Read Part I and Part II of "Why I Love Walmart" before you read these. Or don't. Whatever.
Here are a few of the other important sales lessons I took away from my trip to Walmart today:
- I have no life. Oh, wait. That's not a sales lesson... :-)
- When you can offer your customer everything their looking for, even when they didn't know they were looking for it, you're going to get the sale (and a bigger sale than you probably expected).
- Simple acts of friendly sales behavior get noticed and remembered.
- Lots of people make their buying decisions based on price. Be sensitive to that when you're doing the selling.
- Given the choice, the majority of buyers will take "better price" over "better asthetics". Not always, but most of the time. If money is no object to you, God Bless...but for the other 90%, it is a factor in buying decisions. That's why Hyundai is thriving in U.S. car sales.
- The more times I am presented with an opportunity to buy something, I'll buy it. It's like Jeffrey Gitomer says, "People hate to be sold, but they love to buy."
Dan, I am a recent convert to Wal-Mart. Once they added cheaper groceries, they had everything I needed, cheaper. A lot cheaper in most cases. It also has a social dynamic I find fascinating, the things people deem acceptable to wear. Speaking of having no life, when I was at the low point following my divorce, alone in another city, I used to stand in front of people at the local Wal-Mart just to have a chance to say "excuse me." That was better than talking to the toaster in Isle 12. The clerks are a little less friendly when you do too much of that.
Posted by: John Gratton | March 27, 2006 3:42 PM | Permalink to Comment