I am in the process of doing a lot of remodeling and have been spending some of my free time at Lowe’s. As I was coming out of the restroom, I noticed a number of employee lockers and a big sign that read, ‘The IMPACT Model.’ I got a little closer and really concentrated on their IMPACT Model and what it meant.
I — Initiate contact
M — Make assessment
P — Provide assistance
A — Add on sales
C — Close the sale
T — Thank the customer
I really liked the IMPACT concept. I like what it stands for. Doesn’t their model work for every company?
Initiate contact
Walking into a restaurant, retail store, stadium, dentist office, auto body shop or thousands of other businesses, don’t we all want one thing? Initiate contact? Most of the time I walk into a store, I have a question — whether it’s that I want to know if my friend that I am meeting has arrived, where I can find an item or if I need to fill out any paperwork while I wait for the doctor. Initiating contact is very critical to every business, and the quicker someone greets us, the better off we feel.
Make assessment
It’s very important, especially in a restaurant or retail establishment. Can I help this customer? Do we have what he or she is looking for? If not, do we have an alternative that we have that can solve this issue?
Provide assistance
It’s a must-have for every business. All of us want our staff to provide assistance. How many times have you called a company or visited a retail store and been bounced around from one person to the next? Sound familiar? It does to me, and when it happens, I take my business elsewhere. Do you do the same thing? If so, how do you think your customers feel if it happens to them?
Add on sales
Wow, talk about creating revenue and increasing the bottom line. You have customers — what else can you sell them? What else do they need for the project? Is there anything that I can add on that I know they will need to buy? This is very critical. My cousin owns a Knockouts franchise (upscale hair salon for men), and he has developed a very creative sales process for his staff to sell hair products after his customers get their hair cut. By putting this in place he has increased revenue eight months in a row.
Close the sale
In the movie, “Glengarry Glen Ross,” Alec Baldwin makes a reference to ABC — which is, ‘always be closing.’ I will admit I may not have liked the language around what he was saying, but if you can get past that, the message is solid. You always need to be closing. Sometimes the message is soft — like when you leave the dentist office and the front office person will ask to schedule your next appointment — but any way you look at it, they are closing by setting up a future appointment, which increases revenue.
Thank the customer
Yes, yes, yes! Consumers have more choices than ever. The economy is very challenging and customers these days really want to be treated well, fairly and yes, thanked. I still make calls and send handwritten notes to first-time clients. I have heard from a number of them who said it made them feel very special that we really cared about their business. Do you have similar things in place for your customers?
How much impact does your company have?
Merrill Dubrow is President and CEO, M/A/R/C Research, located in Dallas. The company is one of the top 25 market research companies in the U.S. Merrill is a sought after speaker and has been writing a blog for more than four years. He can be reached at [email protected] or at (972) 983-0416.
