Quick: think of a buying experience you’ve had with a salesperson that was so great you told people about it.
Still thinking?
Chances are, you’re drawing a blank, because from a customer perspective, sales experiences are generally bad. Maybe not outrageously bad, but lackluster. Ineffective. Forgettable. And this has created an enormous opportunity for anyone who isn’t.
In my work, I spend my days asking women (and many men too) how they buy, what they buy, from whom they buy, and why they buy from certain people and businesses but not others. When I ask people to share a story with me about a great customer experience with a sales professional, I’m often met with a blank stare. “Give me more time,” they’ll say. “I’m sure I can come up with something.”
Usually, they don’t.
E-commerce has changed our perspective on buying in real life (IRL). It’s become the unlikely new benchmark for flawless, personal service, to the extent that some women feel their online buying experiences are higher quality than their face-to-face purchase interactions. Partly, this is because e-commerce transactions eliminate many of the variables encountered in traditional sales situations. Consider a routine retail transaction: a woman is in the market for a new weatherproof jacket. She searches on Amazon.com and finds the exact color and size she needs. She reads the customer reviews of the product and feels confident enough to place her order. Once she does, she gets an immediate email confirmation with a thank-you message, and she’s notified when the product leaves the warehouse. She gets the jacket conveniently at home, followed by a message asking for her feedback after the purchase. Later, she receives personalized recommendations for other items she might like, based on her selection of that jacket.
Now, imagine this woman walks into a store looking for the same jacket. The variables she encounters are endless. She may or may not be greeted; she may or may not get eye contact; she may or may not be actively helped; she may or may not work with an associate who has any knowledge of the product she’s interested in; the jacket she wants may or may not be in stock; and she may or may not be followed up with, even when she asks an associate to tell her if the jacket can be found at another location in her size. She never hears from the store again. She buys it somewhere else instead.
It doesn’t need to be this way. Here’s what should have happened if the traditional store were more competitive with the online customer experience: the customer walks into a store looking for the weatherproof jacket. A sales associate gives her a friendly welcome and starts a conversation by asking about her needs. She tells him she’s about to go on her first hiking trip and that she wants the right gear. The associate finds out more about her plans and learns that she will be camping too. Before you know it, he’s recommended a jacket with thicker insulation, as well as wool socks and a backpack large enough to accommodate her supplies. The weatherproof jacket is out of stock in the color she wants, but he orders it for her and has it shipped directly to her home. The customer learns about products she didn’t even know she needed and walks out of the store with more than she had intended to buy. The jacket arrives at her home a few days later, and she feels not only satisfied with her purchase but also thrilled with the retailer that provided help beyond what she’d asked.
In this scenario, the traditional retailer was able to sell more products than the online retailer because the sales associate was proactive with questions and suggestions, and provided the help and attention the customer needed. The power of asking “why” and not just “what” is a key advantage for anyone selling IRL.
Unfortunately, this is too often the exception. Some women avoid the in-person customer experience altogether due to the mere thought that an IRL sales experience might not go well, might not be efficient, might not be productive, or might even be offensive in some way. As one woman told me, “In some places, you wouldn’t know who worked there if they came up and bit you—you feel like you’re on your own.” This explains the growing reliance on crowdsourced review sites, and it’s upped the ante for every human being who earns a living by engaging customers. For sales professionals, it’s critical to maintain such a strong reputation for consistently great service that people seek you out because you’ve eliminated a variable for them: They know they’ll have a great experience with you.
Chances are, whatever you sell, there’s a cheaper and/or more convenient option available somewhere else. This is why it’s more important than ever to provide memorable person-to-person engagement. Research shows that 77 percent of consumers will choose a human over a digital capability when seeking advice.1 And yet it seems that many companies have invested in technology while letting the “human side” of selling wither. This is one reason great IRL customer experiences are still the exception and not the rule, despite our state-of-the-art communication tools.
From a woman’s standpoint, many sales experiences still fall into one of two extremes:
The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. At the risk of stating the obvious, people flock to businesses that hit the sweet spot with great customer experiences. Think of all those friendly people in the colorful T-shirts at Apple stores. Are they selling? Sure, they are. Does it feel like they’re selling? No. It feels like they’re helping. They’re educating. They’re offering suggestions, fixing problems, answering questions, and generally making you feel great about improving your life with their products. Visiting their stores is so enjoyable that the Fifth Avenue location in New York City is open around the clock, because why should anyone have to wait to get a shot of Apple inspiration?
One young woman told me that she loved visiting Apple stores because, “I am surrounded by people who are so knowledgeable, I feel empowered.” This is quite a statement when one considers how easy it would be for Apple to make its customers feel stupid, since few people know how the products work and their customer service people have the title of geniuses.
No matter. People walk out of an Apple store feeling smarter than when they walked in, and that is a feat of emotional engagement. The world’s most technologically advanced company has embraced the human side of selling to phenomenal effect. Apple generates more sales per square foot in its stores than any other retailer. Yes, this is partly because their products are expensive, but no one can deny that customers flock to the company’s brick-and-mortar experience as they do to few other retailers.
SELLING: WHAT’S CHANGED AND WHAT HASN’T
Engaging women consumers as powerfully as Apple connects with its customers begins with understanding some important ways the selling landscape has changed:
1. The balance of power has flipped. The internet has fundamentally altered the balance of power between buyers and sellers. The company or sales professional no longer “owns” all the information about a product or service. Some customers feel they know more about the products they’re interested in than the people selling them.
2. Fast and easy have been redefined. E-commerce, Amazon Prime, in-home digital assistants, voice technology, augmented reality, apps, and on-demand businesses are just some of the innovations that have changed people’s perceptions of convenience and speed, forcing sales professionals to compete with a differentiated offering.
3. People need a reason to get off the couch. In brick-and-mortar environments, such as stores and sales offices, the new imperative is to deliver the kind of personal, sensory-rich, and service-oriented experience that inspires people to leave their houses to seek it out.
The medical profession offers an interesting analogy for how things have changed for sales professionals. Imagine a physician whose patient walks into the exam room holding a stack of online research about her symptoms. Before the doctor has a chance to conduct her examination, the patient tells her she’s come up with her own diagnosis, based on her research. The doctor listens to the patient before delivering her own point of view, which is based on years of medical training and practice.
In this scenario, the patient possesses information, while the physician possesses knowledge, subject-matter expertise, and the professional experience of working with thousands of other patients who’ve had similar symptoms. Yet because the patient has access to so much information, the conversation is different—and potentially longer and more dynamic—than it would have been pre-internet.
For sales professionals, the scenario is relatable. Often, women have already conducted some research before they meet with you. They may have conducted extensive research if what you’re selling has a high price tag or is “high stakes” from their point of view. They’ve read the reviews. They’ve looked on social media. They’ve watched videos made by other customers. They’ve compared options, checked prices, and maybe even learned all about your professional background on LinkedIn or your company website. In this new environment, the challenge is to add value to a process that the customer feels she has already partially, or wholly, completed. This can be a difficult adjustment to make, to be sure. And, yet, it feels good to know that many fundamentals have not changed:
1. People will always want and need to buy things. The need for selling is not going away any time soon; success means inspiring customers to buy from you instead of someone or somewhere else.
2. It’s exciting to buy from someone who believes in what he or she is selling. This explains the happy “buzz” at Apple stores and the high frequency of employee/customer interactions within them. There’s nothing more contagious than buying from someone who has passion for their work and believes in their products.
3. Strong interpersonal skills go a long way. As we have seen, our definition of good service has changed because of the new standards set by e-commerce, apps, and algorithms. This means that effective communication skills are more important than ever.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Women’s societal roles and increased education and wealth means that they are not only the primary consumers of today, but also the primary consumers of tomorrow.
• E-commerce has changed our expectations for buying IRL and increased the importance of strong interpersonal skills and customer engagement.
• Great sales experiences are still the exception and not the rule. This creates an enormous opportunity for those who can deliver valuable experiences to customers.
ACTIVATING YOUR INSIGHTS
• Think about the best buying experience you’ve ever had with a sales professional. What did that professional do well that made the experience so memorable? What lessons can you apply to your own business based on that experience?
• Write down your favorite places to shop/buy/be a customer, including both e-commerce companies and traditional businesses. What are these companies doing well that you could adapt for your own business?