Shopping for clothes in India is a very unique experience. Traditional shops lined up along streets covered in dust shine like the Las Vegas strip. They are usually pristine white, maintaining which is somewhat of a feat in the dusty lanes of India, and shine from a mile away. Like our driver liked to say, “Even the blind can spot the clothing shops of India built for NRI’s (non-resident Indians, a well-used acronym used to describe anyone of Indian decent who lives in a country abroad).
When you walk in, you see vast seating of comfy cushions on the floor and immaculately stacked clothes of every color possible studded with intricate hand woven and embroidered patterns. Every piece is a unique work of art, but they sit in military stacks, hiding their beauty until unfolded.
You walk in and you tell the person behind the counter (usually the owner) what you are looking for: saris, Punjabi dresses, kurtis, the list goes on, and he directs you to the appropriate stack. Then comes the marathon. Trained salespersons, usually men, start pulling clothes from the immaculate stacks and opening them with a precise flourish. They have mastered the art of pulling the clothes. The clothes land perfectly in a well aligned pile every time. Their beauty displayed at exactly the right angle. They pull one by one and you just watch the show, admiring the work and making mental notes on which pieces you like. They may ask you a price range or they may just assume (usually by your NRI status which is evident somehow to everyone without you needing to say anything). They only tell you the price of a piece if you specifically ask. When the pile gets too high to be functional anymore then begins the elimination process, which you usually have to ask to prompt to start.
One by one, you look at the pieces they have pulled (usually more than 50 at this point) and you by the nod of your head or the flick of a finger, indicate whether you are interested in the piece or not. If you are not, they quickly, hap hazardously crumple the piece and toss it across the room where they have a team of folders who within seconds fold the piece back to its perfect dimensions and return it to the library of outfits on the ceiling high shelves. If you like it, it goes in a separate pile. Unless you specify that you want to see those pieces again, they fold them and put them in bags, ready for you to take home.
In such a unique experience, I could not help but take a few points home; things that could help you no matter which business you are in. The art of selling clothes in India has a thing or two to teach us about business.
1. Remove all obstacles – Go ahead. Give them a reason for you to say no, or to stop shopping and they will remove it from the equation. For example, this process, as you can imagine, takes forever. Every shop is a commitment. There is no such thing as window shopping. And the shops obviously do not want you to interrupt your shopping, by leaving their shop, for trivial things like hunger or thirst. So if you shop, and if they see that you are committing to buying a bulk of your items at this shop, they order fresh food and drinks from adjacent stalls. Steaming hot samosas, creamy coffee, ice cold Indian milk and ice cream sundaes called faludas… all brought to you while you stare at shiny outfit after outfit. There ain’t so such thing as a free lunch… the prices of these items are worked into the outfits and the cost of doing business themselves. But they are in the business of removing obstacles and helping you say yes, as easily as possible. What can you do in your work to help your consumers get to “yes” faster? Perhaps it is pamphlets that make education easier. Perhaps, for esthetic dental cases, it is a try-in using a stent. Perhaps it is financing options like Care Credit. The key is finding the typical reasons for your consumer to say no, predicting them and eliminating them.
2. Listening to the needs of your customer – Selling clothes in India is also a study in Psychology. There is a research project there for a grad student for sure. As they open the clothes and see your reactions or your subtle likes and dislikes, their choice of pulling evolves. By the end of a shopping session in a well-trained dukaan your salesperson can diagnose your choices before you say a word or twitch an eye. Their offers evolve based on your preferences. They understand that their role is to offer you what you came in for. If that means altering the outfit to change the style of your sleeves or a neckline, they do not even flinch. In any business, we underestimate what the consumer needs or wants and overestimate our experience in the field. Especially in the field of dentistry, you are the doctor and you know about their health. But the key is working their needs, their chief complaint, in unison with a plan that is comprehensive in care. The classic example: if someone walks into your clinic with periodontal disease wanting whitening, you cannot simply treat the perio and ignore their esthetic concerns. And you should not, in good conscience, whiten their Class II mobile teeth. So the key is communication and addressing both concerns: “I would love to whiten your teeth and here are our options for doing so. But before we delve into this treatment, I just wanted to talk to you about some health concerns I think we should address first.”
3. Suggestive sales – The Indian clothes vendors are very specific in their flow. After your shopping is done and they are “preparing the bill,” listing the items you bought and totaling them up, you do not wait at the front. They insist that you wait in the back and the salesperson will show you “something new.” There is no obligation to buy but last minute items can boost sales significantly if done correctly. Grocery stores and other establishments have mastered this art as well. When you stand in line at Sephora, what are the walls of the lines made out of? Small makeup items you can grab and purchase at the last minute.
If you have never shopped in India (or visited India for that matter), add it to your bucket list. Because as different as this world is, there are some unique things which we can apply to our lives too, including some cool points on whichever business you are in.
When you walk in, you see vast seating of comfy cushions on the floor and immaculately stacked clothes of every color possible studded with intricate hand woven and embroidered patterns. Every piece is a unique work of art, but they sit in military stacks, hiding their beauty until unfolded.
You walk in and you tell the person behind the counter (usually the owner) what you are looking for: saris, Punjabi dresses, kurtis, the list goes on, and he directs you to the appropriate stack. Then comes the marathon. Trained salespersons, usually men, start pulling clothes from the immaculate stacks and opening them with a precise flourish. They have mastered the art of pulling the clothes. The clothes land perfectly in a well aligned pile every time. Their beauty displayed at exactly the right angle. They pull one by one and you just watch the show, admiring the work and making mental notes on which pieces you like. They may ask you a price range or they may just assume (usually by your NRI status which is evident somehow to everyone without you needing to say anything). They only tell you the price of a piece if you specifically ask. When the pile gets too high to be functional anymore then begins the elimination process, which you usually have to ask to prompt to start.
One by one, you look at the pieces they have pulled (usually more than 50 at this point) and you by the nod of your head or the flick of a finger, indicate whether you are interested in the piece or not. If you are not, they quickly, hap hazardously crumple the piece and toss it across the room where they have a team of folders who within seconds fold the piece back to its perfect dimensions and return it to the library of outfits on the ceiling high shelves. If you like it, it goes in a separate pile. Unless you specify that you want to see those pieces again, they fold them and put them in bags, ready for you to take home.
In such a unique experience, I could not help but take a few points home; things that could help you no matter which business you are in. The art of selling clothes in India has a thing or two to teach us about business.
1. Remove all obstacles – Go ahead. Give them a reason for you to say no, or to stop shopping and they will remove it from the equation. For example, this process, as you can imagine, takes forever. Every shop is a commitment. There is no such thing as window shopping. And the shops obviously do not want you to interrupt your shopping, by leaving their shop, for trivial things like hunger or thirst. So if you shop, and if they see that you are committing to buying a bulk of your items at this shop, they order fresh food and drinks from adjacent stalls. Steaming hot samosas, creamy coffee, ice cold Indian milk and ice cream sundaes called faludas… all brought to you while you stare at shiny outfit after outfit. There ain’t so such thing as a free lunch… the prices of these items are worked into the outfits and the cost of doing business themselves. But they are in the business of removing obstacles and helping you say yes, as easily as possible. What can you do in your work to help your consumers get to “yes” faster? Perhaps it is pamphlets that make education easier. Perhaps, for esthetic dental cases, it is a try-in using a stent. Perhaps it is financing options like Care Credit. The key is finding the typical reasons for your consumer to say no, predicting them and eliminating them.
2. Listening to the needs of your customer – Selling clothes in India is also a study in Psychology. There is a research project there for a grad student for sure. As they open the clothes and see your reactions or your subtle likes and dislikes, their choice of pulling evolves. By the end of a shopping session in a well-trained dukaan your salesperson can diagnose your choices before you say a word or twitch an eye. Their offers evolve based on your preferences. They understand that their role is to offer you what you came in for. If that means altering the outfit to change the style of your sleeves or a neckline, they do not even flinch. In any business, we underestimate what the consumer needs or wants and overestimate our experience in the field. Especially in the field of dentistry, you are the doctor and you know about their health. But the key is working their needs, their chief complaint, in unison with a plan that is comprehensive in care. The classic example: if someone walks into your clinic with periodontal disease wanting whitening, you cannot simply treat the perio and ignore their esthetic concerns. And you should not, in good conscience, whiten their Class II mobile teeth. So the key is communication and addressing both concerns: “I would love to whiten your teeth and here are our options for doing so. But before we delve into this treatment, I just wanted to talk to you about some health concerns I think we should address first.”
3. Suggestive sales – The Indian clothes vendors are very specific in their flow. After your shopping is done and they are “preparing the bill,” listing the items you bought and totaling them up, you do not wait at the front. They insist that you wait in the back and the salesperson will show you “something new.” There is no obligation to buy but last minute items can boost sales significantly if done correctly. Grocery stores and other establishments have mastered this art as well. When you stand in line at Sephora, what are the walls of the lines made out of? Small makeup items you can grab and purchase at the last minute.
If you have never shopped in India (or visited India for that matter), add it to your bucket list. Because as different as this world is, there are some unique things which we can apply to our lives too, including some cool points on whichever business you are in.