Of course what you are selling has to be the right product, at the right price, the right quality and aimed at the appropriate market. It is no use selling luxury goods to someone on the breadline, just as it is no good trying to sell very low cost budget items to a high net worth individual.
But the service issue remains the same whether you are selling budget items or luxury items. In 1991 in an after dinner speech Gerald Ratner was talking about his family jewelry business and famously said:
"We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, 'How can you sell this for such a low price?', I say, 'because it's total crap.'"
This ill judged comment cost his business dearly and some have estimated the total lost revenue as up to $1 Billion.
The point is that, someone who buys the decanter set knows the quality is lower, but they do not need to be insulted while they are buying it.
Treating even the budget buyer with respect pays dividends. It may be £4.95 decanter today, but it could equally be a £1000 engagement ring tomorrow.
Sometimes it is worth taking a few steps back and working out exactly what you are selling.
If you are selling goods from a warehouse, or direct from the factory then this question may seem redundant even silly. If you think that then it is time to think again.
You are mistaking a transaction for a sale. When you take the money and hand over the goods you are making a transaction, but you need to consider the whole picture to evaluate the sale.
To do this you need to be asking where the customer came from, what made them buy from you and what the cost of that persuasion process was. This is because the real sale is when they come back.
When they come back the chances are that the cost of making the sales transaction will be reduced and the profitability will be higher. The more people that come back the more the business can use its growing reputation to increase the number of transactions and work on increasing the profitability of each transaction.
When that sales transaction takes place, the real sale is the service that surrounds the transaction. It is this service experience that will persuade the buyer to come back and buy more stuff. The regular buyers provide a base turnover and profitability that the business can use to scale up.
To make more sales transactions we can offer more discounts, be more cost competitive, etc, but the base platform on which sales growth is made is the reputation of the business - be it for product range, cost, ease of transaction, fault handling, speed of delivery, brand, quality of product, or whatever.
If you are constantly hunting down sales transactions something is wrong - you can never grow the business under those circumstances. It is when the customers come back without you hunting them down that the business can really grow.
It is the reason they will come back you really need to work on if you want to increase your sales.
