Please! Help me to buy!

Increasingly, our work is becoming crucial for businesses who need to increase their sales or the size of their individual transactions. And we love to help our clients to help their clients to buy.

I'd like to share a very recent example with you where I dealt with an experienced sales person who seemed to forget his role and most certainly did not help us to buy!

The client sells motor caravans and had asked for our help to support them in increasing their turnover. Having experienced caravans before, my wife and I decided to do this initial job ourselves and turned up on a bright, dry Saturday morning, posing as a credible couple looking to buy a 2-berth motorhome with a budget of around £30,000 (I wish!).

On arrival, there were some problems with signage for parking spaces outside the business and this meant we had to park further away than we needed, as we soon found out. (Help me to buy - tell me that I can park on the forecourt in those spare bays!)

So not the very best start but nothing too serious. The range of motorhomes was excellent, baffling perhaps for a first-timer and we spent over ten minutes wandering around the stock outside, without anyone coming out to greet us. Opinions are divided over whether customers like to be approached or left alone but we definitely needed a little direction; an approach from a sales person such as "Good morning, Sir, if you need any help please ask, you can find me in the sales office" would not have offended at all and would have ensured that we didn't walk away, bewildered by choice. (Help me to buy - I am clearly browsing broadly and I will probably therefore need a bit of direction. Make youself known to me and tell me you are available if we need you, which we do!)

Being reasonably persistent and having a job to do, we had to go and seek help in the sales office.

We entered the sales office, whose muddy floor and untidy desks created a less than brilliant first impression. We were warmly greeted, however, by a staff member who quickly realised that she could not help us. Despite there being seats for customers to use, we weren't offered one and we were left standing, alone whilst the staff member went to find someone else. We resisted the temptation to run off with the motorhome keys that we could see on desks! (Help me to buy - make a good first impression on me; offer me a seat since you have some for customers and because you are going to leave us on our own for a couple of minutes.)

Our salesman duly arrived after a couple of minutes and he, too greeted us nicely, asking how we could help. We told him what we were looking for and I asked if we would find a new vehicle with a £30,000 budget. A rapid and emphatic "No" was the reply. Tone and words only make up a relatively small part of how we perceive someone's communication but the salesman had chosen both badly! I looked at my wife whose eyes told me that she knew I now felt like an idiot. A leaflet was then produced showing that an entry level vehicle was available at £33,000. (Help me to buy. Don't make me feel stupid because I don't know what you know. My budget is close so why couldn't you have said something more positive like "You're not at all far away from a new vehicle with that budget, Sir".)

Our salesman showed us to an example of the nearly-affordable new vehicle and a couple of only-just-secondhand models that were within our budget, suggesting that we go inside each and spend time on our own having a good browse. This was appreciated. (You just helped us to buy!)

We loved one of the secondhand vehicles we were shown at £27,995. It was better equipped, more sumptuous and even had a fitted cycle carrier for my mountain bike! The information in the window was difficult to read but showed it was very low mileage and there was a call to action to arrange a test drive. Perfect! There were some information sheets inside the vehicle, too but it didn't say whether we could take one, so we didn't like to. (Help me to buy. Make it obvious that I can take away an information sheet.)

We went back into the sales office, grinning and were warmly greeted again by our salesman, who was sitting behind his desk. He allowed us to remain standing alongside the two chairs in front of his desk that were presumably for potential customers. We told him what we had seen and what we had liked, and also why we had liked it. We asked a few more questions and received answers. (Help me to buy. Take me out to the motorhome and talk us through the things we might want to know. Make sure we know about the key benefits of this one. The more time we spend in it, the more we will feel we own it! Get us more excited about it!)

Our salesman remained firmly seated behind his desk. We remained standing, uninvited to sit down. Our salesman didn't ask us any questions at all. He didn't offer any information about the vehicle. (Help me to buy. Make us feel comfortable. Find out what we need and match a solution to that. Tell us why the motorhome we like will make us happy. Do something!)

Running out of steam, we ask one more question: "Do you get many like that coming in secondhand in such nice condition? Answer: "No, rarely and I couldn't even tell you how much they cost new. We don't have the franchise for that make you see, and if you want to find out the new price you'll have to go to xxxxxx motorhomes over at xxxxxx. " (Help me to buy. You can close a sale by a transfer of your enthusiasm for the product. Don't insult me by telling me that you don't even know how much it cost new and that you can't be bothered to find out. I don't care anyway - we like this one - it's got a bike rack on it for Pete's sake!! Don't send me elsewhere! What are you doing?!!!)

Still standing, we leave a long pause, waiting for some glimmer of a sales process to kick in. Like maybe taking our details or something? We managed to get "All our stock is on the website and it's up to date, so have a look on there". (Help me to buy. I'm not interested in your chuffing website - I've spent 10 minutes outside browsing your stock! And actually, haven't you picked up on the fact that we like the vehicle we've been talking about? With it's bike rack and everything???)

Long pause. (Help me to buy. Let us sit down. Take our details. Offer us that test drive. Develop rapport. Do something. Anything. Please!)

"OK, thanks for your help. We'll have a look on your website. Cheerio!"

Needless to say, we should be able to help this client convert more sales, going forward! If we can help you convert more sales, please get in touch with us. www.shopperanonymous.co.uk