Sell What The Customers Want, Not What You Have
Posted by Sant Qiu in : Marketing Maneuvers on January 31, 2008 , trackbackNot too long ago, we celebrated my father-in-law’s 60th birthday at a much talked about and well reviewed steakhouse. When my wife was ordering, she requested for her steak to be “well done”. Instead of taking down her request, the waiter informed us that the restaurant recommends for their steaks to be served “medium well”. As she doesn’t like raw meat, she insisted to have her steak “well done”. The waiter refrained that as theirs were prime cut steaks, “well done” wouldn’t do it justice.
So my wife asked, “Does your version of “medium well” mean that the steak will bloody and red on the inside?” She asked that question 3 times and each time, the waiter kept on replying her, “Normally people eat steak done medium well at the most. That is how you should eat the steak. That’s what we recommend.” In the end, she gave up and said, “Ok, I’ll have it medium well, just please make sure that the steaks are not bloody and red on the inside.”
Well, the steak came prepared according to the ‘recommendations’ of the restaurant and was bloody and red on the inside. My wife didn’t really enjoy her steak and she also felt peeved that the waiter didn’t listen to what she was saying. We won’t be going back there.
Isn’t that interesting? Here’s another interesting story…
Recently the newspaper featured an interview with the Managing Director of Human Resources Services for South Pacific at FedEx Express. She recalled an incident where her friend wanted to buy an orange from a fruit juice stall but the service staff at the stall refused to sell her one. She would only sell her orange juice. In the end, her friend gave up and didn’t buy anything from that stall.
Comparing that sales experience with her native country of Hong Kong, she said, “In Hong Kong, the staff will sell you an orange just to get your business. So I feel Singapore can learn to be more flexible and have the attitude of “sell what customers need” rather than “sell what we have”.
Did it hit you yet?
Most entrepreneurs, marketers and salespeople focus too much on their own products. They tend to follow a strict, inflexible sales pitch, regardless of who they are selling to. Since they have spent so much time learning about the product’s features and technical details, they simply regurgitate what they had memorised instead of tailoring their product knowledge to fit each individual customer’s needs.
They forgot about the most important thing - What the Customer Wants. The sales pitch is NOT about the product and its features, it is about the customer.
While having in-depth product knowledge is essential, it is only useful when it can used to support the sales pitch. Being inflexible is one of the biggest mistakes a marketer/salesperson can make. They might alienate and even turn off the customers like the examples mentioned above.
If they want it “well done” and not bloody, give them that. If they want the orange, sell them that… and a cup of juice along with it.
No matter how good you think your product is, if they don’t enjoy it, they won’t come back. And if you frustrate them, they will probably spread the word. But they get what they want, they will most probably appreciate your customized service for them and come back again.
Are you selling what your customers want? Or are you selling what you have?
Wise words, Sant. I like your writing style…
Totally true. Good salespeople are good listeners.
I do agreed with this article by Sant according to
their experiences & feedback…
Bottomline, We learned from their experiences &
isn’t this make sant wrote this article online so We
all can learn together!!
Hopefully, They also would read Sant article as well…
Thanks!
You are adding great values into our Lives!
By the way, I also like to eat my beef 100%
cooked because It’s more healthy & Safer…
I Like you, Sant…
You gave me the solutions!
1) _____________________
2) _____________________
3) _____________________
* I went to McDonald & a
nearby coffeeshop to find
out the answer…
Cheers!
Sant,
I enjoyed your blog post, and broadly I agree with your main point that you ought to sell what the customer wants, not what you have. However, at times it’s OK to fire your bad customers or the customers who don’t “get it.”
I come from the school of thought that a high quality steak should be eaten “bloody as hell.” And, I believe if you talk to steak aficionados they would concur.
Sometimes a restaurant like the one you described view the “art of their craft” above the “demands of their non-core consumers.” This may be an example of the restaurant saying: “Listen we are the number one steak house for a reason. It’s because we know steaks. You come to our domain to enjoy our mastery of the craft, and if you don’t understand that, then don’t come back. We only serve people who “get it.” And, burning up a steak for you goes against our philosophy of preparing an excellent meal. And, nothing (not even a paying consumer) will diverge us from that path.”
At the end of a day a business needs to protect the integrity of their product and delight their core consumer base above all else. It’s a balancing act. To judge whether the waiter made the right or wrong judgment for your wife’s situation, I’d ask this: How’s their business doing? And, are they keeping the customers that matter most delighted?
–Elliott Garlock
http://elliottgarlock.wordpress.com
Thanks for your comments Elliot.
I agree with you about having integrity with their positioning. If their positioning is “We are the steak experts”, then yes, we would have respected their commitment to their art. But this is not the case.
In fact, when we went to another branch of theirs, they served the meal according to our request… with a smile. So we frequent that branch now. And this new branch is always packed.