Fried’s session focused on how every store needs to tell its own story — its own unique selling proposition — to every customer who walks through the door. And if you and all your salespeople are not fully familiar with what your unique selling proposition is, then the only thing you’ve got to go on is price, and you will not win.
Some insights from Fried’s talk:
- The product is not the brand YOUR STORE is the brand.
- Prepare the customer for a premium experience. That begins at the front door.
- You can’t introduce the story of your store by interrogating your customer with such questions as “What brings you here today?” and “May I help you?”
- If a customer tells you “No thanks; just looking,” it is because you have invited the response with your questions.
- Don’t call your customers; text message them. It allows them to look at it at their convenience, yet it also guarantees they will see it.
- Buy a store mobile phone to do all text messaging. It allows the owner to see all the messages going out, and the salespeople won’t have to use their personal phones.
- If a customer asks you to send a photo of a product he or she is interested in, be sure always to send photos of two or three other similar products as well. It provides other choices as well as a point of comparison.
