Honesty - Why It’s Always the Best Policy  by Scott Quinn

This article was originally going to cover the recent Bass Extreme clinic held last month with Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey, but Jeff beat me to it! So, I figured I’d get back to my retail sales roots and discuss the most important aspect to sales: honesty!

While I was learning everything I could about the latest foot pedals, guitar models, pick-ups, amps, and the ever-changing technologies of the rock ‘n roll biz, I realized I could not tend to everyone’s needs, as I didn’t always have the correct information. This led to my need of a constant flow of information from outside sources. And who provided this information? For the most part, it was the reps who would call on me, selling me their various wares. Now a lot of company representatives know their products well, and are quite capable salesmen. But over time, others became suspect. I’ll never forget a certain salesman who would constantly bad-mouth the opposition to his product line, only to find him years later peddling the very line he was bad-mouthing last time I saw him!! Like I’m supposed to forget everything he said about how “bad” this line was in the past, now that he was selling it

AHHH! SALES!

But it got worse. There is nothing more damaging then pitching a line filled with lies, only to have the lies passed along. This is exactly what happened to me. I remember a certain salesman coming into the store to sell his line of amplifiers. I remember telling him that I had gotten lots of calls for another line of amps that, of course, he didn’t sell. He responded, saying “Oh Scott, did you know that there was a recent blind amp comparison of the amp brand YOU are looking for, against our amps?” I said, “Really? How did they do it?” He replied, “Well they put all these amps behind a curtain and let these top-name players try to figure out which amp was what, and you know what happened? They picked our amp thinking it was the line of amps you were looking for!” I said, “Ok, let me listen to one.” So, I listen - it sounds pretty good - and I buy some. Then, armed with this information, I proceed to tell the same “behind the curtain” story over and over again to my customers, and sell the amps. So far, so good right? Well, years later I become a Southern California rep for Charvel/Jackson guitars. I attend a sales meeting with all the reps, and lo-and-behold I meet up with the same salesman who sold me those amps, as he also is now with the competing company! We start to talk about the product and sales techniques. Then he proceeds to say something like, “You know, Scott, you have to tell the customer what he needs to hear!” I ask, “Well what do you mean?” He relates, “Remember years ago when you told me you wanted that name amp line and I told you the story about the amps behind the curtain?” I nodded yes. He said, “Well I just made it up so you would buy the line!” I said, “So you lied to me, just to sell your amps, and MADE ME, in turn, lie to every one of my customers?” He got quiet, and I said, “So that’s how you sell, with lies, making other people liars like you?” Needless to say, it got real quiet, and I soon left.

THE LESSON

Be true and talk about what you know. ‘Cus when you lie to sell a product, your customers in turn lie to others. I recall my boss back at the music store, once instructing me to tell someone on the phone who was asking for him, that he was not in. So, I told the guy on the phone that my boss was unable to take the call at the present time, and for him to call back. When I hung up the phone, my boss said, “I told you to tell him I was not here!” I said, “Well that was a lie! See, if I’m willing to lie FOR YOU, then I’m probably willing to lie TO YOU!” He got real quiet and left! A few weeks later, I actually got a raise.

Getting back to the bass clinic, the lesson they offered was to be true and honest to yourself and others as a musician. When you want to play an instrument, you learn all the techniques and everything you can about your instrument, but when you actually play, you forget about everything and concentrate on expression of feeling and creating music flow. It is similar in sales. First, learn your product, and then the needs of your customer. Then, when you sell, sell the customer based on his needs while being honest and true about the product under discussion.

Well that’s it for this month! Till then, “Say it like it is, and live it like ya say!”