When people hear the word “research,” they often picture a stereotypical academic, self-isolated and divorced from reality. That isn’t me. The research I’m interested in is real-world stuff. It isn’t abstract or confusing. It should represent our collective best attempt to obtain a deep understanding of the daily concerns of our lives. Here’s what I learned during my doctoral study of salespeople who sell more than 240 cars per year:
- They are deliberately different than other salespeople. They put effort into not being typical.
- They have good work habits. They keep themselves organized and prioritize customer contact over socializing with coworkers.
- Most of them are customer-, rather than sales-oriented. This means that if a choice has to be made between having a happy customer, or making the most money possible, they will choose the happy customer.
- >240 car/year people have high interpersonal skills based on many interactions. Average salespeople don’t even want to role play or rehearse. Management doesn’t push the issue.
- High performing salespeople create their own performance. Management would rather they followed the standardized road to the sale. Average and compliant is safe.
- Managers almost never use high performers as role models other than for their work ethic. This is in spite of high customer satisfaction and high repeat and referral business.
- High performers are considered lone wolves.
Is anything about this research shocking, or surprising? Welcome to the world of empirical research. A closer look often reveals truths that differ from our intuition. Here is some other research you might want to check out:
- High intention shoppers who experience high control buy more frequently than high intention shoppers who experience less control.
- Discussing price relative to invoice showed better results than discussing price relative to MSRP.
- Price negotiations make customers anxious.
