In 2016 I went to dinner with my pastor and his wife when a song by the band 'Train' played over the radio. “Don’t you just love this band, Derek?” We were in California and I was feeling pretty free to speak my mind. Not to mention, who lies to their pastor? I couldn’t do it. “Ahhh not really a fan of this band at all,” was my response. What followed was what we would call an extended moment of silence. On one hand I was feeling good about my choice to be honest in that situation and on the other hand I was terrified they were going to ask me who I liked. Luckily they didn’t and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We were on our way to this fancy Mexican restaurant on the coast and to this day these lips have never tasted better chips and salsa. Sorry though, I can’t for the life of me recall the name of the restaurant. I think I was too busy eyeing the parking lot. It was just smashed with nothing but Lambo’s and Range Rovers. This wasn’t your average Chi Chis, this was big time. I remember an open parking spot next to a Pontiac G6 and thought to myself, "we should probably park our rental right there." My pastor and I were on the same page-about where to park that is, not our music choices.
That Pontiac G6 though. Let’s talk about it for a second. If you weren’t living under a rock for the past 40 years you likely know who Oprah is, right? Whew, had me worried for a second. If you know who Oprah is or you don’t know who Oprah is you definitely remember that time she surprised her studio audience by giving each of them a car. Those cars were Pontiac G6’s and there were 276 people in the stands that day. At $28,500 a pop that’s a grand total of $7,866,000 bucks. Whoa…Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure she did the same thing in 2010 as well with a Volkswagen. That’s incredible. All of that talk about a G6 to tell you this (but also just to give you some insight into how my mind works). She started yelling, ok maybe shouting depending on your opinion “you get a car, you get a car, you get a car, everyone gets a car.” If you were in the audience that day you hit the jackpot. Even if you didn’t want to keep the thing you could sell it and turn a 93% profit (remember taxes).
Oftentimes as sales people, especially roofing sales people or home remodeling sales people (actually all sales people) we get inquiries asking about a “free quote.” If you’re in sales you know exactly what I’m talking about and if you’re not in sales you asked for one. Either we don’t realize, we forget or we just don’t care about the effort that goes into producing that quote. For example do you know the average roofing contractor likely pays a third party for electronic measurements of your roof? It could cost as much as $100 to get that quote for you. Heck, I spent a considerable portion of my career in software development and a full quote could take as much as 80 hours to produce. That’s a big chunk of change. And for what? So the customer can just take that quote and use it against another contractor? It’s fine everyone, we all do it.
Some people would say that we live in the era or age of the customer and I would agree. Any piece of information that we want is right at our fingertips and the personal touch of a salesperson isn’t always needed and if it is the value add that we offer is trust. Trust broken down into credibility and reliability. Do you have proof that you can solve my problem? Are you going to do what you said you were going to do? That second one is actually a rule in the Laliberte household. The point is, why beat around the bush with a song and dance, why not just let people know upfront (if you can) the price of what they want? Sure, you might risk being commoditized but at least you won’t be wasting anyone’s precious time.
