Why a PI Sales Training Course Makes Sense
We need to establish a pragmatic purpose for a sales training course for the piano industry before we invest a lot of time, yours and mine, into examining fundamentals and techniques. We’ll keep it simple and build it like blocks. Further on in the course, we’ll get into advanced scenarios; yet, even before we discuss the foundational fundamentals, their application and the psychology behind them, we must agree on the need for them.
The history of the piano industry (at a glance) is important to reference relative to “sales then” vs. “sales now.” In the good ol’ days, we’ll call them the 1980’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, when there was significant floor traffic, long before Covid raised its ugly head, selling pianos was much different than it is today… at the time of this writing, Q1 of 2022. The great piano sales performers of that era were masters at taking floor traffic and buying traffic, through weekend and month-long special events, and turning them into sales. It was a time when the malls were going strong and online shopping hadn’t yet sabotaged the normal of the day. In those days, what a piano sales pro needed to do was be engaging, sell the benefits of playing and do a demo capable of letting the prospect get excited and fall in love with the idea of owning a piano.
This is a sales course, not a sales history course, so there is no need to go back any further than that. This time period (the 80’s through the early 2000’s) is relevant to today’s sales environment because the owners and older sales pros developed their basic approach to selling in that “demo oriented” selling world. They became very adept at people skills, phone skills and closing techniques. These skills are still extremely valuable to this day but the how and when they are applied has changed. They are, nonetheless, the dealer principals, owners, and sales managers of today. They are also in a dramatically different selling landscape. Most of the top performers of today are older sales pros who did a better job of adjusting to today’s technologically advanced world than their other older counterparts. They added new tech skills to their old people skills, essentially retooling their sales tool box inventory, and became an advanced version of themselves, capable of finding opportunities and communicating with them in a current fashion. The second set of top performers are the younger sales associates who learned the people skills from the older crowd or innately gravitated toward them. For this group, who grew up with the technology and are also personable, piano sales has been a great career choice. The group left behind, and dog paddling in mediocrity, are either the older ones who were resistant to the technology, or the younger set who believe that it (technology) is the entire solution to selling in today’s economic environment.
No one is better equipped than us, at Prospects International, who enjoy the privilege of working with all three sets, the top performers in the first two segments mentioned, and the struggling sales associates drowning in frustration. In this sales study course, we will make comparisons in their approaches and identify what best practices are. We are SO fortunate to have reference points in the form of clients past and present at the top of the industry, that no other marketing entity has ever had the ability to resource.
This course will build a bridge, as the industry’s top performers have, between all active top performers and their habits with some good old fundamentals thrown into the recipe for good measure. Why the fundamentals and not just the trade secrets? Because fundamentals are never obsolete regardless of how the tools we reach for evolve. Fundamentals provide context and wisdom; it’s that simple.
Allow me to be very blunt: there are SO many sales associates in our industry who have little else but what they have absorbed from their surroundings and that is inefficient. There are so many people finding their own way without being committed to a sales method with a chronological order that they can refine. Our intention is to provide a solid track to run on especially for those Millennials and Gen-Z’s who want to excel at this honorable profession. Will the superstars benefit from reviewing the educational material in the course? Of course, as I stated, fundamentals are never obsolete. Most batting slumps of any flavor (be they athletic, professional or artistic) are the result of an abandoned tried and true, fundamentally sound technique. The trick is to identify and rectify the one(s) that have become abandoned or mutated into a habit that does not produce well.
Tell me if this makes sense – piano students have teachers, gymnasts have trainers, professional athletes have trainers and coaches, struggling students have tutors, college students and post grads have professors but there exists no comprehensive course with which we support people young (or young at heart) who want to learn the very best way to sell fine pianos. To be fair, the manufacturers have provided a short in-person course or the occasional workshop, but never a comprehensive study on piano sales the likes of which we intend to provide. What new associates typically get is advice from a successful owner or older sales pro (and owners have a built in credibility advantage that commission paid sales persons don’t) that may or may not have its roots in the overall sound teachings from those past founders on the Mount Rushmore of successful selling, such as Zig, Dale, Sam, or Mary Kay. Not to inspire a debate about who belongs there, but arguments can be made for Joe and Erica* as well. The intention is to point out that there are literally decades of sales knowledge to reference, and the percentage of it that piano industry sales folks reference is paltry. In some small way during this, our contribution to the industry we love, we hope to change that.
Why should I be taken seriously?
First off, I personally have learned from interactions with some of the unarguably, absolute best piano sales pros ever. Call me and I can state names I am reluctant to publish.
Another reason, as mentioned earlier, is that we are presently in contact with and serve some of the best piano sales pros, who CURRENTLY sell an impressive number of larger fine pianos from our applications. We not only discuss LeadFlow and EventFlow leads with them but additionally, how to convert from other lead sources and floor traffic as well.
We vet every article and piece of advice with tried and true sales fundamentals and the latest technological advances. Nothing in this course will be banged out and presented without thorough review of the content.
Even if you are one of the exceptions and are a top performer who uses both fundamentals and technology to their fullest, chances are that you do not have the time or inclination needed to build a course such as this… so we will. Those are some valid reasons we should be taken seriously that came quickly to mind.
We will make the course interactive and diplomatic accountability will be built in, in the form of a reasonably constructed quiz (per topic) submission in a simple pass or fail format. This will assure that the person investing in the course can prove to themselves, and/or their sales manager, that the content was digested and committed to memory.
The course will be posted on the PI website and available for reference and self-imposed refreshers ad infinitum.
In summary, we will now begin a fun and informational adventure through the land of piano salesmanship. It will include videos and interviews from some undisputed top performers. Welcome to the Prospects International Piano Sales Academy Course, a sales examination experience designed to improve the performance of all who participate, regardless of their level of experience. I know it will be a firm foundation for newer sales personnel but am convinced, after visiting and interacting with some top performers, that it will be a great sharpening of the stone refresher for them as well… especially those I recruit to contribute!
Welcome to the course! Please feel free to reach out to me with any comments or suggestions for the course. I am confident that we will enjoy this journey together and find it a worthwhile investment in self-examination and creativity.
*If you don’t recognize any of these globally renowned sales motivators and top performers by their first name then my point is made… we do NOT have a fundamentally sound sales foundation in our industry. If you only know a few… my point is still made. If you know them all, call me and I’ll interview you and recruit you as a contributor to the course! If you don’t know these names, please go online and begin familiarizing yourself with these staples of the fabric of sales fundamentals because naming four of them and providing a quote about selling that speaks to you from one of them, will be part of the quiz at the end of this first topic. Many stalwart sales motivators will be referenced throughout the course.
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Jack is a thirty year marketing and sales veteran with an insatiable appetite for contributing to the sales success of others. After leaving Cox communications in the late eighties Jack has serviced clients such as: Goodyear, Allstate, Verizon Wireless, Steinway & Sons, and numerous independent businesses. His knack for creating targeted strategies has endeared him to clients who he has been privileged to service in many instances for over two decades.
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Jack – This is great! I love this! Let me know how or if I can help. This is so sorely needed by someone other than a mfg.