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Customer Decision Making 101

7/6/17       
cabmaker

If you show one kitchen design to a customer and ask them if they like it their answer is likely to be some variation of "Let me think about it" or "Let me get back to you" or "Let me ask the mailman".

You have asked them if they like it and this is hard to answer because they have to evaluate whether or not they like it.

If you show them two choices and ask them which one they like best the answer is usually "I like that one best". The front end to this answer is "I like that one".

This is a natural segue into "Would you like to do it this way?"

7/8/17       #2: Customer Decision Making 101 ...
Mel

What about an offering of what they last saw in Style At Home, with a Benjamin Moore rep card, to make the walls as trendy as the cabs?

7/9/17       #3: Customer Decision Making 101 ...
Derrek

Where are you at in the process when you show it to them?
If your showing them random designs, I ask what do you like, what don't you like? Then, I ask follow on questions to those,. When I get to the design phase, I have already had them make lots of little decisions, educated them on the process. When I show them the design, it's everything we have talked about and they normally tell wow , I love it!

7/11/17       #4: Customer Decision Making 101 ...
Jay Member

Similar to Derrek, by time I am designing (after a design consult in my showroom, after an Estimate for the project they have specified, and after receiving the design fee), I know what they want, or at least as much as they know what they want. I don't ask 'if they like it'. I assume they do and proceed to the next step(s). What is the point of the question? I know I did a good job doing what was asked and I feel like that question implies I may not have done good. Me and my design are not at question. If there is something not satisfactory about the design they requested they will mention it, it is not a matter of if they 'like' what I drew. If there are problems or compromises, or changes that must be made then we talk through those to meet as many of the desired objectives for the project they have as possible.

I know there are ways this could be asked that sort of nullifies what I have mentioned above. It seems easier to pull that and similar questions out of the conversation entirely for the way our process works. All that said, if I am trying to 'sell' a design to someone, what CM said about this or that as in most sales situations is very accurate.

7/11/17       #5: Customer Decision Making 101 ...
Derrek Holland

Let me also add that I will ask what do you like, what don't you like about the desig? My goal is to get them to a yes on the project. If I ask enough of the right questions they will tell me everything I need to know to get to a yes.
When I have gone thru my process, I have shown them why I am different than the rest of the competition, got an idea where they want to be on value and given them a design they love. At this point if they say I want to think about it, I know that its probably a price issue or they have another estimate coming in. Im a shorter sale cycle than full kitchen guys, so they normally aren't to invested time wise into another company. Ill ask them if they have another estimate scheduled and if they do, I offer to call and cancel it for them. If its money, ill explain what we can do to get where they want to go. Very rarely do we have to take alot out of the design. I never pack up after the first "I'll think about it".
Company wide we close 60 to 75% of the estimate we give.


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