How African Art Helps Your Prospect Visualise

I know a talented Cape Town potter and painter.

She kilns and decorates popular teapots.

She asked me for ideas on how to make more sales from her Watershed Market spot at the town’s Waterfront.

More than happy to help (it reminded me of hours of giggling cafe menu engineering in which I once partook) I decided to provide two suggestions to jump off from.

The first may sound like Marketing. But it isn’t.

As any rep knows, selling a single item – no matter what variants of design and price – is really tough.

Whether you man a stall or pound the roads, you need comparative variety beyond “colours”. (tip: also note my post from a year ago on the ‘good better best‘ trick)

In this case there is a single base product design, with differing complexity of artwork leading to three separate price tags.

It reminded me a lot of basic b2b goods (machines and software) that claim tailored task/sector features which in reality make little value proposition difference.

You must offer choice. Here I first proposed having a super-duper distinctive design for double the current crop’s price. (The tourist clientele appear mainly price inelastic purchasers).

Then also some kind of “accessory” offering. Like create a tea caddy set. One which can sell for just a smidgen less than the entry pot.

Range expanded, now we come to process.

I asked what happened when a sale was made. What type of conversation tended to come up in most cases?

This is the starting point for any sales process. Retail and our Solution sphere.

In the absence of any pattern yet identified, I suggested a routine to insert upon interest expression.

Where do you see this sitting at home?

A classic visualisation pre-close.

As you get comfortable with it, add images for the mind’s eye according to successful responses.

On a mantelpiece, coffee table, spot in the kitchen, that shelf above the cistern?

Okay so maybe not that last one but you get the gist.

Any question that gets the post-sale deployment, usage, ownership juices flowing which also generates engagement is a winner.

Too many a solution seller focuses only on questions that lead up to the signature. And they are always going to end up the poorer for doing so.