There’s good reason why sellers must remain open to possibilities. You increase your sales at zero cost. Wearing blinders to only what you know lends itself to limiting the possibilities of a sale
The pineapple lesson: A tale of two vendors
It’s a humid 34°C in Malindi. I must obey my thirst. I ask this street vendor to sell me sliced pineapple. Although he doesn’t have evidence of this, in my view, it’s not an unreasonable request. Whole pineapples are dangling all over his handcart. I’m therefore taken aback when he tells me he doesn’t slice his – he only sells them whole. Why not increase your sales at zero cost, I wonder.
Before I recover, his competitor dives into the gaping opportunity- “Njoo nikuuzie kaka” (Come over) he requests. “Nitakukatia nanasi nzima lakini; halafu utaongeza shilingi tano nikanunue paperbag hapa karibu dukani.”(I’ll slice up the entire pineapple and you’ll add five shillings for me to buy a paper bag to wrap it in); and he’s already peeling the juicy fruit even as he says this. And just like that a sale was lost-and won!
What really still gets to me is that the one who lost the sale even had a knife with him. One wonders what it was for!
Why staying open to possibilities increases your sales at zero cost
There’s good reason why sellers must remain open to possibilities. Here’s why.
1. Buyers are dynamic humans
Rules can bend for the right person. Buyers are human beings and therefore dynamic. The recruitment policy could be clear that we don’t take on new recruits with their loans. That’s until we poach the saviour salesman from the competition who is saddled with a mortgage and the product (recruitment policy) is tweaked to accommodate him.
2. Products evolve with use
Further, all the uses of a product may not be immediately evident. Look at MPESA. The message initially, was Tuma na MPESA; it has evolved to now include Lipa na MPESA. And why not? When you make a payment, you are transferring (tuma) money from one point to another. A subtle difference with enormous possibility.
Did you know that education and investment policies are just fancy (rebranded) terms for life assurance policies? Now you do. And if you have an education policy (because the parent in you felt responsible), likely you would never have bought a life assurance one (because you feel you don’t need one). And yet, the difference is the same. Same reasoning a Children’s bank amount-its still your money which you would otherwise have not parted with.
3. Markets change—and so do buyers
The market itself is dynamic and hitherto non-targeted buyers may find their way to the fold. An example of this that I find most intriguing is Arimi’s (cow) milking jelly which women now swear to as the best (human) skin jelly developed. Forget that it even has a picture of a cow on it-it’s flying off the shelves and it’s not just farmers who are buying it. Likewise mosquito nets are known to be used for fishing and as a veil for a bride!
Than there’s the lady seller who sells beauty care products in her booth in a major mall in Nairobi CBD. Seeing it as a point of sale she pitched to her pork lard vendor who operates out of town. “Given the trouble we go through delivering from Kikuyu to CBD just for me, why not advertise my shop on your website as a point of collection to the many other customers like me who buy from you? Or would want to view before buying? He agreed.” The charge she levied was a fraction of the selling possibilities that opened up.
Increase your sales at zero cost in action
Wearing blinders as Mr. ‘I don’t slice pineapples’ had, lends itself to limiting the possibilities of a sale. And so, when I walk into your electronics shop and request to make a three way payment for a tablet, you tell me that your policy (product) does not allow this.
However, the next seller says, “This is new but okay; the only thing we must agree on is that you will pick the item after full payment and, secondly, with the continual upgrades we cannot guarantee this model will still be available then, so you’ll take the upgrade or such other model as will be in tandem with the payment made by then.”
And you increase your sales at zero cost.
Read: Invest more in relationships than processes
Limitations as you increase your sales at zero cost
Of course such accommodation has limits.
I did not expect the seller from Malindi to sell me half a pineapple-that would have been a different model of business for him altogether. He only sold whole pieces so slicing one wasn’t too much of a stretch. Neither was asking me to add five shillings for the paper bag.
Stay open to possibilities—not absurdities. It can dramatically improve your sales with almost nil increase in cost.
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