Downsell Me

Another one of those little things that can make the difference between a brand (or salesperson) I want to deal with and one I don't:

I love it when an employee (or even an ad or other communications) openly tells me what I don't need from them.

Last summer, we replaced the gutters on our house. We have a leaf-spewing willow in the yard and were concerned that it would clog the new downspouts. We gave the gutter guy the perfect opportunity to tell us "Oh yeah, you need a special custom-made gutter, plus a special screen to go over it, and some blockage-clearing doors, and..." Instead, he basically said "Most of that stuff is unnecessary in most cases. There's no reason to sell you any more than a basic screen installed on the worst parts of the roof." His honesty got him the sale. And we've made it through a pretty heavy Fall, Winter, and Spring without any problems whatsoever, so it looks like he was right.

I think this is a sign of an essential difference between the "sales" and "marketing" mindsets. "Sales" can be very short-term focused -- "How much can I sell to this customer right now". "Marketing" tends to be longer-term and bigger-picture "What will help get the customer to gladly say 'Yes' to the sale AND will likely get them to refer me to their friends?"

But even ignoring the long-term benefits: In the above example, another roofing company DIDN'T get my business; largely because they tried too much upselling. Although most of the extras they proposed were optional, the overall impression was still "These guys are trying to sell me everything they can, rather than what I really need".