The woman who was shopping for a travel wallet asked the assistant if there was anything available in the sale.

“Not in store, but you could try our website. There could be something there,” she said.

The customer explained that she was travelling tomorrow, and left the store disappointed and empty-handed, even though there were six different lines of travel wallet on the shelves. Meanwhile, the owner lost the sale all because the assistant forgot to be interested.

Being curious about who your customer is, why she’s here and what she wants to do next is the most underrated sales tactic in the world. When we show people that we’re interested and go out of our way to help them they often respond. I know this seems obvious, but we can all remember a time when we left a store or restaurant disappointed because the staff forgot to go beyond exactly what was laid out in the company training manual.

If we can’t give the customer the answer she’s hoping for then the next best thing is to acknowledge that we see her.

Image by Lee Martin.