them a deadline. I gave them a reason to act now.
I've told them that the item would only be available at the
special price for a limited time. It's important to motivate
your buyer to act as soon as possible. If you don't they'll
go away and convince themselves that they'll come back to order
at a later date. By that time about a million things could distract
them from buying your product. Motivate your customers to act
promptly!
What
else?
I offered
them a free pencil. That's an enticing offer. Everybody likes
to get something free, especially if they can give it to
someone else. Giving things away always makes someone feel good.
Why not offer your customers a free product to use as a gift?
They can put it in someone's Christmas stocking! That will make
your customer feel great. Everybody likes to feel good
about themselves and about their purchasing decisions.
What
else?
I didn't
ask for money up front. You can't always do this on the Internet,
but you can offer free samples instead. You can offer free trial
periods. You can offer demos of your software. If you can find
a way, then do it. The key is to make them "reliant"
on your product after they've used it.
How
do you make someone "reliant" on your product? Figure
out ways to make your product easy to implement but hard to
undo. If it takes two hours to integrate your product with someone's
business, it might take four hours to reverse the process or
result in production downtime.
If you
have a service, tell them you won't charge their credit card
until after 30 days. If the product is cheap or free (in the
case of software) then you really have nothing to lose. Give
it away and set it up to expire in 30 days. If it's a really
good product or they become reliant on it, they'll be back with
their credit card in hand.
What
else have you done by giving a free trial? You've increased
the amount of people who are using your product. If you can
make your product viral, so much the better! What does viral
mean? It's a way of making your product spread to other potential
customers on its own. Just like a virus would do -- it's contagious.
I'm not talking about anything illegal. I'm talking about a
product that works better if your customer has to give it to
someone else. Like a free Virtual Pet that interacts with other
virtual pet owners.
The
most important thing to learn from this story is how I kept
heaping on the benefits until I covered everything the customer
was looking for. I kept making the product better and better
until nobody could argue that it wasn't worth as much as I said
it was.
You
can do this on your website by giving away freebies. Give away
free software or free e-books that you write. Everything you
give away (as long as it's relevant to the product you are selling)
increases the value of your product in your customer's mind.
Always strive to improve your product if possible. With enough
freebies and special gifts and benefits, you'll trample over
your competition in no time.
RareHost.com
Marketing is a team of Internet Marketers that understands
Search Engine Optimization and the psychology of Selling Online.
Consider consulting with RareHost.com before you create or redesign
your next web project.
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