Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor® blog at Retaildoc.com

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From the Retail Doc’s Facebook Fan page:

Jessica Westberg from Billings, MT asked ” Can you write about not assuming the customer wants the cheaper option?” Sure and here’s a perfect place for a story.

It was during a huge clearance sale shortly before the holidays.  The rack said “Three shirts for $20.”  A woman held up several to her elderly what appeared to be husband’s chest, picked 9 and asked, “Can you give these to me for $50?” The harried clerk took one look at her appearance in a soiled and tattered jacket, unkempt hair and declared, “No. See the sign? It’s 3 for $20, that would be 6 for $40 and 9 for $60″ then turned away.  She stayed at the counter.

“Young man. Young man,” she said until he finally turned around.
“What!” he said in an impatient manner as he continued to ring up another customer.  The clearance sale was being held in a tent and the wind blew a receipt off the desk.
“How much is that brown jacket?” as she pointed to the brown silk jacket hanging on pegboard behind the cashier.  This was during the 80′s when satin jackets were “cool.” This particular one in chocolate was embroidered with the store’s logo in gold, red and black that made a dramatic statement.  They were given as a prize to their store managers each year for achieving sales goals.  It was a prized possession.
“THAT jacket?!” he said incredulously.  ”Two-hundred dollars,” as he turned back around to help another customer to his left.
“Can we see it?” she patiently asked. “Can we see it?” she asked louder.
“What? … Fine,” he took it off the pegboard and handed it to her. “It’s a medium,” and handed it to her.
She held it up to her elderly companions chest, then said to the clerk, “We’ll take two.”
The clerk was dumbfounded. Especially when she paid cash for the entire purchase.

We’ve all had those experiences in retail when we’ve misjudged how much someone could afford. Heck, truth be told, I’ve even done it as a speaker.

How do we know what someone can or will afford?  In a previous post about posting a sign over the merch and drawing customers, I warned that it could lead to lower sales. In essence we’d be assuming customers want the cheaper option.  I also wrote about the $30 red shirt that led to a several thousand dollar sale too.  The old adage “assume means you make an ass out of me” may be applicable.

Usually we assume the customer wants the cheaper option because:
1) We’ve sized them up and decided from the way they dress or talk that they can’t afford it.
2) We empathize with all customers based on what we read/see in the media (see my post on “Survivor Guilt.”
3) We think like a customer that we’d like the cheaper option because we, the salespeople have never paid for that premium item and settled for the “good enough” brand or service.

To get over these assumptions more often than not we have to look inward at how we as business owners, managers and salespeople look at the merch or services we sell.  When we can feel confident about buying them – especially the premium ones – then we can assume others will as well.

Do you have a story where you assumed they couldn’t afford it but could? Please share yours in the comments section below.

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