Category: Selling and Marketing
Look like you want business
16 Jan 2010
There is a major road that I travel on reasonably frequently in country Victoria. On the way there is a services centre where the travelling motorist can stop for petrol, food and drink. It is quite popular and caters for trucks as well as cars.
This particular services centre has two food outlets. One food outlet is a major fast food chain. Their product offering is backed by a relentless advertising campaign and its products are quite well known to most people. It sells coffees of various types. The other food outlet is also a fast food outlet and, I suspect, is locally owned. It sells a typical array of fast foods such as hamburgers, fish and chips, pizzas and so forth. It also sells coffees.
One morning recently I stopped wanting to buy a coffee. I have two choices. National fast food chain versus local store. On more than one occasion I have tried to purchase my coffee or food from the local outlet without success. I again tried to do this on this morning.
I went to the counter. There was no one at the counter. I could see a couple of women towards the back busying themselves with various food preparations. I stood and waited for about a minute. No one from the establishment took my order or even acknowledged my existence. The result was that I walked over to the major fast food outlet and purchased my coffee. This was about the third time I had had this same experience with the local outlet.
I cannot help thinking just how much more profitable that local store would be if they simply paid someone to stand at the counter looking like they wanted to take an order – preferably smiling, chatty and dressed in a nice uniform. I am a bit persistent, so I went over to the shop even though there was no one standing there to take my order. Many people would not do this. They are on a trip. They want to get their food and drink and then continue. Delays are not acceptable. The national fast food outlet understands this. As soon as you walk in the door there is a keen young person ready to rattle off their selling routine to you.
I suppose the owner of the local store thinks that they just can’t compete with the national glitz of their adjacent competitor. But they absolutely can! The store sells a range of products that the other outlet does not. Also, you get a bit of a “home-made” feel from the local outlet, which many people like. There is a clear point of difference (a unique selling proposition if you like) that the local store can highlight. There are real coffee cups, not cardboard ones. You can buy a variety of biscuits (cookies). You can get a range of pizzas. You can get breakfast all day. But it doesn’t matter how different you are if you don’t have a process that makes it easy for your customer to purchase from you.
You have to look like you want business.
Wishing you easier business.
John M. Jeffreys