Working in the "love" industry means that I also work in
the love of family industry. We see a multitude of children in and out of
our store each day. Some of them are just tagging along with mom or dad,
but many act as purchase consultants whose honest opinions are highly valued by
their parents. Let's start with those that are just tagging along...
I was in the
middle of working through all of my best selling techniques with a mom when her
daughter suddenly took a great interest in the ring her mom was considering
purchasing. However as her daughter tried to interject with her questions,
her mom did nothing but casually brush by her interruptions. The
daughter became more and more agitated, but then realized that her efforts
would be more productive if she channeled them through me. Because she
was probably under the age of four, she could not read my name tag, and decided
that it would be suitable to just give me a name based on the dress I was
wearing. Unfortunately, I was wearing a black and white polka dotted
dress. The little girl reached her hand up as high as possible as if she
were in a classroom and politely said "Excuse me lady with all the
dots, I have a question." Her
mom and I could not help but to burst out laughing. I answered her
question and I actually think her creative nickname helped me close the sale.
There are other
times when you just cannot ignore the observational honesty of your child
consumer. They are not afraid to tell you when they don't like the way
something looks, the color is wrong, or it is just flat out ugly in their eyes.
A dad and his son were shopping for a necklace for Mothers' Day.
After twenty minutes, we had narrowed down the choices to a $1500 diamond
circle pendant and a $200 pink heart pendent. The dad wasn't flinching at
either price and almost seemed to be stressing the benefits of the more
expensive pendent to his son. As the excitement of a big sale was growing
inside me, I reassured myself that the dad would make the final decision.
I was SO wrong! His son loved that the pendent was his mother's
favorite color and he was not going to budge on his opinion. Who knew
that a six year old would be making a decision concerning literally
thousands of dollars? |
Then there are the
children that are very economical with their resources. One little girl
had just been rewarded with a pink bubble gum ice cream cone from across the
food court. I watched the mom slowly make her way into our store, her
daughter ten steps behind admiring her ice cream every step of the way.
The mom was in the store for about ten minutes looking at a beautiful
pair of diamond earrings and about every two minutes, I saw her daughters
tongue smashed against our spotless glass display case. You see, she also
wanted to see the earrings and she was actually at the perfect height to just
admire their beauty through the glass. However, each time she leaned in
for another peak, her ice cream cone would hit the glass. Who would want
to waste a perfectly good sugary sensation? So she proceeded to
lick the excess ice cream off the glass each time she caught herself a little
too close to the glass! It was so cute, I didn't have the heart to say
anything to the mom, but she finally realized what had been happening after
about the fourth slurp. When she asked her daughter why she had proceeded
to lick the ice cream instead of asking to clean it up in a more polite manner,
she simply stated that she wasn't going to waste anything that was so good!
Maybe there is
something to be learned from these oh so honest encounters with children...
don't be afraid to ask questions, a purchase is always more meaningful when it
comes from the heart instead of the checkbook, and never waste something you
enjoy.
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