Why sales reps should take lessons from reference librarians…
May 29th, 2007 Stewart
This Memorial Day weekend I began work on a home improvement project that quickly ran into a snag. My wife and I live in a 1925 American Foursquare that we’re always fixing up and this weekend we started installing a ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms on the second floor. After I removed the existing light fixture, we found a small pancake box mounted directly onto the lath underneath the ceiling plaster. While this is fine for supporting a two-pound light fixture, it’s wholly inadequate for a thirty-pound ceiling fan.
Ordinarily, a common adjustable bar hanger can be mounted between two studs to support the fan, but that requires access from the attic above, and this one part of the attic is sealed off. I started looking into my trusty Reader’s Digest home improvements book (a tad dated, but still a very useful manual) and found a page about installing an offset bar hanger from below. Better Homes & Gardens has a page about it as well.
So this morning I began calling electrical suppliers and lighting specialists to try and locate said offset hanger. After my third call, I was getting frustrated — No one had even heard of such a thing, and most of them seemed to be in a hurry to get me off the phone.
My last call was to the good folks at Shanor Electric Supply, a local business. First, the sales rep told me that he’s familiar with the offset hanger, but that they don’t keep them in stock. He then asked me what I was trying to do, and I explained that I needed to install a ceiling fan but had no access from the attic. He asked me a couple more questions, this time about the hole I’m working with and the space between the beams. He then tells me that he thinks he’s got a better solution and describes the patented Westinghouse Saf-T-Brace that can be installed from below through a 4-inch opening.
I drove 20 minutes out to their shop and he had the item pulled from their stock, on the counter, and ready to be rung up. I was out the door in less than five minutes.
For reference librarians, the lessons here are obvious. There’s always a question beneath the question. Diagnosing the “real” question means listening well, and developing a better understanding of what the customer needs are in any given transaction. In this case, I thought I knew what the best solution was; I didn’t know there was a better solution to be found until he told me about it.
I now have my Saf-T-Brace and I’m looking forward to installing it (and the new ceiling fan) tonight!
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