"If you know how to pitch it right, even an Eskimo will be game"
"Eskimos don't really need ice machines. But then real need has nothing to do with sales. As long as we can 'create' a need for our products in the minds of our consumers, they will buy."
Lesson 1 - "Sell vanity and status, not the product"
"Our first meeting is with Koda, a 35-year old eskimo who has a wife and a young daughter. He invites us in his house for a demonstration of our machine. I have brought a baby pink machine with me, knowing very well that girls like pink. I can see his wife looking very lovingly at the machine.
I say, Koda, you are a successful man. You need to have this ice machine at home to make your wife happy and for your relatives to realize that you can afford to buy what they could never imagine. If you buy my machine, I promise I will not sell this machine to any of them.
Koda smiles. I have just used the first and basic trick of sales:
Sell vanity and status, not the product. The image-hungry consumer will buy."
Lesson 2 - "If required, sell fear to sell your product"
"Atka is in his early 50s and lives with his extended tribe members. With a strong and compelling voice, I tell Atka : Sir you are the guardian...and this ice machine of our makes sure that any crystal of ice your tribe eats is safe and absolutely disease-free. A person like you will never take a chance when you know that a safer alternative is available. The tribe and its health come before everything else."
Lesson 3 - "Sell innovation, innovation and innovation"
"Our third meeting is with Hiti. He is a young man who has just started a restaurant and is very busy. It's been difficult to arrange a meeting with him. Inside his rather cold, blue colored restaurant called "Tihi", Hiti barely smiles and asks us to come straight to the point. I request for a glass of water and he beckons the bartender to serve us.
The moment I get my glass, I quickly slip my hand in my jacket and place what I have been carrying inside my pocket, safely into the glass.
These are real ice carvings, fashioned in the name "Tihi".
Hiti is stunned when he sees pretty delicate ice carvings carrying the name of his restaurant floating in our glasses."
"Always remember that sales is not a process or science. It is an art. It is a dedication, a mediation, and a journey that is unique every time you embark on it. When you really want to sell something, just dive into your buyer's souls and they will tell you how to sell to them."
Reference : Alok Kejriwal - Entrepreneur Magazine, "Thinking & Doing", Jan 2014
