The Southwestern Company Difference Blog
Hi there. I’m Lucy Morton-Hicks, the Communications Specialist for Southwestern Company. I’ve run my own business as an independent dealer the past three summers selling Southwestern Company’s educational products door-to-door in their summer program for college students. I’m also engaged in the training and mentorship of students from several Florida universities.
I graduated from Florida State University in May of 2008 with a degree in communications and have successfully run my own business working with families in and around Nashville, TN, Newark, OH and Granite Falls, NC. For the past two years, I have served as a mentor and leader to other students to help them also run a successful business and gain skills beyond the classroom to prepare them for life.
Too much pressure in a sales situation... not a good move.
In a new series of posts to this blog, I will answer common questions related to the purpose of this blog. Question: AT WHAT POINT DOES “PERSISTENCE” BECOME “PRESSURE?”
Answer: Good question. Prior to my future being shaped by running my own business selling products to families door-to-door, I had two experiences with door-to-door sales people.
While a sophomore in college, a young person selling magazines knocked on my apartment door. He gave me a pitch about how the more subscription he sold, the closer he would be to winning a cruise through his school. Feeling in a charitable mood, his insistence paid off and I bought one. Another time, a persistant young man was asking for donations in exchange for a magazine he wrote about his views on politics and religion. Again, I bought.
As I think back, and knowing what I know now from my training and experiences, I am amazed I bought. I also remember the pressure put on me by these individuals.
Any sales person worth their weight will have just enough persistence to be short of pushy. Once the line is crossed, the customer will feel pressured or forced to purchase. Rule #1: If the customer has to buy to get a salesperson to leave, the line has been crossed from persistence to pressure. This is not an effective or even moral way to sell your products or yourself door-to-door.
Over time, I have become comfortable with rejection, as it is not personal. I can hear it and still leave the customer (and myself) in a good mood. Whereas, one of the young men, in all his efforts to sell, made me feel guilty for not wanting to help him win his school trip. The only reason I really bought was because I was pressured to feel sorry for him. Rule #2: If the sales person uses a guilt trip to get you to buy, the line is crossed from persistence to pressure.
The magazine seller was relentless with his sales tactics and methods of persuasion (which I now believe the trip/cruise to be a pitch to get me to purchase). I can only imagine he seldom felt wholeheartedly good after those pressure sales. When I knock on a family’s door, my primary goal is to find out how the children in the household are doing academically and whether or not the products I sell will be of use to that particular family. More often than not, if the child is present, they personally see how and if the product would benefit them. When that is the case, I know I have helped a family - pressure-free. After the sale, I feel good about it. I feel good about myself and my level of persistence, but more importantly, the family feels good about their purchase. That fulfillment is something I feel can be missing when “persistence” becomes “pressure.”
______________
Lucy Morton-Hicks is the Communications Specialist for the Southwestern Company, the nation’s oldest direct selling company based in Nashville, Tennessee. She is an award-winning, top sales person and recruiter.
