Assume Every Customer Can Buy

My first part-time job was as a shoe salesman, working for National Sports Center, often referred to as NSC or just "National" by those of us who enjoyed working there.*

I learned a lot working in retail. For instance:

• How to assess what the customer needed and offer them the right solution.

• How to read customer moods and adjust my sales approach accordingly. (For instance, I liked to joke around with customers -- one time I suggested that a customer do some jumping jacks in the aisle to test her running shoe; she got to three before she realized I was kidding and started to laugh -- but not everybody appreciated my sense of humour.)

• How to effectively deal with difficult customers, de-escalate tense situations, and not let one rude customer ruin my mood for an entire shift.

These were all useful skills, not just for retail, but for life in general.

There's one valuable sales lesson National taught me, however, that I didn't learn from experience; I learned it from a story I was told about National's founder, Norm Clements.

Norm Clements, founder of National Sports Center.

Norm was, by all measures, a successful businessman. But you wouldn't necessarily guess that by looking at him. When he would come into the store, he would usually be wearing casual, comfortable clothes and was extremely approachable. He certainly didn't fit the stereotype of "successful businessman" that existed in the mid-1990s.

As the story goes, Norm walked into a fancy clothing store one day dressed... not fancy. 

He was looking at a wall of polo shirts, each of which cost $300, which, back then, was considered expensive for a polo shirt. He had a few questions and tried to wave down one of the salespeople working that day to get some assistance.

But the salespeople, who worked on commission, looked at how Norm was dressed and decided he couldn't afford such an expensive shirt. So they ignored him.

When Norm finally walked over to a group of salespeople to ask for help, they assigned a junior associate to help him.

Remember, Norm was the owner of a successful retail chain.

He could certainly afford to buy that polo shirt.

He just didn't look like he could afford to buy one.  

So what did Norm do?

After deciding he liked the shirt in question, he turns to the associate and says, "I'll take one... in every colour."

It's a safe bet that the junior associate was happy with his commission that day.

And perhaps, a safe bet that the other sales associates learned a tough lesson.

I don't know for certain if this story is true, but it was certainly presented as such when it was shared with all National Sports Center employees as an important lesson:

Assume every customer can buy.

Granted, this might not always be true. As much as I might like to have an ultra-premium 2025 Lucid Air Grand Touring, I can't afford to spend the $174,800 CDN it would cost me to buy the model I'd like to own.

But whenever I have casually walked into the Lucid dealership at Yorkdale Shopping Center, usually dressed extremely casually (to put it kindly), the staff has greeted me warmly.

They have no way of knowing for certain whether I will ever be a customer, but they consistently err on the side of caution, which doesn't cost them anything at all... but results in me continuing to admire (and speak highly of) the Lucid brand.

It's a stark contrast with other car dealerships I've dealt with in the past. Once, in my early thirties, I walked into a car dealership dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans. When I asked a salesperson about a specific model, he said, "Oh, this one is pretty expensive... but let me show you that one over there." Unfortunately for him, I was actively in the market for a car at that time and could afford the "pretty expensive" model I was asking about. But after the salesperson assumed I wouldn't buy, I decided to prove him right... and ended up purchasing my car at another dealership.

If you're going to assume anything about customers who walk into your retail location, assume they CAN buy what you're selling... and treat them accordingly.

Maybe you'll be right, and you'll make a sale.

Maybe you'll be wrong, but they'll be so impressed by how they were treated that they'll increase their admiration for your brand, ensuring you're top-of-mind should their financial circumstances change.

But there's no downside to treating every store visitor as a potential customer.

And the risks of assuming someone CAN'T be a customer and ignoring them when they might be a potential customer -- or possibly worse, someone with a large follower-count and a willingness to share their negative service experiences -- can be significant.

UPDATE:

After posting a condensed version of this on LinkedIn, a friend of mine tagged Norm Clements son, Stephen. I asked Stephen (via a comment) if he could verify the story, and here's how he responded:

I'm delighted to know Norm is still alive and well, and that the "retail lesson" shared with me so long ago got most of the details right.

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* National Sports Center, sadly, no longer exists. It was acquired by Forzani Group (which operated the SportChek, Sports Experts, and Atmosphere banners) in 2005. Forzani Group was acquired by Canadian Tire in 2011 for $771 million, and shortly after, it was announced that all National Sports stores would close to "reduce overlap in the company's sporting goods assortment."