Never say "No"

A customer walks in and asks for a particular product.
You are not having it in stock.
Never, never start saying "No, but we can give you...."

Then and there your sale is lost.

Say "Yes" and then try to find out why he is asking for
that particular product. Chances are after some discussion
you may find that the product the customer is after does not
meet his requirements at all and the product that you have in
large quantity with you is the one he should have.

Don't spoil a possible conversion and help to customer by saying "No".

Like

Buyer's market

A buyer's market is a market where the supply and availability of goods
is much, much more than the buyers for those goods.

So, what can happen in such a situation?

Sellers will reduce prices to dispose of the stocks. That is okay.

But don't reduce price to absurd levels. Customers will play on your emotions.

Reduce, yes, to survive. Not for suicide!!

Business is dull - How to react?

Right now business everywhere is dull. Whether it is real estate, white goods and so on. But there is a common lesson we have to learn.

Yesterday, my daughter and son-in-law wanted to see some of the upcoming
villa projects in Chennai for possible purchase.

Day-before yesterday, I planned for the outing.

The first company I rang up, they said I could go and see and that they would
send a representative. They did not follow up the next morning giving the person's name and phone number which I wanted. I again rang them up. They said I could go there. No representative was found at site and the security guard said: "I will show you the villas". No issues. Excellent construction. But the surroundings of the project was found very shabby. From the OMR main road, we had to travel for about a kilometer in a small lane of about 23 feet to reach the gated community. While returning a lorry came ahead of us and we had to reverse our car for 300 metres to give way for the lorry. Will you think of purchasing that villa?? I leave it to you.

The second company had two projects, one in Thazambur and the other in Perumbakkam. They said they would give a contact person name and phone number in both places. They did not. The next day, I had to ring up several times between 9.30 am and 10.30 am. No body picked up the landline. Every time I received a nice SMS saying.. Thank you for calling, etc. It looked stupid. Finally they came on line and gave a cell number. He too did not pick up the phone and I got similar message.

When we reached the place, the representative was not pro-active. He could not answer most of the questions and also gave wrong information. He said Villas have piped gas connection. When we reached home and checked the pamphlet it was mentioned piping done to connect cylinders!! Pathetic considering that the buyers are coming back from US after staying there for ten years!!

What is the lesson we learn from above experience?

(1) When business is roaring ten customers will come and two will just pay the money and go. You will not know the quality of your delivery.

(2) When business is dull, you should completely focus on the customer and give all your efforts to get business.

It could be villas, it could be air-conditioners, it could even be potatoes!!