I’m an Engineer. I am not customer facing. Put my pen back.
“Sorry, this job doesn’t seem like a good fit or healthy working environment. Have a good rest of your day”
Step one: ask what the person’s use case is, then match it. It’s a standard interview trap to present this “sell this pen” thing as a test where the “potential customer” needs to prop up their window or poke a hole in a balloon or something stupid like that, just so they can turn down the people who hype up the writing capabilities. Always ask what they need first.
I sold cars for a year. During the initial onboarding we were asked to “sell a pen” to the trainer.
Everyone jumped right in to selling the qualities of the pen they had in hand.
At the end of the exercise the trainer said, “I’m looking for a pencil”.
The point was, don’t assume what the customer is looking for. Ask qualifying questions and identify 3-5 hot buttons, then based on what should be knowledge of the inventory and inventory of surrounding dealerships (yeah, they’re all connected to some degree), make recommendations that fit their needs.
Then describe all the ways it could fulfill their wants using positive, yes questions. Don’t ask a question you don’t know the answer to. We were taught that it takes 5-10 Yes responses to offset the negative mental energy from a question asked resulting in a No - so we weren’t supposed to mess that up. That was just one of numerous psychological plays we were taught and forced to use or get threatened with being fired or having bonuses taken away.
The whole training series was bullshit. And I say it was bullshit because it sucked playing all these games on people. Yeah, 1/5 of the time it didn’t work because they caught on. But the amount of times it actually worked made me feel guilty and sad.
The amount of times you put someone into a car they couldn’t afford because you successfully sold them on their wants and not their needs was awful.
I quit near the end of that year because fuck car sales and fuck car dealerships. This was 15 years ago, so who knows what it’s like now.
Also, because I assume someone might ask (lol assuming, I fail), this was for a conglomerate that owned 5 used car lots, a Scion lot, a Toyota lot, a Lexus lot, and oddly a Ford & Chevy lot. Last I heard they’re just down to a Lexus lot and one used car lot now. Apparently the mortgage bubble and COVID hit them hard. Fine by me.
This pen is mine but I’ll let you borrow it for a month for free.
After a month it will be $5 per use. Or you can choose an $8/month option for an ongoing pen subscription. Think of that, you only need to use the pen TWICE this whole month to have maximized the pen value.
If you need different pens sometimes, for just $11.50/month I’ll get you access to my other two pen colours. These can be booked online using an exclusive, easy to use app.
Again, pen is totally free right now for one whole month so you can just go ahead and start using it. I just need to grab your credit card information to make future borrowing of the pen as convenient as possible for you.
take the pen and leave. when they ask for the pen back, say it’s $10.
I got a sales job offer on the spot by first highlighting the limited use of a single pen and without extra’s on hand its negative business impacts. Then stated I had tons of pens available in my car and positioned selling them at least 100, but recommended they acquire 1000+ as this prevents potential issues plus gets them a better deal. Pretty solid approach in my experience.
Selling is an art… and this is why I’m not in sales. I have absolutely no interest in trying to convince somebody to buy something.
True sales is just filling a need, sometimes the customer knows they need it but others are unaware of it. Good sales reps will not sell something unless it makes sense for everyone involved.
Sales has fuck-all to do with filling a need. Sales is the invention of problems for which the only solution is the liberal application of money.
Engineering is filling a need.
Oh ok- good luck getting your little field/product/item out into the world all on your own…
Well, you’re clearly not an engineer.
Based on the way you’re attempting to “sell” the role of salesman, you don’t seem to have the skillset required for that role either.
Aspiring mid-level manager, perhaps?
No shitstain- I’m a pilot and don’t have anything to do with either engineering or marketing. I also run my own company. I’m also extremely welltraveled, educated, and experienced. Which is why I know that very obviously an engineer on his own is worthless. Any company without marketing is worthless.any company with only marketing and no product is worthless. Grow the fuck up.
Ok, Captain.
Just out of curiosity, where exactly did I say that salespeople aren’t important? I merely rejected the characterization that salespeople are problem solvers. They are not. Engineers solve the problem, salespeople convince customers that they have the problem.
* teleports behind you with p3n and k1lls y0u * it’s nothing personnel kiddo
Say we only sell pens on pen island.
I worked with the guy who owned https://www.penisland.net/. He actually made some laser engraved pens and pass them around work. Man, Earthlink Cloud in the late 2000s was a blast.
“No, it’s mine, go and buy one by yourself”
And now you’ve got a pen that you didn’t have at the start of the interview, and you’ve given capitalism a lesson of capitalism.
Why would I sell you something you already own? That’s obviously your pen, so I don’t have the rights to try and sell it. That would be a clear ethical violation.
Governments selling shares in nationalised industries to the public …
