How Far Would You Go?

I sat a lead yesterday where I was up against Safestyle UK. Pretty standard stuff, but the tactics their sales woman used were astounding.

She did the usual stubborn, don't want to leave your home without an order act. But then told the customers that she would drive around locally and then come back later on to see if they made a decision. Upon telling her that they were seeing another company after her, she asked if she could sit in and watch the other company's sales pitch to see if they were 'talking rubbish'! The cheek! Actually asking to stay in a house your not welcome in to watch another company!

I was the third company they saw that day. During the time I was there she rang the customers twice, first to see if they had gone ahead with me yet, then secondly to say that she would wait in her car outside, wait for me to leave then come back in to drop the price yet again and see if they would make a decision then.

So, later that evening I dropped the quote back off in writing later on that day, and the customer then told me she was there another two hours, asked if she could stay there while the customer picked her child up from school, and proceeded to make the customer late for work! She also said she shouldn't go ahead with us because we didn't bring a sample window out and that they could be buying anything! The customer then informed her that I invited them both to our brilliant showroom!

At what point do companies think that this harassment is the right way to go about dealing with people? They've said they would never go with them, based purely on how she conducted herself, and the utter rubbish she was coming out with about the competition.

Despite this, I do like selling against the national companies, their hard sell and harassing tactics make it very easy for those who take the more laid back approach and don't make customers feel imprisoned in their own homes.

If there are any sales people who work for the national companies reading this and wish to defend their corner, I'd love to hear what you think of this and what should change. Or if you think this practise is acceptable.


Oh, and to top it all off, they offered them an 'E' rated window, something which has been illegal for four months!