I have written six articles on sales. But, one topic I did not cover was patience and just listening. Sometimes, you don’t have any choice because your customer does not stop talking. And a deal is made by just shutting up. They will talk themselves in and out of the sale and all you have to do is wait for the dust to settle
I was going through some of the old articles on my computer and I ran into this one which was published at the time in Travel Agent Magazine. I think it was under the category of “Be Nice To Your Travel Agent Week” or something like that. It made me laugh all over again. This was an actual conversation that went on in my office word for word.
This lady was a regular client of the travel agency and was seen as she was parking her car. I heard some of my staff discussing whose “turn” it was to handle her. Margie lost.
“Margie! It’s so great to see you! You look terrific. I came in to talk to you because I wanted to go to Canada. Shelley and I have been talking about it. It sounds terrific. But I don’t know what to do. I talked to Shelley and he said, well, it’s the money you know and I said, listen, you’ve been working hard all year. You know. He’s a sick man, Shelley. Shelley’s a very sick man. And I mean, I said to Shelley, if he didn’t smoke he wouldn’t have those circulation problems. We went to the store the other day and I said, Shelley, sit down. Sit down, Shelley. You look terrible. Anyway we want to go to Canada and Linda came over the other night and she said, Ma, go to Canada. It would do you both good. You know my daughter Linda. Well, she got so beautiful. You met her. I mean, I can’t understand it. I mean, thirty-three. I don’t know what she’s looking for. I said to her, Linda, I don’t care if you are happy. You got to get married. And I said to Shelley, that’s a girl. She says, go to Canada.
So we’re thinking about what we should do. I don’t know if we should go straight to Toronto. I don’t know. Quebec is nice. What do you think? My friend, she said, go to Quebec. It’s terrific. She said, stay in the Chateau Frontenac. But you have to be careful. She said it’s a terrific place but you can get in a closet.
You remember last time we went to Boston. You gave us that room for fifty-five dollars. And I said to the woman, I said, listen, I want to be up where I can see the river and she said for the river she gets eighty-five dollars. And I said no river’s worth it to me. So we stayed in the room for fifty-five dollars. What do I care? I mean you look at a river. You look at a parking lot. But on the way back, when we stayed there again, I said, how about the river? And she said, you got it. For fifty-five dollars she gave me the river.
But getting back to Canada. I don’t know the date. I’m not sure if we can leave on the 14th or the 24th. I said to Shelley, Shelley, make up your mind. Shelley, talk to your boss. Find out. When is your vacation anyway?
Do you need a date to book it? I mean, couldn’t you call them? You’ll tell them, look, she doesn’t know. She’s either coming on the 14th or the 24th. We don’t know yet. She has to talk to her husband and he’s got to talk to his boss so we don’t know.
Anyway, I’m going home. I’m cooking. I don’t have to. Shelley doesn’t make me cook. But I said to Shelley, I’d rather go out to a terrific place once a week than every night to a nothing.
But, I’m glad we got this all set up now. Shelley will be happy. I’ll tell him what we did. And we’ll see what Shelley thinks.”
P.S. She came in and she bought the trip to Canada.
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The two most important things I learned in sales is “no” and shutup. Maybe I learned from you!!! Great advice.
Helen