Sales Dilemma No.1
What would you do in this situation?
There’s a story in sales job hunting folklore where the smugly smiling interviewer plucks out a pen from his jacket pocket and say, “Sell me this pen”. What would you say? Here are the options I came up with:
- Wind up the interview and walk out (on the basis that if you get the job you will be working for crappy management with an old school approach)
- Sell it “consultatively” - Establish their situation, identify pains, etc (“How do you currently record information? How would you like to change your current situation if you could?”, etc,). This could be an exceptionally difficult sell… it’s likely to be a highly undifferentiated product and if the interviewer decides to make life difficult for you are really in trouble!
- Pitch it straight off – “This pen has a beautiful red line along the side, writes fantastically, etc…”
- Skilfully explain to the interviewer why this is not a good interview question
7 comments:
Too funny. Thanks for the Monday morning smile. My response depends upon my level of "job desparation". If I really needed this job and felt like I had to make the interview work, I might go for the consultative approach.
Under a different scenario where I am the master of my craft, I would take on the consultative approach to learn why this interviewer thought that this was a great learning question. With this approach I can learn about the company, it experiences with sales people and managers, and use the dialogue to learn whether this was a company I would even want to be a part of. Additionally, I would hope that my approach left an impression with the interviewer--provided I was still interested.
It depends upon my situation. Assuming I was desparate and really needed the position, I would opt for the consultative selling approach.
Assuming a different scenario where I had serious doubts about the company and the interviewer and I was confident of my sales skills, I would opt for a consultative approach to the question. I would learn why the interviewer actually thought this is a great learning question. The dialogue connected to this type of approach will give me insight into the company, its sales experience, and its management abilities. And, provided I was still interest in the company it will give the interviewer a different perspective on me and how I sell.
David, that's a strong approach. I think if done skillfully it would really build credibility with the interviewer, and you leave with some self respect!
BTW a friend of mine just got asked this in a real life interview!! They asked her to sell the chair. She said "It's not for sale. It's priceless!"
At least she's not playing their game :-)
How did I miss this post? Early on in my sales career (we're talking mid 70's) I had this done to me and I absolutely hated it. I thought it was degrading.
But lo and behold, how times change. As a sales management consultant I routinely do this to potential candidates I am screening for companies. My goal is not to humiliate people but to see what their sales process is. Do they ask questions? How well do they listen? What do they do with objections? Do they close?
I also try to create a reasonable sales scenario so there is a bit of structure to the sale.
If nothing else this process lets me know where on the "sales professional scale" the candidate is.
For the record I would take the consultative approach assuming I read the situation correctly and the interviewer seemed like he or she was serious about the exercise.
This Tuesday I took the train down to a downtrodden old belgian city, Charleroi, once belgium's mining industry capital. I was going to an job interview. People were looking for a telemarketeer/telesales person for selling advertising space. The journey on the train took 42 minutes, I then took an old tram and finally a bus that led me into the middle of nowhere (wallonian countryside.) This journey was finally going to cost me in total about 20Euros.
I saw old downtrodden bars, funeral shops displaying shining new coffins behing their shop windows. I saw all this from the bus window and all along the lonely road. Some brothels also placed the long of the chaussée, welcoming old retired or sacked mineworkers/steelworkers and unemployed people...
I finally arrived to what seemed more to be like an abandoned wharehouse than an office complex.
First and last question : can you sell me this pen? I started asking a few questions about her suppliers, office material and than I asked if she was in charge for buying all this kind of stuff, was she really the decision maker for ordering such material? She replied : 'No, Mr.Bruno is." I answered : "Well if he's the decision maker for these matters I'd better speak to Mr.Bruno.." She replied something like : "Yes, but I decide anyway /well, I'm the final decision maker anyway"
That was it! A few arguments and then I more or less closed the sale. No objections from the lady assessing my sales capabilities, no more questions, nothing! The interview was finished. She just said that they would call me back if they showed further interest..
I find that people using pens to assess people's selling capabilities should first of all assess their own personal capabilities in knowing how to recruit salespeople. When you sell a pen, you first address yourself to the person in charge for office supply and who regularly deals with such suppliers, not with a C.E.O. or the director of a company! Does a C.E.O. have any time for pens (apart from his stylo 'Mont Blanc' or his silver 'Parker')
All this is crazy.
Stephen Hellon
yes, I will take the the pen, I will see a lot, maybe I will try to wryte, I will put it in my pocket, and at the least I will show to him as a gift and saying: next time You could have a box of these for a very good prize ... how much do you order to me now for the next time?
...
sorry, but I run a company, I buy and I sell, every day, and for sure a such consultant will not work for my people.
f. - Italy -
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