More on How to Wow Customers
Posted on 11/04/2025 in Selling SkillsAs mentioned in our prior blog, we’re excited to announce that our book titled "How to Wow Customers and Grow Your Business" will be available by January 1. A series of blogs will be released on our webpage www.peaksellinginc.com to give a preview.
Here is an excerpt: Average sellers make several common mistakes when trying to grow their business. I’d like to share a story of an actual sales call that illustrates some mistakes.
To provide some context, this sales call took place shortly after we started our company. We decided to purchase a copier so that we could produce the workbooks internally for our sales training workshops. I set up appointments with different copier companies.
Our first meeting was with a salesperson named Bob. He introduced himself and thanked us for making the time available. So far, so good. A short and positive start to the sales call.
Bob then spent time making small talk with my colleague and me. For example, he noticed my family photo at a ski resort, so he talked about skiing. This part of the sales call is not why this was a bad sales call. He was schmoozing with us - building some rapport - and wasn’t taking a lot of time doing so.
Bob next said, “I know that you’re interested in copiers. Would it be okay to ask you a question?” Now, keep in mind that we’re in the sales training business and believe that one of the most essential selling skills is asking questions. As such, I was encouraged. “Sure,” I said, “what’s your question?”
Unfortunately, this is where the sales call took a turn for the worse. Bob asked, “How much can you lift?”
I said, “Why do you need to know how much I can lift?”
He responded, “I brought the copier with me and need your help to get it into the office. I didn’t realize that there were stairs at the entrance to your office.”
My reply was, “I’m not going to help you bring your copier into our office. You’re the first copier company that we’re meeting with. I just want to get information today.”
Bob said, “I’m sorry to hear that. I brought the copier today because prices are going up at the end of the month. You’ll get the current price if you agree to buy before then. You’ll be making a mistake if you don’t act soon.”
The sales call concluded after that comment. We did not buy their copier.
You can probably think of several mistakes that Bob made. For this excerpt, I’ll highlight two mistakes: First, he did not ask any questions about our needs. You cannot sell more to existing customers or win new accounts if you don’t excel at asking questions.
The second mistake was that he tried to close the sale too soon and too often. I had no confidence that his company and copier would meet our needs. And, then he tried to use price to pressure us to buy.
Our book gets into more detail on how to avoid making mistakes and provides positive examples of things to do instead, such as how to wow customers.