Captain Reman
- Author: Noah Rickun
- Subject Matter: Management
- Issue: Timing of the sales pitch
You’ve probably heard that the best time to fire an employee is on a Friday afternoon, just before closing, so that the employee has the weekend “to think about things and calm down.” A weekend of thinking (the theory goes) helps to ease the pain of having lost one’s job.
I’ve never been one to ascribe to that philosophy. In fact, I think the best day to fire an employee is immediately after you’ve made the decision to do so.
Why prolong the agony? Why subject your customers or your other employees to the person you want to eliminate? But, alas, that’s a topic for a future article.
Today, I’d like to share a recent revelation with you – a concept I’ve just learned about from an avid reader (who wishes to remain anonymous), who proclaims that you should “never deliver bad news on a Friday.”
His idea is that a transmission shop should never tell a customer that their car needs a new transmission on a Friday afternoon. He alleges that the customer will “think things through” and simply buy a new car on Saturday.
Same goes for after 4 p.m. on any weekday. Our reader has found that if he calls to tell the customer about the need for a new transmission late in the afternoon, the customer will say, “I’d like to think about it overnight.” The customer then discusses his situation with a spouse, a friend, a neighbor, another shop, Facebook etc. and often decides to not fix the car at all.
In other words, our reader has discovered that his closing ratio is considerably higher if he makes the pitch earlier in the day and earlier in the week.
It’s an interesting notion – one that has me thinking about the timing of things. But before I begin testing, I’d like to know what you think.
What’s been your experience?
- When’s the best time to deliver the bad news?
- When’s the best time to ask for the sale?
Noah Rickun, aka Captain Reman, is the vice president of sales & distribution at ETE Reman. An aftermarket veteran, Captain Reman is known for sharing his sales, business and customer-service knowledge weekly through the e-newsletter Reman U.
