Sales Tips of the Month

Selling in a Tough Economy

The Parable of the Apple Tree

The Parable
In a land not too distant, there were two successful apple orchard owners. In both orchards the owners had long faced a crop of abundant fruit. This fruit was so bountiful it could be picked by simply standing on the ground. There were times when they could scarcely sell all the fruit which the lower branches of the tree would bear. Year in and year out, with an abundant harvest they became accustomed to the tremendous amounts of fruit easily within arm’s reach.

By and by, it came to be that one year they went to harvest the fruit only to discover a peculiar event. They had picked the fruit within arm’s reach as they had always done, yet their barrels were nowhere near full! With great alarm the two owners of the apple orchards met and discussed what to do. The first owner decided that he would wait patiently for the fruit to blossom, for this had always worked! Furthermore, he would check the tree more often to see the fruit as soon as it might appear, for the fruit that had always been would surely be again.

The owner of the second orchard decided to try something very new. Since he could no longer fill his barrels with the fruit within arm’s reach, he would build a ladder and climb into a part of the tree which had never been picked previously.

It came to be that the owner of the second orchard used the steps in the ladder to climb into new parts of the tree. He discovered there was fruit higher in the tree – fruit he had never previously needed since the low hanging fruit had always filled his barrels for the market.

The Point
Until recently, there were so many customers wanting to acquire a boat that often the challenge was how to keep up with this wonderful harvest of sales. Picking the “low hanging fruit” or greeting the wonderful supply of customers coming in the front door made for a generally good year of sales. With the flow of customers slowing, climbing a ladder into new areas of sales development has become more viable ‐- at least for some (boating) orchards.

What does it mean to climb a ladder into the apple tree of sales? Each rung of the ladder climbed represents a deeper understanding of selling, personality types, negotiating, follow‐up, growing trust, understanding a customer’s emotional motive (EM), outbound calls that generate inbound customers, how to grow appointments from inbound phone calls, body language, non‐verbal and verbal buying signals, the seven levels of understanding, and the ladder continues with yet more and more rungs.

While this section offers “another rung” of understanding, it seems that talking about the challenges in the market today via a parable might be a way to take a time out and explore a few questions:

• Am I, as an owner or salesperson of an orchard, willing to pull out a ladder?
• Am I willing to try learning behaviors never attempted before today?
• Am I, as a student of learning, open to growing my understanding about selling?
• Am I willing to explore a rung (level) that far surpasses the understanding contained in reaching fruit within arm’s reach?

Marketing
All the marketing efforts of a dealership come down to single moment in time. That moment is defined by what occurs between the customer and the salesperson. Have you, as an owner, manager or salesperson, explored new ways to grow the emotional excitement of boat ownership with a customer visiting your showroom? Have you as a manager listened to a live outbound and/or inbound phone call by a staff member with a potential customer? What new ways could be explored to convert an inbound phone call or internet lead into a showroom visit?

In our next installment of Sales Tip of the Month we climb up the ladder, heading deeper into the apple tree of sales understanding. For now, which orchard owner most represents your approach to harvesting sales?

Written by Glenn Roller, founder of The Glenn Roller Institute, with more than 35 years of retail boat sales experience and teaching, Glenn Roller has authored several books defining, for the first time, the seven levels of understanding in the sales process. For live support, call 877-884-4862.

More Sales Tips from Glenn Roller:
Using Emotional Motive to Sell
Selling at a Boat Show (Part I)
Selling at a Boat Show (Part II)
Selling After a Boat Show