The Oriental Carpet Buyer

This is an excerpt from a book by Neil Rackham, Major Account Sales Strategy (available on Google Books). It is a perfect example of the problems that oriental carpet buyers face when making a decision on a carpet.

“The Expert Judge”

“[…] Expert judges in any field whether we’re talking about gymnastics, ice skating of dog shows have learned how to turn “soft” criteria into “hard.” I once went to buy an oriental carpet with an expert. I’d picked out three carpets which looked very similar, and I wanted some help in knowing which to choose. One glance at my alternatives and he was able to say, “The one on the left is better quality than the others.”

I’d examined all three carpets closely, and I couldn’t see any difference. “How do you know?” I asked. He explained that he looked at seven different factors in assessing carpet quality. He was able to describe each factor - I remember, for example, the number of knots to the inch was one - in “hard” differentiating terms. To me, quality was a “soft” differentiator. I wanted a high-quality carpet, but I didn’t know how to measure quality, so I couldn’t evaluate my options objectively. for the expert, however, quality was a “hard” differentiator. Using his seven factors, the expert was able to choose objectively in an area where I was just guessing.

We’ve looked at the case of the oriental carpet from the buyer’s point of view. But now let’s consider it from the seller’s perspective. What if you’d been selling an oriental carpet to a naive buyer like myself? Suppose your carpet would be more expensive than its two lower-quality competitors. And, as I’ve admitted, all three carpets looked to me to be the same in terms of quality. So how would I judge? I’d probably use the “hard” differentiator of price, and you’d lose the sale.

How would you get me to buy your carpet? You’d have to be like the expert. You’d have to show me some “hard” ways to help me see the quality difference. So you’d have to educate me in how to make the choice - in the jargon of this chapter, you’d show me how to develop “hard” differentiators to help me judge a “soft” area.“ - page 93, Major Account Sales Strategy.