3 Unorthodox Ways to Reduce Walkouts

I would get people in the door, but all they’d do is browse alafu wanatoka empty-handed.

Since I wasn’t getting a lot of traffic, Ilibidi nifind a way of making every walk-in count.   

Fueled by desperation (and gallons of coffee), nliresearch closing tactics na nikapata a few solutions so simple even a bad negotiator like me could pull off. They’ve worked a treat for my business, and I’d love to share them with you.

Have a look:

One of the best pieces of advice I came across during my research was “A confused mind never buys.”  

Here’s what it means: When customers are presented with too many options, they often get too overwhelmed and end up not buying.

And if they buy, hawatakua satisfied with their choice because they’ll walk away thinking they could’ve picked a better product even if that’s not the case.

This phenomenon is known as choice paralysis, and it’s well documented in various studies and this Havard Business Review Post

Before I learned this, I always believed that more choices = more sales. Nlikua nauza jumpers pekee that time.

So customer akiingia, I would round up all the jumpers zenye zinaeza mtoshea alafu namuekea kwa table achoose, believing I’m increasing my chances of making a sale by giving them more choices. They would try on different jumpers, and a lot of times wanatoka bila kubuy saying “sijapata yenye imenibamba.”

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Once I learned about choice paralysis, nilianza kureduce choices. So instead of rounding up all the available sizes for a customer, I would ask them these three questions:

1. Unapenda colors gani? 

2. Unaprefer jumper fitting ama ikue a little baggy? 

3. Unapenda zenye ziko na zip ama zenye hazina? 

Based on their answers, I would narrow their choices to two or three and explain why those jumpers would be the best choices for them.

9/10, they’d buy more than they originally planned.

I know this because they’d pay for the one they meant to buy, put a downpayment for the extra impulse buys, then wanakam kupick later wakiclear balance.

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The same trick worked great for deliveries. Customers started trusting me so much they’d just tell me “nilietee yenye unaona itanitoa poa”  when ordering.

Some even ask me to choose for them wakikuja shop.  

But for this to work, you have to really put the customer’s interests first and actually pick the best option for them.

This is how you get them to trust you.

I briefly mentioned this above, but I think it deserves more explanation.

Sometimes, customer atabambika na product unauza but hana enough money to pay full price.

Instead of letting them walk out on the promise that they’ll come back and buy when they get the money, allow them to pay half to “book” that product, then walipe the rest wakikam kupick.  

This is a great way to bag impulse buys. You know how Mejja sang “mkenya akikwambia atarudi, kila mtu anajua huyo arudi?”

Allowing them to make a downpayment guarantees that they’ll come back. Plus, ni less risky than kukopesha since unabaki na product yako, and you can always sell it to a different customer if the person who “booked” it changes their mind.

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But to make this work, you have to put a reasonable deadline on how long they can reserve an item.

Otherwise, you’ll get stuck too long with a reserved item, which isn’t good for business.

In my case, I only allow 5 days ju vitu nauza si expensive saana, which means customer ataeza kupata balance in time.

If you sell more expensive stuff, you might need to be more generous with the deadline.

Kenyans tumezoea kubargain. When we buy something without doing it, tunafeel ni ka tumeporwa even when the prices are justified.

I learned this the hard way. When I first started out with just hoodies, I set a fixed price of Ksh 400. I thought since niko cheaper than the other sellers around me, customers wouldn’t mind not having the option to negotiate. Boy was I wrong!

They still tried to negotiate, and when I insisted that the price was fixed, a lot of them would walk.

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Then I changed my strategy. I started quoting Ksh 500 as the “final price”, knowing damn well they’ll still want to negotiate.

When they insisted on getting a discount, I would say something along the lines of “prices ukua fixed, but since we ni first-time customer na nataka urudi, ntakufanyia na 450.”

If they were a repeat customer, I would change that statement to “nakupea discount ju we ni repeat customer.”

The point was to make the customer feel like I was making an exception for them. 

I was actually surprised at how much happier customers were paying Ksh 450 after negotiating than Ksh 400 without bargaining! 

There’s actual psychology behind this: inaitwa anchoring effect. and marketers use it more commonly than you’d think. Ever seen a product with two prices, one “previous” price crossed out, and the “real” discounted price? That’s based on the anchoring effect.

The “final price” of Ksh 500 anchored the perceived value of the hoodie to that figure. So when a customer bargains and buys it at Ksh 450, wanafeel wamebag bargain even though wamebuy at a higher price than the original price of Ksh. 400.

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Quoting a higher price also means I can use a negotiating tactic known as the concession strategy, where one party “concedes” or “gives up” something during a negotiation, making the other party more inclined to reciprocate by agreeing to a deal.

Hii strategy iko based on the reciprocity principle of social psychology, which holds that humans siukua inclined to reciprocate to positive actions.  

Here’s how I apply it to price negotiations: 

• I quote a Ksh. 500. 

• Customer bargains.  

• I “concede” to lower the price to Ksh. 450 

• The customer feels that I’ve “given up” ksh.50, so they’re compelled to reciprocate by agreeing to buy.

That’s all for today. I understand that these tricks might not work for everyone, but they’re worth the shot if they apply to your business. Glad to be of help!