A Salesman Gets An Email Criticizing His Motor Prices, So He Shows The Customer’s Buyer How To Order Parts Directly And Skip The Markup
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It’s always pretty frustrating when someone goes out of their way to criticize you while you’re just trying to do your job.
In the following story, we’ll meet a salesperson who found a way to make the best of it.
After he quoted a replacement motor, a difficult customer emailed to say he’d bought it cheaper elsewhere and praised former employees’ prices.
At first, he let it go. But then, he remembered the man was buying parts from him and reselling them to another customer he already served.
So, when that customer called, he sent over a list of everything his company sold, and the customer quickly realized he could buy directly.
Read on to see how it all played out.
Accuse me of giving you bad prices, I’ll take your whole customer.
I work in sales, and I primarily sell electric motors.
Right before New Year’s, I had a particularly difficult customer (J) reach out to me needing a motor replaced.
He always complains about something, and last week, when I didn’t come to work for a family emergency, he called my coworker and yelled at her because he insisted I should have told him I would be out… because I clearly PLAN family emergencies. You get the point. I sent over a quote and left it at that.
The customer’s reply upset him for multiple reasons.
Right before I leave for the day to enjoy my long weekend, he emails me back. He says, “Just an FYI, ____ and ____ gave me GOOD pricing. I bought the motor from someone else for $400.”
Now, this ****** me off for many reasons. Number one, you’re really going to end my year like that?
Number two, one of the names he dropped is a DECEASEM MAN, as in an old employee who has been deceased for 5 years, and the second employee he named hasn’t worked here in about 12 years.
But, number three, I am a third-party seller. I buy products directly from manufacturers at a discounted cost, and I sell to others with a minimal markup. People buy from me because, to buy directly from the manufacturer, the product would cost 3x what I can buy it for.
Suddenly, he remembered something very important.
My cost for that motor was over $500. The fact that he somehow bought it from another seller for less than my cost… seems shady. He couldn’t have gotten it directly because he has a small business and doesn’t sell enough product to get an account made.
So I ignored his email and let it stew for a couple of days.
Then, something dawned on me. About a week ago, I noticed he bought some parts from me and direct-shipped them to another business that I was familiar with.
Since I primarily sell motors, some people don’t realize we sell a lot more than that. So a customer who buys motors from me (R) was buying parts from this other customer of mine (J), not realizing that guy (J) was buying the parts from me.
Here’s where he fixed the whole situation.
Now, telling (R) this information would have been morally wrong. So I didn’t… not in those words.
Today, (R) called me to order a motor, and when I sent him over some paperwork, I included a line card with all of the other items we sell and other services we offer. I made sure to let him know if there is anything else I can help him with, to give me a call.
Wouldn’t you know, 10 minutes later, he calls me. “Oh, so you sell parts as well?” I said, “I sure do.”
Now he won’t have to deal with an extra charge from going through (J), and I’ll have one less reason to hear from (J) altogether.
Nice! That was some pretty good thinking!
Let’s see what the people over at Reddit think about what he did here.
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This person thinks the set up and execution were both perfect.
Here’s someone who doesn’t see anything wrong with a more straightforward approach.
This is a good way to sum it up.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who changed their minds about donated items, only to return to the shop to find them all sold.
According to this person, the story was satisfying.
The customer could’ve just bought the motor elsewhere and left it at that.
But no! He had to send the email and try to get the last word.
And as far as the salesman goes, he didn’t lie or share anything private. He just let a customer know what his company sells.
If someone wants to save money, then so be it. The other guy should definitely understand that.
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