CUSTOMERS WANT MORE THAN THEY ASK FOR…
Perhaps not every new customer that walks into a dive store, but most, in fact have a sketchy idea about the certification process. All the nonsense about people wanting “Their ****…” (and accepting it as fact) is poor market research. Actually, it’s not even close to market research, poor or otherwise. Worse, it leads to a missed opportunity.
Every sale starts slightly differently, but when someone walks into a dive centre for the first time and asks about learning to dive (or getting their ****) the typical and incorrect response is to say; “yes, we can do that”, followed by something along the lines of “we have an open water class starting next week.”
All that comes later.
The immediate response should be to ask, “WHY?”
The best sales people — people selling scuba classes, clothing, cars, boats, homes, patio furniture, whatever — want to know why. They want to know about the customer’s dreams. And if that sounds a little too New Age, Instagram Influencer to be effective, think again. Asking someone why they want to dive is the perfect ice-breaker.
Everyone has their reasons. They range from, “I wanna dive the Titanic” to “I keep tropical fish, and…” A smart (effective and successful) sales person has the ability to match a customer’s dream to something they have “on the shelf for sale.” In the dive industry, what we have on the shelf is epic and exciting. It’s a dream fulfilled, a dream made real.
In a lot of cases, making all that happen begins with an OW20, but it never ends there. Diving the Titanic is an obvious ‘No-Go’ but diving the Bianca C or Thistlegorm or USS Saratoga is possible… with imagination, the will to retain customers, and a few additional classes!
Sell the dream.
