How to Help a Dumb Customer

Over at Dapeem.com, a recent post included 3 ways to impress the smart customer, which triggered my curiosity into exploring what course of action would be best with a "dumb" customer -- dumb being the term not to describe the person's mental capacity and level of intelligence, but rather, the term to describe the person's course of action when approaching a service or product provider.

While the smart customer might research the product they're interested in and invest a bit of time into growing a knowledge of it, the dumb customer will most likely walk into a store and let the sales associate go to town, up-selling them along the way.

So, this brings us to the question I'd like to explore:

How do you handle a dumb customer?

It might seem like a simple question to answer -- you sell them your product, -- but let's look at it a bit closer.

Do you up-sell them? Do you take advantage of their lack of knowledge and sell them the most expensive item you can manage? Or, do you help them with what they need and nothing more? Do you let the possible chance of making a few more bucks go to waste and address only their main concern?

The answer is yes.

Here a few steps to consider when helping a dumb customer and contemplating whether or not to up-sell of be of honest help.

• Listen to them - this is the first step with any type of business. You need to gather what they're looking for and what they know about it.
• Give them what they need ... and offer a bit more - this might simply mean bringing out two pairs of shoes -- the one they asked for, and an alternate choice you think they might be interested in. At this point, you might be able to get away with up-selling them a bit by bringing them a shoe that's slightly more expensive, but your main goal right now is to impress them with your willingness and ability to go above the call of duty with your suggestion. Perhaps you have experience with another shoe and you could tell them a bit about it, show them what bothered you about it, or why it was great.
• Be the expert - Yes, with dumb customers, you still have to be an expert and let the customer know all about the product.
• Answer their questions - answer their questions with valuable information they find helpful, and reference product that best reveal what you're saying -- in other words, answer their question using examples from the show you'd like to sell them. Keep it helpful and in the park -- customers, even dumb ones, can smell upselling from a miles away. Don't just say, "Yes, well this model is better because ..."
• Show the customer what you're talking about - again, use the show you'd like to sell them compared to the show they picked.
• Let them try it - in addition, let the customer feel or see the difference between the shoe they picked and the one you brought out in addition. Chances are they'll agree with you regarding which shoe is better -- the more expensive in most cases.
• Bring out a less expensive example -- if you really want to cover your tracks of up-selling the customer, consider bringing out a cheap example in order to show the customer what they want to avoid. Let them try on the show and feel the difference. Again, chances are they'll be excited about the premium choice.

All in all, the choice is up to you. To up-sell or not to up-sell?

Keep in mind your reputation, future sales, how you can win the customer and their friends, and how to make them happy.

For more on thinking ahead, check out Word of Mouth is the New Smartbomb over at Dapeem.com