Marketing Drives Traffic: Sales People Make or Break the Outcome

Posted by Deborah Chaddock Brown on December 16, 2009 under Customer Moments, Missed Moments, making a difference | Be the First to Comment

I was reading Leslie Ungar’s monthly newsletter from Electric Impulse Communications - always a great read but one of her Lessons this month really hit home:

Retail – In Person and Email
This particular boutique emails to me their monthly newsletter and sales announcements. I assume the purpose of Internet marketing is to create sales.  I walked into the small store. One person was behind the desk, I was no more than five feet away and talking to her when she picked up the phone and called a vendor, totally ignoring my presence.
 
Lesson Learned: One way to create sales is to get people into the store. The marketing worked, I was there in person. Yet, a phone call appeared to be more important than engaging me in even trivial conversation. All the marketing in the world will not succeed if people do not transform prospects into buyers. It is not the job of the prospect to buy it is the job of the seller to sell. Are you taking advantage of face to face time to engage prospects and clients?

 

Here is a perfect example of marketing driving the traffic and a sales person dropping the ball.  I used to have a franchisee who said to me “you bring them to the door and I’ll close them.”

That’s fine and good, but if the sales associates don’t understand the importance of those first 30 seconds, then you’ve missed the opportunity to make a difference.  We only get one chance at a first impression and Leslie’s first impression clearly isn’t positive in this example.

Do your associates understand the value of a smile, eye contact and a quick hello.

In this case, the associate could have done both: greeted Leslie warmly and answered the phone.  It isn’t an either/or proposition.

Does your marketing drive traffic?

How well do your associates handle that first make or break moment with the customer?