As Phoenix continue to grow steadily, having recently taken on another full time trainer, we decided that now would be a good time to review our existing office and training space and explore the possibility of moving into somewhere larger.

The recession has led to a surplus of office space in central London and we thought that there would be a good chance of securing a long term lease at a bargain price.  What’s more, we were sure that London’s lettings agents would be falling over themselves to convince us of the value of their properties and how they would be just ideal for a training company with our particular needs.  Sadly, our experience of the latter could not have been more different.

Now, I know estate agents are an easy target but I can assure you that this isn’t yet another dig at the profession as a whole.  It is however designed to expose the lack of basic sales skills that those we met displayed, and to reinforce how critical it is to have the core skills in place before you can even hope to sell in today’s tough markets.

On arriving at the first potential office, we were left hanging around for 15 minutes before the agent finally arrived.  We’re all late on occasions and there may well have been a good reason, but the very least we could have expected was a call to manage our expectations.  Every week, I’m amazed by sales people who think that it is acceptable to turn up ten, fifteen or even thirty minutes late without so much as a phone call.  It’s not, and in most cases you’ve lost the sale before you’ve even begun.

Nevertheless, we’re still keen buyers so, on this occasion, the agent’s transgression will be forgotten if he can really convince us of how this office space will work for us.  On first inspection, it all looks pretty good – modern, stylish and in a great location – but we just couldn’t visualise where the training room would go, mainly because the whole space was still a shell.  We turn to the expert for inspiration, but he’s actually walked away to the other side of the space to take a mobile phone call, and is merrily chatting away oblivious to us!  The moment is lost.  On finally regaining his attention, his answers lack conviction and we’re left totally unconvinced by the potential of the office.  On reflection, the phone incident, though scarcely believable, was hopefully a never to be repeated mistake; however, from a sales perspective, the lack of expertise was even more worrying and is actually very common indeed.  If you’re going to sell anything – property, software, pharmaceuticals, even training services – you must know all there is to know about your product or service and be able to relate this knowledge to your customer.

Despite our initial experience, we were still in the market for a new office, so headed off to view another couple of options with high hopes.  Both agents were on time which was a good start and both had properties with real potential and yet, once again, simple mistakes were made that resulted in the collapse of the sale.  At the first, we were left abandoned in the office whilst the agent enjoyed some banter with the builders over the road!  With no one to ask about the details, how could we be expected to commit?  Just like our mobile phone friend, they demonstrated an unbelievable lack of interest in us.

The next and final viewing was going well, until the agent admitted that the landlord was not interested in the property as a whole and that he doubted he’d be willing to modernize the 1970’s décor in the common areas.  Now honesty is a real virtue, but by creating a picture of uncertainty and possible conflict with the landlord, he immediately lost us.  Potential customers want assurances and certainty before they commit, not vagueness and ambiguity.

You may think that I’ve exaggerated things here, but I can assure you these experiences are very real indeed and I’m sure they are repeated in sales situations in many different markets.  One final thing that struck me with all three agents, was that not one of them even asked us what we actually did – maybe they already knew, but it is this lack of basic questioning and interest in our business that meant we were never going to commit.    Maybe we just got a bad bunch who have got lazy, simply used to taking orders rather than actually selling, but in the current climate a return to the basics would go a long way to winning more business.

We’ve now given up the search for a new office, instead looking for a larger space at our current Leathermarket site run by Workspace.  What’s more, we’ve recently run some training events for their site managers to make sure that they properly engage with the customers and create a fantastic picture of what the office will look like once they’ve moved in. After all, it’s this image that will create the real desire in the customer to move in.  Simple but effective.

Oliver Osmond – Sales Director, Phoenix Training