A Gas Station Revelation

Last night I was driving home from the gym and I realized I needed gas. It's a 10-minute drive that I make several times every week, so much that it becomes routine and sometimes I don't even remember driving it. I passed 5 gas stations before I finally stopped at the one right around the corner from where I live. When I passed the 3rd gas station, which is newer, nicer looking, bigger, cleaner, and cheaper than the one near my house, I actually had a noticeable urge to go to the place near home instead; the same one I go to just about every time I need gas, a bottle of water, newspaper, pack of gum, etc. The wheels in my head started turning. "Why," I thought to myself, "would I not just stop at the nice one?"

2 Reasons:

First - Habit. Just like everyone else, I tend to do things that I already do on a regular basis. We program ourselves to repeat behavior without having to think about it.

Second - Social Anxiety. Okay, so maybe that’s a little bit of a stretch. But the fact is that I would rather go somewhere that I’m comfortable, with faces I’ve seen before. The girl that usually works the register at the gas station near home isn’t particularly nice or efficient, and definitely doesn’t give me anything for free, but my natural inclination is to deal with someone I already know.

This week I am scheduled to start calling on contractors in our territory to try to establish relationships and promote new business. I’ve been thinking about all the sales tactics I know; choosing my words wisely, offering choices, asking questions, finding the decision maker, and so on. I've been focusing on all the things that are taught and detailed so often in sales meetings and publications. I have been a little stressed hoping that I know enough about our product and company to be able to answer technical questions that my customers may ask and look confident enough to be trusted.

But last night I had a small epiphany.

My customers are just like me. They will inevitably do the same things over and over again and will deal with someone whose face they recognize if they have the chance.

Even without employing any of the basic sales techniques, I will get some business if I just continually put myself in front of my customer. What that means to me is that I should call on them regularly. Even if they tell me that they don’t need my service, that they already have somebody, that my prices are too high, I need to make myself the gas station that they always go to. Eventually they will place an order and they will feel comfortable doing so because they are comfortable with me. Once they have placed the order though, the job changes; I stop constructing and start maintaining. I’ll get into that on another day.