I HAD TWO CLIENTS that really touched me this week and reminded me why I love doing this. The first one came in asking for an orange watch because “I just put my cat down this morning and he was an orange cat, so I want an orange watch to remember him by.” He bought an orange Zodiac watch because watches make him happy, and in his moment of despair, he thought not only of a watch, but a watch from our store to cheer himself up. Even more than I wanted that sale, he wanted the watch.
The second client was one who we’ve been working with for a few months. Started with a watch battery, which led to multiple watch repairs, which led to a diamond necklace for his wife’s birthday. He came in to pay a few hundred dollars at a time over the course of a couple of months.
He sent me a text the day that he was coming to pick it up asking to have it boxed and ready; he was bringing his wife in for a surprise. They sat down at a desk, I brought out our gift box with our special Husar blue bag, and she couldn’t believe the box was for her. She opened it and cried, thanking her husband profusely. Even more than I wanted that diamond sale, my guest wanted not only a special something for his wife, but a special moment with his wife.
We seem to be conditioned as salespeople to think that the sales process is something we do TO people, not FOR people. The shift in mindset is powerful. Those of us in retail are lucky if customers come to see us: Most of the time, they already want something, and a want is a problem waiting to be solved.
More than you want the sale, your customer wants their problem solved. We must stop thinking about the sale as ours to have, but rather, a customer’s problem that needs solving.
Next time you’re with a client and you’re trying to pull out all the closes you’ve memorized over the years, you must begin with the idea that your client is better off to buy than not to buy.
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Don’t sell it for yourself because you want the sale. Sell it because it will solve the client’s problem and leave them better off for having made a purchase with you.
