I recently ran across a TV series that made me think, “Every sales person should see this show”. It has all the drama around the typical sales process - from sales consultants looking to hit their monthly number, to budget challenges, economic buyers, influencers, and overcoming objections. Yep, it’s a show that every seller should watch. It’s called “Say Yes to the Dress”.
The show is a reality program based on a bridal shop called Kleinfeld. They carry over 1,700 wedding gowns and employ 225 people. This is no ordinary boutique. Dress prices range from $1,500 to over $30,000. And the operation is not immune to the recession. A recent episode had the owners speaking to the sales teams about cuts, with the narrator of the show stating, “Bridal sales are tumbling across the country.” “Bridal Consultants” were told that they would be terminated based on their sales performance. Sound familiar?
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What makes this show intriguing to me is that it has all of the elements of a complex sale.
First, the Bridal Consultant greets the bride and her entourage. These are the “influencers”, and I’m sure that you run across them in your line of sales. In this case, the influencers are the mom, dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, godparents, friends, roommates or fiancé. Sometimes there is only one, but more often there are five to eight. The consultant is very aware of them and works to gain their trust as well as the bride’s. They all have a significant influence on the final outcome, yet they are not the final decision maker. That is the bride.
During the introductions, the Bridal Consultant asks about budget. And there is no beating around the bush. She typically asks, “How much are you looking to spend today?”, or “What’s the top-end of your budget?” When she finds out the budget, she also is looking to understand who the “Economic Buyer” is. That is, who is singing the check? Often times this is not the bride. On a recent episode a Bridal Consultant lost a deal because the economic buyer, in this case the fiancé, was not there to see the dress. Had the consultant been more diligent in the discovery process, she might have found this out earlier in the sales cycle and saved some valuable time. So, while the consultant spends her time selling to the bride, she is also very aware of the economic buyer and is constantly seeking their approval and input. And, she is very diligent about staying inside the budget. Deals get lost when a bride falls in love with a dress that she cannot afford.
After the consultant meets and greets the large group, the bride is ushered in to a large and well appointed fitting room where the Bridal Consultant gets to know her better. She asks the bride questions about the time and location of the wedding, how long the bride has known the fiancé, when and where they met, and other pleasantries. Clearly the consultant is establishing a trust-based relationship with the prospect. This is critical because the bride considers this purchase to be one of the most – if not the most important – purchasing decisions related to the wedding. More importantly, the consultant begins to understand exactly what kind of dress the bride is looking for.
From there the Bridal Consultant searches to find the right few dresses that match the bride’s taste and budget. Once the dresses are found, the bride tries them on and shows them off to the influencers.
This is where things get interesting. If the bride has given too many specifications (color, open neck, straps/no-straps, pattern, bling, top design, and bottom design) then the job of finding a dress in the right price range can be a real challenge. Yet, when the bride has a general idea of what she wants, the consultants are almost always successful finding her just the right dress. Doesn’t that parallel your sales experience? When a prospect has a business problem and is flexible about how you go about solving it for them, doesn’t that make for a win/win situation? Or, do you spend your days responding to very specific RFPs where every detail has already been decided and you are trying to “fit” your product into an already defined solution? Many times, brides with very particular specifications leave the store exasperated and without a dress. Clearly, that’s not what they had in mind when they walked in the door.
And, like many sales reps, the Kleinfeld bridal consultants don’t have to go it alone. Nope, they’ve got a Subject Matter Expert (SME) always available to help. Randy, the fashion designer, is often called in to work with those tricky situations when the bride is looking for something custom or very difficult to find. Randy is there to support his sellers with his expertise and working knowledge of the gowns. He is very often the reason that the consultants close the deal. Sound familiar?
Then there’s the issue of too many choices. If a bride tries on too many dresses she can get confused and might leave without buying anything. That’s just human nature and again, a part of many sales processes. I was recently speaking with a rep about this very issue. He was asking me if it made more sense to focus on the deal on the table and up-sell later, or go ahead and let the prospect know about all of our offerings. My advice was to sell only what was being proposed at the time. Win the current deal and there is always room for an up-sell. Otherwise you run the risk of confusing them and losing the deal - just like the confused bride.
Then there’s the close. The Bridal Consultant can tell when the bride really loves a dress. When this happens the entourage is generally on board too. At this time the consultant will enthusiastically ask “Is this the dress?!” to which the bride will enthusiastically say “YES!” Another version was, “Can you see yourself walking down the aisle in this dress?!” These are great closing questions that take away any doubt from the bride and her influencers that this is the dress. It makes me wonder why so many sellers are afraid to close.
I don’t watch too much TV, and I’m not a big fan of shopping. But if you want a great microcosm of a sales process (or three) sit down, relax, and enjoy an episode of “Say Yes to the Dress”. Who knows, you might just learn something!
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