He had tried to wash it off with water unsuccessfully.
So after visiting a nursing home for the elderly with him, we stopped by a petrol station for a car wash, hopefully to clean off the stain.
Unfortunately, there was no car wash service at that station.
Since we were already there, we decided to pump the tyres.
Now this station is located in a high class residental estate. No public housing. Only landed properties, big bungalows and expensive condominiums.
As my cousin drove in, a lady in uniform guided him in parking as another car parked at the tyre pump area made it difficult to drive through.
My cousin exclaimed : "Wow, the service at this petrol station in this high class area is so good to have staff guiding drivers."
The moment we stepped out of the car, another young lady approached us. That's when we realized the motive.
She was promoting a brand of car washing spray. As I was busy pumping the tyres, she was doing some demonstration to my cousin.
First, she helped him cleaned away part of the black dot stains. When I finished with the tyres, she was showing how to clean the rim of the wheel.
The sun was scorching hot and I couldn't wait to go off. But seeing her halfway through, I decided to give her a little more time.
This young lady addressed us by name throughout the sales presentation. She said she washes her two family cars and it takes her 30 minutes to wash one to proof that she knows about washing car. Perhaps she sensed that I'm getting a little impatient, she was talking a little too fast.
Next, she brought us to a little setup booth just outside the air-conditioned minimart and showed us the offer.
Buy this today at a special price and you get 40% more. If you get 3 bottles, you'll receive two free cleaning cloth on top of saving over $100. Buy five and you save more. Plus you get a life membership which entitles you to the special can (40% more) not available at retail outlet. And you just need to give them a call for free delivery to your home.
I must say the offer looks too good to miss.
She went on to ask if we prefer to go for the 3 or 5 can package.
Now, I smelled a sales talk. Never ask customer if they want to buy or not. Assume they are buying and give them two options to choose and they will select one.
Too bad we did not fall into it. We asked if there's any brochure but was told there isn't any. We said we'll go grab our lunch and think about it before we come back, when in fact we had eaten.
While she was finishing off wiping thr last bits of the spray, a man came by to look. I quickly used this opportunity to get the lady to serve him to get off the hook.
When we finally drove off, I told my cousin that she probably knew that we won't go back. I'm not sure about you but the only time I'll probably ever go back to a petrol station is if I've left my wallet there.
Anyway, back to the topic.
I'm not sure if the location plays a part, but that is the only petrol station that has a booth set up. I did not see it at other petrol stations under the same petrol company.
Could they be rotating the booth at other stations every day? That I'm not sure.
However, if the booth is only available at that station, why did they choose there?
Do they think their prices are only affordable by the wealthy, which explains why that particular station.
But how many rich people actually wash their own car?
My cousin said perhaps they will buy it and ask their maids to use. So the next question is who are the rich people who ask their maids to wash car? Who among the rich will spend 30 minutes under the hot sun watching the demonstration?
While setting up a booth at a petrol station to sell a car related product is logical as it allows you to do a demonstration on the actual product, did the company takes into consideration these questions?
1. Who are their target prospects and how to identify them?
2. Is the environment conducive? I sure won't be interested to stand under the hot afternoon sun watching a demonstration.
3. Are your prospects under the right circumstance? Do you have the luxury of time to demonstrate? I wouldn't want to waste half an hour listening to a presentation when all I want is to fill up petrol and head to my next destination.
4. How will prospects react to your demonstration? My take is that drivers who love their cars and take a lot of effort in maintaining their cars, they probably wouldn't like you spraying something on their cars. What about those who drive expensive branded cars?
In addition to this, the young lady sales presentation also made the following fatal mistakes:
1. Talking too fast, due to time constraint as highlighted above.
2. Talking most of the time, also due to time constraint as she needs to do the whole demonstration within a short enough time. We were just lead on most of the time.
3. Not enough fact finding. Although she did ask how often we drive the car, how often we wash and how we wash, she did not find out why. Also due to time constraint.
4. She is not specific. She said she takes 30 minutes to wash her car. I've never actually wash a car before but my guess is at least one hour just to wash the exterior- shampoo, rinse and wipe dry. Because of this, I doubt if she was speaking the truth.
5. No follow up. She did not get our contact for future follow up. Or she could give us a brochure with offer effective if we send back before a certain date.
Selling is already difficult. Don't make it more difficult by getting your prospects to stand under the hot sun.