Selling multiple brands of spas

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Poolboy34....IYHO.....how do the Hawkeye spas rate against Caldera?  Hawkeyes looked impressive on the net.....but couldn't find a dealer to wet-test em when I was shopping.

Thx,Rich

[Steve]

But I think the lines that are carried should be complimentary to one another - you sold Beachcomber, a great product in itself but it doesn't offer a lot of bells and whistles;  by picking up an equally great product with the bells and whistles you are appealing to more people. It doesn't mean that either is inferior, just appeals to a different buyer.

Vinny

Good point and I understand your thinking Vinny. I guess I spent my time talking them out of the features they thought they wanted. I ran the risk of losing them if I didn't have a strong presentation to show other features and what I personally believe to be more beneficial to the end user.

Thanks for your suggestions empolgation and what you say makes sense. When I said "controlling the sale" that means asking my customer more questions than they are asking me. I'm very proud of the fact that when I sold Beachcomber, I was more focused on selling my customer a spa that best suits their needs than trying to take them to a higher end spa. I would take the information I gathered and take them to 1 or 2 spas that I think will best fit. People get confused when they go from spa to spa and we do a presentation on each one.

If they didn't find them right, we would move on. That is controlling the sale instead of letting the customer wander aimlessly through the showroom where each spa starts to look the same as the first one.

I was always curious why I lost a sale if I did and asked the people what made them choose brand X? The answers I received never really justified having to bring in another line to prevent this.
I feel 98% of the reason people buy is because of the comfort level with your salesperson. Obviously, you have to be able to offer a strong product but ask yourself when was the last time you made a big ticket purchase from someone you didn’t like? I wish there were more female salespeople as we all know they can make us guys do just about anything! In fact, one of the most successful salespeople in the Beachcomber organization is a woman. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more as this has always been labeled as a “mans” industry.

Anyway... nuff said. Some great points all around and there is no right or wrong I believe. I just know I couldn’t do it and never felt the need to.

Steve

[poolboy34]

I agree completely with your point of not having enough saleswomen in the pool and spa industry.  The company I work for has two saleswomen, and their closing ratios are excelent.  women also tend to be better suited to selling on the emotion of purchasing a spa, and customers in general tend to feel more comfortable talking to a woman.  Of course...........men tend to look for us guys when it's a parts or "technical" question, I guess somethings will never change.  great post steve!

[wmccall]

I feel 98% of the reason people buy is because of the comfort level with your salesperson.

I think that is 90%of the reason we bought what we did and we were getting to the point where all spas were starting to look alike.  I think the other 10% was they had the model with all the features we wanted in the color we wanted on the sales floor.   At the time of sale, I wasn't willing to wait 4-8 weeks.   I might have bought a master spa if they had the model we wanted on the floor. They had a 7' model but not an 8' model. The 7' was just a bit small for me.   A friend bought from this dealer and they told him 4 weeks and it ended up being 10-12 weeks.

[Brewman]

We bought because the dealer was absolutely no pressure, no negative selling at all, and the fact that we'd get our spa when we wanted it.  The Sundance dealer in this area is a relatively large retailer, and has a well stocked warehouse, plenty of Optimas in stock in the configuration we wanted.  This retailer also carries Sweetwater, and another unrelated brand that I can't remember.  This was a really low budget brand, so really they had good representation at all price points.
One thing that impressed me was that our sales consultant admitted he had a spa that was not a brand sold at this store, and when I asked him about it, he told me the brand, and that it was also a good spa.  
All in all, a very impressive experience.
Brewman

[zzaphod42]

In fact, one of the most successful salespeople in the Beachcomber organization is a woman.

Steve

Hey Steve,

Just curious as to who you are talking about and if she is still with Beachcomber? I know with the stores that we have, the women do quite well...especially our GM when she has an opportunity to get involved. Come to think of it, we have more female than male salespeople in our organization, so maybe times are changing!

Joe