SELL ME THIS PEN
Altamash
Have you seen the movie – The Wolf of Wall Street? It is the real life story of Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a stockbroker who made millions of dollars by selling penny stocks to clients at inflated prices. The film follows his life from his first day on Wall Street to his downfall. “The Wolf of Wall Street” shows what money can really do.
Monday’s class was different than usual. It required every student to speak up to show and sharpen their marketing and sales skills. The discussion started with Kshitij Doval asking the students to sell him a pen. Sounds weird? The students felt the same too, but continue reading to know how this simple question turned into an entire lesson.
The students used different strategies, scenarios, and tactics to convince Kshitij Doval to buy this pen. They tried to lure sir by saying that it’s an eco-friendly and paper-made pen. A few students asked questions about his occupation and his mode of preference of taking notes to build their pitch. Famous directors, fictional characters, and superheroes were also brought into the picture. Different prices from 500 bucks to even 50,000 bucks were quoted. Concepts like recall value were used to sell the pen to Kshitij Doval. Some students even tried to attach sentimental value to their pitches by mentioning his goals like working with 10,000 businesses. Each attendee of the class was made to pitch this pen to sir. Some students had great ideas and interesting scenarios but lacked the necessary confidence to carry forward.
TAKEAWAYS
A basic mistake that most of the students made was not asking questions. When you’re selling a pen or for that matter any commodity, it’s important to start with creating a positive base and then start asking questions. When you’re doing sales it’s important to have the customer speak more. It’s as simple as, who do you trust more? A friend who talks a lot or a friend who you can talk a lot to? The more they speak, the more they trust you with their data. The more data you have, the more you know about the customer and you have more information to support your pitch. You need to identify the gap between what the customer wants to achieve and what commodities they need, in order to achieve that. That’ll help you make them say that they need your pen, and that’s it, you got the sale.
Some students started listing down the features. That’s horrible. People like buying but they hate being sold to. So, never do that. Others talked about eliteness and luxury but they used it so much in their pitch that probably someone would frown upon it. The emotion was right and the head was in the right direction but it needs to be very subtly put. The customer must not be pushed too hard and subtle ways must be used to sell the item. Someone also tried pitching by saying that it’s a pen of the cross company and it was a great idea. It’s similar to the idea of a watch, why would somebody want to buy a Rolex or a Rado? It’s expensive but is it the brand or is it the fact that they are mechanical watches? A person who buys really expensive pens or watches needs to be an enthusiast and you need to have an attractive strategy to lure them.
The students could’ve even asked sir to write and experience the pen. Experience always matters more than just listening to words. This could help and persuade the customer to make the purchase.
Sir even demonstrated a sale for the students and went on to sell a pen to his student, Aditya, for 20,000rs. He asked Aditya several questions about his lifestyle and linked the pen with a man’s jewellery. Linked him to an exclusive club of acquired taste. Linked it to networking. It’s not the product features that sell. It’s the stories that the prospect can relate to.
All these pitches and solutions were when the customer was friendly and nice to you, but what when they’re rude or a jerk? It would’ve been even more difficult. Imagine that the customer is sold and he’s ready to buy the pen but when you quote the price, he backs out? What about the objection handling? All these questions will be answered in next week’s class and the students will be made to pitch again with another type of customer.
By- Krishi Jain
Community Manager at Sales For Brands
Student, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology
Community Manager at Sales For Brands
Student, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology
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