There are many ways people do business. some by using brain, some by heart and some by brawn.
I rather have my business with emotions and sentiments.you may say its not different from the above three and i am just reframing my own lines round and round. But no its different and i'm telling you how. Just take an example- I say that "to keep your customers, your customers forever try and become their customer yourself".
Stumped? Well even i was when i first stumbled upon this notion. But after some pondering i found that it makes sense. Whenever you go and buy something from a store you dont just buy, you sell too. Actually its a barter of sorts. You keep the goods and the shopkeeper has to keep the bads or else you will never have the loyalty of yours going.
What are goods and bads? Goods are the things you take away with you while leaving from the store. Be it the thing you purchased or the bluff of the shopkeeper, the impression of how the store looked, how the salespeople dressed, the way you were treated... and the list goes on and on.. As far as the bads are concerned its a tricky stuff. I am not going to use quotes of any great marketeer as i found none and hey its my idea and how can some one else comment before I even show it to the world! Yes, the bads. Now attention all, the bads is what you give to the shopkeeper in exchange for the goods they sold to you.
Stumped again? Lets get lucid. No one is happy when going for a purchase as its not the heaven of customers where goods are supplied for free. You have to shell out from your wallet to get them. And I'd say no one willingly goes for a purchase until and unless its a necessity. Necessity is plain english so i won't explain that. Lets understand what creates necessity. In our daily lives it can be created out of what our body needs/desires viz. food, water, tasty food, junk food, status food and all blah blah. Again there is some emotional shopping too like the things you buy just because your neighbour has it or something that you would like to show off matching your status. Otherwise there would have been no Porche or Ferrari on the road.
So, to make you part with your hard earned money the seller has to take away all the bads. Now bads would include your apprehension and scepticism, your bad mood (well, you might have had a bad day in traffic before you reached the shop), sometimes even your foul word (god forbid) etc,etc.
You seller must keep in mind (especially in cities) is that there are a variety of customers and has to take proper steps to enchash each opportunity he/she gets.
The first breed is the ones with the moolah and the intent to shop. These customers are hell bent to pick up what they want from your shelves. These are the easiest of them all. Just show them what they want. In the eventuality of you being out of stock the customer would simply walk away to another place to get it. But don't lose hope before they leave the least you could do is to tell them when the object of their desire would be availble.
Tip: you could also give a special offer to them on their next visit.(But of course it depends on what you sell)
Mind you shoppers are suckers for offers and discounts. I mean i remember myself spending Rs.1000 just to get a 10% discount when all i needed was a Rs.400 T-Shirt!!
The second type is one with cash but there is no guarantee on the intent part. Such customers are either in your shop waiting for someone or have come to your shop with someone who has to actually purchase something. Classic examples of such customers are husbands with their wives/kids or both, boyfriends...
Now it depends on you to create a need for them. And by need i mean it could also be created in the mind of a man standing in a lingerie store. Depends on your calliber.
Third and the most common variety is called the browsers. They are there just like that probably because they have nothing else to do. In this case first you have to gauge their interest and deal on case to case basis.
Now this was just an example of how I think i would sell. Its not that i have become Philip Kotler Part II but who knows what my next note would be.. Probably it would have an exahaustive classification of what i feel the customers are like or perhaps about a tiny grain of sand lying on the beach of Jagannath Puri.
Till then i wish myself and all the readers CHA CHIINGggggg......
