9/30/2014
Selling Solutions
Ellen C. Wells
What keeps you up at night? I bet unanswered questions make a racket in your head, barking about customer acquisition. How do we pull them in? And from where? How do we reach that elusive “younger generation” that we have somehow christened as the folks who will save our industry, or totally ignore us, one or the other. Some group, we fret to ourselves, must be bit by the gardening bug—or that’s it for the business.
I teach six classes a week at a local yoga studio. It’s new to the scene, having just opened in April. The owner is a nice enough guy and he’s dedicated to health and wellness. But he came to the field without the experience of owning and operating a business. Being cautious, he had taken on running the business singlehandedly—scheduling classes, hiring instructors, marketing his business and all that goes into running a yoga studio.
How’s it going, you ask? It’s been a slow six months. Located in a college town and in a very young neighborhood, he may have been expecting students to flock to the studio. That has not been the case. Opening in the spring when students have finals then leave for the summer might not have been the best plan.
The owner has taken an important step in acquiring new clients, though. He’s hired someone with marketing experience to spread the word about the studio and its offerings. I found a note this new marketing guy left for the owner, and it said something along the lines of this: Customers aren’t interested in “stuff” like products or services; they are interested in solutions.
I tend to agree. And I will tell you why. Ever since the “Great Recession” hit this country in 2007, a change has occurred in how Americans value their hard-earned income. Money is precious. We must spend what we have in a way that ensures the important things in life are covered—food, shelter, children, health and education. What little remains of a person’s funds must demonstrate it’s worthy of the purchase and be a necessity.
This yoga studio must provide solutions to issues that the neighbors are experiencing—from the start times and types of yoga classes to special workshops and wellness programming. Anything beyond those issues is a risk, quite honestly, especially with such a young endeavor.
Many of our businesses began in a time when the rule of thumb was if we grow it or sell it, people will buy it. That’s not the case anymore and it’s likely to not be the case for some time to come. Save the frivolity and extras for impulse buys at the checkout. Provide solutions—a shrub to cover a water meter, a dash of color to make the porch look attractive, controls for squash vine borer (my personal vexation)—as the backbone of your business.
You want to gain new customers or to retain the customers you have? Ditch the “stuff” and concentrate on learning about your customers’ problems—then be sure to offer them appropriate solutions. This insight could not only decrease extraneous inventory, but also let customers know you are in touch with their needs. This approach is definitely worth the risk, don’t you think?
GP