Presenting Data

Before presenting data to a customer, think about what your response will be if they are not satisfied with the number. If the customer says, “I’m looking for better gas mileage.” You can respond with a trim or model that will provide improved gas mileage. For every piece of data you present or the shopper may ask for, consider what your response will be if that data is found to be displeasing. This is the kind of thing good sales people work on when they are not in front of customers so they can perform well when they are.

If you think your customer is looking for a combination that just does not exist, you can help him frame the decision in a yes-no-yes fashion. “Yes, I can get you into a truck that will provide you with the 10% increase in fuel economy. It will cost you the ability to tow your brother-in-law’s larger boat. I can help you with that trade-off decision.” If the vehicle gets 20 MPG and gas costs $3.00 per gallon, then you will pay $15,000 for gas over the next 100,000 miles. “Ten-percent better fuel efficiency is going to save you $1,500 over the next 100,000 miles. It sounds to me like you two are real close and might take that boat out 75 times over the life of this truck, making it just $20 per trip, and you have the added satisfaction of knowing you have that extra power every mile you ever drive this vehicle for whatever opportunity may present itself.”

You have gone from being the sales person who can’t give him what he wants to the only one who has given him what he really needs, a way to be sure he is making the right purchase decision.

The math here may look tricky, but tools are available today to allow anyone to handle this type of challenge. With a programmable calculator or spreadsheet, the formula can be set into the machine one time. The sales person only needs to put in the numbers as called for in the calculator. Sales people never need to actually perform a mathematical calculation or take the risk of doing one wrong.

The calculator only needs to be set up once by someone who does have the ability. The resulting benefits will be reoccurring. Every time you deliver data, you do it with confidence. Every time the customer is faced with competing trade-offs, you are the person who can help them through that decision or rationalization.

When a customer wants more refrigerator space than can be purchased at the price they want to spend, you can make it your problem and cut your price, or you can recognize that they need help getting through their decision making problem. “That extra cubic foot is probably going to mean you can bring home two gallons of milk instead of just one and save yourself that aggravating and expensive extra trip to the store. That extra foot of space is going to cost you $1.00 per month over the life of this refrigerator and probably save you at least two extra trips to the store every month. That’s 50¢ per trip. At $3.00 per gallon and 25 miles per gallon, the gas alone is 12.5 ¢ per mile. Two miles to the store and two miles back means the gas cost you as much as you would have paid for the refrigerator and you got nothing for your time and the wear on your car. I want to make sure we deliver the refrigerator that is going to save you money and enhance your quality of life for years to come.”

If there is no one at the store who can set this up, it may be worth hiring an expert to help identify data presentation situations, put the right tools together for the sales team, train the team on how to use the calculators and provide support.

Today, math problems are easily eliminated, but decision making problems are torturing our customers through their shopping process. Decision making problems are causing them to make poor decisions resulting in low sales satisfaction. In many cases it is causing them to exit the shopping process altogether, a decision that is bad for everyone.

Durable goods are products that come with performance data and cost data. There is no getting around the need to present this data, and shopping problems are going to surface. Today, sales people don’t need to know the math to be able to eliminate these problems; they just need enough empathy to listen and the right tools to do the job. Helping shoppers make good decisions leads to higher gross profits, higher close rates, and much higher job satisfaction.

For those who want the math from the truck story:

The formula is cost per gallon * miles / miles per gallon = cost. This is how we got to $15,000 dollars for gas over the first 100,000 miles.

Another program would help you know that the difference between 20 MPG and 22 MPG is 10% and another would show that 10% of $15,000 is $1,500.

Finally, $1,500 / 75 trips = $20 cost per trip.

Each of these steps can be programmed and trained to individually, and the whole mess can be put into one process to eliminate the steps. It does not have to be an either/or decision.