Confession of a salesman
Page 27
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IDEA that lorry buyers need ore technical expertise from 3aler sales staff (an opinion ex'essed in the trade press reantly) and are actively in'rested in learning about )ecifications and costs could 3t be further from the truth.
The reason is simple. In most ises, lorries are purchased for Jbjective rather than objective )asons, and in all cases, finanal considerations are those tich are most heeded.
The very idea that a vehicle )sting up to £30,000. plus VAT, an be bought before its suitabily for the task in point has been ssured seems outrageous nough. But this folly is ometimes compounded by uyers who have been puruaded, for purely financial 3asons, to go for a certain deal".
So if product knowledge is not xpected of sales reps, what is? or surely, if a man cannot sell le advantages of his product ,ver those of the opposition, len he has nothing left to sell. Again, this is a far cry from eality. What in fact the uccessful salesman is upposed to offer is a "good leal package" which includes a ock-bottom price for his new wry, top price for the clappednit 1971 tractive unit offered as i part exchange, lowest financial nterest rate, deferred payments ind even, on occasion, invoice fates which are tailored to cusomers' requirements.
It is fair to say that while the :hoice of product may still be of ;ome interest, its mechanical atributes have by this time alnost been completely forgotten.
There are, of course, certain ;ound reasons why it is not lecessarily in the manufacturars' best interest that any sales .eps take too intense an interest n the specifications of their lorles. One is that specifications are generally laid out — one might say "dictated" — by manufacturers and that few, if any, real options are available.
Thus the hapless sales rep., when asked about the power of a tractive unit, has the mindboggling choice of offering a powerful, or perhaps not so powerful, engine. This can be backed up with only one gearbox, with possibly a concession in terms of two back-axle ratios.
This approach to lorry building, adopted by all European manufacturers, is the complete opposite of that taken by North American builders, all of whom really do build each truck to the exact requirements of the customer.
For instance, diesel engines from 250-hp to 600-hp may be offered, these coming from three or four different engine manufacturers. There is then an almost endless variety of gearbox and drive axle combinations, a variety equalled by the number of suspension options. In short, each individual component right down to size of alternator bracket, may be selected by the customer who works in close cooperation with his salesman to ensure that the end product will be exactly what is needed.
Only after the salesman has provided a detailed account of the performance of the vehicle, what speed it will cruise at, what grade it will climb and what tare weight it will come in at, is the question of price raised. This is not because the potential buyer is not interested, but because his first priority lies in whether the truck he is buying is right for the job. And not just right, but exactly right, the sort of machine that can be expected to give excellent service over its life.
As a result of the extremely wide range of components offered, lorry salesmen need to be. thoroughly conversant with each and every component from stem to stern of the lorries they are selling. The preparation of a quotation can take several days, particularly if the potential buyer insists on seeing gearshift graphs, axle loading data and so forth, all of which are the responsibility of the salesman.
By way of contrast, the British sales rep. looks to have things easy. After all, how many times is he ever likely to be asked to work out anything more complicated than maximum geared road speed? And even if he were asked to recommend an alternative engine or gearbox, chances are that it would not be available anyway.
So, as indicated earlier, his role is restricted in practice to liaison man between potential customer and truck dealer. In terms of advising on specifications, it is unlikely that the sales rep. will be able to impart any information that is not contained in the manufacturer's sales literature.
And so, being an ex-fitter, a man with dirty hands, who is certainly far more likely to have in-depth knowledge of the product and who may well be better able to advise on specifications, is really a disadvantage when it comes to sales.
This, again, is in contradiction to the suggestion made recently by a consulting company that ex-fitters or similarly qualified personnel are ideal sales candidates in the field of heavy lorries. For it stands to reason that a salesman with a purely mechanical background would be all-too-familiar with not only the strengths, but also the weaknesses of any product he has worked on. And knowledge of this weakness is in itself a danger since one careless slip of the tongue could well jeopardise a deal.
One might argue that such knowledge, when properly applied, could serve the customer's best interests. But then one also raises the touchy subject of honesty or morality, two attributes of which the "successful" salesman is not supposed to be aware.
Despite the fact that lorry specifications seem to be seen as a low priority by some operators, there is still a general assumption that large fleets which employ a fleet engineer select their lorries and tractive units only after considerable research and consultation.
However, a recent survey revealed that in eight cases out of ten, fleet engineers were unable to quote the complete drive line specification, still less were they able to state whether their vehicles were equipped with energy-saving devices such as clutch fans, air dams, or radiator shutters.
That such ignorance of very basic specifications exists at all in larger fleets is worrying enough, but what is more disconcerting to the well-qualified and responsible salesman is the knowledge that any information he feels might be of value will almost certainly fall upon stony ground.
Reinforcing the claim that operators are not over-worried about their choice of lorry is the trend in recent years away from "standardisation" in fleets. Loyalty or allegiance to a particular product or dealership seems to be a thing of the past, and no longer is good service by dealer staff a guarantee that future purchases will result.
This may be because sales staff are migratory by nature and can take customers with them when they move from one dealership to another. But, nevertheless, there is much evidence to support the assertion that technical or mechanical differences between vehicles are of little significance in the vast majority of transport fleets.
As one disillusioned sales rep. put it, "I can't remember the last time anyone asked me for any advice on specification. All anyone is interested in now is bottom line figures. I feel I'm just in the business of seeing how much profit I can give away."