DIY Trade News October 2013
Spotlight
report
back
opinion
Products
79
Sport
If only you could get into your
customer’s head
Want a
PERMANENT
solution to identify
your display units
in stores?
By John Stanley
How often have you wondered how your customer
thinks? If only you could get into the customer’s
brain and understand how they thought.
Can we use psychology to grow sales?
That is the question. Well, it seems as if the
answer is yes. Gregory Ciotti is a psychology
specialist who has looked at you and I when we
are shoppers and has asked what the ten key
hot points are that we should know as retailers
to increase the average sale per customer. How
can we get more sales by understanding the
brain? Let’s look at the ideas he has developed.
Break the paralysis
We all know that once a customer starts buying
they will continue to keep buying; our challenge
is starting the process with them. Pressure
selling often has the reverse effect to what we
need. Research by Professor Robert Cialdini
has shown that one way of breaking the habit is
to offer a minimum to an offer. For example, if a
promotion started with showing the consumer
the minimum investment to start the process, they
Admit your shortcomings
are more inclined to get involved. Creating the
Research by Fiona Lee indicates that consumers
minimum offer to solve a solution encourages the
are more likely to trust businesses that admit
consumer to start the shopping experience.
their faults than those that blame others.
Customers can cope with businesses that
Create status labels
accept they have faults, but cannot cope with
Those of you who come to my conference
businesses that blame suppliers, the weather,
presentations will often hear me talk about my
the government, the economy and so on. Use
One World Airline Platinum status when discussing
the occasional fault to show you are human and
loyalty. Research shows that if you create a
admit it to your customers.
status for the best consumers, they are more
likely to continue to buy from you. Have ‘platinum’
Urgency sells
customers and they will talk about you and buy
Sales increase when consumers think a product
from you.
is about to become scarce. We should use this
as a selling opportunity; create the urgency and
Tightwads
CUSTOM DISPLAYS | GENERIC DISPLAYS
IN-STORE SOLUTIONS | DISPLAY ACCESSORIES
DELTA
a division of
Howtims Display (Pty) Ltd
Your VALUE-ADDING display supplier
customers will buy.
Experts have classified consumers into three
groups. 15% are spendthrifts, 61% are average
Make the customer light up
spenders and 24% are tightwads. Tightwads are
Consumers feel pain and it’s the retailer’s job
your regular customers who classify themselves
to remove that pain; make the customer light
as frugal when it comes to spending. To get these
up by removing pain. Identify what you sell
guys to spend you need to bundle products. Get
that can reduce the consumer’s pain and you
the right bundle together for them and they are
become their hero. Recently I had computer
more inclined to spend.
problems and needed to get them sol ??)?????????()
10?UL?9=\?(?????????????(???????????????????????(??????????????????????((0