When my son Matt was 10-ish, he quipped, "Girls are different from boys."
When we asked him to explain, he said that when a boy wants something, he goes to the store. Finds what he's looking for. Buys it and leaves. Girls have to touch everything. Smart kid. Now a very smart guy. Although his observation may not really have anything to do with male/female, it does acknowledge that people have different buying processes.
Thus is my fate. Elaine is definitely a girl. I am definitely a boy.
So, last Friday, when we should be deciding what knobs to put on the kitchen cabinets, what door knob she wants in the house, what colors she wants the deck and rails to be or even what light fixtures she wants, Elaine sees a furniture ad and decides that we need to go look at bar stools for the island in the kitchen.
So, we're wandering around the furniture store. Elaine is touching everything and I'm wondering why every furniture store doesn't have a sommelier. Elaine eventually strikes up a conversation with Mary who offers to call a salesperson, but when Elaine declines, Mary starts showing styles, asking great questions about colors, lighting, use, etc. I relax. Elaine's in good hands.
I went to the car to get the counter sample. When I came back, Chuck was on the scene. Every combo that Elaine thought of was good with Chuck. Oh that's perfect. Great choice. That goes well. That will look awesome. Remember, I'm watching third party.
Chuck, because he's smooth and I'm stupid, asked for our phone number, then went away. He came back and said where will this be shipped to and when I told him, he went away again and because I'm stupid, I can't figure out that he's started writing an order and he's using my answers to fill in the spaces.
God, Chuck is so much smarter than me!
About now, Elaine is saying, this is going to fast for me, but Chuck keeps moving the sales forward by saying 6-9 weeks for delivery. Just in time for Matt and Melissa's arrival and Beau's first visit to Goose Rocks Beach. Now, at one point, Elaine asked my opinion and I said that she picked nice stuff and when she asked whether we should get them, I said, if you like them, I do to and I'm sure that everybody that visits will. I knew that she wasn't confortable with the process, but I she had to say, "I want to think about it." She didn't.
Meanwhile, Chuck was oblivious to the fact that she was ambivalent. You probably already know that we bought that day and I cancelled the order at Elaine's request the next day.
I talked to Chuck today under the guise of he wants to make sure that he didn't do anything wrong, that he wasn't high pressure, and that he didn't make us buy something that was wrong for us. We talked for 4 minutes and 30 seconds. People have told him that he talks fast. Nobody's ever called him high pressure. He thought that we left happy with our selections. Never heard Elaine say that it was going to fast. Never heard her say that she's never made any decision that fast. Didn't care. Got the sale. Lost it the next day.
Today's call was 4 minutes and 30 seconds of Chuck trying to figure out a way that he could save the sale. Didn't care that he didn't connect. I really think that he believes that Elaine will walk into the store and ask for him.
Chuck honest to God believes that he's not high pressure. He's just moving the sale along, but Elaine has a different opinion. Think about that the next time you want to 'move the sale along'.