Page 122 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

Quick Ideas 94 to 95

95

One Size Fits All

One size will never fit all, and you need to see every pros-
pect as an individual who needs a custom tailored program for
their needs. Great prospectors don’t have rigid policies and
procedures. Instead they empower their people by giving them
flexible guidelines to follow.

The more often Mary

Anne called on Charlie the Assignment
more often she realized he
had the potential to be a high Do you have rigid guide-
volume customer. But so far, lines, rules, or regulations that
all she had been able to get you can’t adjust to fit your
was an occasional sale. customer’s needs? Remem-
While walking into his facil- ber that one size does not fit
ity one day, Mary Anne no- all. Tailor everything you do
ticed a piece of equipment to the individual buyer, and
stuck back under a work- you’ll win a lot of customers.

bench that she had sold him

several months before.

When she inquired why Charlie wasn’t using it, he explained

that while there was nothing wrong with the equipment, it sim-

ply didn’t work for the application he needed. She immediately

went over, pulled it out from under the workbench, wiped it off,

and told him she was going to take it back and give him a

credit. He quickly explained it wasn’t her fault, and she really

didn’t owe him a credit, because the sales period had run out,

and it was actually his fault that he bought it and didn’t return it

earlier. Because Mary Anne’s company offered her guidelines

and not hard-and-fast rules, she knew it would be smart to take

the item back and give Charlie a credit. That one gesture pushed

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