Most businesses are lousy at making recommendations – and it costs them a fortune.
If I said to you there is one sure fire way to make your business more profitable would you be interested? Sure you would right? Well that “magic bullet” is to learn how to make a recommendation to your customers. Anyone can take money from a customer, in fact some stores are even replacing people with automated machines for this task, but very few businesses are good at making a specific recommendation to a customer. We used to be good at this but somewhere along most businesses have simply become passive places to collect money. Any business that has quality staff who can make recommendations will generally be a very successful business.
Many years ago I used to own a dive shop where I sold SCUBA and snorkelling equipment. I was eighteen when I purchased the business and I had no idea what I was doing. All of the equipment I stocked and the way I sold it was a reflection of the methods of the crazy Canadian whom I bought the business from. His philosophy, and therefore mine, was to have as much stock as possible and sell it as cheaply as possible.
When customers came into the shop I would go to great lengths to show them the hundred plus face masks, twenty sets of fins, fifty wetsuits, piles of regulators and associate gear. They generally left about an hour later with a dazed look on their face. I figured I wasn’t giving them enough information so I would virtually hold customers hostage to make sure I gave them every piece of information about every mask, snorkel, wetsuit or set of fins ever made. Still nothing worked and my business ended up in big trouble.
ALONG CAME SOMEONE WHO KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING
Luckily I had a good friend who was a very experienced sales person. He would walk into my shop at any time and sell four out of five people a full set of gear in a matter of minutes and he only ever sold the top of the line equipment. Observing my frustration, he let me in on a few of his secrets. Firstly he told me I had way too much stock and by association too much stuff to choose from. Secondly I was too focused on price, but my customers were not. Last but not least, I didn’t make any recommendations, I simply gave them all of the options left them trying to figure out what was best for them.
So we emptied the shop and only put three full sets of equipment on display. A bottom of the line cheap crappy set, a middle of the road set and then a top of the line set. Interestingly my friend asked me what gear I used – and of course I only ever used the top of the line gear, because it was the best. When a potential customer came into the shop, we started our five minute presentation with the cheaper equipment and worked up to the most expensive equipment and finished by saying “this is the equipment I use because it is the best.” You guessed it, from that day on I never sold a cheap or middle of the road set of equipment ever again, nd the amount of gear I sold was phenomenal.
BECOME A BUSINESS THAT MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS AND ENJOY THE BENEFITS
One of the greatest sales faults is not making a recommendation. Customers are bombarded with choice and it is totally overwhelming. Most of us simply want someone to say, ‘this is the best product for you”. We all need to be able to make a recommendation that is based on the needs of the customer, regardless of what business we are in. Now I am not saying you need to be slick sales person, you have to make a recommendation is fitting for your customer, but the better you meet these needs, the happier the customer will be and the more you will sell. Now that has to be good for business.
Become a business that makes recommendations and you will never look back.
Until next week,
Andrew
PS And a special thank you to all of the well wishers who called or sent emails as Cyclone Yasi came hurtling towards us. Living in Cairns we are used to cyclones and we prepare every year, but this cyclone was a monster. It caused a huge amount of damage south of Cairns and if it did hit the city it would have been a much bigger catastrophe. Like most “big” events in our life, it makes you stop and think about the important things in our world.
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