Professional Sales Executive
Last week, I was shopping at one of the local departmental store for healthcare products.
As I was looking around and scrutinizing the products on the shelves, one of the sales executives approached me with a sweet voice: “Good evening Sir, could I share with you the latest product on healthcare?”
Arousing the shopper’s interest
I looked up and was greeted with a warm smile, I was thinking: “this person is different from the rest of the sales executive, other people would ask me if I need help but she aroused my curiosity by asking if I am interest in the latest healthcare product”.
I answered: “Sure, what do you have to recommend?”
She answered: “Would you like to know more about the latest anti-oxidant product from ABC company?”
I nodded and said: “ok”.
Good product knowledge
She followed up by saying: “This is the latest formula for anti-oxidant, it contains Selenium, Green Tea Extract, and …. Many other manufacturers only contain Vitamin A, C, E and Zinc.” She carried on to explain the advantages of the ingredients.
Think for customers
I pick up a bottle of the product and looked interested. She followed up by saying: “We are having a special 20% promotion at this point in time, would you like to buy a bottle or two?”
I answered: “Two bottles please”.
She took two bottles from the shelf and said: “The expiry date is in Jan 2008 and it is the latest shipment”. I was thinking: “She even anticipate what I was looking for before I ask!”
She carried on to recommend a few other healthcare products and I am amazed by the depth of product knowledge that she has.
Think and work smart
I asked her further: “How’s business so far?”
She grinned and answered: “Great, especially after I have been applying what I have learned in the books that I read recently”.
I was curious again: “What’s that?”
She smiled mischievously: “If you see three potential customers in your store, one wearing office attire, one in casual attire carrying a big bag of purchased items, and one in T-shirt and jeans. Which one would you serve first?”
I looked perplexed and I hesitated for a while.
She continued: “I would prioritize and serve the one in causal attire with a bag of purchased items. This is because the person seems to be on a buying spree. I am actually applying the Pareto’s principle that 80% of sales actually come from 20% of our customers.”
She chatted further: “In life, some small things make large impacts. I would usually go for short lunch/dinner breaks and I usually go during the off meal hours. Some of my colleagues said that they have to go during the meal hours and they have to take the full one-hour break. For me, I would go before or after the normal meal hours as this is the time with the highest probability of customers visiting our store.”
I was amazed that such a young girl would apply the concept of “prioritizing, 80/20 principle, and probability”.
Money value of time
She mentioned further: “Some of my colleagues would go to the place where they can get the cheapest meal even though it may be quite far away. For me, time is money, I may spend $0.50-$1.0 more but it will more than compensated if I manage to save 20-30 minutes of my walking time and use it to serve customers.”
Strategic Alliance
“Occasionally, I would make some pastries at home and bring the food around to share with my colleagues. I consider it as a form of investment and rapport building. This is because my colleagues will refer their customers to me (and vice versa) if they can’t find a suitable product under their brand. So instead of letting the customer roam around, my colleague will bring the customers to me directly and this has increased the chance of closing the sale.”
“I believe that no matter what type of job that we are doing, we have to put in our full heart and best effort!”
I was totally amazed by the short conversation we had, and hope that all of us could adopt the same service and entrepreneurial mindset as the young lady.
