SPIN Selling

I've been reading a book called SPIN Selling by a guy named Neil Rackham. It's about major sales (think several thousand dollars as opposed to a couple hundred...) and what strategies are most successful. The book was first published in 1988 and it tore down a lot of traditional ideas about how to be a good salesperson.

But here's the thing. It says things like: don't be pushy, to try to close too much, don't assume things, don't bore the customer with stupid questions, be respectful, build relationships, be reasonable, help them solve their problems.

Granted, it's a little more scientific than that, based on research of lots and lots of sales calls, and lays out a very specific, very practical method. But I can't help but feel a little like the key to being a good sales person is to not be a jerk. And I wonder why it took until 1988 for people to start saying, "Oh, maybe we shouldn't be jerks" and why it 2010 and people are still jerks.

Neil Rackham tells a story about a guy (a purchasing agent at a company) had a strategy for dealing with jerky sales people. He'd gone through sales textbooks and written on index cards all the different tricks sales people use. And when some punk sales guy would come in and feed him some line, he'd put the corresponding index card on the table. Then he'd say, "You get three chances. When you get to three index cards, I'm throwing you out of my office." Needless to say, people stopped trying to sell him crap he didn't want or didn't need.

It's a good book, though. I've enjoyed reading it, and even though I don't often buy things valued in the thousands of dollars, I feel a little bit better equipped to go into a buying situation. If I ever am in a place where I have to make big purchases for a company or I have to sell several thousand dollars worth of things to make a living, I feel like it's not as scary a thing to do.

America Runs on Dunkin

I have been sitting in Dunkin' Donuts for the last hour watching people come in and out, ordering donuts and breakfast sandwiches and coffee with cream or milk or Splenda. And I have made a great realization about Dunkin' Donuts.

I should first perhaps confess that I have a great love for Dunkin' Donuts. The midwest, or atleast the regions of Iowa in which I resided, were greatly lacking in Dunkin' Donuts. The greater love, it seems, for the residents of those areas is Krispie Kreme Donuts. But to me, Dunkin' is the mark of superior donut-making, of artisan-ship and quality. I can't remember when I first started this passionate love-affair but I can tell you that there were three things I missed most during my time in Iowa: the ocean, the boardwalk, and Dunkin' Donuts.

Sometime while I was departed from this great, Dunkin' Donuts-filled land, Dunkin' began a advertising campaign hinged on the slogan, "America runs on Dunkin'." And I have thought, since returning, "Now, Dunkin' is great, but can we really claim that America runs on Dunkin'? The good people of Ames, Iowa certainly don't."

Today, I have come to believe that this is a perfectly legitimate claim.

You're probably thinking, "Elena, seriously, sitting in Dunkin' for over an hour on a Thursday morning? Why aren't you home sleeping like usual, or doing laundry or scrubbing the tub or baking a three layer banana-peanut butter cake"--I do tend to do these things at strange hours of the day (or night)--"like usual? Out? At Dunkin' Donuts? Your love must be great..."

My love is indeed great. But that's now why I've chosen to be here now. I drove Michael to work today, and rather than driving an hour back home to Vineland and then and hour back to his office and another hour back home, I packed up my bag with lots of reading (and my laptop) and have made myself comfortable in the all-American haven that is Dunkin' Donuts of Northfield, NJ.

See, America does run on Dunkin'. I, being somewhat stranded in this strange, new town have found a safe place to be. And I have watched everything from BMWs, Acuras, and Lexus...es? all the way to dingy AC Repair vans and pick-up trucks pull in to order their morning fix. Through these doors have walked business men in suit and tie, retired folk, moms and summer camp bound kids, secretaries, plumbers, and high-power career women. Dunkin' Donuts is the great equalizer, the place we all come to, regardless of of walk of life, to get geared up for the epic journey that lies ahead of us each day.

Yes, America, we run on Dunkin'. (But what does this say about us that, unlike the Chinese who love a good workout routine in the morning, we all love a good donut?)