Going to a mall used to be so much fun in my youth. Dare I say, it was the place to be. One of your parents would drop you off and tell you they’ll pick you up “right back here” in 4 hours, and you and a friend or two were off. Strutting through the corridors with a freedom rarely felt since. Talking about everything and anything that you saw, like a walking Seinfeld episode of prepubescence.
You’d hit up the Camelot Music, Sam Goody, or Sun Records, maybe, just maybe, having enough change to buy the newest cassette (YES, I’m aging myself here, but let me reminisce!). You’d flip through the poster carousel, liking half of all the posters you saw, but not near enough to want it adorned on your bedroom walls. (Thank you, Samantha Fox.) At Spencer Gifts, you’d gasp and guffaw, showing your friends each new scandalous item you came across, similar to how people force their phone screens into people’s faces now. Maybe you would catch a movie it your mall offered it, rarely it was a highbrow film, but perfect nonetheless. If you were a boy, and you were brave enough, you’d saunter through the Victoria’s Secret, doing your best to not look glaringly out of place, just to get an eyeful, letting the imagination run wild. And then, to feel more like yourself, you’d walk the cramped aisles of the KB Toys. An odd juxtaposition between stores, but not really so if you’re a middle-aged man now if you think about it. If you were lucky enough to have a cool mall near you, maybe a little laser tag was on the agenda, where you and your friends were an unstoppable wrecking crew, straight demolishing the kids on the other team. Victorious, you walked to the food court. And here is where they got you.
What the hell does all this nostalgia of 80’s malls have to do with handling sales leads, Joe?! I’ll tell you. While malls are virtually dead, now turning into apartment complexes, senior living facilities, and horror movie sets, handling sales leads is evolving and, dare I say again, the place to be. Talk to any salespeople on a showroom that is bereft of Internet leads and sales calls and they have the same face of despair as someone working in that last surviving Claire’s Boutique in your local mall. Back on task, there is much to learn about the sales tactics of mall shop owners and food court carnival barkers that can teach us how sales leads must be handled.
For two and a half decades (and longer really), we were handling sales leads the same way. We would grab them and respond in the order they arrived. The shopper would have to wait to get the information they sought until a back and forth was established. The less we could give them before their visit to our showroom the better. Then digital retailing entered the fray, and like a small, overenergized woman serving samples from a tray in front of the Manchu Wok, they gave you a taste right off the bat. Payments became easy to achieve without interaction, “mmm, is that what orange chicken tastes like?”. Approvals came before approaches, “sure, I will try your Mongolian beef.” Trade values, vehicle accessories, and protection plans all at the customer’s fingertips, upfront for all to have, “General who? Well, if his chicken is good enough for the military, it’s is good enough for me”.
Yes, this has been a long trip down memory lane all to make a simple appeal. Give customers the taste they crave, maybe before they even know they want it, right upfront, without bartering. Shotgun fully desked numbers to them without their asking. Create the deal before they know they want it. Much like the people who served up spoonfuls of flavors from the Baskin Robbins, or a half-a-spring roll in a little paper ketchup cup in front one of the two Chinese food vendors (and you knew to only ever eat at the one Chinese food place, never knowing how the other stayed in business), you want to both control their taste buds, and make them feel just a tiny bit obligated. Get out from behind your glass serving area waiting for shoppers to line-up and ask to buy what you have, and take it to them. Put it on a silver platter and hand it over. Be the first to offer the good stuff and whet their appetite. Handling sales leads in the same way a mall food court used to sling food samples in the past is very much the place your dealership needs to be in the present. After all, it is really difficult to eat at Sbarro’s or The Great Cheesesteak Factory when someone else has already fed you teriyaki chicken. (Don’t forget the Karmelkorn on the way out.)