Posted on: 02 December, 2001
Author: John Warzecha
There seems to be the ... ... that ... buying ... on the ... will very soon surpass regular means of ... as ... stores. Nothing could be further from the There seems to be the misguided suggestion that e-commerce, buying orselling on the Internet, will very soon surpass regular means of retailsuch as department stores. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thee-commerce industry should check out the number of people that wanderthrough shopping malls on weekends. Is a company like J.C. Penny,Zellers or Wal-Mart closing their doors and meekly walking off into thesunset? No- they are expanding, rebuilding, renovating and opening newoutlets in an attempt to maintain and expand their customer base.Internet marketers must do the same thing. Even though the electronicmedium is gaining increasing importance, and there are some veryimpressive numbers being put up, there is still a major concern aboutsuch things as transferring credit information and dealing with animpersonal operator attached to some keyboard across the world. Notevery business can have a retail outlet, because some businesses areonly amenable to on-line sales, but those that do have a retail outlet,should not only be involved in directly marketing their products throughtheir web sites, but the sites should be constructed so that buyers whowant to see the product will go their outlets first. Many people want tosee the products in front of them. They want to see them, compare themto other products, perhaps see how look beside other items, especiallyif they are outfitting an office. They may even want to do a littlehaggling which is difficult to do on-line.For example, if you have an Internet site where you sell computers andalso a retail outlet, you must be prepared to deal, not only with thecustomer who is willing to buy on-line, but also the customer who wantsto go and kick the tires-so to speak. Provided that the techno-babblehas been kept to a minimum, an individual, after checking the web-site,will come to you with his initial request. Now that number that has beenrecorded as a hit on your web site is someone standing in front of you.He wouldn't be there unless the web-site had done an initial sellingjob. He is there to buy. This is where the true selling begins. As Idiscussed in previous articles- this is the opportunity to learnsomething about the customer. Some of the best sales individuals I knowhave a tremendous capacity to ask questions and then shut up and listen.They know who they are talking to; know what they what, and they havelearned this by listening after asking some questions.You now have that same opportunity While you are finding out what hewants, you must also discover his hot buttons. You must assess hisneeds, but more importantly, listen to what he wants. It has been thecase that quite often a sale will occur, not based on what needs aremet. but on the extras that come with the package. The only way that youcan find out the bells and whistles that will sell your system is bylistening. Someone can have features similar to IBM, Compaq orPanasonic, but they can sell their own system by emphasizing featuresthat fill a need that the customer never knew he had- his hot buttons.These needs are discovered by asking questions and then listening. Hereare a few cardinal rules: don't be patronizing or condescending- don'tassume that you always know what is best for the customer, or that yoursuperior product knowledge entitles you to decide what is best for him.More importantly, don't try to sell the most expensive item on themarket. This is very short-sighted. It has been shown that an unhappycustomer can affect up to two hundred potential future customers.For example, a store owner was looking for a new cash register. He cameinto our showroom looking at some very sophisticated Point-of- Salesystems. He was impressed with the flash, bells and whistles. I listenedto his needs. I could have sold him the $4,000.00 piece of equipment,because he wanted it, even though he didn't need it. His requirementswere assessed and he was told that all he needed was a three hundreddollar cash register. It was essentially a cash box that would give hima total sales printout at the end of the day. When it was explained tohim that his needs were for a simple cash recording system, heappreciated the fact that we had looked beyond his enthusiasm and soldhim an appropriate item. Eight months later, when his business hadexpanded dramatically and he needed an expensive system- where did hego? He came back to us and ended up buying $14,000.00 worth of POSequipment. An initial small commission turned into a very sizeable ordera short time later because the customer had been listened to. Peopleresent being patronized or treated as if they are not aware of their ownneeds. They appreciate your advice but that advice should never bestated as an imperative. You may get the initial sale because ofpressure tactics but the long term ill-will can result in missing out onsubstantial commissions. There is also another interesting fact: oncesomeone has come to you after checking out your web site, and they havebought from your retail outlet, their next purchase will probably befrom your web-site. This is providing that you have sold them what theyneeded, and not what you wanted them to buy. Article Tags: Retail Outlet Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com