Hot Tub Forum
Original => Hot Tub Forum => Topic started by: East_TX_Spa on December 29, 2005, 11:28:37 am
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Well, I'm trying to get geared up for 2006 and this is the time of year where I try to evaluate areas that I can improve upon as a spa-selling profeshnul. I realize that I have my faults and weaknesses as far as providing the customer with an exceptional shopping experience, so I'm looking to the fine folks on this board for some feedback in order to do a better job.
This topic has been covered before (I believe), but now there are some new members and I am anxious to hear what ya'll have to say.
What were some of the best moments you encountered when shopping for your spa? What were some of the worst experiences that left an impression with you?
Thanks for any and all feedback.
Terminator
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The first thing I would do is get rid of any guns or mounted deer heads in your store. I know you are from Texas and all, but guns in a retail store. It certainly would be a turnoff to me, but I am from the Northeast.
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term,
hope you have a great '06.
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Hey Term....happy new year to you.
A couple of things that still stand out to me....
1. Don't knock the competition. I may like the tub you're knocking just as much, if not more than your tub, so essentially you're telling me "My baby is ugly".
2. To go with point #1, just talk about the benefits of your tub as they compare with other tubs. Also, please don't tell me your tub is the best. There are a lot of good tubs out there.
3. Allow me to wet test whatever model I'm interested in. (I'd never buy a car without testing the exact model)
4. Offer me the opportunity to purchase....don't ram it down my throat. I think that most consumers are pretty savvy these days.....they realize that deals can be had at many different times of the year.
I think that's about it. Good luck to you and your store in '06.
Mark
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I think true honesty shows through.
I prefer knowledgeable salesmen who are kind and smile alot over the smiling phony ones who are trying too hard to make a sale.
I think it's important to have the most popular models filled with water for wet testing.
My local dealer didn't have the Grandee ready for wet testing.
Changing areas/privacy/cleanliness (as recently talked about)
is also very important.
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Thanks socal, I appreciate it. Good luck to you as well. :)
Mark, those are points well worth remembering. I sometimes find myself swallowing my tongue to not get baited by a customer into badmouthing the competition. Once in a while, a wiley customer will throw out "The Seamonkey Spa dealer said your spas are white because HS won't put color in them because it would reduce their profit margins. Is this true?" Obviously, they are checking to see your reaction.
When I was a young, passionate little fella, I would react with indignation and proceed to tell them what a jackass the Seamonkey dealer is and that his spas would probably melt if you added hot water to them. Nowadays, I just look contemplatingly at the customer and say "I'm sorry to hear them say that. How did it make you feel when they started saying such things?" Customers lie like dogs to salespeople (that's OK, comes with the territory), and it's all about taking what they give you and using it to help the customer in spite of themselves.
Oh, Chris H, don't worry. No deer heads or stuffed possums and such, only competitors' scalps on the wall. No guns here, only hot tubs, service, friendship, and understanding. :)
Terminator
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I agree that not knocking the competition is a big plus. When a sales person starts telling me how much better there spa is over the competition and you only need to change the filters every 11/2 to 2 years, It puts me in a situation where I don't believe anything that they say.
I think being honest with the customer will definitely sell more spas in the long run.
If possible, a wet test area away from most of the traffic would also be a big plus.
Ron
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You might want to loose the bell bottoms, and polyseter shirt with the extra wide collar and the dozen of gold chains.
Oh yea, Hai Karate! is no longer cool and stop doing that damn moonwalk when ever you make a sale. Youre' scaring most of the customer's away.
Oh yea, when a customer does a wet test, you gotta stop surprising them by jumping out of the coner in your speedo screaming "Do I make you randy Baby? Do I ? Oh Behave!"
/hey, you asked.....
;)
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I know I'm a different kind of shopper but I like to look at what is available by myself and not have a salesperson yapping in my ear and following me around. After I've looked around then, I would welcome a salesperson to answer my questions and to go over the features of the spas that I liked.
Unless your dealership encourages haggling over the price, then post the price and list what that price includes. I hated having to ask the price. If the price is firm then post it, don't make me ask. Or better yet, I visited one dealership that actually had a small brochure that listed the price and the details of each spa. That was nice to have once I got home since I wouldn't have remembered the different prices or features of the spas.
Don't ask me my budget or how much I can afford. I felt that was my business and I never answered. My mission was to find the spa that I liked not one based on the price.
Don't call me at home and ask if you can send me a DVD and brochure and then send it postage due. ::)
Best of luck in '06, Term!
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Sales is a challenging profession. Have big ears, meaning listen carefully to what the prospect is saying. Ask questions to draw the prospect out. If they tell you that they are also considering other spas, ask them what the other spas offer that they like. Try to discover as much as you can about their needs/wants/priorities before showing them your offerings and explaining the features and benefits of same.
Several people have told you not to knock the competition and I would agree. It is possible to overcome competition by demonstrating the unique advantages of your products that you know are superior and asking the prospect to participate in the comparison by acknowledging and agreeing with each point you make. This approach takes longer and requires you to know your competition. An astute prospect will react favorably to such an approach because of your knowledge and objectivity.
In the end sales is all about establishing a rapport and trust with the prospect. To that end, in addition to what you say or do during the prospect's brief time in your store, it is possible to bring third party testimonial support into the sales process. This can be done by asking each client (i.e. a client is an ex-prospect who has purchased your products and services) to fill out a brief questionaire that is designed to elicit favorable comments. These can be filled out at delivery, or a week or so after delivery when the bloom is still on the rose. Have very favorable ones pinned on a bulletin board in the showroom, or have them in a 3 ring binder that prospects have easy access to.
Stay in touch with your clients with a periodic news letter. The letter can be short and filled with pictures of new or exceptionally nice installations. Nice client installations also make nice blowup pictures on the walls in the showroom, another way to reinforce to your clients that they made a good decision to buy from you, and simultaneously another subtle way to gain 3rd party support. Also in the newsletter you can feature new models, offer a coupon deal on a featured accessory or chems or what not. People buy new cars every few years, why not new hottubs? Maybe your best prospects for new business are your existing clients.
Always wait until you have earned the right to do so, but never fail to ask for the order.
My consulting bill will be in the mail. ;-)
Regards,
Bill
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SO to get this streight I should have no deer heads in my store, and I swear I read that the polyester and wide collar was coming back. What am i going to do with the goose I just had mounted for my store? ;)
Good Luck Term you will do great in 2006!
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Guns don't bother me as long as they aren't pointed at me. :o
Most people looking to buy a hot tub are confused and uneducated (me especially) so before I spent a bunch of dollars, I needed to be educated. A dealer should be willing to do a little extra educating for the 1st time buyer. (Thermspa was too busy selling me a tub to answer my questions.)
I also needed to be reassured that I wasn't on my own after the sale. (I got that feeling from Pool City.)
The dealer is very important in that he be professional and reliable. He doesn't have to wear a suit and all that other crap, but he should know his product, be personable and easy to talk to. I know he is interested in selling a tub but he needs to make me feel he is also interested in my satisfaction.
Finally, don't sell your tub by telling me how bad every other tub is. Tell me about your tub. How it is built and how that helps me. And don't let me get blind-sided. When I give you my money, I am also giving you my trust.
A store here in Pittsburgh has a slogan that goes: "An educated consumer is a happy consumer." ;D
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Have to stretch my memory. Its been almost 3 years now.
Off - A Coast salesman asked who else I was looking at and berated those competitors.
On - The salesman we bought from, now under indictment :D, answered all our questions and backed off when we needed time to talk with each other (my wife and I)
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Limit yourself to one follow-up phone call per customer, and wait at least a week or two after the first contact.
When we were shopping ,out of the 1/2 dozen dealers we visited, only one started multiple call backs, ended up being a real jeak.
if the customer doesn't return your call...take a hint!
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My consulting bill will be in the mail. ;-)
Regards,
Bill
As will your check. ;)
Great, great information from everyone (except drewstar, I'm looking forward to parachute pants coming back into style!)
Thank ya'll so much. When I get into a groove, it's sometimes hard to slow down and remember to treat each customer in the way that's best for them. There's times when someone can walk in the door and I just say "Hello" and they're ready to buy and there's other day's when it just ain't gonna happen even if I rub their belly and tickle their mommas.
I'm actually off this week and a guy just called my cell phone that I talked to on Christmas Eve and he's on his way to buy an Envoy. Next week I'll be busting my butt trying to sell spas and probably won't even get a whiff. Such is life....
Terminator
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Term, I've been thinking about this and I think you should: walk up the customer, say "Can I help you" when they say "No, just looking", hand them a brochure, and tell them to let you know if they have any questions, then go back and sit down and finish your cigarette. ;) ;D
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1. Don't knock the competition. I may like the tub you're knocking just as much, if not more than your tub, so essentially you're telling me "My baby is ugly".
2. To go with point #1, just talk about the benefits of your tub as they compare with other tubs. Also, please don't tell me your tub is the best. There are a lot of good tubs out there.
This is usually pretty easy, but my boss came across a tough one the other day.
We sell Hydropool. The store used to sell BRAND X.
A shopper came in and was criticising our warranty stating that BRAND X's warranty was "no fault" and that "no matter how bad your water chemistry is, its covered"
My boss and I know this not to be the case. We have seen BRAND X reject many claims for water chemistry and all sorts of excuses.
My boss told them this. They didn't like it and refused to believe it. I showed them a copy of the BRAND X's warranty, pointing out the very vague exclusion clause in their warranty.
The shopper became infuriated and walked.
I guess we crossed the line? Its tough when your product is being put down by a shopper that has been fed misinformation.
Professionals:What would/could you have done differently?
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I agree with the earlier post on price. Why not have a price on the spa that represents the real price. All of the dealers I went to except the one I bought from gave me vague ball park figures on price. This really turned me off. I did not expect buying a spa to be similar to buying a used car. I expected it to be like buying a luxury item.
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HotTubMan,
One of the first principles of sales is that you can't win them all. Sales is a matter of percentages. You did nothing wrong.
I was not there so to help you to have a better hit rate in the future let me ask you a couple of questions:
1. Did the prospect provide the competitor's warranty or did you have it on file?
2. Did the prospect display any signs of resistance during the discussion of the competitor's warranty?
3. Was any attempt made to discuss the warranty policy of your new line?
4. Besides warranty, what else did he like about the competitor's line? How does your line compare in these areas?
Regards,
Bill
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i don't think you did anything wrong. there are some people whom you will never sell, and they will never be happy, no matter what they buy or from whom. if a person comes into your store, is argumentative, and adamantly criticizes your product based on incorrect info from a competitor, sometimes you have to set them straight.
I am not in the tub biz, I am in the home electronic automation biz (alarms, lighting, home theater, intercoms, cameras, etc...) we get that kind of situation on a semi-regular basis. i have found that a comparison to cars often helps put things in pespective for some customer issues.
good example: we install high end home theater. real question from last week-" i saw a best buy add that has a surround sound system in a box for $399, why does yours cost so much more?" my answer, "audio/video equip is a lot like the car market, a ford taurus, and a mercedes 500sec both are cars that run on gasoline and get you to where you want to go, would you say they are equall? should they cost the same?"
in your situation of the water chemistry vs. the warranty, you might try something like," if you bought a new car, and never changed the oil, and the engine blew at 45k miles, do you think the manufacturer will unconditionally give you a relacement engine?
for some odd reason people seem more able to relate to cars and tvs and semi understand that all of them are not equall and costs do vary.
term, on the actual topic, my BIG pet peeve is: know your own product. you may not know every single detail on every tub, ever made, and I dont expect you to. BUT, if you dont, DONT LIE OR BLUFF YOUR WAY THROUGH. just be polite, and say something like, I'm pretty sure but let me double check on the answer to your question.
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HotTubMan,
One of the first principles of sales is that you can't win them all. Sales is a matter of percentages. You did nothing wrong.
I was not there so to help you to have a better hit rate in the future let me ask you a couple of questions:
1. Did the prospect provide the competitor's warranty or did you have it on file?
We had it on file. We have 300+ customers with BRAND X tubs that we sold & serviced until BRAND X opened a new store in town.
2. Did the prospect display any signs of resistance during the discussion of the competitor's warranty?
These folks displayed signs of resistance with everything. They resisted Hello. They resisted telling me that they had been in before. They resisted telling me that they had spoken with my boss before.
3. Was any attempt made to discuss the warranty policy of your new line?
They simply wanted to know if our warranty was no fault like the other guy. We could not in good faith tell them that the warranty is no fault. Poor water chemistry can and will erode hot tub components, seals etc.
4. Besides warranty, what else did he like about the competitor's line? How does your line compare in these areas?
Not quite sure what they liked. I wasn't listening in on the whole conversation. Our product and theirs both present their own unique attributes and are both quality products. Our store did not stop selling BRAND X because it was garbage. It was more about how the company stood behind their product, how they dealt with their customers (dealers).
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term, on the actual topic,
Apologies if I hijacked the thread.. ???
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They simply wanted to know if our warranty was no fault like the other guy. We could not in good faith tell them that the warranty is no fault. Poor water chemistry can and will erode hot tub components, seals etc.
Clearifying something they heard or thought they heard from salesperson of brand X with black and white proof, is not putting down the competition, It's informing the consumer and sometimes you salespeople are consumers only information on hot tubs.
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Limit yourself to one follow-up phone call per customer...
I have to disagree with this comment. There was only one dealer that bothered to follow-up with me via phone. Each time he called, his price dropped until he quoted me an acceptable price. The last phone call happened just after I had been told by another dealer, "What makes you think you have the right to come into my store and offer me a price for my product?" Leave it to say, I was anxious to buy from anyone but that jerk. I told the other dealer of this confrontation and also told him I still needed to check out at least 3 other dealers before making my decision. He said, "How about if I can save you a lot of time and effort and get you into the spa of your choice right now?" He then quoted my target price for the LSX and we made a deal over the phone. After being "slapped in the face" by one dealer, I felt this dealer really wanted my business. I certainly appreciated multiple follow-up calls.
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Sounds like you had a better experience than I.
My problem was we had already decided not to buy from our high-pressure phone guy, and I imagined how he was going to react when he got the bad news. And I was right, he got real nasty.
I liked the way my Caldera dealer followed up, with several emails.
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I'd recommend being honest and answering the customers questions. As someone that's recently ( a week ago I put down nearly $7k on a tub) been shopping.
The salesman that won my business was the one that knew his product, knew his competitors, was willing to talk about the faults of his own spa (that was refreshing and unique around here) rather than his competitors. He gave me time to look around, time to play with all the jets and all the other features. He made me feel like I was the sole reason he was there, his cell rang and rang and rang continuously and he just ignored it to answer my questions.
Bashing the competition was a major turn off for me, and was one of the reasons that the Hotsprings dealer didn't get my business in Boise.
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Don't ask your customer. "Well, hat do you want the spa for?" as your first question. I had a new, young, HS salesman ask me that first thing. I was really tempted to respond "WTF do you think I want it for?? Got anything with a slide or diving board??" His question just set the tone all wrong from the start.
I was in the store for only a couple of minutes and, after I left, almost wrote HS off w/out ever having even wet tested.
I did end up eventually buying from that dealer (limited choices in my area) but made it a point to buy from the other salesman.
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hat=what
:::sheesh:::
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hat=what
:::sheesh:::
just use the "Modify" option on the post and you can correct any errors.
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HotTubMan,
From your answers it is obvious that you did nothing wrong and there is nothing to be learned from your encounter with an obviously irrational person or persons. Reading your posting, I just shake my head. I am sure that you have already put it behind you.
Years ago I was taught that statistically the average sales person talks with 15 people to get approximately 3 qualified potential buyers and this will result in 1 closed sale. These numbers probably vary for different products and different industries, but the prinicple is sound. If you look on the bright side, after that turkey walked out the door, you were down one and only had 14 more to go for the next sale! Other useful tidbits are that 20% of the salespersons account for 80% of the sales. The others can't stand the rejection rate to get the numbers.
If sales were an easy profession anyone could do it. I am sure you already know to just hang in there. Your concern and eagerness to try to learn from this negative encounter, plus your active and positive participation in this forum demonstrate that you are one of the winners.
Regards,
Bill
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Bill,
Thanks for the kind word, advice and concern.
HTM