Once upon a time there were 2 salesmen selling horses, buggies, wagons, and accessories to the residents of the kingdom…. One a brave knight who knew no fear, felt no rejection, and closed every deal for a big profit…. The other one… the brave knight’s squire… he has much to learn about being a sales warrior, turning a profit, and dealing with rejection…..
The knight rode to battle on a beautiful new black horse named “Mercedes” with polished chrome hooves, blinged out tack, and heated seats on his saddle.
His squire rode to battle on a second hand pony named “Chevy” an older, higher mileage pony he bought from his brother a few years back.
The knight instinctively knows which customers are ripe for the picking…. he goes in for the kill…. demo’s his product… closes the deal, and turns a healthy profit for the company.
His squire, following the knights lead asks a customer if he “needs help” only to find out that they were “just looking” – he hands them some brochures… and moves on to the next customer, just then noticing the cuts and bruises his ego has sustained…. after an hour of selling he finds that the next customer has no credit, and can’t purchase a bag of oats, let alone a new horse, so he bids them farewell and wearily retreats back to his base to heal his wounds and prepare for the next battle….
The knight, energized from his sale, hit the carrier pigeons hard, cold pigeoning every potential customer in a 30 mile radius, starting with past customers while the squire was wasting time on non-buyers. Now he has an appointment with a local land baron who is interested in a large draft horse, but is concerned about hay mileage. The knight, anticipating the objection, counters smoothly that the larger horse is actually more efficient for the work that he does because with the added size comes more pulling power, and off trail traction…. The knight knows that objections are buying signals, and takes them in stride…
His squire has a walk in customer who due to an expanding family is in search of a larger wagon with plenty of comfortable seating for the wife and kids. The squire isn’t getting fooled this time though…. so he spends plenty of time pre-qualifying the customer to make sure he is serious before wasting his time showing him a wagon or a horse to pull it. Frustrated because he feels the squire isn’t taking him seriously, the customer retreats… the squire feeling better about himself now, is glad he got rid of that one before he wasted his time and heads to lunch.
Meanwhile the customer asks the brave knight to help him… desperate for someone to take him seriously just this once… The knight spends some time with the villager, and finds him a sensible wagon within his budget…. the customer leaves happy in his new wagon, the knight captures a nice profit for the company, and the squire complains that the knight “stole his customer”…..
The squire now feeling completely rejected and frustrated decides to talk to another salesperson in the vicinity. He says things like…. “The wagon business just isn’t what it used to be”…. None of the customers are serious, and when I finally get one the Knight steals them. Management just doesn’t care, and I can’t wait to go home tonight and drink some ale… The other salesperson agrees…. he is also jealous of the brave knight’s skills, and is sure that management is feeding him all of the best deals just to mess with the rest of the group…. cold pigeoning is a waste of time, and what’s the point anyways since the brave night gets all the good customers.
The brave knight doesn’t hear any of this… he is too busy spending his downtime following up with unsold customers that he has dealt with over the last few months to get involved in petty gossip with the other salespeople… and instead of winding down and taking it easy the last hour or so…. he plans his next day and gets ready to start off strong… This convinces the squire and the others that the knight feels he is “too good for them” since he won’t sit around soaking up their negativity. He has been rejected by customers, had deals fall through, and had every sort of bad luck imaginable… but he kept his attitude positive, and kept working through everything, there’s no way he will allow their negativity to bring him down….
The squire sees another customer on the battlefield of sales. The knight, knowing that this customer is a good one, instinctively wants to handle the deal… but knowing that he has already had his share for the day, and being a man of honor, decides to give the others one more chance. The squire begins speaking to the customer, but his negative attitude soon becomes apparent, and the formerly eager, happy customer leaves as an angry customer…. never to return?
At the end of the day, the Knight rides Mercedes off into the sunset to his mid sized castle with his beautiful princess, while the squire rides old worn down Chevy back to his parent’s hut. Instead of a beautiful princess, he sleeps on a cold floor with the dogs. They each close their eyes and reflect on the day…. with vastly different perspectives…. and completely different results…..
If you are a salesperson, are you a Knight or a Squire? What habits can you break that would help you become the Knight?
John P. Kaufman is a sales trainer and recruiter based in Cleveland Ohio, and nationally recognized thought leader within the sales and recruiting industries.
