Educate vs. Sell
You may have already heard this story, but it hit home for me.
Nikola Tesla visited Henry Ford at his factory, which was having some difficulty with a machine. Ford asked Tesla if he could help identify the problem area. Tesla walked up to a wall of boilerplate and made a small X in chalk on one of the plates. Ford was thrilled and told him to send an invoice. The bill arrived, for $10,000. Ford asked for a breakdown. Tesla sent another invoice, indicating a $1 charge for marking the wall with an X, and $9,999 for knowing where to put it. True or not, this story is a perfect example of good value for money.
There are times I like to complete DIY projects because of the pride I can take in a job well done. Even as an accomplished DIY’er there are times it is best to let “Experts be experts”. We all have a skill or two we excel at, and we also know there are times to pay people for their knowledge and years of experience.
I recently had an old pop machine quit cooling properly. I asked for some advice on who could possibly help and was referred by several people to one individual. I called and he came out. Within 5 minutes he knew what was wrong and how to correct the issue. He drove approximately 30 miles each way and when he was done, I asked “What do I owe you?”. His response was $50.00. I thought there is no way that can be enough. His response was “I really didn’t do anything but point out the problem to you”. What he might not have recognized is that his knowledge saved me a ton of time and effort. I doubled his asking price. It was WORTH it for me pay him for his expertise!
On to a recent story regarding us at Intelligent Wireless Management…..
One of our best customers was lured in by another company offering lower pricing for their services. The decided to give them a 60-day trial. After 21 days they returned to us, and I had to ask why? The stated that although the price looked good on paper, they simply were not getting their requests handled in a timely fashion resulting in lost productivity and ultimately costing their business more.
This got me thinking, what do we do differently. The answer lies in the difference between “educating customers” vs. “selling customers”. If all you’re doing is making sales, you might say yes to everything and not do what’s best for the customer, and that’s often what happens with door knockers, their goal is to sell you and move on. If you live in Central MN and had recent storm damage from hail, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Within hours of the storm hitting our area, storm chasing sales reps were out door knocking trying to be the first to make the sale. They may not care to educate you about what they are doing or why, and you might be hard-pressed to find them if you aren’t satisfied with the finished product. The same can be true in our business when you get call centers offering to handle your services and “save you money”. At Intelligent Wireless Management, we educate our customers, we tell the truth, even if it means we can’t say “yes” to everything you want, or we don’t make the sale, but know this: we always act in your businesses BEST INTEREST! When customers are educated, then they can make good choices.
We can’t thank our clients enough for believing in us! We would love the opportunity to “Partner” with you and EARN your business – EVERY DAY.
