What do your customers want?
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•279 views
Why are you still trying to sell fountain pens in a ball-point pen world? Are you the obstacle standing in the way of your customer's decision to buy? Many Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) contractors think that they are doing their customers a service by "educating" them away from making a buying decision. In the end the consumer will buy, they will choose to buy from the person that agrees with them and will support their decision.
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (9)
Similar to What do your customers want?
Similar to What do your customers want? (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (14)
What do your customers want?
- 2. EVERYONE PLEASE PULL OUT YOUR FOUNTAIN PENS…
- 3. IMAGINE YOU OWN A PEN SHOP…
- 4. IF YOU DON’T SELL IT, SOME ELSE WILL.
- 5. WHO OWNS AN IPAD?
- 6. WHO OWNS AN IPAD?
- 7. WHO WOULD HAVE PREDICTED THAT? 1943: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM 1977: "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." --Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corp. 1981: “Cellular phones will absolutely not replace local wire systems.” — Marty Cooper, inventor. 1995: “I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” — Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com. 2005: “There’s just not that many videos I want to watch.” — Steve Chen, CTO and co-founder of YouTube expressing concerns about his company’s long term viability. 2006: “Everyone’s always asking me when Apple will come out with a cell phone. My answer is, ‘Probably never.’” — David Pogue, The New York Times. 2007: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” — Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. Here is a prediction that is true. Alvin Toffler said in 1970 "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
- 8. LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR INDUSTRY…
- 9. LET’S TALK ABOUT OUR INDUSTRY…
- 10. CAN WE PREDICT THE FUTURE? AND FIGURE OUT WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS WANT? Things we know for sure: 1) Urban density will continue to increase 2) Living spaces will get smaller 3) National building code now allows 6 storey wood-frame buildings 1+2+3 = more low-rise multi-family buildings 4) Fuel costs will rise – Hydro will rise more than 2x the CPI and Carbon Taxes are coming to Ontario 5) Energy efficiency requirements will get more stringent and Glenn Murry is pushing for geothermal to make (another) comeback – DV water heaters to be dead next year, atmospheric WH will be dead within 5 years and PV (non-condensing) to be dead in 10 years. 4+5 = Net Zero will be a requirement: You won’t be able to afford to use any extra energy 6) Everything will be connected to the internet 7) Millennials will want to rent/finance/monthly pay everything What don’t we know? If you will close the sale.
- 11. MY BOLD PREDICTION FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR INDUSTRYNOW Now in BC, SOON in ON NOW in QC, SOON in ON
Editor's Notes
- I would like everyone to please reach in to their pocket and take out their fountain pen. What? Nobody has a fountain pen on them? How do you people write anything down? Ballpoints? Don't you know that ballpoint pens are expensive, prone to leak and have irregular ink flow? That's what fountain pen manufacturers said in the 40s and 50s. Anyone want to guess what happened? A fellow named Marcel Bich invested in a new Swiss technology capable of cutting and shaping metal down to 0.01 mm. Then he developed a viscosity of ink that wouldn't leak or clog. Then he put them together and changed his name to Bic and started selling his pens in the US for 29 cents in 1959. In 2006 the 100 billionth Bic Cristal was sold. What happened to the fountain pen? It almost died but because we love things retro it is coming back as a status symbol. By the way, Bic didn't invent the ballpoint pen, Laszlo Biro did. Biro had even been selling them for a decade before Bic perfected it.
- I want you to imagine that it is 1959 and you own a stationary store. A customer comes in to your store and explains that he is fed up with getting ink on his clothes and hands. He tells you that he's heard about a new thing called a Bic pen and he want to buy one. You would much rather sell him the $3 fountain pen that you've been selling than the 29 cent Bic pen that he's asking you for so you offer him a 4oz jar of Ink Nix for $13 and poo-poo the Bic pen.
- But instead of buying a the Ink Nix or a new fountain pen he shrugs and walks out. And he walks right in to your competitor's store and tries again. Eventually someone will give him the thing that he wants. The thing is that he was sold before he ever walked in to your store, all you had to do was close the sale.
- Who owns an iPad? Who owned one 6 years ago? No one did because it didn't exist yet! You didn't know that you needed one until Steve Jobs sold it to you. Initial reaction to the iPad was mixed. Critics said that it would appeal only to older people who don't know how to use computers. The reality is that it swept the educational market, kids love them! They also said that the iPad was geared for media consuming, not creation. Who here is taking notes on an iPad? Who's used Garage Band? They said that it didn't support Flash. Steve Jobs killed Flash because it stinks, now Android doesn't support Flash either. The reality is that the iPad come out of nowhere and "300,000 iPads were sold on their first day of availability.[46] By May 3, 2010, Apple had sold a million iPads;[47] this was in half the time it took Apple to sell the same number of first-generation iPhones.[48] After passing the one million mark they continued selling rapidly reaching 3 million sales after 80 days.[49] During the October 18, 2010, financial conference call, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had sold more iPads than Macs for the fiscal quarter.[50] In total, Apple sold more than 15 million first-generation iPads prior to the launch of the iPad 2.[51] – selling more than all other tablet PCs combined since the iPad's release.[52] and reaching 75% of tablet PC sales at the end of 2010.[53]" From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad> That's for a product that NO ONE KNEW THEY WANTED until January 27, 2010.
- Now all you Android tablet owners are saying "He didn't sell me!" Wrong! Steve Jobs sold you on a tablet and Android closed!
- Let's talk about our industry. Why are you still trying to sell fountain pens in the midst of a ballpoint pen revolution? I want you to think about a technology in our industry that you are currently dead set against. Can you give me some examples of what you think are bad ideas? Here are some that I hear all the time: smart thermostats, tankless water heaters, combi systems… Guess what, the volumes in these categories are going crazy. You can complain and try to convince your customers to buy the Ink Nix, or you can get over it and give them what they want.
- So, what do your customers want? How do you know what they want? Ask them and they will tell you! Someone has already sold them on an idea, don't fight it, they have made it their own. When you tell them that it is a bad idea you aren't disagreeing with the person that sold them, you are disagreeing with them! You're telling your customer that they are wrong. I thought that the customer was always right. So just agree and close the sale.