Back at the Music Store - How a Sales Pitch Almost Cost a Customer Her Dream...

Back at the Music Store...

 

Every Monday morning, I showed up to our weekly sales meetings clearing cobwebs from my head. If I was lucky, we’d had gigs all weekend. If I was less lucky, we’d spent hours practicing in my buddy Ron's basement.

 

Let me introduce our sales crew. First, there was Dennis, the store manager, who was deadly serious about his career. Dennis was a music major who originally dreamed he would direct a high school band. I'm not sure where reality diverged from his dream, but there he was, running a store and showing fifth grade kids his skills on the clarinet and saxophone.

 

Then there was Dean, who once wanted to be Billy Joel, but instead of becoming the Piano Man he became the piano manager. He was responsible for making sure all of the pianos were ready to go, and it was his job to assess a buyer’s needs and help them decide which piano to buy. Dean had planned to be a pianist and a performer. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in piano performance.

 

There was Little Joe who, like me, was a guitarist in a band. His band was the typical Top 40 band that played around town at the time. Joe had decided to learn bass guitar, and one day he confided to me, “I'm going to learn to play bass by memorizing all of the bass lines on the Doobie Brothers albums.”

 

There was Rick, one of the branch store managers and a trumpeter and singer, who had his own 40s style big band. He was a nice man who didn't buy into all of the sales training, but despite that (or maybe because of it) his store did well. Mike, another guitarist, worked for Rick. Mike had a band to earn a little extra spending money, and was committed to a career selling musical instruments. 

 

Randy, the warehouse worker, was responsible for receiving everything the trucks delivered, unpacking it, and take it to the showroom. Randy was a terrific jazz and fusion drummer, and possibly the nicest person you’ll ever meet. The store had a little alley next to the building that was on a steep hill, when there was ice and snow Randy would challenge everybody to race him and his VW Beetle up that hill.  

 

 My first week at the music store, Dennis took the time to let me know that as the newest salesperson, I was inheriting a few tasks from him, the second newest. It was my job to dry mop the tile floors, vacuum the carpet in the piano department, and fill the Coke machine every day. I’d have to come in early every day to get it all done, but when I filled the coke machine, I could have one free soft drink. Dennis and Russ would also teach me to sell the right way.

 

At first, I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. I’d get discounts on instruments, so I could get a new amplifier to replace the one that had self-destructed—I hadn’t realized that driving it with all the knobs at 10 could destroy an amp—and I’d learn to sell the right way. This was awesome!

 

 In one of the first training classes, Russ told us,

“You gotta pitch ‘em! And your pitch is made up of features and benefits.”

 

He explained that people buy for features and benefits. Features are the unique aspects of a product—for instance, a piano might have a special Sitka Spruce soundboard or a stiff or a loose keyboard action, and a guitar might have bronze strings or a cutaway. Benefits are what the customer gets out of those features. A great soundboard could make a piano sound rich, or a stiff action might make a piano less touchy and more precise. We had a very lively discussion about this, and Dean let us know he sold a lot of pianos with this technique. Dennis talked about how the features and benefits of a good trumpet would put money in your pocket. Rick just sat there listening, with his arms crossed—I didn’t think he was buying it.

 

I left that meeting feeling motivated. I began studying our instruments, and of course, I gravitated to the guitars. A Les Paul Deluxe had mini-humbucker pickups, a mahogany body with a maple wood cap over the front of it, a rosewood fingerboard, etc. The benefits? If you wanted a bright-toned electric rock guitar that would hold a note unusually long, you’d go for the Les Paul Deluxe.

 

A Martin D-28 had a spruce top, rosewood back and sides, and a rosewood fingerboard; Martin called its large body a Dreadnought—now that sounds like a warship! Benefits? The D-28 was a big, bold instrument that you could play hard and loud. They improved as the wood aged, and they could take a beating as you travelled, making them a favorite of the rock and bluegrass crowds. I pored over these features and benefits.

 

One day, a young woman came in to the store and taught me a lesson I would never forget. She was looking for an acoustic guitar for her boyfriend. She was obviously so in love, and could tell me all about her boyfriend’s preferences. He was big guy who didn't know how to play guitar, but would love to play for her. She hoped he would learn to play romantic songs like Angie or Stairway to Heaven. She gave me a ballpark on her budget—she couldn’t afford to spend a lot, but enough to get a decent acoustic guitar. I settled on a nice imported acoustic and began explaining all of the features and benefits:

 

“This is a great entry-level guitar that your boyfriend will be able to play for a long time. One of the main features of this instrument is its spruce top; spruce is a rich, complex wood that breathes and improves with age. The longer he plays this, the better it will sound. The back and sides are laminated with a rosewood veneer, which not only looks pretty, but it means the guitar is sturdy and will never warp. Not only that, but it reduces the cost to make the guitar, making it so affordable! The neck is mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard. It has a slim taper and will be easier to play than larger, more rounded necks. It comes with roundwound bronze light gauge strings that will ring out when he plays them, and this really nice instrument will only cost $289.00.”

 

Features and benefits—I had made my first real sales pitch! I really wanted to sell her this guitar; I wanted her to have that romantic, guitar playing boyfriend of her dreams. I wanted this so bad, I decided to go to my manager and ask, no beg for the biggest discount he would allow. I suggested, "Hey, I have an idea! I want to make this a great deal for you. How about if I go to my boss and see if I can get him to give you an extra discount?"

She thought that was a great idea, so I went off to find Dennis.

 

 "Dennis, I need your help,” I said. “I have this really great young woman who wants to surprise her boyfriend with a new guitar. How much can I discount it?"

 

Dennis responded, "Did you tell her about the spruce top?"

 

"Yes."

 

"The laminated back and sides?" Dennis asked.

 

"Yes, sir!”

 

"Did you tell her about the 5 year warranty?"

 

"Yep."

 

He then queried, "All the features and benefits?"

 

“Yes!” I was getting excited, “and I think she's really ready to buy, she just needs a nudge and I'll bet she gets out her wallet.”

 

Dennis thought for a moment. “Ok, I shouldn't do this, but you're new and I want you to close a sale. What's the listed price?”

 

I answered quickly, knowing I was about to close a sale, "two hundred and eighty-nine dollars."

 

Dennis punched some numbers into his desk calculator. He looked at the answer and for a second it looked like he reconsidered giving me the discounted price. But then he looked up and said, "Ok, you can sell it for two hundred and thirty-one dollars and twenty cents. Go get it!"

 

I was walking on air. I knew I was going to sell the young woman this guitar and make her happy, and I was already counting my 10% commission. I strutted into the guitar area with a big smile on my face… but she was gone! She had left the store while I was talking with Dennis.

 

I was crushed. I had done what I was taught. I’d given her every feature, every benefit, but she had bailed on me.

 

I complained to Little Joe, "Joe, you won't believe what just happened! I did everything Russ taught us and gave a great pitch, then I went to Dennis and got an extra discount, but the customer just walked out before I could give her the special price." Joe just shrugged and went on about his work.

 

What happened?

About four months later, another young woman came into the store looking for a guitar for her boyfriend. I asked her about what she wanted in an instrument, how much she wanted to spend, all the standard questions.

She responded, "I want to buy a guitar for my boyfriend. I know he would love it, and I hope he'll eventually learn to play some of my favorite romantic songs for me."

 

That all rang a bell. Was this Groundhog Day? Then she added, “I came in here a few months ago when I first had the idea, and this guy wanted to tell me how the guitar was made—he gave me so many details and pushed me so hard that when he left the room, I got out of here as fast as I could. I hope you're not going to do that to me."

I was shocked, but I kept my composure, and responded, "Hmm, that sounds bad. What would you like to know to help you pick one?"

 

She replied, "I don't want to spend over $280.00, and I want to hear how the guitar sounds. I want to make sure it’s a good fit for the type of music he wants to play for me, soft ballads.”

 

I got it. She had a dream, a boyfriend who would bring romance through the guitar. I knew just what she wanted to hear. I tuned the guitar in a way that I could try to help. I turned the tuner on the sixth string down, down to a D, Then the third down, down to F#. One by one I retuned all the strings until I had a DADF#AD tuning – a D chord! I began finger picking softly until the notes of a popular Allman Brothers tune, “Little Martha” began coming from the guitar. She had a bit of a far off look in her eyes – she was imagining her boyfriend holding the instrument, playing for her, as I plucked the last notes of Little Martha, and well since the guitar was already in this tuning, the guitar just seemed to segue into another ballad- “Sweet Melissa.”

 

Knowing many, loving none,

Bearing sorrow havin’ fun,

But back home he’ll always run

To sweet Melissa…mmm..

           

She walked out with the guitar she wanted, and I even threw in a voucher for four free lessons.

 

I'll never forget that conversation. I learned a lot from her. I had given her a sales pitch full of features and benefits and well... because I’d pushed her, she had to wait months to get what she wanted. Her lesson to me? Just have a conversation with people,if they have a dream and if you can help them, by all means go ahead and help them realize it.