What’s the worst sales experience you’ve ever had? 

I’ve had several  particularly bad sales experiences, but they always make me chuckle.

The one that really stands out was the guy who came to my newly purchased house to deliver me some “free water.” 

“Hello Ma’m here’s the free water you ordered.” He told me.

“Um, I didn’t order any water.” I replied.

A faux confused look crossed his face, as he stepped back to supposedly examine the house number. “Well, this is the right house Ma’m and we got a response to a postcard we sent out offering a free 12 pack of water and free water test.”

“Well I never ordered water, you must have the wrong house.”

The man persisted – “there’s been several issues with the water quality in this neighborhood Ma’m.” he said, “as I’m here, I’d be happy to test your water for free, it only takes 5 minutes.” He held up his case of laboratory looking substances in test tubes, carefully packaged in clear plastic for that quintessential sales experience.

My resolve started to waiver. The thought of ingesting  contaminated water courtesy of Los Angeles county was alarming. But as someone who lives, eats and sleeps marketing, I especially despise salespeople who try and cheat their way into a sale. 

Yet my good sense was overcome with logic. He said the test would only take 5 minutes,  and like an idiot I opened the door to let the fox into the hen house.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next. 

The water test did indeed take 5 minutes – enough time for his test tubes to turn an alarming purple level – indicating the highest levels of contamination. Yet, voila!  When the tap water was put through his amazing water filtration system the test tubes turned clear, because supposedly now they were as pure as spring water. The salesman spent the next sixty minutes in my home effectively pressure selling me into buying a $15,000 water filtration system. For every objection I gave him, he had a smooth answer.  His company had been in business for twenty years, best in the industry, repairs and water checks free, free filters for a year, they could even attach a filter to the garden hose so the plants wouldn’t be harmed by the toxic water, my dogs would be healthier, my hair softer… The man went on and on.

I did end up signing his contract and buying his system, if only to get him out of my house. The moment he left though I reversed all his hard work by calling the water company and exercising California Buyer’s remorse provision– but not because I didn’t want the water filtration system. I actually had it on my list of things to take care of after moving in.  I also didn’t cancel it because the company wasn’t reputable  - they were, and he was right, they were among the best. 

I cancelled it because the whole experience made me feel like I needed to take a shower and  the salesman wormed his way in under false pretenses.

Ironically eighteen months later the CEO of that same water company was referred to our agency by one of our clients. Their sales were on a downward trajectory, contract cancellations averaged a whooping 48% (not surprising given my experience) and there was a new hungrier competitor that had entered the market who was undercutting prices. Their business model was a hot mess.

When you stripped everything back, the real issue was that the water company had terrible marketing and didn’t understand the role of marketing.

They were operating using a very antiquated business model – where direct sales drives the business, instead of marketing. That’s why their sales people had to resort to using devious sales tactics. It also wasn’t helping that they thought of sales and marketing as being the same thing – which they are not. 

Let me clarify. Marketing is everything that happens before a sale is actually made. 

It’s the process that attracts highly qualified prospects to your business and gets them to raise their hand as being interested in something you sell.  A prospective buyer might respond to an advertisement, download a copy of your book, read an article on your website or click on a link to get more information about something you offer. They might do all of these things. The more actions they take, the more qualified the prospective buyer becomes and the more likely a sale. 

In other words, the bigger your company’s marketing engine and the more sophisticated your marketing process is at attracting and converting leads, the easier it is for a sale to be transacted.

When your marketing has done it’s job of attracting and prequalifying prospects, by the time it comes to making the actual sale – whether via an appointment, a meeting or a phonecall – the prospect is already 95% convinced that what you offer is right for them.  At this point it’s not a sales meeting – it’s more like a verification meeting. No slimy sales tactics needed. What a welcome relief. 

Now compare this to the uphill battle the water salesguy had with me.  I had seen no marketing about their water purification systems, I knew nothing about his company or their track record. I didn’t even know what the difference was between osmosis and reverse osmosis.

As you have probably guessed this company’s business model needed an extreme makeover.

I spent a day doing a business transformation consult with the CEO and VP of Sales and Marketing and completely re-engineered their sales process by mapping out their marketing engine which would now do the pre-selling for the sales people. We created five different campaigns sent to new movers, one that included a helpful guide on how to test the quality of your own water along with a somewhat alarming read about the list of chemicals the county added to the water supply to make it “drinkable.”

We rotated fifteen different irresistible offers to find the best one – all of which meant that the people who called the office were extremely motivated and pre-qualified to invest in a water system.  

Then the sales person drove out, gave them a demonstration, explained the contract, collected a signature from a happy homeowner and both parties left the transaction feeling great.

So here’s the big takeaway from this story …

If you’re finding that you’re having to “sell prospective buyers on your products and services, then that’s a big red flag that your marketing is to blame. It’s time for a marketing reset which will result in much happier customers, happier sales people and a bigger bottom line.