Fear is Undermining Your Sales!

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“How many good sales are you giving up because you’re afraid of dealing with the one that goes wrong?”

A fellow web designer, in my Network, told me about a local business that he really wants to help out. But he’s not sure he’ll have the time, with his other projects, and asks me if I’d like to partner up on this.

I’m a do-gooder, and love to be helpful, so I said I’d check it out. I knew <i>of</i> the store, but hadn’t ever walked inside, even though they’re in my hometown.

The store specializes in Native American wares & isn’t online promoting themselves to their niche market.

I happened to be at a nearby coffee shop, and decided to walk the few doors down, with my friend who looks like an Australian-Hungarian hippie.

Keep in mind, also, that *I* look MUCH younger than I am, and have quite the cold, so I was in comfy jeans, a tunic, and a windbreaker (even though it was 60 degrees outside. I told you, I’m sick!)

Mr. Hippieesque and I walk in, and the “come here, go away” energy was apparent. The salesperson behind the counter had an “ooh, goody, customers! Let’s play!” kind of energy. While who I later discover to be his brother, in front of the counter, gives off a “damn kids better not steal anything” kind of vibe.

We keep looking around and I ask a few question about the wares, and a particular ring that I was interested in. Then we get onto the subject of business, and I mention my friend talking to someone there a few weeks back about getting on the internet.

Brother 1 is interested in talking shop, how things are going, how getting online would help. Also warns that it’s tough because he and his brother couldn’t even agree on a paypal password.

Brother 2 comes out and first questions are along the lines of: “What’s this going to cost? How much do you charge? We can’t pay. We don’t have the time to do the work.”  Excuse after excuse, without really listening to any response that I offered.  He had it ALL figured out, and it was ALL bad.  “I don’t want to sell a bracelet to someone and have her throw it on the floor, and break it because she doesn’t want it, and then say ‘it was like that.”

I asked, “How many sales are you giving up because you’re afraid of the one that will go wrong?”  It didn’t sink in.  He went on.

I asked it again.

The subject was changed to this guy who they wholesale to, who-  “more than ten years ago,” Brother 1 chimed in - went on the internet, and all of a sudden was spending 60 hours a week putting products online.  “We don’t have time for that.”

“Well you can put just a few products up on ebay, see how they sell, since it sounds like you’re comfortable with Ebay.  Once you have a taste, if you want to do more, we can do that.”

“How much do you want?  How much do you start at?” His questions were met with, things like “it depends on what you want to do, what work you’re going to do, and what work you want ME to do.  So I really can’t give you an X price.”

“We can’t pay you a lot.”

“We’re not talking about pay.  We’re talking about what you want to do.  You can be set up, fairly easily, with your own online store, feature products from there on Ebay, put in some changing content.  When you’re listing something for sale, you can include an article about the history of it, and why it’s special.”

“I just want a page that lists where we are, who we are, where we are.”

“You can add an option for your customers to put in their email and get updates when you update the site.  They can share it with their friends.”

“I don’t want our existing customers.  I want new customers.  I want people who are [an hour away] to see the page and decide it’s not too far for a road trip to visit the store.”

Oy.  Don’t want existing customers?  To be able to share the site with their friends?  Fear much?

Case Analysis:

1.  Unrealistic expectations.  “We don’t want to pay for it.  We don’t want to do the work.  We want a static webpage to be the miracle pill to save the brick & mortar store.” The internet is not the yellow pages.   The internet is not a miracle pill. Something’s gotta give

The internet can’t change the lack of foot traffic to a store where goods are over the price that residents can afford to pay for them.  The high prices are likely due to trying to stay afloat.  Could it be better to lower the prices by 1%, if it produces 10% (+) more sales?

2.  Paralyzing fear.  Fear of being done wrong, by people in the store, by people offering to help, by potential customers who might want to return something.  The fear of the negative is creating a negative result.  Don’t let fear of the one sale that could maybe possibly someday go awry keep you from accepting all the good sales before and after that!

3.  One is ready for change, the other is stuck.  And a power struggle ensues.  As soon as there’s a snag, one throws up his hands and says “See?  This will never work.”

I left the situation with them understanding that I’m not a “pressure salesperson” - I work by projects, and if we do this, great, if not, that’s ok, too.   “Well if you’re full time with these projects, how do we know you’ll have time for us?”

Another fear-based negative.

Whether it’s me & my network, or someone else, I really hope these guys get the help they need, before their business goes under, for unwillingness to change.

We’ll be revisiting in about two weeks, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Meg Meyer

http://www.centerofmuse.com