{"id":1792,"date":"2007-08-13T11:08:37","date_gmt":"2007-08-13T18:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1792"},"modified":"2007-08-13T11:09:45","modified_gmt":"2007-08-13T18:09:45","slug":"hating-selling-through-the-art-of-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1792\/hating-selling-through-the-art-of-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Hating Selling through the Art of Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The friend of the son of a very good friend — an exceedingly polite young man just out of high school — came by late Friday afternoon to sell me some cutlery. I explained when he called to set the appointment that I was already doing some business with the company he was representing in the form of monogrammed house-warming gifts, but he said he’d like to come by anyway. To practice.<\/p>\n

He arrived, carefully unsheathed his samples, and pulled out a three ring binder. He opened his presentation with a hand drawn graph of his progress toward his summer goal; if reached, he said, he would win a scholarship. Then he launched into a rote monologue, cribbed nearly verbatim from his notes. Per the script he handed me each utensil as he talked about it, wasn’t sure what to do with his hands after I refused the third one, and was flustered when I asked about something out of turn. All the sales-guy 101 feints were in play: “If you could choose between one of the two sets today, which would you pick?”; “Just for sitting down with me today, I’m authorized to offer you, for no extra cost, these kitchen shears. Is that something you’d be interested in?”<\/p>\n

At which point I stopped him. I’ve sat through thousands of presentations and delivered thousands more. I didn’t need another to confirm what I’ve known forever: I hate sales. And salespeople. <\/p>\n

So I waxed parental:<\/p>\n

“Why, David, didn’t you ask what I was already using, what about it I liked and didn’t? Turn your head: five feet away is a full set of Wusthof; you should have known that before you came to the door. Why didn’t you ask about the sets I was already buying? Clearly there has been a need.<\/p>\n

“Selling isn’t about glib one liners, happy hour entertaining or pat answers to pre-conceived objections. It’s considerably less about form than substance. It’s about having the knowledge and developing the trust in order to fill the real needs of your customers, better than anyone else<\/em>.” LOVE parental mode.<\/p>\n

Since this has a lot to Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The friend of the son of a very good friend — an exceedingly polite young man just out of high school — came by late Friday afternoon to sell me some cutlery. I explained when he called to set the appointment that I was already doing some business with the company he was representing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-general","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3117,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3117\/success-is-knowing-who-your-friend-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":0},"title":"Success is Knowing Who Your Friend Is","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"May 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Back on Monday, Jeff Brown wrote a post explaining in no uncertain terms why some real estate agents are failing.\u00a0 If you have not read that post yet you need to take a long look in the mirror,\u00a0get your priorities straight, stop reading this post and go back to Jeff's.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2472,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2472\/loudoun-county-tax-assessor-todd-kaufman-has-a-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":1},"title":"Loudoun County Tax Assessor Todd Kaufman has a friend…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"...in our world, no less. A brand-new LiveJournal weblog exists to document Loudoun County Tax Assessor Todd Kaufman's brave battle against the dark forces of First Amendment defenders. You could say that it's lame and testy and more than just a little bit tetched, but it ain't easy to compete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2969,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2969\/is-eric-blackwell-the-best-father-the-best-friend-he-could-be-on-his-way-to-being-named-greatest-real-estate-agent-in-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":2},"title":"Is Eric Blackwell the best father? The best friend? He could be on his way to being named Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Eric Blackwell showed us all yesterday what a great job he's doing as a father. Today, Ryan Ward offers potent evidence that Eric is a very good friend to have: He is throwing his support behind Eric in the SEO contest to determine who is the Greatest Real Estate Agent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14190,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14190\/the-food-is-terrible-but-wow-the-service-is-out-of-this-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":3},"title":"The Food Is Terrible, But Wow! The Service Is Out Of This World","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"February 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever had a friend rave about a newly found restaurant who said the service was literally the best he's ever seen? The question hangin' in the air of course, is -- How was the food? Ever heard a friend reply, \"Oh, the food? Average at best. But the service was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3242,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3242\/missing-the-opportunity-to-achieve-excellence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":4},"title":"Missing The Opportunity To Achieve Excellence","author":"Doug Quance","date":"June 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When Going The Extra Mile Simply Makes Good Economic Sense When my best friend asked his mother what she wanted for her 70th birthday, she instantly said, \"To be with my family.\" He offered her a European cruise or other similar possibilities... but she stood firm. Family is what she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9915,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9915\/docusign-may-be-the-best-friend-realtors-have-ever-had\/","url_meta":{"origin":1792,"position":5},"title":"DocuSign may be the best friend Realtors have ever had","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, so all the Realtors know that short sales are like a jack-in-the-box: You crank and crank for weeks or months and nothing happens, then everything pops all at once. Happened to me today, with the Sphinx-link bank suddenly lurching to life in order to issue two must-rush-now documents that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}