I was having lunch with a dear friend of mine. The kind of guy who could talk to anyone and made quick friends wherever he went. Gregarious, confident, extroverted.
“How’s the new job going?” he asked me.
“Well, I wanted some advice,” I replied. I had just pivoted in my career as a corporate IT guy and started working at a retail store that sold custom furniture. It was a small business, so I was expected to wear a number of hats. Most of those hats were in my wheelhouse – building out a website, automating business processes with tech, business development. However, there was one area that I was scared to death of: sales.
Sales seemed daunting. As an introvert, I did not fit the mold of the stereotypical, charismatic salesman who could sell sand in the Sahara. I felt like I was simply not the type of person who could ever excel at sales.
I shared my reservations with my friend.
His advice was simple yet profound and was the best sales advice I had ever received. “You’ll be fine. Just learn everything there is to know about your product, and the rest will fall into place.“
I’m a researcher and learner by nature. Working predominantly in IT, I’ve always had to stay current on the latest technologies. Learning everything about our product was a great place to start, and I got right to work.
I started a new notebook and hounded my coworkers to teach me everything. Whenever a customer asked me a question, I wrote it down, whether I knew the answer or not. If I didn’t know the answer, I found out and added it to the notebook.
There was a lot to learn. When selling custom furniture, pieces often had dozens of customization options. I got deeper into all of the intricacies – the hardness and other qualities of each of our woods, what kind of bed frame support different mattresses need, and why the pieces were constructed the way they were.
I quickly found out product knowledge wasn’t just about memorizing specs or customization options. It extended to understanding interior design principles, color harmonies, and how to properly size furniture for a room. And that’s when everything started falling into place.
You may often hear sales advice that sales isn’t about the product; it’s about the relationship. There is a lot of advice out there all about the psychology of sales.
Yet, customers don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to or having sales tactics run on them. They want a salesperson to be helpful. They want them to answer all their questions and guide them through the process. High-pressure sales are rampant in the furniture industry. I was often told how refreshing I was to work with as I quietly wrote up order after order.
That’s not to say psychology isn’t important. It works hand-in-hand with knowledge of the product. I found a big part of my job was anticipating my customer’s needs, sizing up their personality, and adjusting my help accordingly.
If an engineer-type came in with plans drawn up and wanted to have control over every detail, I was there alongside them. Let’s get into the weeds on this!
Maybe someone came in not knowing what they wanted and would get very overwhelmed with choices. In that case, let’s quickly figure out their needs and present two choices. Most customers were somewhere in between – they wanted some choice but not too much!
Eventually, I had a list of questions and answers. I had a huge array of knowledge and decided to share it. I started a “Learning Library” on our website and started writing articles on all the topics I had learned about.
This was a game-changer in two ways. The most obvious is that it gave us a massive leg up on our competition. There are a lot of people who research online before setting foot in a store. They’ll look for the information somewhere; it might as well be on our website! This benefits both of us – the customer is informed, and it builds trust with the business. I could tell when a new customer came in and spent time going through our Learning Library – I barely had to do any in-person sales! Most of the race had been run, and I just needed to take it across the finish line.
The second point is that teaching others bolsters your own learning. When you teach (in this case, writing an article), it deepens your own understanding of a subject. You not only revisit concepts you already know, but you also have to articulate them clearly and logically for someone else. This process often requires you to break down complex ideas into more understandable parts, which can reveal gaps in your own understanding that you might not have noticed before. The stoic philosopher Seneca summed this concept up with his quote: “While we teach, we learn.”
I initially thought sales was a whole new industry from the IT departments I had worked in before. But whenever I joined a new IT Department, I asked for documentation on the systems and network. If there weren’t any (and there usually wasn’t), I would start there. As I learned the system and the business, I would document everything – not only for my own sake but for colleagues and those who would hold my position after me. Sharing knowledge has always paid off for me.
Through these concepts, I excelled at sales. I’m nearly 10 years past that lunchtime conversation with my friend. I have emails and Google reviews from my customers on how helpful and informative I was. How they were tired of high-pressure sales from other furniture stores and found the help and guidance they needed from me.
And my sales numbers don’t lie. I ended up being pretty good at all this after all.
