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Met a client at a coffee shop in Austin last Tuesday who changed my whole pitch
She looked at my deck and said, 'You don't actually think social media works for my plumbing business, do you?' Made me stop and really think. I was just selling the same package I offer everyone. Had to admit I didn't have a real answer for her. Anyone else had a potential customer call them out like that?
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davis.noah1mo ago
Three years ago a car mechanic in Denver asked me "is this the same stuff you showed the bakery yesterday?" and I literally had NOTHING to say because he was right. That one question completely wrecked my one-size-fits-all script and honestly it was the BEST thing that ever happened to my sales.
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cora5181mo ago
That "is this the same stuff you showed the bakery yesterday" line hits hard. My buddy Matt had almost the same thing happen at a hardware store. He was pitching some cleaning product to a manager. The guy just pointed at the shelf and said "you sold me this same bottle last month, saying it was for office desks." Matt froze. He had been using the exact same pitch everywhere. After that, he started actually asking people what they needed first. His sales went way up. He still jokes about that hardware store guy being his best teacher.
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taylorshah1mo ago
That's wild, reading your story makes me feel seen honestly. My own wake-up call came from a mechanic too, not a sales thing but just someone calling me out for being lazy about how I was talking to people. It's like you think you're being clever with a one-size-fits-all approach, but the moment someone actually pays attention, you get completely busted. Good on you for taking that and actually learning from it instead of getting defensive. Some people would just get mad at the customer, but you listened instead. That's the kind of thing that really sticks with you and changes how you work.
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