Sales Pitch

Sales Pitch ©

By Michael Casey

Let me start by saying I’ve never worked in Sales, that’s SALES but I have sold things. It’s always easy to offer advice than to do the actual job, but you are at a distance from the problem so you can see the wood for the trees. I have in my past lives worked at a 4 star deluxe business hotel for 3 years, in fact I opened the hotel. I ended up as Employee of the Year, a very close runner up…. So let’s take it as read that I knew what I was doing.

My pitch was to tell everybody who entered the hotel just how great it was and what we had to offer, immediately you can see by me using the word WE I felt invested in the Hotel. The training was good, and I was desperate to please as I had a wife and toddlers to feed, starvation always encourages hard work. I really enjoyed the job and it was the most fun, and the hardest work I did in my life.

I must have spoken to 100,000 people over those 3 years I just did not stop talking. My chest size went up 2 inches and my neck size 1 inch due to all the talking, and bag carrying I did. You must be confident and just keep on talking non-stop, having micro conversations with as many people as possible. As soon as anybody entered our lobby I was talking to them within 30 seconds. Our manager Jonathan Walker once went to a rival hotel and he was stood there 20mins before anybody bothered to talk to him. He was horrified, to be honest normally I was like a trap sprung within 15 seconds of any guest arrival, 30 seconds was if I was being lazy or stopped to pick up a speck of dust on the way to my booming Hello and Welcome to CPNEC Birmingham.

So you can see I have experience and ability in the talking side of things. I also spent 3 years at a major law firm here in Birmingham, talking to cleaners, secretaries and lawyers not forgetting all the Tonys on security. It’s all about not being shy but getting up and talking. Back in 1998 I went on a presenting course, it was fun. The next day I was in the Czech Republic and my penfriend asked could I speak to her English language students. So I said yes, totally unexpectedly I was talking to a class of 25, I did 90mins off the top of my head.

Using this experience I was able to teach Esol English to classes from 30 to 120, I got 2 excellents and an exemplary for my external assessment of my teaching skills. Now I’m telling you all this so that you may listen to me when I give you my 2 penny worth about Selling. I could also say that my play Shoplife was accepted for production by a professional theatre back in 1989, you can buy a copy on Amazon. It will teach you how not to behave in a shop, while you laugh your head off.

The first thing to say about selling is that it is all about talking, and not being shy. It’s also about listening. What I hate is seeing sales staff talking to each other huddled up a corner. If you want to talk you can always stand back to back like dualists, that way you can watch 360 degrees of the shop and don’t appear lazy. Chewing gum is a no no too, as is combing your hair or playing with your crotch. 

Stand by the door and drag the customer in with wit and laughter, say how beautiful their dog is, or baby or granddad. Anything within reason to start up a conversation and get them to enter the shop. Walking past the shop doesn’t pay you wages, get them through that door. Be knowledgeable about what you are selling, if its light bulbs or the latest fashion. If you don’t know then say you know a man or woman who does know. Don’t lie or bluff it, you will be found out.

Phil at CPNEC Birmingham was the man I’d ring on the dec phone and I’d point to him at the other side of the car park as he walked in and solved any problem I couldn’t solve myself. It was seamless, it was theatre, it was fluid, it was professional. The guest got what they wanted, and I looked like a ringmaster, then Phil the true hero went back to car park patrol. The system worked because we were a team.  Later on I’d join Phil in the car park to pick up the litter after I’d finished talking to millionaires.

So sales is all about confidence, or acting confident and keeping on talking. In a shop you must be engaging and try and entice them in and then get them to buy something. If you haven’t got what they want you offer something else. If they wanted black you offer brown or grey if that’s all you have. You don’t just say no, no and no again. It is fun talking to people and filling you day with laughter, we laughed loads at the hotel, and worked our butts off.

If you hide in the corner and say you are bored and why has the boss given you one month’s notice and why is the next renter measuring up the shop, then you only have yourself to blame. Active and Proactive are nice words, but in sales they are the words you should live by. The thing you are selling the most is not the actual product, the shoes, the clothes, the makeup or whatever, it’s you. If you are nice and people like you, then they will be more likely to buy from you. It’s as simple as that.

Do you like being with grumpy people, or do you like Marie because she is a laugh, or do you like Michael because he is sensitive, or do you hate the sight of Peter. If you can be that nice warm person you enjoy being with, then you will be a good salesperson, you will be a natural. So I’ll leave it there for tonight, the answers are always inside you, just listen to yourself. And then talk to everybody.