101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas
IDEA 47:
TAKE YOUR TIME
Many products and services are non-standard. A kitchen can be designed and tailored to fit your needs and your house, a landscape gardener works in a similar way, many computer systems and consultancy of all sorts is bespoke. To a degree this is one of the strengths of such products, and one of the things that persuades the customer and prompts purchase.
But there is a danger. If the customer does not believe the product or service is really bespoke (when that is what they want), but suspects what they are being offered is actually just a standard option, then a unique aspects of it is negated and selling becomes that much more difficult. Even if there is a “good fit,” they may believe they are being short-changed; certainly perception of price may well change.
Idea
This is a common problem in consultancy, which is part of my own work portfolio…
There are two stages to making bespoke suggestions. The first is identifying the individual circumstances, the second making a specific suggestion based on observation and some sort of survey. Often the second involves a written proposal. For example: the kitchen supplier must draw up and submit drawings and costs, and the consultant must propose how work will be carried out and write a detailed proposal. In both cases the instinct in terms of customer service is to jump to it and do this promptly.
The idea here is simple: take your time.
In practice
- Of course, you must check how urgently the proposal is needed, and make sure what you do will be satisfactory to the customer, but the time taken will be seen as in direct relationship to the degree of tailoring involved. If the proposal is based on a thorough survey, well described and presented, and delivered some time after the survey(even if it only takes a moment to customize it), the customer will assume it to be truly bespoken. It will be seen as having higher valve than a standard offering.
- Allow sufficient time to show that some thought has gone into them, and your proposals may be valued more highly.