There is a lot of advice about how to develop, produce and market your products and services. This is all really improtant to your success, but what sometimes gets lost is the execution process. What I mean by that is how we sometimes think that customers will buy our products or services simply because they are great, and because we know they need them. It is important that we also remember the customer’s point of view. Are we making them work harder to buy from us? To that end, have you ever lost a sale, or given up as a consumer due to poor execution?
I was in Borders bookstore today, and I selected a couple of books and proceeded to the counter to make my purchase. While ringing up my purchase, the clerk asked if I had a Borders Rewards card to use. I replied “yes,” and proceeded to give her my phone number for verification. She then asked, “Would you like to upgrade to our ‘Plus’ rewards card? It includes these additional benefits.” and she showed me how I could save more on other purchases, much like Barnes and Noble’s program. At $20, this was a good choice for me since my family spends money on books nearly every week.
So, after an anti-climatic pause, I said “yes.” As she went to ring up the membership, she realized she had no idea how to transfer a customer from the free program to the new plus program. She asked a coworker who was nearby, and still didn’t have a good answer. After just a minute or two of searching for written instructions (seemed like an hour in “I’m waiting” time), she “tried something ” and managed to get the process to work.
Luckily, I’m not an impatient customer, or I might have called off the additional sale, or the whole transaction in frustration. I did glean a couple of messages from this:
1. Know your products – when she was telling me about the program, she neglected to tell me about the fact that the “10% off most everything else” would apply to my current purchases. It did, and I saved $0.70. Not a big deal, but you shouldn’t leave out immediate benefits when making a sale.
2. Know your customer – Don’t be afraid to ask “what do you typically buy?” or the applicable question for your product or service. For me, the answer is magazines, business books, and clearance books. To this, she could have told me, “the 40% Hardcover Bestsellers does include new business books, and the %20 off selected hardcovers would also include business books that are not on the bestseller list.” to make the savings be more relevant to me.
3. Know your processes – If you are going to make a sale, make sure your technology and/or random procedures don’t slow or thwart the sale. This means understand how to handle new customers and ‘upgrades’ as well. Also, if you are using a web-based system and you prefer PayPal, you should have a second option for those customers that don’t use PayPal, or in case that primary system is down. The payment method was not a problem at Borders, but it is worth considering for small business types like you and me.
At the end of the day, Borders did make this sale, and I did save $0.70 on today’s book purchases. Everybody won. Clumsy processes may work for well motivated buyers, but you shouldn’t stake your business on the patience and desire of your customers to sit through your learning curve. Practice how you make the sale and make sure you know your products, your customers and your processes. Now, you are ready to sell!
