Sales Lessons from The Office
I’m a huge fan of The Office.
Probably my favorite character from the show is Dwight Schrute, the top salesman at the Scranton branch for a paper company called Dunder-Mifflin. The reason I like him so much is that he possesses many of the sales qualities that I wish I had. He has a low need for approval and he is highly persistent. He also rarely takes no for an answer.
But one of the moments from the show that I love is when Dwight and Jim are going on a sales call together. When they meet with the prospect Jim is talking about all the wonderful perks of working with Dunder-Mifflin, but you can tell that the prospect is barely paying attention. Dwight asks if he can use the phone, dials a number and then walks through an automated message system in front of the prospect. He sets the phone down on hold as Jim continues talking.
A few minutes later the prospect stops Jim and tells him that it makes more sense to go with one of the “big guys”. Jim says, “That’s true, we can’t compete with their prices. But let me ask you, how important to you is customer service?” The prospect says, “Very important” right as an automated voice is heard from the phone still on hold that says, “Please stay on the line, your call is very important to us”. Dwight says, “That’s one of the ‘big guys’; been on hold this whole time.” Jim then dials his own company and immediately you hear “Dunder-Mifflin customer service, how can I help you?” The prospect then immediately gives them his business.
The reason I like this scenario is because the biggest barrier I run into is price. This clip encouraged me to look for ways in which we differentiate from the guys that cost less than us, and it encouraged me to look for ways to express that to prospects.
Anyone want to share how they differentiate from their competitors?