My wife reached out to me recently, frustrated with a new furniture company. She was attempting to purchase several items for the house and found a few she thought were perfect. After thirty minutes of attempting to checkout with the sales associate, it was determined that she could not purchase a lamp. They were unable to sell the lamp through the store, but customers were able to purchase them online. She left the store with a dresser in hand and no lamp. The staff again suggested she order the lamp through their online store. With my wife’s attitude, there would certainly be little chance of that occurring. Wisely, empathizing with her was my best alternative.
I routinely come back to my philosophy and the point I try to make to the staff: Do not make it difficult to purchase from Square 1 Design. Remove and/or minimize any barrier for the customer. While we have attempted to remove most of the barriers for purchasing equipment from Square 1 Design, we still have work to do. We offer
- Online tools that assist the customers in obtaining pricing
- Tools to determine the requirements for floor truss production, cutting, or roof truss systems
- Detailed machinery quotations
- Online machinery and system pricing
- Online custom quote requests
- Online payment calculations and financing.
Even with a variety of solutions, there are still obstacles that arise. Rarely is providing a potential customer a quotation the end solution and thereafter a resulting sale. Typically, floor plans and site layouts are required; production numbers, machine capabilities, voltage and time constraints all play a factor into potential sales. For off the shelf items, like Spida saws, Spida plate markers and SQ1 Rolsplicers, it is easy to break down the barriers for the customers. The larger and more custom items pose the greatest barriers for the customer. We have spent hours researching quotations provided to potential customers, specifically the ones we have lost, and are beginning to analyze the results. We hope to develop ways to break down the barriers for each customer and continue making it easier, faster, and more efficient for each potential customer to work with Square 1 Design.
I would encourage anyone who has conducted or has tried to conduct business with Square 1 Design to offer any suggestions, improvements, or even compliments directly to me at Sean@Square1Design.com. Furthermore, I would encourage every organization to conduct an internal audit of their own sales practices and seek additional ways to break down the barriers for their own customer base. Don’t be afraid to test the system; anonymously request information from your own staff, challenge them, stress the system. Then break down the barriers.