Do Business Well

Opportunity knocks

Life is filled with an abundance of opportunity. You just need to train yourself to recognise it. An Italian restaurant used to order a huge amount of mozzarella cheese from a rep for dairy products. The rep could not believe it when the owner told him all the cheese was used for just one outlet, so that evening he visited the restaurant. Even though he made a point of arriving early, he was still met with a long queue outside. The restaurant seated about 180 people, so he was seated quickly. He was tended to immediately, and the reasonably priced meal was served in record time. He saw that the tables turned within an hour and that there were also a huge amount of take-away orders being collected. After visiting the restaurant on numerous other occasions, the rep concluded that good service, a well-run operation that allowed quick service, a good energy, and reasonably priced, quality food resulted in huge mozzarella orders and a healthy bank balance. In fact, it wasn’t long before that same proprietor opened a chain of pizza restaurants that he later franchised.

Spend a little

Have you ever thought why people actually buy things? The following are important reasons why shoppers spend their money…

• They are tempted (look how many sweets are dropped into their shopping basket while they wait to be served by a cashier).
• They love sales (try to price at least one of your products as a ’sale’ item).
• They comfort shop.
• They are lazy (people generally tend to buy what is readily available).
• They just love convenience!
• They’re bored — or unhappy.
• They like what they see. Sometimes people are just too lazy to shop around so they buy what they see, so you need to ensure your products are always visible.

Knowing what your customer wants

Reassure your customers that you know what they need. I once saw a hairdresser whose advert read: ‘We understand colour and style’ — now that’s encouraging from a hair salon!

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