Be the One to Say Yes

In It's Not About the Coffee Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks International, identifies Yes as the most powerful word in the world. "Yes is freeing and inspiring. It means permission. It means possibility. Saying yes makes you feel good."

Saying No might initially be a self serving "rule" to achieve an illusion of efficiency, but it is self limiting and even mindless when viewed by your customers. It can also become a very insidious habit that may be driving your most valuable customers away.

"WE DON"T ACCEPT $100 BILLS!" It's usually in caps with an exclamation point. So … you won't accept legal tender, and you stick that sign in my face, all because it minimizes your risk of counterfeit currency … and you won't spend the few bucks for the technology that would minimize your risk and accommodate my needs. Time to say yes.

"WE OPEN AT 8:00AM!" Is that customer banging on your door at 7:45 just some transient individual who happened by your store, or perhaps one of your most devoted clients who needs her double low fat mocha latte with room to go for an earlier than usual meeting? Say yes and open early.

Several years ago in the menswear business we had a store manager that consistently exceeded all sales targets - quite uncanny, really. His store was in a mall well known for tourist visitors. All stores in the mall opened at 9:30 am and the hours of operation were defined in the lease. I just had to get a better understanding of what he was doing to replicate it as a best practice for our business. Our conversations usually concluded that his superior leadership and skills were the factor, and he was an exceptional leader, but he had a little ace up his sleeve.

As a very conscientious manager he always arrived early to be ready for business. Typically, his opening routine involved walking the mall, checking out all shops and having a coffee. More often than not he would strike up a conversation with visiting shoppers who arrived early, and were disappointed that they would have to wait to shop and spend their money. He always offered to open the store for their immediate, personal and exclusive shopping experience. It always worked very well. No need to wonder why he did about 20% of his daily target before opening. Wow your customers by saying yes whenever you can.

How about looking for yes instead of …

"WE DON'T SERVE CUCUMBERS WITH DELI SANDWICHES!"
Check out Darlene's reaction in the archives.

"PLEASE UNDO ALL BUTTONS OF YOUR DRY CLEANING" and "ONLY THREE SHIRTS PER SPECIAL ORDER" and "NO DEBIT CARDS FOR UNDER $10" and whatever …
Wonder why business is going to the new cleaner on the block?

"WE ONLY SERVE BREAKFAST UNTIL 11:00 AM!"
There is a significant portion of the population that typically doesn't even move until then, at least on the weekend. Why not find a way to say yes?

There is gold in saying yes! Take a good look at all of your rules and the investment you have in saying no to your customers. I can almost guarantee you can increase your revenues by 20% or more, with the same traffic - just by looking for the opportunities to say yes.