I have my cars fixed by an establishment called Don’s Repair. Although this place was a little out of the way for me, Don’s prices were good and when Don fixed something, it stayed fixed. So I started referring some of my friends to Don. They were also impressed with the quality of Don’s service and began referring their friends. As a result, Don’s business began to grow rather nicely.
One day, I was driving around town when my car started making a chugging sound and began to lose power. Gently, I nursed my car over to Don’s Repair. It was a very busy day and I could see when I arrived that he had a lot of work backed up. However, when Don saw me get out of my car, he immediately dropped what he was doing and came over to see what I needed. I raised the hood and started the car so Don could hear the chugging noise. After listening for about fifteen seconds, Don informed me that I had a disconnected hose and that my carburetor was sucking air. He reached down and reconnected the hose to the carburetor. Sure enough, the chugging noise went away. Don, however, burned his hand slightly on my hot engine during the process. Then he put a clamp on the hose so it wouldn’t pull off again in the future.
The whole process took about ten minutes of Don’s time. As he slammed down my hood, I pulled out my checkbook and asked Don what the charge was. Don told me that as I was a regular customer, and it really hadn’t taken him very long, there would be no charge. I argued that his time and inconvenience had to be worth something and reminded him that he did put one of his clamps m my hose. At this point Don looked up at me and said, “You don’t understand, do you?” Being somewhat puzzled, I said, “Understand what?” Don answered, “You are the cheapest advertising I can buy. I know what you are going to do when you leave here—you’re going to tell your friends, and that’s what makes my business grow!”
Don was right. To this day, I carry around a stack of Don’s business cards in my briefcase. And when anyone asks me if I know a good place where they can get their car repaired, the first thing I do is hand them one of Don’s business cards. Then I spend a few minutes telling them how great it is to do business with Don. I am one of Don’s best salespeople and I don’t cost him one cent!
I get the feeling that I’m not the only unpaid salesperson working for Don. During the last three years, Don’s business has grown 600 percent and he has never advertised. It’s strictly word of mouth on the part of excited and satisfied customers. – Ross Reck
References:
Recommended Reading
There’s only one way to become an outstanding success as a salesperson. It’s called repeat and referral sales. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling cars, real estate, insurance, pharmaceuticals, financial services or farm equipment. If you don’t focus your efforts on generating repeat and referral sales, you’re going nowhere as a salesperson. Furthermore, there’s only one way in which you can get your customers to provide you with continuing repeat and referral sales and that’s by turning them into long-term friends. Let me give you an example: Joe Girard was a car salesperson for Merolis Chevrolet in Detroit. For 12 straight years Joe was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s best new car salesperson. During his final year of selling cars, Joe sold 1,425 new Chevrolet cars and trucks! That’s 1,425 new Chevrolet cars and trucks sold by a single salesperson during one calendar year! How did Joe do it? The answer is simple. 65% of his sales were to repeat customers and the other 35% were to customers who were referred to him by his repeat customers. So, the year that Joe Girard got into The Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1,425 cars, how many cars did he actually sell? The answer is NONE! His customers sold them for him. Why? Because Joe took the time to turn each of his customers into a long-term friend. As Joe put it, “I stand in front of my product as well as behind it.” In other words, before you could buy a car from Joe, you first had to buy Joe. He wouldn’t let you buy a car from him until he turned you into a friend. Then, after you bought a car from Joe and you experienced a problem either with the car or someone at the dealership, Joe went to bat for you and personally saw to it that the problem was resolved to your satisfaction. Joe also made it a point to stay in touch with his customers after they bought a car from him; he didn’t forget about them and he made sure they they knew it. Yes, Joe truly loved his customers and they loved him back by providing him with enough repeat and referral sales to make it possible for him to sell more than 13,000 cars in 12 years. As Joe said in his book, How to Sell Anything to Anybody, “All of my customers these days are people who ask for me by name. All of them.” You too can enjoy the same level of success as Joe Girard once you stop focusing on making sales and start focusing on turning your customers into long-term friends.
Leave a Reply