Someone’s Going to Buy Something From You Because They Like You

It was a sizzling, humid day in Washington, DC, you could tell it used to be a swamp.

I was interviewing for a sales job, my first sales job in fact. I’d reached the last round and had one final interview — with “Jimmy” (names changed to protect the innocent).

He was the independent sales representative for the company I was interviewing with. I had passed the interview with my boss to be, regional sales manager based in Florida, now only had to wow the Rep and the job was mine!

My interview with Jimmy was scheduled for 5PM Friday afternoon. I must have driven like an hour through terrible rush hour traffic with no AC (my car didn’t have it back then) to get to his office.

His Admin said have a seat, he’ll be here soon. 5:15 came and went. So did 5:30 and 6PM. He’s on his way the Admin kept saying. And just when I’m getting ready to walk, Jimmy walks in at 6:30PM. If I didn’t need the job that bad, I would have left much earlier — but I’d just finished my MBA program and didn’t want to leave.

Anyway, Jimmy gets out of his souped up black Corvette. He looked like something out of the Matrix, dressed head to toe in black. He even had the long leather jacket that the Matrix folks wore. Plus he had on mirror sunglasses. And boy was he a big man, must have been 6' 4" and 250+ lbs.

He walks in, goes to his office, motions for me to come in. “So tell me about yourself”, he says. And I did (must have gone on and on because I remember him starting to tune out). When I’m finally done, he says I only have one question for you.

“Why is someone going to buy something from you?” Well I was overjoyed, this was a softball question. I’d just aced all my MBA classes and I knew it all.

I go through all the reasons why someone going to buy something from you — the 4 Ps I learnt in marketing classes, Maslow’s hierarchy from behavioural theory class, etc.

Finally I’m done with my answer and now am waiting for his response. After a long pause, Jimmy looks at me and says “bullshit”.

And then he says, “Someone’s going to buy something from you because they like you.”

And then he explains.

There are always competitors for any product/service, customers have choices. By providing awesome service, new ideas for your customer, being there for him/her, etc. you’ll be providing value, seperating yourself from competition and customers will like you. And if they like you, they’ll want to give you their business, even if your pricing isn’t the lowest. It’s this value you’re providing, not your awesome jokes or nice lunches you take then out to, that gets them to like you.

This is one of those moments that change your life. It certainly changed mine. As I’ve progressed in my career I’ve realized that Jimmy was right. Yeah 4Ps, Maslow, etc. certainly are important. But a good salesperson can overcome some weakness in these items by getting the customer to like you, by you providing value to them.

Yes, I did get the job, Jimmy recommended the company hire me — and I learnt a lot more working with him.

Jimmy, wherever you are today — thanks.