Give Buyers The Opportunity To Say NO!!
It was Thursday afternoon, about 2:30 PM. Janelle and I had just finished mentoring Dave, one of our clients.
As we were leaving the office, Dave said to me, “You need to go across the road to that new shop, and just see some of the great knick-knacks they’ve got in there.”
Janelle and I looked at each other and thought, “Why not? We’ve got a few spare minutes.”
So we walked quickly across the road and went into the shop.
We looked around.
There was some great knick-knacks as Dave had said there would be.
All of a sudden we spied two kiwi candleholders that were just sitting on the shelf. It made me homesick, as I looked at them.. We haven’t been home to New Zealand in over five years. Right there and then I made an emotional decision – I wanted to buy them!
Kiwi candle Holder
I thought, “Wow, this reminds me of home.” And then, I spied another one on another shelf. They had three kiwis there! They were £22 each, (£66 for the 3) and I thought to myself, “Mmmmmm, I wonder if I can get a discount.”
So I went to the lady who owns the store, and said, “Hey, really love these kiwis. Would you accept £50 for all three them?”
She said, “Oh no, we don’t normally discount. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll give them to you for £55.” Now, there’s three of them at £22 each, so that was £66. She’s giving them to me for £55. That’s a 16.6% discount, when she said to me that she doesn’t discount!
Of course I accepted and Janelle and I walked to the counter clutching our three lovely Kiwi candleholders.
I then said to her, with a grin, “Oh, what else do we need with these, please?” (I was providing her with an opportunity to upsell the candles that go in the kiwi candleholders.)
She said, “Oh, you need candles.”
So I waited for her to upsell to me. And I said with a smile on my face, “Well, you’ve got candles here. Would you like to upsell them to me?” To my stunned surprise she said to me, “Oh no, I don’t like to be pushy.”
I was at a loss for words for a moment, but quickly composed myself, and I said to her, “You’re not being pushy. You’re offering me an opportunity.”
She replied, “No, no, I don’t work like that.”
Janelle then said to her, “Um, should we be getting the candles from Tesco’s? They might be cheaper there!” The lady said to us, “Yes, they possibly are.”
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I looked at Janelle and together we raised our eyebrows. I thought, “Wow, here’s a business owner who hasn’t had sales training.” She believed that she was being pushy by offering us the opportunity to buy the candles, to go with the candleholders.
In the end, I said to her, “Look, here’s an opportunity for you to sell us a little bit more. Would you like to take the opportunity?”
She said, “Well, they’re here if you’d like them.”
I was dumbfounded. I was doing everything I could to upsell myself and I was being met with a wall of resistance. It made me wonder how much extra money was walking out the door from opportunities to upsell and cross-sell, that were missed by this shop owner.
In the end I said, “Look, put the candles in there, so I can buy them here. I don’t want to go to Tesco’s.” The 3 candles were an extra £2.70, so we paid £57.70 for the three kiwis and the three candles.
Now, the moral of the story here, as we say to all our clients, DON’T DISCOUNT. You have to sell so much more just to retain the same margin, if you discount..
Had the shop owner said to me, “Look, I’m sorry we don’t discount. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll put in three candles for you. How does that sound?” I may have thought that is pretty good and taken her up on the offer. (After all I was already emotionally attached to the kiwi candle-holders.)
Looking at it from this point of view, all of a sudden she retains her margin at £66 retail, and gives ‘perceived value’ – being the candles valued at £2.70, and a very small 3.9% ‘discount’ as opposed to the 16.6%
In the end we obtained a 12.5% discount, on the transaction.
Most importantly, in any sales opportunity, give people the opportunity to say no.
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The shop owner had the real opportunity to say, “Yes they are lovely candleholders. Would you like the candles to go with them?” We then have the opportunity to say yes or no.
It’s like McDonald’s, when you go in and they ask you, “Would you like fries with that?” They’re not asking that because they think you look hungry. They’re looking at an opportunity to upsell to you. Now, I’m aware of the statistics, that seven out of 10 people say no to the upsell, but three out of 10 say yes. That means that McDonald’s are making millions of extra pounds, just by asking the upsell question, “Would you like fries with that?”
To all business owners, there’s a real opportunity where people visit your store or ask about your service. Don’t miss an opportunity to provide them with more, and extra value. You’re not being pushy; you’re offering them the opportunity to say yes or no.
Always, always offer more. Don’t discount. Instead of discounting, offer value. For example; offer the opportunity for us to buy the candles, to go with the candleholders as opposed to discounting. Because had the lady said, “It’s £66, but I’ll throw the candles in,” She would’ve done far better – a 3.9% value proposition, as opposed to discounting to £55, which is a 16.6% discount. 16% is a huge dent in anyone’s profit.
Never discount, but always offer the opportunity to your clients to buy more. They may say no, but what if they say YES!!
