The retail industry today tends to have an interesting dilemma. These days you have literally the same product, sealed in an airtight factory-sealed plastic to prove it’s identical, and with profit margins so tight in order to be able to stay competitive in today’s marketplace, pricing tends to be virtually identical as well. So how is a retail outlet to differentiate not just between other brands, but since you can many different locations under the same brand, how are you to differentiate yourself from other locations with the brand being identical as well? It can be a situation that, depending on who you are, can be seen as a crisis, or opportunity. It really does depend on the person. If you have any sales blood in you at all, this would be a huge opportunity that will allow your sales talent and skills to shine since there is no difference in the product or price that you are selling. The difference will be all you, how you craft the sales experience. Will it personal? Will it be personable? Will it be an experience that will leave the customer impressed? Educated? Satisfied? Will the customer feel like he got a deal? Will the customer feel like he was taken care of? Valued? Will he want to go rave about his purchasing experience to friends and family? Will he post his newly purchased item on whatever social media outlet that he calls his second addiction? That all depends on if you see yourself as a salesman in any regard. People in the mattress industry face this challenge. They cannot escape the fact that their competitors will be selling the same product, at virtually the same price. Their location will be close enough, if not closer. Service, true
service, the type that makes the customer feel valued, even honored, and definitely taken care of, is rare. But it is that which the customer will always remember, and will keep him coming back, and will give you the referrals that any good salesman knows is the lifeline for a sustainable career in sales. If I wanted to buy a mattress, I can buy it from anybody. Why should I go to you? More importantly,
what are you going to do to make my purchasing experience so memorable that I’m going to keep going back to you? If I’m looking for a mattress store Torrance or a mattress store Los Angeles, I know that they will have the same stock and same pricing. The way the brick and mortar store is dressed up, interior and exterior, may differ a bit, but in the end, I know what one store is carrying isn’t all that different from the next. What I’m looking for is something that will differentiate you from the herd. An experience worth repeating. That’s the key: an experience worth repeating. It’s an experience that I would want to repeat again, even if it’s for a product that I already have, don’t need, or don’t want. The experience was so great and memorable, buying something again or something I don’t need will be worth it to experience the experience you gave me, again. And again. And that’s the core of sales. So I can go to a Los Angeles mattress store, or a store out in some God-forsaken city with a population of less than 100 people. But if that tiny city has a salesperson that can give me world-class service, without being pushy or patronizing or overly nice, someone that will take the time to listen to me, really listen to me and my needs, I’m going to go out of my way to give him my business. Why? Because the experience was worth repeating.
