Christmas Time Commodity

October 20th, 2009

I don’t know about everyone else, but my wife’s family starts to gather Christmas lists and begins to shop in the month of October.  It seems like every year it becomes more difficult to purchase a gift for her parents.  This year we (all of the siblings and in-laws) decide to pitch in and buy a flat screen TV since they are in need for a new TV and would most likely never purchase one for themselves.

My wife chose the task to ‘research’ which TV would be best for them and get their best bang for the buck.  Most of us already have a similar style TV and offered up our opinions, however my wife wanted to conduct her ‘due diligence’ to make sure we purchased the best option for them.  As we went from store to store I noticed something happening when interacting with the different reps.  I noticed it was a very transactional sale with most of the conversation being very data driven, almost like two computers communicating back and forth.  Because of this type of conversation I noticed we were starting to make all of the TV’s look the same so we could justify the decision on price.  We were turning the people and products into commodities to ensure we had the upper hand and get the best “bang for our buck.”

Think of the last time you bought something, did you try to make it a commodity so you could get the best price from someone?  Think of how prospects treat us.  Is your process strong enough to ensure you stay out of the commodity trap? Are you making sure you are listening for subtle clues your prospects give you and creating an experience they can’t compare?

By Aaron Prickel

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