One of the many by-products of travel is that you experience how business is conducted in other countries. We can learn a lot from these experiences – how to do it and how not to do it.
Anyone who has visited markets in places like Egypt and parts of Asia will know how it feels to be surrounded by a pack of local vendors all thrusting at you identical items of minimal interest and dubious quality, all trying to outdo each other in frantic sales patter. If you do make the fatal mistake of showing even a glimmer of interest there is no way out but to buy something. You then discover that the number of items you are pressured to buy increases commensurately with the number of the vendor's offspring – and these vendors do all seem to be remarkably fecund.
The problem with these aggressive tactics is that you buy less than you would have done if you had the opportunity to look at the wares without being assaulted. Many people avoid looking altogether and simply run the gauntlet of vendors with eyes fixed rigidly on the pavement.
I did meet one vendor, Alfred, who sat quietly in his stall, allowed customers to browse, politely offered assistance and information and, not surprisingly, made many sales to battle-weary Western tourists, because, as he explained, he had found out from listening to them that they hated being bombarded. In being prepared to sit quietly in his stall and wait for customers to come in Alfred took a big risk. We have to remember that these vendors are often in countries with no social security and no minimum wage. If they don't sell anything, they don't eat anything either. If they seem desperate to make a sale, that's probably because they are desperate to feed their family. But Alfred's risk paid off – because it was soundly based on listening to his customers.
Contrast this with a not untypical buying experience at home. After trying in vain to get the attention of sales staff in department stores and car dealerships, you emerge thinking ‘it must be too easy to make money' if that is the degree of interest the business has in selling you its products. But of course the attitude of sales staff who have a salary and know they are going to eat tonight is not representative of the owners of the business who are most likely poring over sales and cash flow reports and wondering whether they are going to be able to meet their commitments.
The further away owners are from the ‘shop floor' the more chance there is that the staff who are on it are not delivering the message the owners want them to and, importantly, are not feeding back messages they are receiving from the customers.
No business person can afford to distance themselves from the customer. Small businesses have an advantage over their larger competitors in that owner/managers can be, and usually are, personally in touch with most aspects of the business and particularly with customers. Some owner/managers even allocate themselves a sales territory just to stay in touch and I know a number of them who have responded to finding themselves in the slow lane of the two-speed economy by taking on direct handling of important customers.
This may seem to be an inappropriate use of scarce CEO time, however establishing and maintaining a competitive advantage relies on knowing what is most valuable to your customers and being able to provide it better than your competitors. This is even more important when times are tough. Nothing beats a personal dialogue with customers to nail down this most crucial element of business strategy. Customer surveys may not elicit the constructive responses you need, or indeed any response at all, and feedback through sales staff can be ambiguous and self-serving. A face to face meeting with a key customer by the owner/manager reinforces to the customer their importance to the business and is more likely to prompt forthright, useful information.
As the structure of the economy changes it will be those businesses that listen closely to their customers and are prepared to adapt accordingly which will survive. As we know, consumers are eschewing traditional retail experiences, and this is a wake up call for all businesses that markets and customers' needs can change quite rapidly.
I recently witnessed a hotel manager hold a meeting with some guests – he may not have received the feedback he expected but what he heard had the potential to significantly increase the profitability and longevity of the hotel, as long as he was really listening.
And this is the bottom line. There is no point taking the time to meet your customers if you are not intending to listen to them and act on what they say – that is worse than not speaking to them at all. Bailing them up for the sole purpose of extracting a desperately needed sales order risks missing the strategic value of the interaction, like the market vendors who consistently deal face to face with their customers but fail to find out what they really want. This leaves the door open for someone else – like Alfred – to do the listening and take market share from you.