July/August 2018 ertonline.co.uk


understand those needs that counts, but how they adjust their own behaviour to build bridges of empathy and trust. It’s about how they advise customers on the best-fit technology, how they construct a compelling case for each unique solution they want to propose and then how they show it. It’s about taking a more consultative approach to every customer interaction, putting a plan together and maybe – yes, I’ll say it – giving people time to think about it. After all, if the total value of a smart-home installation is on the high side, then it’s a considered investment, and therefore unlikely to be something that can be rushed. Can you guarantee that customers will return if you let them walk away from the shop for a day or two?


There ought to be a law that states ‘every customer should get hands-on in every demonstration’ – the smart home is ideal


No, but you can increase your chances of


them returning in a very simple way: by giving your customers an experience they’ll remember, and that other retailers can only look upon in envy. That ‘first impression’ you heard about way back when you started? Today, it’s about more than just making sure you’re well-dressed and have a lovely smile. First impressions are all- encompassing, they run throughout the business. So if your customer walks out and raves about what you showed them, tweets about it and dreams about it, then yes, they’ll be back all right.


Demonstrations


maybe only one, or possibly two salespeople per branch who breathe the rarefied air at that high level. What about the other two, three or four people lurking at the back? Are you just dabbling in the smart home or are you serious about it? Consistency across your staff is critical if you’re going to establish your business not only as the go-to place for customers seeking answers to all their burning smart-home questions, but as the commercial sales success and centre of excellence in all things connected that everybody is raving about. Every retailer is different. Every smart-home solution is different. Every customer is different. Despite this, there are key elements to achieving high-quality sales through the smart


Are you just dabbling in the smart home or are you serious about it? Consistency across your staff is critical if you’re going to establish your business as the go-to place


home that are universal. To my mind, success is dependent firstly upon how your sales staff take consistent actions to see a sale through to its happy conclusion (and beyond), no matter who walks in through the door. It’s in recognising that every customer is unique, not just with regard to their age, gender, family circumstances and disposable income, but also their preferences, behaviours, and of course their needs. So it’s not only what your smart-home experts do to


Demonstrating is something every retailer can do, but demonstrations are largely underused. There ought to be a law that states ‘every customer should get hands-on in every demonstration’ and smart home is the ideal technology to demonstrate and generate some theatre and interaction. It can be simply pairing up their phones to a multi-room speaker system spread throughout the shop, sitting on a sofa in a room glittering with technology, controlling the lighting with their voice or taking a selfie with a mixed-reality widget and posting it to the social platform of their choice. If your customer experiences the technology through a jaw-dropping demonstration, sits inside your smart-home zone and interacts with the technology in a way that entices them and sparks an emotional connection, then you’re more than halfway to a sale. But if all you’re doing is telling your customer how it all works, and in a smug know-it-all kind of way full of techie jargon and barely credible hearsay, well… good luck with that. You need to think about the long term. There are plenty of other things we haven’t talked about here, such as the delivery, the installation and the after-sales experience, which is arguably more important than the in-store phase. After all, you want your customers to buy from you again in the future, right? In my opinion, if you’re bringing the smart home into your retail business, you have to get every element ready, and if you don’t include your sales staff in the plan, you’ll be wondering why it didn’t work. So, are your sales staff ready for the smart home?


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