http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2006/01/18/first-impressions-of-fasttrac-tech/ Sean Tierney's Blog Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:58:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 http://www.scrollinondubs.com/2006/01/18/first-impressions-of-fasttrac-tech/comment-page-1/#comment-8740 Scrollin’ On Dubs » Blog Archive » Diffusing awkward sales moments by “over-reaching and retreating” Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:24:39 +0000 #comment-8740 [...] So I’m on chapter five now of my Fasttrac book digging into the section titled “Entering and Capturing the Market” and it’s talking about basically all the steps involved in sales- the process of identifying your market, analyzing the segments, how you market to each differently and how the sales funnel works and ultimately how you close deals. One thing it has not mentioned though is the role of humor in diffusing awkward moments. When I sold knives, I worked directly under this guy Don Gerould who happened to be the kingpin for the west coast (like zone division manager or something). He was a phenomenal sales person and one thing he did well was utilize this technique I call “over-reaching and retreating” to diffuse a potentially-awkward situation. So a typical scenario would go like this: Don - “Great, so I’m glad you chose to buy three of the Homemaker +8’s… there’s just one other thing I could use your help with…” Customer (incredulous at this point) - “ummm, yeaahhhhh…” Don - “Well as you know I work on referral. You obviously found value in the knives I showed you here today, if I could just get you to fill out my notebook with 100 names of your closest friends that would appreciate…” Customer - “100 Names!?! Are you crazy!!!” Don - “Awww, alright I’m just kidding. Ten will be fine.” Customer (scratching head) - “Oh is that all? Well, yeah, I suppose I could do that.” [...] [...] So I’m on chapter five now of my Fasttrac book digging into the section titled “Entering and Capturing the Market” and it’s talking about basically all the steps involved in sales- the process of identifying your market, analyzing the segments, how you market to each differently and how the sales funnel works and ultimately how you close deals. One thing it has not mentioned though is the role of humor in diffusing awkward moments. When I sold knives, I worked directly under this guy Don Gerould who happened to be the kingpin for the west coast (like zone division manager or something). He was a phenomenal sales person and one thing he did well was utilize this technique I call “over-reaching and retreating” to diffuse a potentially-awkward situation. So a typical scenario would go like this: Don – “Great, so I’m glad you chose to buy three of the Homemaker +8’s… there’s just one other thing I could use your help with…” Customer (incredulous at this point) – “ummm, yeaahhhhh…” Don – “Well as you know I work on referral. You obviously found value in the knives I showed you here today, if I could just get you to fill out my notebook with 100 names of your closest friends that would appreciate…” Customer – “100 Names!?! Are you crazy!!!” Don – “Awww, alright I’m just kidding. Ten will be fine.” Customer (scratching head) – “Oh is that all? Well, yeah, I suppose I could do that.” [...]

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