 Anne M. Obarski |
 If you have painted the picture beautifully, your customer will relate to the picture, but, more importantly, will be excited and will re-create the picture in their own garden.I recently interviewed the president of a garden center in Pennsylvania, and he told me he was going to develop displays with signs saying, “For This Spot.” Each display would focus on a specific area that gardeners seem to have trouble with and routinely come to him saying, “Bobby, I’ve got this spot…”
I bet you can relate to those requests and you can hear the frustration in the customer’s voice when they admit that they have been unsuccessful in fixing “that spot” by themselves. You have the ability and the responsibility to solve their problem. If you are a talented salesperson, you should be able to package the sale and create a repeat and referral customer.
See the Picture
To offer a solution, a good garden center employee should visualize the customer’s problem. Not only is it important to ask the right questions, but it is even more important to sharpen your listening skills so that you’re prescribing the solution to the customer’s needs (and not what you want to sell them).
You can be very successful in helping your customer by starting with probing questions that begin with Who, What, Where, When and Why. Some examples:
- What brings you in today?
- Where is this spot? Can you tell me more about it?
- When did you start having trouble in this area?
- What have you tried to do to fix the problem?
- Who will make the final decision?
- Who will be doing the installation?
Imagine you are a news reporter as you ask the questions. A good reporter listens carefully to what is being said and builds their next question based on the person’s last response. The more answers you can get from the customer, the better solution you’ll create for them.
Share the picture. Sales guru Tom Hopkins advocates a “Feel-Felt-Found” strategy when it comes to solving a customer’s problem. Before you offer the solution to the customer, it is wise to build on your relationship.
By showing empathy you are halfway to the sale. “Mr. Smith, I know exactly how you feel, I have felt the same way about my roses, and this is what I found…” is a great way to cement their trust with you.
As you begin to share the picture of your solution with the customer, keep the steps simple. Use different strategies to communicate your picture.
Some customers will relate to a drawing, and others will relate to walking with you through your garden center as you show different options. Either way, commit to really listening to their comments so that you are continually making mental adjustments to the final solution before you offer it to them.
Save the Sale
Now it’s time to mentally formulate the final delivery of your picture. I have developed a sales training tool that I call S.A.V.E. If you use this technique successfully you will not only generate the sale but also reduce buyer’s remorse.
Let’s assume your customer has a shady area he is struggling with. As you are delivering your picture, use the letter S and focus on what specific product or group of products you would recommend that would “stand out.” Next, use the letter A and describe why it will be an “advantage” to have it. Then move to the letter V and use your product knowledge to sell the “value.” The last letter is where your passion comes into the picture. The letter E stands for “excitement.”
If you have painted the picture beautifully, your customer will relate to the picture, but, more importantly, will be excited and will re-create the picture in their own garden.
Enlarge the Picture
Most employees want to jump in with both feet and offer their solution and get on to other business. If you want to really develop a solid relationship with your customer in this situation, go with the “power of three.”
As you paint a “solution picture,” you may wish to break it into three sections.
“Mr. Smith, here is what I would recommend to solve your problem. You can start by doing X, then we could add Y to the area and to make it outstanding you would be wise to add Z now, or even in the future.”
By offering a three-step process, you allow the customer to determine their investment of time, energy and money to this project, and you have been able to paint the “big picture” of what the ultimate solution to their problem would be. If they choose only to do one part of the picture you can stay in touch with them and invite them to return to finish their project.
I believe more and more customers will be coming to garden centers with those “spots” and realizing that they will find the answers with you rather than the big-box stores. Your ability to build strong relationships with your customers will ultimately paint you as the portrait of the garden center to go to when they find themselves in “a spot.”
Anne Obarski is a retail strategist and frequent speaker regarding customer retention and relationship building. Join her group for garden center professionals at www.merchandiseconcepts.com/gcroundtable.
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