A few years ago a woman told me that she wasn’t very impressed with the quotes I sent in the Daily Retail Quote. Then she unsubscribed. When I looked at her history I discovered that she had been a subscriber for three whole days. I don’t understand why someone would quit after only a few days, especially since it doesn’t cost a dime to receive it.
I’m equally puzzled when I see businesspeople do the same thing in their stores. A few years ago I was working with a store on increasing their average sale and units per transaction. My agenda for this particular day was to show the staff how to suggest additional products before taking customers to the register to ring up the sale.
One employee was clearly not enthusiastic about this initiative. With her first customer, she asked if he wanted to see anything else. He said, “no thanks.” (No surprise there.) With her second customer, she suggested something to him at the counter and of course he said, “no thanks.” She asked her third customer while they were still on the sales floor. The customer politely declined, saying she was in a hurry. The employee came to me and said, “See. It doesn’t work.”
After the owner reminded her that it really takes very little time and effort to suggest additional products to a customer, she soldiered on. And sure enough, the fourth customer politely declined to look at anything since he was in a hurry.
After that, her luck turned around and she was successful with her next three customers. She ended up selling on to over 40% of her customers that day, increased her average sale by over 20%, and doubled her sales goal. And to think, she wanted to quit after three customers.
As a friend of mine says, “Don’t quit before the payoff happens,” especially if it doesn’t cost you anything to try.
