The Importance of Raising a Retailer’s Comfort level
I would like to share with you an appointment I had with a yellow page rep today. It was with a young lady who had only been selling for 6 months. I was purchasing ads in two of her publications each one in a different county. Now I must admit I was ready to make it easy on the sales rep and myself by saying. Just give me what I had last year and under the same headings in both books, simple, right? I can go back to what I was doing and she can continue her day of selling advertising. But a number of time during her explanation of what I was about to purchase…she paused….look at the ad placement…flip some pages and flip back again and again…to a point were I didn’t say much and just watched. After a while she started to explain what she saw. That based the on size ad and heading placement. I would be better off placing different ads in different location in both books and also taking into consideration the products that are moving the best right now.
Now, what did she do here…She differently started to raise my comfort level….I address this in my book “Through the Eyes of the Retailer” that the most important part of the sales process is to make the retailer feel that they have made the right choice. I Felt comfortable enough that I asked her to place them were she felt they would do the most good for my company. My comfort level was now confidence in her decision on my behalf. So, she placed the ads and saved me some money too.
