It's December and, like pretty much everyone else in the world celebrating the holiday, I find myself shopping in stores that I have no cause to go near the rest of the year in order to secure gifts for family and friends. I am not the typical customer for these stores and they feel like alien environments to me. But, I'm potentially a really good customer. And you have to make sure that your staff understands that. In retail, misperceptions plus assumptions equal lost sales.
David Carr and
Donald Cooper have made this exact point in articles that have run in this magazine. In the September/October 2006 issue, Donald contributed an article called
The Christmas Tree Man. In it he told the story of a scruffy-looking man who popped into his store nearly every day over a three-week period one holiday season. By Christmas Eve, the gentleman had bought almost $3,000 worth of merchandise. The lesson Cooper learned, which he now shares with retail clients, is that it's dangerous to judge a customer by how they're dressed or by their general appearance.
In a similar vein, David Carr contributed an article called
Losing Assumptions to the July/August 2007 issue. In it he explained that there's only one way to know what your customers want and need, and that is to ask them. But, he said, many sales people think they can "read" their customers. He wrote:
Time and time again when I observe retail sales associates appearing to ignore or to avoid a customer or otherwise behaving in a less than productive manner, I ask them about their motives. Almost without exception, they explain that they "knew" that the customer did not want to be approached and so they left them alone "to browse." Of course, it is not possible to know what anyone wants or needs until we ask. When we make these decisions…we run a very high risk of missing sales. When we miss sales, it is inevitable that someone else will get them. A customer who enters our store needing and wanting something and who leaves without it will certainly take the need with them and go to another store.
Everyone who enters a store is a potential buyer and more than 40 percent of those who do are likely to leave without making a purchase if they are not addressed and assisted proactively by a skilled, motivated sales professional who is willing to objectively determine their wants and needs without making any prejudgments.
So, why not try to change your mindset to ensure that you remain neutral with customers? Why not treat all of them as though they were warm, sincere, receptive people with needs that they will share with you and allow you to address and satisfy if you evaluate them skillfully and thoroughly.
To do otherwise is to risk paying the price of misperception.
