THE SALES MAGIC

Something remarkable happened this last weekend and it taught me a vital lesson in #sales and #marketing. I needed to do the routine service of my car at a Total Filling Station and on getting there, I asked for my usual 4 litres Quartz 9000 engine oil (which is usually about N13,500) but the sales person said, it's not available but they however had the 5 litres which cost 16,000. So I parked the car at their Lube Bay, asked the men to continue with wheel balancing and alignment and I was going to fix my laptop somewhere and I should be back soon.

I hopped on a bike to a different destination, fixed the laptop and on my way back, I practically begged the bike man to make a stop at all the Total Filling Stations on our way back so I could buy my preferred 4 litres Engine Oil. After checking about 3 stations and they did not have the 4 litres, I resolved that I was just going to buy the 5 litres like that from the last Total filling Station located before the one I had initially parked.

And here's where the #sales magic happened. As soon as I asked for the 4 litres, they also did not have in stock but they had 5 litres. However, the sales person here was quick to add that the 5 litres was for 15,500 and there is a promo ongoing such that I would get a free Total prepaid card! Aha, so here's the gist, I used to have a total card which I have stopped using because I couldn't remember my PIN (the process to reset the PIN is too long and I just didn't bother), so here was my chance of getting a new one freeeeeee!!! (It would have cost me N1,000 on a good day) and to top it all I'm getting 10 litre worth of fuel (that's N1,450). That's a whooping total of N 2,450 off my N15,500. So I practically, in my mind, bought my 5 litre Oil for N13,050.

As I arrived the initial Total filling station with the oil, they were surprised that I had bought somewhere else and not from them and the other sales persons were furious at the one that had attended to me earlier but I had to analyse the sales game to them viz:

1. A sales person should know the distinct features of all the products and should be able to communicate same
2. When there is a special promo on-going, use that as a catch-phrase to retain the attention of your customer and communicate it in such a way to make the customer feel special (it'as all about getting the money about the customer's pocket anyways. *shrugs*)
3. The sales person should be able to know the exact pricing pf each product on the shelf. This I found out during further interrogation from the initial sales person, who said the 5 litre oil she had called 16,000 was the Quartz 9000 Energy variant which was not what I needed for my own car.

Apart from the above highlighted lessons, what other suggestions or vital lesson can be picked from the scenario? I'd love to read from you.