“Sell me this pen” is a classic sales prompt that is often used to assess a candidate’s selling skills and ability to think on their feet. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to effectively answer this prompt:

Assess the needs of the customer: Before you start selling the pen, take a moment to assess the needs of the customer. Ask them questions about why they might need a pen and what they are looking for in a writing instrument. This will give you a better understanding of their needs and help you tailor your pitch.
Highlight the unique features of the pen: Once you have assessed the customer’s needs, highlight the unique features of the pen that make it the perfect fit for them. For example, you could emphasize the pen’s comfortable grip, smooth writing experience, or its durability.
Demonstrate the value of the pen: In addition to its features, it’s important to demonstrate the value of the pen. Explain how it can make the customer’s life easier or how it can help them achieve their goals. Use specific examples to support your claims.
Address any objections: Anticipate any objections the customer might have and be prepared to address them. For example, if they express concern about the price, explain why the pen is worth the investment and highlight its long-term benefits.
Close the sale: Once you have highlighted the unique features, demonstrated the value, and addressed any objections, it’s time to close the sale. Ask the customer if they are interested in purchasing the pen and be prepared to answer any final questions they may have.

Remember, the key to successfully answering this prompt is to be confident, enthusiastic, and focused on the customer’s needs. Show them how the pen can meet their needs and make their life easier, and they are more likely to make a purchase.

Let’s now examine this prompt from a leverage standpoint instead of classic sales.

Once you receive the prompt, ask them for the pen and start examining it. After about 10 seconds, ask if they have any other pens on them so you can compare. If they do, spend about 10 seconds comparing. Put all the pens under the chair so they are out of sight.

If they don’t have other pens, go straight into the following dialogue:

“You know Marge, as I’ve went through this interview process, I’ve grown to really like you. There have been many people in your organization that are really nice and accommodating, but I especially like your professionalism and the way you’ve made me feel at home. You remind me of someone I once knew and they hold a special place in my heart.”

“That person was my foster mom. I was removed from my home as a young child and Miss Helen raised me as one of her own. I will always cherish the love I felt from her. The bedtime stories. The home-cooked meals. The great big hugs before I left for school and when I came home. Pure love and acceptance. Well, Miss Helen recently passed away and I need to change my beneficiary because I was giving it all to her.”

“I think I’m a good judge of character and I’d like to make you my beneficiary if that’s ok. It’s a good chunk of money that I believe will help support you and your company if you don’t hire the right sales rep.”

Pull out a piece of paper and write “I accept being Frank Richards (your name) beneficiary”. Then draw a line so she can sign it. Slide the paper across the desk and say “If you could sign right here, then I will take care of the paperwork tonight.” Then, look her in the eye, smile and ask “Do you need a pen?”

“They are normally $39, but I was able to secure a discount for you. For $19.99, you get to own this beautiful pen and more importantly get to be my beneficiary. Deal?”

The text below was derived (in part or whole) from the video transcript and formatted for your reading enjoyment.
We do not claim the text to be an accurate representation of the video. You are encouraged to watch and listen to the video for a complete and accurate representation.
Video url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1VZDp9ywxs&t=34s
Channel url: https://www.youtube.com/@teachmetosell
Channel name: Teach Me To Sell

In today’s video, we’re gonna go over the old sales interview question, “Sell me this pen.” Now, I’m gonna do it in three ways. I’m going to go over what that question is trying to discover about you, why that’s important, and what you can do instead.

Now, a lot of the videos that you might see on YouTube jump right into some advanced sales techniques and they just give you the demonstration on it. What I’m going to do is gear this a little bit more towards the beginner level, the explanation behind it so that it makes a lot more sense to you, and then you can find your own approach to your actual sales conversations based on “Sell me a pen.”

With that, I want to jump right in. If you haven’t been to this channel before, I’m Kirk Van Linden with “Teach Me to Sell.” Our main goal here is to take the mysticism, the scariness, the fear out of sales and really help you spend less time selling and more time serving your clients. With that, let’s jump right in.

So, what are we really trying to do with that question “Sell me this pen”? The main outcome that comes from asking someone to sell you a pen is that you can very quickly determine if they know what they’re doing or if they’re an amateur. So, an amateur will typically feature dump and they’ll start telling you all of the description of the pen itself, and somebody who knows what they’re doing won’t jump into that and instead they’ll jump into asking you, “What are you really looking for in a pen? Why is that important?” And they’ll be asking questions. That’s the big discrepancy out of the gate. So, within 10 seconds of asking that question, you’ll know right away if somebody has done sales before, if they have a process, and what that process is.

The other part of that question also shows if you’re nervous when you’re selling. Are you comfortable? Does this seem like a chair that you’ve sat in before? Have you played the role of a salesperson or are you nervous and trying to figure it out for the first time ever? By the way, in a sales interview, either one is okay. Sometimes they’re actually looking for your personality, not necessarily your experience, because you can be trained in sales, you can learn sales, and you can learn a process and approach, but if you don’t have the confidence, the charisma, the personality to ultimately be likable and somebody that wants to be around you, it’s a lot harder to train the EQ skills, the personality, the social, and self-awareness piece.

Okay, so that’s what the question is. It’s designed to determine which side of the fence you sit on. Now, why is that important exactly? How, as I mentioned, one is going to be do you require additional training, can you do this job, have you done it before? If you came in saying that you did sales and that was your approach, to feature dump, then you already have lost some credibility in that, right? But also, a good thing that’s useful for is now that I know where you are, it’s a benchmark. I know where to start the training.

I don’t want to start training for you in the beginning if you already know a bunch about sales. If you do a stellar job on the “sell me a pen” discussion, then I’m going to actually go into more of the advanced stuff with you. I’m not going to waste your time because you have a process. We’re now just going to tweak and sculpt your process and make it even better.

Your process, no matter how great it is, there’s always room for improvement. I have never hit perfection and I never will, and that’s one of the things that I love most about sales. It’s a constant, never-ending progress, and it can be a ton of fun.

Now, how are you going to use that in a conversation? Well, let’s first jump into how you would approach it if you were doing this as someone who knows sales. Instead of jumping in and saying, “This pen, boy, it’s a really great pen,” feature dumping, remember it’s a really great pen. It has a nice grip for your fingers, but it’s also ergonomically correct. It’s great for your wrist, it writes upside down, it has black ink, it lasts a long time. Any of these features, that’s me feature dumping on you. I might find something that sticks, I might accidentally tell you the things that you wanted to hear, but that’s not a good way to approach it.

A much more on-purpose way is to figure out well, what matters to you. So, in an interview question, if you were in that scenario, then a better approach instead of saying, “Oh, it’s got a grip and it’s upside down, and all that kind of stuff,” you could say, “Sure, I’d be happy to help you with finding the right, very best pen for you, but I don’t know if this one is the right one for you or not. However, we can figure that out in a very quick amount of time. Here, tell me, why are you looking for a pen, why today? Why is it important to you, and tell me about the attributes of the ideal pen for you. Paint me a picture of what you’ve got in your mind right now.”

Now, through the questioning of whatever you want, what are you looking for, why is it important, how soon do you need it, whatever questions I’m gonna ask about you, you’re telling me what you need. I don’t have to convince you that this is the right pen. Now, when I’m done and you’ve told me, or when you’re done and you tell me all of the things that you’re looking for and why it’s important, well now I can tell you the attributes of this pen if, or how, it actually meets those needs.

Right, so if you’re like, “Well, I’m looking for a pen that it’s got to be comfortable because I’ve been using, I’ve been using these cheap Bic pens and I write for hours on end and it starts to really hurt my finger.” That it has these ridges, it’s octagonal, and I find my finger starting to hurt because I’m pushing right on the grooves. Also, I end up running out of ink too soon, so that’s another thing. I’m looking for a pen that lasts longer, it’s comfortable on my fingers, and I really need it to be in black ink. So, comfort and functionality and those, all of those things.

Then, I can say, “Okay, first of all, I really appreciate you sharing all of that. That helps me narrow down. Basically, what you just did is you eliminated about 95% of all of the pens that we offer. So now, you and I can just talk about the 5%.”

Now, based on what you told me, the very first one that comes to mind for you is actually this particular pen. Because you mentioned that you were looking specifically for black ink, this is one of our very highest quality black ink pens that we offer.

Now, comfort, that’s what you actually led with and that was the most important. That actually is the number one reason why I want to show you this pen. This pen not only is a very perfect and scientific size for your fingers but it has a rounded edge. No longer that octagonal shape that you had mentioned that you don’t like. This one’s very round. But it also has this rubber pad that has about an inch and one quarter length that allows you the variety of where you like to hold the pen, how you like to hold the pen. And many of the most prolific writers that we have who own this particular pen specifically talk about the comfort and the ease of use. Where they can write for hours on end without ever thinking about the pressure on their fingers.

With that being said, I’m really interested in knowing what your first impressions are or why don’t you write a little bit with this particular pen and give me your initial thoughts about it.

So what I’m doing, if you can see the difference, is I’m not trying to convince you. I’m trying to get really clear about what you want. Why you want it. And then I’m going to present you with only solutions that meet that criteria. And then I’m going to keep looking for your buy-in. Because you’re going to make the decision, not me. I’m just going to help you find it faster. My job is to help you get to the most educated decision for yourself.

My job is to help put the right things in front of you, based on what you want, not what I want. And if it works for you, fantastic. I’m going to make it easy. The next steps in the process, I’m going to help you with that and make that part easy. So that’s my main role here.

My main role isn’t to convince you to buy goods or services that you don’t need or want. My job is to get really, really clear about what’s most important to you. And then show you the things that I’ve got that match that criteria that you have. And then help you make a decision, help you take action today. If it’s going to give you what you want, it’s going to get you where you want to go, then I want to help you do that. That’s it.

Remember, this is the beginner level. This is the 101. It was the “What” question. It was the “Why” it’s important. And what you can do instead. And I also included how you could approach that question.

So why is that important for you in your business? It’s the exact same when you’re talking to your prospective client. You could approach it with somebody who doesn’t know sales at all, which is, “I’m just gonna feature dump. Why it’s great to work with me and what I can do for you.” Or, “I’m just gonna show you. Here’s my process or here’s my technique or here’s my whatever.” But it’s not about you. It’s about your prospective client. What pain are they currently in, or what desired future outcome do they ultimately want, and why is that important to them? When you get that, now you can talk about what you have to offer and find out: does that sound like it would be something that would add value to what you’re looking for? Does that sound like a solution that you would be interested in talking more about?

Right, or something like that. Those are the three aspects of that. I hope you found that helpful.

If you liked this video and you want to go a little deeper into more of the technique, more of the language of what that could actually sound like in a conversation, let me know in the comments, and I’d be happy to create another video and go a little deeper. We’ll maybe do the 201 version of “sell me a pen,” but that’s the question explained.

While you’re waiting for the next videos to come out, make sure you check out these videos. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed the rest of your day, and we’ll see you soon.