"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...

"David Rance" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 John Vanini wrote:

I remember the same thing when I was a child. If I asked why something
was done, it was interpreted as a challenge. "Don't ask questions. Just
DO it!"

Thank goodness times have changed.

In my experience they haven't, much. I'm always regarded as being
challenging when I ask why or for evidence.

Mary



AH! But you can have too much product knowledge :-((

Percy Whiting in his great book "The Five Great Rules of Selling" gives a
wonderful example of this of where a Salesman was losing accounts when he
learnt too much of how a thing worked and bored the pants of his prospective
customers instead of just what it did!! What will it do for me? Is all that
is wanted in selling!! Well,....... almost ;-)

Mike


--
www.rneba.org.uk for the latest pictures of the very first reunion and
Inaugural General Meeting. Nothing less than a fantastic success.
The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association if you served in the Electrical Branch of the Royal Navy
www.rneba.org.uk to find your ex-Greenie mess mates
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will have a Stand

AH! But you can have too much product knowledge :-((

Percy Whiting in his great book "The Five Great Rules of Selling" gives a
wonderful example of this of where a Salesman was losing accounts when he
learnt too much of how a thing worked and bored the pants of his
prospective customers instead of just what it did!! What will it do for
me? Is all that is wanted in selling!! Well,....... almost ;-)

Mike

A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap you
mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course my
detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software works
and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have "bored
the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy because
of "what it can do for them".

David.

"David (Normandy)" wrote in message
...
AH! But you can have too much product knowledge :-((

Percy Whiting in his great book "The Five Great Rules of Selling" gives a
wonderful example of this of where a Salesman was losing accounts when he
learnt too much of how a thing worked and bored the pants of his
prospective customers instead of just what it did!! What will it do for
me? Is all that is wanted in selling!! Well,....... almost ;-)

Mike

A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap
you mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course
my detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software
works and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have
"bored the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy
because of "what it can do for them".

David.


I was at the Ideal Home Exhibition in Bournemouth a couple of weekends ago
and was interested in the Solar Panels for the roof. I am afraid the
salesmen were too technical on how the things were made to tell me the
advantages!!!

I have been asked by an MD to design a sales Course and give the Sales Team
a series of 'talks' to motivate :-))

Mike


--
www.rneba.org.uk for the latest pictures of the very first reunion and
Inaugural General Meeting. Nothing less than a fantastic success.
The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association if you served in the Electrical Branch of the Royal Navy
www.rneba.org.uk to find your ex-Greenie mess mates
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will have a Stand

In article ,
"'Mike'" writes:
|
| I was at the Ideal Home Exhibition in Bournemouth a couple of weekends ago
| and was interested in the Solar Panels for the roof. I am afraid the
| salesmen were too technical on how the things were made to tell me the
| advantages!!!

Sorry, but what you say is a recipe for fraud. When customers are too
stupid or ignorant to know when they are being flagrantly lied to, the
advantages are all with the sharks that do just that.

God help me, that is also why it is so hard to buy functional equipment
for many purposes, and why we get the politicians we deserve.

I utterly loathe salesdroids who claim to be technically competent
when it is clear that I have forgotten more than they will ever learn,
in an area that isn't even one of the ones where I claim much expertise.
Unfortunately, with the current dumbing down of everything, this is
becoming more common and even worse.

God help me, most of the so-called technical advisors of solar panel
companies don't seem to know EVEN the difference between the solar
constant, the average UK per diem insolation, its annual variation
and the potential power deliverable in electricity. They should be
required to pedal a rusty bicycle generator, stark naked, on a sunny
day on the top of Kilimanjaro until they have generated a kilowatt-
hour to teach them!

http://www.elise.com/quotes/a/heinle...or_insects.php


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"'Mike'" writes:
|
| I was at the Ideal Home Exhibition in Bournemouth a couple of weekends
ago
| and was interested in the Solar Panels for the roof. I am afraid the
| salesmen were too technical on how the things were made to tell me the
| advantages!!!

Sorry, but what you say is a recipe for fraud. When customers are too
stupid or ignorant to know when they are being flagrantly lied to,

Not exactly 'lied' to in another demonstration, but not 'told the whole
truth'.

Steam Carpet Cleaner. "Look how good it is on this Wax Crayon mark". Few
runs backwards and forwards and there it is clean :-))

Steam? Wax? :-))

Biro? Paint? Something the dog has brought in? ........... Something
unknown? ......

..
NO!

Mike
Who didn't come down in the last shower of rain


--
www.rneba.org.uk for the latest pictures of the very first reunion and
Inaugural General Meeting. Nothing less than a fantastic success.
The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association if you served in the Electrical Branch of the Royal Navy
www.rneba.org.uk to find your ex-Greenie mess mates
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will have a Stand

"David (Normandy)" writes
A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap you
mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course my
detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software works
and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have "bored
the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy because
of "what it can do for them".

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get
really frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state
when you have to resort to review sites and other users to find out
factual info that the seller should have told you.
--
Kay

"K" wrote in message
...
"David (Normandy)" writes
A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap
you
mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course
my
detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software
works
and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have
"bored
the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy
because
of "what it can do for them".

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get really
frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state when you
have to resort to review sites and other users to find out factual info
that the seller should have told you.
--
Kay

Sorry, I don't think I was clear. Allow me to elaborate. I'm not saying
there should be no details or facts and information, it is a case of where
they are positioned. Take the following scenario for example:

A lady goes into a computer shop and says "My son's family live in
Australia. He says if I get a computer I will be able to talk to him free of
charge on the telephone, send something called "e-mails" and read something
he's got called a "blog".

What the lady wants to buy is not really a computer but a means of
communicating with her family. A good salesman would realise this and
appreciate from her description that she is not computer literate. He would
not just plunge in with something like "Well you've come to the right place,
we've got the latest hardware with choices of Vista, XP, Macs and even
Linux. Pick AMD or Intel processors 32 or 64 bit with anything from 500 mega
bytes to 4 giga bytes of RAM, internal or external or external high capacity
hard drives with fast seek times and more USB ports than you can shake a
stick at!

While the detail should be given if necessary or required, the above would
just confuse the hell out of the lady. If I was the customer my requirements
would be entirely different and a detailed technical discussion would be
appropriate.

With software (or anything else) it makes sense for the opening page (or
sales pitch) to say in a very short summary what it is for and what benefits
people would get from buying it. There can be links (or discussion) to
deeper and deeper levels of technical details. The person viewing the site
(or talking to a salesman) chooses the level of information that is relevant
to them. A good salesman has both detailed technical knowledge of his
products (often lacking in many stores) and the ability to listen to what
the potential customer actually wants and help guide their buying decision.

I think there is a saying something along the lines that a good salesman
uses his ears more than this tongue.

David.

"David (Normandy)" wrote in message
...

"K" wrote in message
...
"David (Normandy)" writes
A timely reminder! Years ago on a marketing course I was taught to sell
"benefits" not "features". However, it is so easy to slip into the trap
you
mentioned. I was just thinking about a website I am going to design,
promoting some software I'd written recently. The problem being of course
my
detailed knowledge about all the wonderful details of how the software
works
and all it's technical features. The design I had in mind would have
"bored
the pants off prospective customers" instead of teasing them to buy
because
of "what it can do for them".

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get
really frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state
when you have to resort to review sites and other users to find out
factual info that the seller should have told you.
--
Kay

Sorry, I don't think I was clear. Allow me to elaborate. I'm not saying
there should be no details or facts and information, it is a case of where
they are positioned. Take the following scenario for example:

A lady goes into a computer shop and says "My son's family live in
Australia. He says if I get a computer I will be able to talk to him free
of charge on the telephone, send something called "e-mails" and read
something he's got called a "blog".

What the lady wants to buy is not really a computer but a means of
communicating with her family. A good salesman would realise this and
appreciate from her description that she is not computer literate. He
would not just plunge in with something like "Well you've come to the
right place, we've got the latest hardware with choices of Vista, XP, Macs
and even Linux. Pick AMD or Intel processors 32 or 64 bit with anything
from 500 mega bytes to 4 giga bytes of RAM, internal or external or
external high capacity hard drives with fast seek times and more USB ports
than you can shake a stick at!

While the detail should be given if necessary or required, the above would
just confuse the hell out of the lady. If I was the customer my
requirements would be entirely different and a detailed technical
discussion would be appropriate.

With software (or anything else) it makes sense for the opening page (or
sales pitch) to say in a very short summary what it is for and what
benefits people would get from buying it. There can be links (or
discussion) to deeper and deeper levels of technical details. The person
viewing the site (or talking to a salesman) chooses the level of
information that is relevant to them. A good salesman has both detailed
technical knowledge of his products (often lacking in many stores) and the
ability to listen to what the potential customer actually wants and help
guide their buying decision.

I think there is a saying something along the lines that a good salesman
uses his ears more than this tongue.

David.

When I am approached by an Association to organise their reunion, I ask a
lot of questions as to what they want. 'No two Association's reunions are
the same' http://www.iowtours.com/whatwecando.asp refers ;-))

And I quite agree with you about the old lady who 'just wants to send
emails', my point with my example of the Telephone salesman.

"You have two ears and one mouth. You should use them in the same
proportion"

Mike


--
www.rneba.org.uk for the latest pictures of the very first reunion and
Inaugural General Meeting. Nothing less than a fantastic success.
The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association if you served in the Electrical Branch of the Royal Navy
www.rneba.org.uk to find your ex-Greenie mess mates
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will have a Stand

I think there is a saying something along the lines that a good salesman
uses his ears more than this tongue.

David.


"You have two ears and one mouth. You should use them in the same
proportion"

Mike


Yes! That's the saying I was thinking of.

David.

In article ,
"David \(Normandy\)" writes:
|
| A lady goes into a computer shop and says "My son's family live in
| Australia. He says if I get a computer I will be able to talk to him free of
| charge on the telephone, send something called "e-mails" and read something
| he's got called a "blog".
|
| What the lady wants to buy is not really a computer but a means of
| communicating with her family. A good salesman would realise this and
| appreciate from her description that she is not computer literate. He would
| not just plunge in with something like "Well you've come to the right place,
| we've got the latest hardware with choices of Vista, XP, Macs and even
| Linux. Pick AMD or Intel processors 32 or 64 bit with anything from 500 mega
| bytes to 4 giga bytes of RAM, internal or external or external high capacity
| hard drives with fast seek times and more USB ports than you can shake a
| stick at!

And exactly why it it any better to say "This runs the latest
version of Microsoft Vista and can do everything you need"?

Putting her off computers for life is more ethical.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In reply to Nick Maclaren ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

latest version of Microsoft Vista and can do everything you need

I can spot an oxymoron a mile off.

In article ,
"Uncle Marvo" writes:
|
| latest version of Microsoft Vista and can do everything you need
|
| I can spot an oxymoron a mile off.

Sadly, Uncle Marvo, you are in a minority, being capable of recognising
an oxymoron and acting thereupon.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Nick Maclaren ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

latest version of Microsoft Vista and can do everything you need

I can spot an oxymoron a mile off.


Agreed. Unfortunately I need to buy a Vista pc so I can do software
installation tests on it. Beyond that it turns out Vista would be completely
useless to me as it is incompatible with most of the important software that
I use on a daily basis. I can't help but wish Vista dies before I have to
buy it.

David.

"David (Normandy)" writes

"K" wrote in message
...

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get really
frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state when you
have to resort to review sites and other users to find out factual info
that the seller should have told you.

Sorry, I don't think I was clear.

I wasn't targeting you, your post was just a convenient hook for a
general rant ;-)

While the detail should be given if necessary or required, the above would
just confuse the hell out of the lady. If I was the customer my requirements
would be entirely different and a detailed technical discussion would be
appropriate.

But that's what you don't get from most web sites.

With software (or anything else) it makes sense for the opening page (or
sales pitch) to say in a very short summary what it is for and what benefits
people would get from buying it. There can be links (or discussion) to
deeper and deeper levels of technical details.

Too often, there are not.

The person viewing the site
(or talking to a salesman) chooses the level of information that is relevant
to them.

That's the ideal. But too many websites don't allow you that choice. I
suppose that it's to try to turn you from someone browsing a website and
rejecting a product on the basis of the spec to someone who is in direct
contact with a salesman who can then try to reel you in.


--
Kay

Yeah, and those of us who want to know more than empty promises get really
frustrated because there's not a spec in sight. It's a sad state when you
have to resort to review sites and other users to find out factual info
that the seller should have told you.
--
Kay

Further to my other reply, I do agree there is a general lack of
availability of detailed specs for lots of things.
Recently I've been trying (without success) to buy a new, high spec, Vista
notebook computer that I can also install Linux Ubuntu on. It would be
really nice to source one knowing that the hardware drivers for Linux
existed for it, instead of hunting around after purchase and not getting all
the important ones.

I usually buy HP hardware and tried a pre-sales enquiry to HP asking if they
could recommend any of their hardware that fitted the bill, but they
eventually sent me a very short email saying in effect "no - we can't be
bothered". It has cost them an immediate sale and the loss of a long term
customer.

David.