Along the lines of Drober's thread, I wanted to touch on this as I don't think it's been covered (or at least not for a long while) on this forum.
A few times a year and more common at event sales, my experience in sales over the years along with my current dealers, loose a sale or two during each major sale.
A couple of things here...
The way in which I suggest to run these events is to acquire a small deposit of usually $500. The large majority of the spas brought in for these are factory inventoried spas or factory 2nd's and are discounted more than day to day. Hydropool actually allows their dealers to order a truckload or 2 of spas (free freight) and any inventory not sold can be sent back at the dealer cost for freight. This allows a large number of spas to be displayed without a lot of overhead for the dealer. We know that there's a direct co-relation between number of units displayed and the result of the sale. It's no different that floor inventory and relation there.
Any sale is fully refundable and we make that clear to the purchaser. If they're not 100% sure and it's a one only, all we ask the ability to call them if someone else is truly interested to give them first right of refusal.
So...to my point....
We make it as easy as possible to make this buying decision for people which in turn, makes it easier to back out Monday morning. I don't believe any company that wants to have "staying power" can operate by not refunding deposits but is there a middle ground here?
One of the suggestions I came up with was to give a small gift at the time of the sale for them to take home. My thinking was that it could help prevent it from being so easy to back out of the deal afterwards. Not an earth shattering idea but mine none the less!
I know I'm asking for trade secrets here but I have also given away many in posts as well!
My question is to dealers and consumers alike; is there anything more a dealer can do to help prevent the lost sale after the deal is signed at money has changed hands due to buyer remorse?
Thanks all,
Steve