When Exceptions Become THE RULE !

Ever noticed the following???

* When you had to rush to your office, and therefore, thinking that there will be a lot of traffic on the usual route, you took the alternative route. What did you find? Equally congested traffic on the alternate route as well, which, you perceived to be less traveled.

* Remember ! when you bought a dress/mobile/shoe etc. because it was very different than what people usually wear. What happened when you went to the next party? Not less than 5 people having the same mobile... People telling you "Did you buy this dress from XYZ store? I also bought 2 for my brothers."

All these are situations which, initially, make you believe that you are different than others and then give you a shock by telling that 'others are also as different, than everybody else, as you are'. These are illustrations of a simple rule "Viable Exceptions grow into Valuable Rules"

Now consider following example for illustrating the same

* A power steering or power window or defogger was an exception made by one of the other automobile maker and the sales guys used this exception well to sell the product. However, they lost the advantage in less than 6 months time since this exception became a rule. It became a rule because it was viable and useful for people.

* When the world was getting obsessed with bigger and better Villas, someone thought of saving the cost and building multiple houses on the same land to create smaller Apartments. The first apartments didn't find too many takers initially but later this 'viable' exception became the rule. And such a viable rule that many rich also started living in some luxury apartments.

All this makes a lot of sense to me as a sales person. It makes sense because every sale happens on exceptions. One sells a product because it creates a (friendly) exception by facilitating something that no other product does for the client.

A salesman sells you a watch because it has a status symbol (an exception), or it is technologically more advanced (an exception again) or simply because it fits into your budget (one of the most important exceptions as it is strongly linked with every purchase decision). So if your product is cheaper than that of competitors' then you are giving the exception of cost savings to your client (its an exception since no other competitor is able to extend that benefit to the buyer).

Similarly one loses sales orders because he/she is not able to handle some (hostile) exception (which goes against his/her product) tactfully. So if your product is the costliest then this exception goes against you, hence, you need to find another feature which acts as a exception for competitors and has a stronger influence than your exception (which is cost). In the watch salesman case, the status symbol could be a very strong exception if the buyer has paying capacity, otherwise a utility, durability or reference (from other buyers) driven exception would be a good idea. A more durable watch, over a period of time, proves to be cheaper (than a cheaper but less durable watch) if the value is calculated on the average age of the product. A lot of industrial equipments/machines are sold on this exception to overcome their cost disadvantage.

These exceptions could be as simple as saving money or as complex as automated air traffic control software. All that is required is how diligently you think about them and find out way to create a friendly exception and to overcome other hostile exceptions.

Therefore there is only 1 rule in sales that 'There are no rules in Sales. Only exceptions".

Buying is based on rules, selling is based on exceptions. The salesmen create rules (out of exceptions in their products) which guide the buying decision.

Exceptions affect the selling process in 2 ways
a) The sales person's insight into exceptions and how to best utilize them.
b) Understanding the Buyer's perspective of these exceptions.

In a lot of sales calls the salesmen use the exceptions without a thought, some ignore them completely.

I discussed this concept with a friend and i was told that its a little complicated, therefore, I'd like to explain it through many examples. Consider the following

I've been selling internet based solutions for a while now and therefore I've been, positively, opposing print as a better medium to reach target audience. And so do most of my team members. One executive, on a sales call, kept telling the advantages of internet over print media to a client who used print media extensively. After listening to his pitch patiently, the client asked the executive " Does your website go to the doorstep of jobseeker? The news paper does that for me." My friend was speechless over this exception of internet's weakness over the print. And since he never thought of this exception, he never prepared a pitch to overcome this exception.

For a long time we've been selling internet as a superior and cost effective medium to reach target audience in a focussed way. What about a client who just want to be visible to everybody and in a short time. Their challenge is to reach EVERYONE in shrotest possible TIME. Internet doesn't guarantee that an x% of people in a city will see the advertisements in 1/2 days time. This is where this exception of 'reaching to the doorstep' becomes the guiding rule for the advertiser to choose print as a preferred medium.

Now if the sales executive probes the client for his needs, with this exception in his mind, he can address the situation in a better manner, mould his pitch accordingly and suggest solutions which solve the advertiser's problem. In this situation, rather than comparing internet and print media, if the executive would have made a pitch around the mobility solutions available with the jobsite the client would have surely bought the solution. The mobililty solutions available with naukri.com allow the advertiser to send a, pre recorded, voice clip/SMS to thousands of jobseekers (who can be clustered according to various parameters, location also being one of them). This cuts down the cost by 50%, time by 99.9999% (the clip/SMS can be sent to all jobseekers in seconds), and the icing on the cake is that the response is measurable.

But if you try to sell internet in this situation then its against the Rule: the rule defined by the exception that "internet can't reach out to people; the audience has to connect to the internet and no one has a control over that". This is an example not being able to anticipate and thereby inability to tackle a hostile exception.

The key here is the 'Viability' of the friendly or hostile exception. A Non-viable friendly exception doesn't lead to any advantage. I was amused to see woolen knickers in a leading retail sportswear showroom. I couldn’t stop laughing. I would need woolens when I feel cold and if its cold why would I wear knickers ?

Similarly, take example of another exception. One of the service stations announced launch of a customer lounge (where customers can wait till their car is being serviced and can watch TV and have snacks) with a lot of fanfare. Within next 6 months, almost every car service station had opened up lounge for their customers. This exception was so easily reproducible that it resulted in no differentiation or advantage for the person who thought of it. As a matter of fact, someone smarter offered a car pick-and-drop facility to customers (instead of opening a lounge) which was a much stronger exception than the lounge idea (although reproducible with equal ease).

These are examples of non-viable exceptions, features that lead to no where; add no value to the buyer. Your product is different but it does no good to anybody.

There are several other situations where sales people build on non-viable exceptions (trying to build upon a rule over them) or use an exception to sell without a thought. I shall add more on how to create stronger friendly exceptions in next couple of days. Till then... Keep Watching this space!