Your buying process may be something that you rarely think about but your customers and clients will closely scrutinise. We often do things because they are familiar, without questioning whether there is a better and more efficient way.
Authors Ray Considine and Ted Cohn have written a book called “WAYMISH: Why Are You Making It So Hard For Me To Give You My Money?” which identifies several areas where businesses actually make it more difficult than easy to deal with them.
They discuss four marketing strategies to make your buying process simple and increase sales:
WAYMISH #1: Making Customers Wait
Having to wait for service is one of the biggest complaints in any business. It sends a message to customers that their time doesn’t count… and neither do they. Don’t just think in terms of making people wait for meetings and appointments – this covers a multitude of areas…
| · Answering the phone | · Answering the office door |
| · Delivery of product | · People in waiting areas |
| · Management of queues | · Meetings/appointments/ estimates/consultations, etc. |
| · Engaged tones when ringing into the office | · Parking spaces available |
All these things irritate people, so getting them right will give you a significant edge over your competition. A good example of this is Tesco, who put on extra cashiers if more than two people are waiting in a queue!
WAYMISH #2: Accessibility How accessible is the business?
That doesn’t necessarily mean your location. Here are the things you need to consider…
· Opening Times: Make it easy for your customers; ask them when they would prefer the business to open. Change opening and closing times. Having opening and closing times to suit customers rather than staff is what you must strive to achieve.
· Days Of Business: How many days a week is your business open? Even open on Sunday if you have to. Again, the business needs to be open on days your customers are most likely to visit. By the same token, there’s no point in opening on days that customers don’t buy.
· 24/7: Having a website makes the business open 24/7. The key is making your website work, so it achieves the objective you want.
· Easy Access To Products/Services: Good retail stores know that product placement can make huge differences to the sales of certain items. For example, manufacturers will pay supermarkets handsomely for their products to be placed at waist -/eye-level on certain aisles.
WAYMISH #3: Payment Options
Have as many payment options as possible available to customers. You really are restricting sales if the business only offers one or two payment options.
Allow customers to pay by cash, cheque, credit cards, bank transfer, online payments, etc. Then also look closely at structuring payments so customers can spread their payments. In the current economic climate, if you can restructure payment terms so customers pay in instalments, this can have an immediate effect on your business and, of course, your cash flow.
Remember, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in—you can use these tactics.
WAYMISH #4: Making It Difficult To Contact The Business
Since the advent of the internet, this has risen to almost epidemic proportions. How often do you find a product or service online and, before buying, you want to ask a few questions? Then, to your frustration you can’t find any way to get in contact with the supplier. It’s like they’ve hidden their phone number and they don’t want you to contact them. Parade your phone number and e-mail address. Don’t make it hard; make it unbelievably easy for people to reach the business.
Now it’s your turn. Look at your business and apply the WAYMISH strategies to it. Do that, and you’ll increase your sales significantly (without spending a penny!).
