Think about the last time there was a serious problem that needed to be fixed at your home – the furnace went out on a cold day or a pipe burst and water was running down your walls. Now imagine if, during this moment of panic, a highly qualified and dependable repair person contacted you out of the blue and said they could be at your front door within 15 minutes to fix the problem. Would you be offended by this sales pitch, or would you be grateful for the offer? My guess is that you – like me – would immediately give the guy your address, and greet him with a hug and an open checkbook when he arrived.
“Selling” has become a dirty word. It connotes sleaze and pushiness, and there’s no doubt that some salespeople are sleazy and pushy. But in most cases, it’s not that salespeople do anything underhanded or aggressive that turns us off, it’s just that they hit us up with something we don’t need or at a time we don’t need it. This is true whether you’re a used car salesman, an Apple store “Genius” or a corporate litigator.