Last weekend I followed my uncle to the Mercedes show room at Hap Seng Star. He was checking out the new S class and wanted to place an order for it. When he got there he insisted that he placed a booking with one particular salesman named Kee. When I asked him why he told me this story:
A short while ago one of my uncle’s friends went to the same showroom to order the new Mercedes S-Class.
He walked into the showroom dressed in shorts and his simplest outfit. All the sales people around him ignored him. So he showed himself around and walked around the car on display.
He was ready to place a booking even without test driving the car… but there wasn’t anyone who wanted to approach him to take his booking. So finally he walked over to the other end of the showroom where the lower end Mercedes C-class were all on display.
Immediately a salesperson approached him and introduced himself as Kee. He then walked my uncle through the C-class and all its features. Kee wasn’t the smoothest of car salesman. By the way he spoke English you could tell English probably wasn’t his first language but he knew his facts and seemed honest in his recommendations.
When Kee was done with his run down of the C-Class, my uncle’s friend finally told him that he wanted to book the higher end flagship S-Class right there and then.
Kee looked a little disappointed and said “I”m sorry Sir I can’t sell you the S-Class. For that I need to pass you on to my colleague”.
He then later went on to explain why. My uncle can’t remember exactly why but perhaps it was something to do with Kee being a junior sales person so he wasn’t allowed to sell the higher end cars.
My uncle’s friend didn’t give up. He thought why should he give the sale and the commission then to a so-called higher ranking sales person who didn’t seem to give a damn about him when he walked in.
So he asked to see Kee’s manager. When his manager came by he said
“I want to buy the S-Class right now but I only want to buy it from Kee. So if you don’t want to let him sell it to me, I’ll buy it from another distributor”.
Immediately the manager gave Kee the sale.
My uncle’s friend went back and told the same story to all his friends… one of them being my uncle himself who was interested to buy the car. So my uncle decided to buy it from Kee.
I loved this story because it’s a story where the underdog wins and it’s also on an experience that we all face too often: Being looked down upon based on what we wear into a designer store.
Now of course who knows… maybe the more senior sales people didn’t bother talking to my uncle’s friend not because they looked down on my uncle’s friend based on what he wore but maybe because they were lazy. Though I’m not sure if that’s a much better excuse.
Now here’s the second part of my story.
Before I went with my uncle to the showroom I had visited the showroom a few days before. My uncle was telling me about the new S-Class and how it’s really nice and I should go and see. So since I was passing by a few days earlier, I went to see it with no intention to buy one. I walked in with jeans and casual clothes and with Shorty.
Now Shorty and I as a couple hardly look like we can afford anything expensive let alone a Mercedes. Often we wear simplest outfits with little or no designer wear and we look like a couple of kids. Heck we even got snubbed at Thomas Sabo in Pavilion once (which is why today we maintain that we will NEVER buy anything from Thomas Sabo).
So if a relatively cheap store like Thomas Sabo could snub us… I wouldn’t blame Mercedes if they did. But Kee saw us walk in and gave us the tour like we were real customers.
Look at what Shorty wore to view the car. Even her handbag was some free cloth bag she got from buying something. I wasn’t dressed much better myself. But Kee didn’t seem to notice or care.
We left that day without buying a car from Kee but he was polite and showed us all the way to the door.
When I found out that the person my uncle’s friend was talking about was Kee… I was impressed. It wasn’t a one time thing that Kee did with my uncle’s friend. He was consistent throughout… even with me and Shorty. He doesn’t care about how you look. The minute you walk in the door you are a potential customer and he treats you like one.
This is a lesson I will continue to remind myself and my salespeople. Yes in a business point of view I understand if high-end companies focus on customers they think have a higher chance of buying. But this is a car showroom with the sales people standing around with nothing better to do anyway. I don’t really see a harm in talking to anyone who walks in the door.
So if you want to buy a Mercedes…. please look for Kee at Hap Seng Star.
Update: After posting this entry a few hours ago I decided to let Kee know that he inspired me to blog about him. So I sent him a text and this was his reply.
Pretty Cool.
I blanked out his number because I thought that maybe that second number was his personal number. The number on his name card though is the one I’ve been texting. So for the benefit of anyone who wants to buy a Mercedes from Kee, his number is +6019 383 1823.\
Update 2: This blog entry seems to have gone far more viral than I ever thought. Yesterday alone my blog saw over a 100K views and 9.2K shares. I happen to speak with Kee again since this last text and here’s what’s been going on at his side. He’s been getting tons of calls for people looking to buy cars from him and he’s really thankful for that. One thing he did me to clarify was that the first story that my uncle told me about his friend actually happened a long time ago. Like 5 years ago. In any case my uncle remembered this story and ended up buying a car from Kee anyway. Anyway Kee is grateful for all the support and nice comments you guys have given him 
Timothy Tiah
*The author is the Co-founder of Nuffnang and ChurpChurp. *Article first appeared on his personal blog http://www.timothytiah.com/