Vince DiCecco
Often, people who decide to join a fitness club and hire a personal trainer find convenience to be a key factor in determining how long they’ll stick with the program. If the gym is too far from home, its hours too restrictive, or the availability of the trainer limited, the trainee’s ambition to become lean and fit may fade. But if a convenientarrangement is established and maintained, the trainee may well overlook a marginally equipped facility, mediocre amenities or even an unfriendly front-desk staff.
The seminar students with whom I’ve had the pleasure to work commonly agree with this statement: People buy from people who they like, trust, and with whom it is convenient to do business. The assertion has face validity; it just makes sense. Further, it is consistent with what is swimming in their heads when they are poised to make buying decisions. But, aside from liking and trusting, just how important is that convenience factor—compared to other evaluation criteria—and will it really hold as true in the minds of our customers as it does in the physical-training example above? Will your customer really come to consider the convenience you offer to be more significant than certain shortcomings your shop may have?
Defining Competitive Advantage
Students of the art form that we have come to regard as “the sale” separate the reasons why consumers make buying decisions into six categories. Most businesses—whether they know it or not—compete with other companies in their marketplace in at least one of these areas:
Price is the amount of money that is charged or collected for a product or service rendered— nothing more and nothing less. Salespeople typically place far too much emphasis on the importance of price to the consumer. I mention this because of the answers I receive when I ask the question: What percent of your customers buy primarily on price?
Frequently, the answers range from 20 to 75 percent. Wrong! Although you may debate me on this point, I can defend why it’s a fact that only around one percent of the buying public makes its decision to buy solely on price. Not convinced? Then ask yourself what percent of the time do you choose the cheapest item or service out there, without first measuring it against the criteria that will satisfy your needs? I’ll bet you don’t “settle” for below average value just because it’s cheap very often—certainly not 20 percent of the time, if at all.
Many business owners and salespeople confuse price with value. Value is the combination of the other five competitive-advantage factors that define the worth of a product or service in relation to its price. In other words, value can be determined by the sum of the quality, service, delivery, salesmanship and convenience reflected in the product or service.
Quality means conformance to requirements or standards. Many years ago, quality usually implied “the best.” With the emphasis on quality assurance in today’s marketplace, quality has been correctly redefined to mean “meeting customers’ expectations.” The best way to ensure you are selling a quality product is to constantly ask your customers what features and benefits they are looking for when in the market for the goods and services you offer. Quality won’t mean the same thing to all people.
Many times sign and digital graphics professionals confuse state-of-the-art technology with quality. For example, if a banner only needs to last one day through a company-sponsored golf tournament, why must it be an eight-color, all-weather, fade-resistant, and made with heavyweight, nylon-reinforced coated banner fabric? Conversely, if that same banner were ordered to be displayed in winter weather throughout this holiday shopping season—and used in years to come—then that banner fabric would be the appropriate choice. It depends on the situation and the customer’s needs.
At Your Service
The way the customer is treated during the prospective phase and transaction of the sale is defined by the wordsalesmanship. Examples of salesmanship include the friendly greeting and listening skills of your customer-service and sales representatives, the enticing promotion in a print ad, the straightforward answers customers receive to their questions, your well-known reputation as a seller, and how timely your response is to a client’s call or request. Nowhere else in the selling process are those first two elements of successful sales—likeability and trustworthiness—put to the test as in your salesmanship.
To evaluate this aspect of your selling ability, you may want to recruit associates and friends as “secret shoppers,” to call your company in the role of prospective customers. Their feedback about how they’re treated may be very eye opening.
For the purpose of this discussion, I’ll define service as the care and support that is offered to the customer after the sale. Examples of service include—but are certainly not limited to—the length and strength of your warranty and return policies, along with additional support and troubleshooting help for end users. Many marketing gurus emphasize the importance of service and support in today’s market—a phenomenon likely due to the evolution of our service-oriented society. Accordingly, customers today assume that a liberal guarantee accompanies the purchase of most products or services. Be careful here. Taking too much pride in your company’s “whatever it takes” service philosophy may raise your customers’ expectations without increasing your revenues proportionately. Seek a balance.
Delivery depends on the expectation your customer has regarding when they will actually be able to touch or see the product or service. On-time and just-in-time delivery are buzzwords being tossed around liberally in business circles these days—but they’re still quite accurate: Customers are simply not willing to pay premium prices for excuses about why the product or service wasn’t delivered on time. Late-delivery or non-delivery events are the primary reasons customers fire suppliers. Sure, there are sometimes mitigating circumstances that allow a second chance to be given. But, by and large, when you say something will be there and it ain’t there, you’re driving the final nail into the coffin that contains your relationship with that customer.
It Boils Down to Convenience
In a way, convenience is perceived by many to be a combination of service, salesmanship and delivery. They are the vehicles that create the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction in the mind of your customer.
Try asking customers (or yourself) why they decided to buy something. Ask what made them decide between all of the available alternatives. What was the factor that tipped the scales in favor of their eventual decision? Typically, you’ll find the words “convenient” or “easier” embedded somewhere in their answers.
“It was more convenient to buy the $3 half-gallon of milk at the corner Quiki-Mart than to go to the supermarket, park the car, stand in the check-out line just to save half-a-buck.”
“It was easier to pay for delivery than to drive across town to pick it up.”
“When I place my order with Acme, I know I will get exactly what I ask for, when I need
it, and I’ll have one less thing to worry about. How convenient is that!”
As a business operator, you know you can train your employees to improve quality, provide better service, practice professional salesmanship and recommend the most efficient delivery options. The one competitive advantage factor that is difficult to teach is how to make the buying process more convenient for your customers.
Perform self-analysis of your company’s rules, regulations, policies and procedures for doing business. If these policies turn out to be written more for the convenience of you, the business and/or its employees rather than of your customers, don’t go touting the fact that you are “customer-centered.” Many companies say they are “full-service,” even though doing business with them is tougher than applying a flawless vehicle wrap on a tour bus.
Regardless of what you want your company to be known for, make yourself aware of your customer’s perception of how convenient—or inconvenient—it is to do business with you. Listen passionately for signals that will tell you what would make life easier for them and, ultimately, for you. Good luck.