TOW#489 — No Title

I didn’t know how to title this week’s tip, because all the titles that came to mind to explain the text seemed insulting and negative. That’s why I decided to let you guys choose for yourselves a title that suits you.

So, the story goes like this. Over the bank holiday weekend a bunch of us agreed to get together at a friend’s place in the countryside and, as you do, have a huge feast. Since I live close to a green market, my job was to buy some fresh produce. Among all the things that were on the list, I had to buy 1kg of strawberries. I went to the seller (I call him neighbour because I see the sellers every day and already know quite a lot of them), he had some nice strawberries (150denars/kg) and I told him to measure me out one kilo. He put a load of strawberries in a plastic bag and went to the other side of the stall, where his scales were, to see whether he needed to take some out or put more in. At first, it seemed that he’d gotten it spot on and there was exactly 1kg of strawberries. He gave me the bag, I gave him 150 denars, but I noticed that he had one strawberry in his hand. Probably because of that strawberry, the scales had been a millimetre over 1 kg, and so he’d taken it out.

What’s that all about? How do I define what the seller did? Is it precision in his work, is it pedantry or economising? Is it unfriendly or professional behaviour? Is it valuing money/the product or is it not having the proper sense for the work and relationship with customers?!

From a customer relations perspective, we all know that the concept of ‘something more for the customer’ always brings more business than short-changing them. This is also the main psychological sales strategy of the concept of ‘reciprocity in sales’. If you give something more, the client will always feel obligated to give something back. I might not buy more than I need, but I’ll always return to the same seller and will be a loyal customer of theirs. From the aspect of professionalism — business — there’s nothing professional in this way of working. It isn’t the right way to run a business. If you’ve started your own business and want to ‘grow’ with this kind of nitpicking, you won’t get far. I’d say it’s more petty trading that developing a (big) business. From the aspect of ‘the trade’ — there’s nothing to learn from this way of thinking. From a profitability point of view, if you think you’ll earn or save, just because of that one strawberry, you’re lying to yourselves.

Don’t hang on to the strawberry. If you want to achieve great things, you have to be and think big. Or as the famous folk song goes, “give one strawberry, so you can take two”.

Wishing you success with the changes to come,

Petar Lazarov

“Tip of the Week” Team member

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