By MARK RIFFEY for the Flathead Beacon Newspaper
Last weekend, we did a little shopping for a “large recreational purchase”. We hadn’t shopped in this market before, so you wouldn’t have been surprised that I would have my radar fully unfurled to analyze all pieces of the process.
While I can’t say that I was blown away, I also wasn’t substantially disappointed. Let’s talk about the experience.
What happens to new leads?
We walked from the parking lot to the showroom without interruption, but in short order (less than a minute), someone at the reception desk (who was busy when we walked by) called out to us to see if she could provide some guidance. Perhaps we looked lost, but I got the idea that this was normal, whether the shopper is lost or not.
Yep, she could provide some guidance. She asked what we were looking for and a sales guy appeared pretty quickly. He engaged, asked good questions to find out what we were looking for and in what price range and then asked if it was ok to produce a plan for us.
“Produce a plan” in their lingo meant to enter a rough cut at our needs into their software, which would produce a list of their inventory items that matched our stated needs. This gave the guy what amounted to a shopping list (including lot locations of their best fit items in their inventory), which was designed to show us only what we fit while saving us a little time.
Given that their inventory is quite large and spread out all over creation, this seemed like a reasonable step. They clearly are not setup for self-shopping, and given the inventory and space you’d have to cover in order to do that, this is a good thing.
I have seen a similar process used effectively in real estate, but at that time, we were turned loose with a list of properties and placements on a map. The give them a map and turn them loose idea works for real estate as long as the prospect knows the areas covered by the map – since the prospective buyer would also know what neighborhoods or locations they aren’t interested in. Where possible, this info should be gathered before producing the map.
The idea in this case was to use the time to travel the lot, learn more about what we’re looking for and show us a few things that will help us determine what we really want, vs. what our newbie first-impression-driven wants might cover.
Talking to leads
As we progressed through the plan’s list of inventory to check out, the conversation was all about the salesperson’s experience with their purchases, questions about what we did and didn’t like about each inventory piece and some perhaps not so obvious tips about sizing, minor differences between each piece that could make a major difference in our experience and similar.
We discussed his background with the purchase we are looking at, and how he earns his customers for life – including the newsletter he mails to them each month. We’re talking about a newsletter with tips, a photo of his family, a recipe and news his clients need. A smart step that I rarely see.
As we reached the end of the plan, it was clear to us and to the sales guy what was going to work and what wasn’t. While we weren’t ready to nail down a purchase right that minute, he did ask – and as I told him, I would have been disappointed in his sales training and skills if he hadn’t.
You have to ask. You don’t have to be poster child of bad sales people, which he wasn’t.
Improvements when handling leads
While the sales process was not annoying (kudos for that), the lead handling process needs fixes.
- No contact information was collected. Without contact information, they have no way to check in (without being pushy) and see how they can help us. Giving us a business card and a brochure isn’t enough.
- We weren’t asked if we wanted to get his newsletter.
- We weren’t asked why we stopped there instead of the litany of competition, or if this was our first visit to a store like theirs.
- We weren’t provided any info to reinforce that we’d chosen the right dealer.
Leads must be nurtured and cared for by both your people and software systems.
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Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at mriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.