I recently described a very persuasive colleague to my boss as someone who could sell ice to an Eskimo. Now we all know that Eskimos are surrounded by ice. It would take a lot of motivation to sell them ice … unless you’re exceptionally good at listening to your customer.
In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, blogger Garrett Hollander shares a story about someone who actually did sell ice … well maybe not ice, exactly, but a similar item … to an Eskimo. Read on to learn how he did it.
Hollander’s post talks about a Westinghouse salesman who sold freezers to Aleutian Eskimos in Alaska. These were deep freezers and refrigerators and the salesman’s prospects lived in some of the most treacherously cold regions in the world.
You might ask, “Why don’t Eskimos just put their food in some sort of outdoor storage? It’s free and it’s sub-freezing year round.” The challenge for the Eskimos was that their food was actually freezing too cold. If left outside, the food would be frozen at a temperature far below that of a freezer. It became hard as a rock and took too long to thaw for use.
So, as it turns out, the Eskimos purchased freezers to keep their food warmer than outside temperatures.
For salespeople, there are two important lessons in this story, as Hollander explains. First, people may not use your products in the way you think they might. It might be worth a little time to put together a thought experiment on how the most unlikely of prospects might benefit from your products or services.
Next, the core focus of selling should be on the prospect’s needs and not your products. Rather than explaining all the benefits of a freezer in the traditional way (it keeps perishable food frozen), this salesman sought to first understand why the Eskimos needed freezers.
In The Practice of Management, Peter Drucker wrote about this type of sale. He said, “To sell the Eskimos a refrigerator to keep food cold, is finding a new market; to sell a refrigerator to keep food from getting too cold is actually creating a new product.”
As you reflect on this story, think of your own customers. Could they use your products or services in ways that you have not yet thought of?
Source: Garrett Hollander serves as the director of content strategy for SalesStaff, an appointment-setting service for B2B sales. In that role, he serves the sales and marketing community with premium content, posts and ideas around various topics related to B2B sales. In addition, he manages SalesStaff’s social media presence, building a strong community of like-minded sales and marketing professionals.
