Come Again

An art gallery tracks customers and turns them into repeat buyers.

Tweet

By concentrating on attitude and follow-up, one company turns browsers into repeat customers

It's possible to wander into one of Scott Hanson's galleries and not buy anything. Lots of people do. What's less likely is that after buying one thing, a customer never buys anything else. That's because Hanson has created an extraordinary retailing organization, one that beats industry productivity averages by focusing its marketing and sales efforts on its best and most promising customers: those it's already got.

A new idea? Not at all. Most sellers give it a nod, but few exploit it as well and as profitably as Hanson. Maybe it gets so little attention from companies because it doesn't require buying fancy new technology, making a big capital investment, spending lots of media bucks, betting the company in a market repositioning move, or hiring a $1,000-a-day consultant. It's a bold strategy, but not brash. To apply it as well as Hanson does is to appreciate the subtle difference between selling a customer and servicing a client.

The advantages of servicing clients, or selling to people that you've already sold to once, are legion. For one, you know who they are and, if you've kept decent records, how and where to find them. You know what they like and what they don't like and, if you've really been paying attention, you know why. If you can sell to customers you already have, think of all the money you don't have to spend advertising to people who might not want your product or service even if you were giving it away. Imagine how much more focused your marketing strategy can be.

Maybe the best argument for selling to your old customers, your clients, is that those are the easiest sales you can make. All the groundwork has been laid. The client is already inclined to buy whatever it is that you're selling. All you've got to do in order to get the second and subsequent sales is create a desire in the customer for more. "I've never received a follow-up call from any store I've been in," says Hanson salesperson Lynne Janzen, who finds this incredible, given her own success with the follow-up phone call, letter, and postcard. "Just think of what they could sell."

Just think.

Hanson Galleries sells artwork, about $3 million worth a year, on average, in each of eight storefront galleries. It retails limited-edition graphics by such popular artists as Marc Chagall, Peter Max, Thomas McKnight, and Erte to middle-class collectors who will most likely hang them over their couches and mantelpieces.

Yes, middle-class art collectors. That's really the key to Hanson's application of this age-old sales strategy. Customers buy once; collectors buy multiple works and keep on buying. The average Hanson collector makes seven purchases within the first three years. And we're not talking about two-for-$25 Elvises on black velvet. Invoices at Hanson's average close to $4,200.

To convert customers into collectors (or repeat buyers), Hanson Galleries concentrates on two things -- attitude and follow-up. Salespeople create an attitude in the customer that makes him or her amenable to collecting. Then they follow up relentlessly, both to reinforce the attitude and to get those subsequent sales.

Because of their locations, the Hanson Galleries don't naturally attract collectors. They're situated in tourist spots -- Sausalito, Calif., New Orleans, and San Francisco, for instance -- which would seem to make the salesperson's job harder, not easier. A vacationing couple from Michigan might wander into the Beverly Hills store on Rodeo Drive once, but they're not likely to be in the neighborhood regularly. If the salesperson is going to develop a continuing relationship with the client, the development has to begin on the first visit. If it doesn't, there probably won't be a second.

So, the first attitude that has to be adjusted is that of the sales help. Hanson has persuaded his salespeople -- they're called art consultants -- not to look at a walk-in and see a one-shot opportunity, but rather a potential revenue stream. The distinction, well implanted now 15 years after Hanson founded the business, evokes significantly different behavior.

First, it gets the consultants to ask questions. The more they know about people, the easier it is to sell them something. Hanson's art consultants spend lots of time finding out things about the people who come through the door, whether they buy anything or not. Consequently, Rebecca Speight, director of the Sausalito gallery, can call a vacationer's home or office a week after he stopped by the store and take up where their conversation left off. "Gosh," she might say, "so how was the Sonoma Valley Inn?"

 1 | 2  NEXT 

Read more:

Sign-up for our Sales and Marketing Newsletter

Email Address: