8

THE EXTRA STAGE: ONE FOR GOOD MEASURE

You won’t believe this story about a garrulous salesperson who sold carpeting—wall to wall, area rugs, runners, the full array. He had an incurable sweet tooth, and every time he completed a good-sized sale, he would bound over to the nearest grocery store and buy a supersized package of Oreo Double Stuf cookies. That was his own little trophy—killer cookies.

And as he filled himself up, he would boast to his fellow carpet sellers about closing another big one.

One day, his boss asked him about a sale he had made of a lime-colored plush a few months ago. It was a new line, and he was trying to figure out whether it had potential. “How’d those people like it?” his boss asked.

“Couldn’t tell you,” he said. “Once the carpet’s gone, I turn the page. I can’t even remember what the people looked like. My motto is, once a sale’s done, a sale’s done.”

The cookie-eating carpet man couldn’t be more wrong.

Often the most important interactions you have with customers are after they’ve bought something and left the store. Because what happens then can be crucial to whether those customers return and, more importantly, turn into loyal clients.

Now I’m a firm believer in celebrating big sales, especially a first-time customer sale. It’s a boost to the confidence of the seller or team that made the sale, and it gets everyone on a high.

But once you’re done celebrating—in fact from the moment you’ve finished a sale—you ought to be thinking about the next one you’re going to make. I don’t mean to the next customer. I mean to the customer you just finished selling.

Every great seller always tees up a customer to return to make a new purchase. Great sellers know that it is much easier to sell to existing customers than to new ones. Knowing and executing on this fact is a big, big deal, a simple yet powerful concept. Indeed, our whole selling culture is based on it—transforming customers into friends and clients for life.

Remember, 80 percent of your sales come from 20 percent of your customer base. So as soon as a customer leaves the store, the seller should be planning how to bring the customer back in for another jacket or another stock or a new insurance policy. As I pointed out in the last stage, the seller will mention calling to see how the dress worked out, or calling when the new fall collection comes in, or calling to remind the customer that the suit will be ready next Tuesday. There are many techniques that can be used to continue the human connection.

That extra personal hug after the sale instills loyalty and plants the idea to come back to the store, car dealer, airline, restaurant, brokerage house—because the experience was one that the customer wants to enjoy again.

That way the person will not only buy again, and the hope is more from you, but also make an increasing slice of his or her purchases from your business and begin to phase out other destinations. As one of our loyal customers told me, “When you feel guilty buying something somewhere else, the way I do, then you know you’ve become totally hooked.”

Or when you start coming into the store just to hang out, because the associates are your friends. Once a client called Frank Gallagi from the golf course. He was waiting with two others to tee off, and they were expecting their friend as the fourth, but he hadn’t shown up yet. The client figured he might be at Richards, schmoozing, since it was practically his second home.

We even had a family that had their picture taken in the window of one of our stores for their Christmas card. And why not? It felt like home!

So once the customer has left the store, the final extra stage of the selling process begins, the One for Good Measure (OFGM) that brings customers back for more.

It’s all in keeping with our mantra that I mentioned at the beginning of the book: “We will make you feel great!”

KEEP IN TOUCH, ONCE YOU HAVE PERMISSION—THE SECRET TO CUSTOMER PERSONALIZATION

One of the easiest and yet best OFGMs is a simple phone call. Joe Durst, besides calling customers within 20 minutes of their leaving the store, calls his top customers on their birthdays and on just about any holiday short of National Jelly Bean Day or Name Your Car Day. Someone will have just finished opening presents on Christmas, and sure enough, the phone chirps and it’s Joe. Or he may call any old day, just wondering, “Hey, how are you?”

One secret, of course, is that Joe obviously had the customers’ cell numbers. He asks in many different ways, such as, “Jack, I’d like to call you from time to time; may I have your cell phone number please?” He does it in such a friendly, warm manner that almost always the customer is very willing, even on the first visit, to give it to him.

Again, this is the key. Getting permission. If people give you their cell number, they are telling you it is OK to call or text.

How often have you gotten a phone call from a salesperson to wish you happy birthday or just to see how you were doing?

Probably never, I’ll bet. Go buy something from Joe at Wilkes Bashford, and you probably will.

Since 1992, it’s been our policy to advocate calling, and we introduced a system to call after first asking permission. So when someone gives you a phone number, then he or she should not be surprised to hear from you.

These should always be warm, personal, professional contacts, and not a solicitation call. Actually, the first satisfaction call is the easiest to learn and use. “Just calling to see how you enjoyed your shopping experience and to make sure everything was perfect with your suit when you went to that special meeting (or wedding or interview).” Most customers love it. You just show genuine interest in a friendly tone. Once you do it a few times, it becomes natural, a part of your daily routine.

Before you call, though, do your homework. Make sure you know how a person wants to be addressed. My given name is John, but everyone who knows me calls me Jack. If I get a call asking for John Mitchell, I often hang up. I know the person doesn’t know me. When my assistant takes a call asking for John, she normally responds, “Jack is in a meeting. May I ask what this is regarding?”

One day I asked Steve Kerman, our top seller at Mitchells Huntington, “How many calls do you make a day—not counting satisfaction calls? The ones that you do to suggest that the customer might come to Mitchells Huntington.”

And without hesitating, he said, “Probably 50.”

I said, “Wow, that’s fantastic. How long does this take?”

“Less than a half hour,” he said.

“How many people do you get through to?”

Steve replied, “Only about 15 to 20 percent, and the rest go to voice mail, and these people, of course, I call again and again until I get through, and then they come in.”

I asked, “What’s the secret of what you say in order to get them to come in?”

Steve said, “I prepare for each call, and I normally start out with something personal like, ‘How did the golf game go? I hope you wore that new sport shirt and khaki pants you like so much that you bought from us.’ And then I have a specific item or reason why the person should come in, like, ‘We just got in a new-style blue blazer that you might find useful for many occasions, including that event you have coming up,’ or ‘That extra pair of trousers you wanted is now reduced 25 percent,’ and I tell him about it with a friendly tone yet with a sense of urgency in my voice.”

In other words, he’s emotionally connecting—passionate about these 50 calls and well prepared. He’s not making a random call without purpose. And that’s why he’s a great seller.

Sellers have to be constantly embracing change in this fast-moving technological world. For 30-plus years, the phone was Joe Durst’s best friend for connecting and reconnecting with his customers. It was actually his only friend or tool to connect. Yet the world of selling changes, and often customers are hot for using email or text more than the phone to communicate. At first, Joe said, “Not me.”

So Joe had to change with the times—just as his best customers switched from wearing only business suits in San Francisco banks to occasionally wearing business casual clothing. At first, we accommodated Joe by having someone print out his emails.

Nick Donofrio, the retired head of technology for IBM and now a member of our advisory board, became a great customer when he visited the Bay Area. He kept emailing Joe—and he kept complaining to me that Joe had to learn to use email. One day something clicked. I noticed Joe had an iPad, and he “confessed” that his partner was teaching him at home! And now other customers of Joe’s are exchanging emails all the time.

Yet of course, most still love to hear Joe’s charming voice during his personalized phone calls.

Norberto and our younger sellers, or should I say millennial sellers, are texting or emailing constantly. I have even seen texts or emails between Norberto and his customers as they are exiting their cars in the parking lot.

MAKE THOSE APPOINTMENTS

Making appointments is a big thing, and yet few sellers at other businesses do it. I always say, “Who is more important, your clothing sales associate or your hairdresser or barber? Would you just walk in to have your hair done? No, hairdressers work by appointment, personalized for you. Why not make an appointment with your clothes seller, the appliance place, your Apple store, the stockbroker, or, of course, your favorite restaurant?”

One of our sellers mentioned at our regular Saturday all-store meeting that he has at least three points of contact with a client before any appointment. He will text or email or call first; then he will follow up a few days out from the scheduled appointment; then the day before the appointment, he will send one more text or email to confirm. I truly believe that this allows him to have more successful appointments.

Here’s a little example of how one evolved with Ginger Kermian.

Ginger texted a good customer a picture of a blue tweed dress she thought was ideal for the woman, writing, “Thought this looked like you. Warmest regards.”

The woman wrote back, “love it. can u hold these things? With warm regards.”

Ginger replied, “Yes, when are you coming?”

The woman wrote, “studying for instrument pilots test this week. will come in for a study break tues or wed.”

A few more exchanges ensued, until the woman emailed, “will come this afternoon. was wondering if you guys could fix a couple pairs of corduroys for me.”

Ginger wrote, “Of course.”

And the woman replied, “i meant to emphasize how lucky i am to have you to have fun with while looking ‘casual but elegant’; buying clothes would be drudgery without you!”

It’s vitally important that all communications should put the customer first and be genuine expressions of caring. One of our customers shared an email he got recently from a famous New York retailer. It said: “Friends, this Tuesday begins our second mark down, probably 60 percent. I am off Tuesday and Wednesday so either come in today or tomorrow or ask for our manager and he will ring it for me. Thanks.”

The recipient interpreted this as: Only come to the store when I’m working so I can earn my commission. I am more important than your plans.

And that’s my thought too.

The day after he shared that email, this customer came into our store with his sister to pick out a present—a nice jacket. And he told us, “I really just like you guys better. It’s that simple.”

ONLY WARM CALLS

One thing we refrain from doing is making cold calls. They are so far removed from our culture of a person-to-person human connection. Cold calls remind me of slimy, aggressive, pushy selling. The only time our sellers call someone they haven’t dealt with before is when they have been given a referral. Some might consider this still on the cool side, but to me it’s very warm if you phone someone and say, “Jim told me his best friend and tennis buddy needed a suit for his son’s wedding and suggested I give you a call to see if I might help out.”

If anything, we believe in warm calls. We like to send welcome boxes of hangers and certificates and personal signed letters to new homeowners. We only do follow-up calls if we obtain the phone numbers to make sure the homeowners actually received our welcoming boxes. These new homeowners do bring in certificates—and sometimes it takes years—but they recall the welcome box!

We also have long known that when we have just a husband and not the wife as a customer and then we get the wife shopping, the husband’s spending increases, many times by a lot. The reverse is also true—spending increases when both partners are customers. So sellers should make a specific push to appeal to spouses. That’s a warm call, because part of the family is already a customer. And engage children if they are of shopping age. Grandparents. Aunts. Uncles.

Judy Brooks, one of our terrific women’s clothing sellers at Richards, helped a first-time customer, and everything went right. The stars and the planets and the moons were all lined up. The woman shared with Judy that she sorely needed a whole new wardrobe, and she bought a lot of merchandise for herself during her first visit. The woman invited Judy over to her home to do a “closet clean,” where we give our advice on what to keep and what to replace. It’s an excellent way of extending the selling process that obviously gets done in a very personal setting.

While Judy was there, she was able to get a peek at the husband’s closet. “Oh my heavens,” she shared with me. “He had practically nothing in it . . . and he is a senior executive and travels the world.”

The next time the new customer came in, Judy introduced her to Rob Rich, a calm, competent sales associate that Judy felt matched the woman’s personality and would work well with her husband. Well, Rob laid out some outfits during the holiday season that the woman bought as Christmas gifts for her husband. He loved them, and sure enough he came in and ended up buying several custom suits and dress shirts.

SEND THEM NOTES, LOBSTERS, PICKLES

Besides the phone, we do a lot of mailings to our customers, both email and snail mail, and all sellers ought to.

Always send a thank you note after a first visit. It’s our routine to send birthday cards, and we normally enclose a certificate good for $100 off the next purchase. We’re big on anniversary cards as well.

The notes should be personal ones, and I urge sellers to sign them with a real ink pen. Several customers have commented, “I wasn’t sure if Jack really signed the note, but then I rubbed my finger over it and it smudged, and I knew it was for real.” All the associates know about me and my famous reliable and inexpensive Pilot pen—the same one I use for birthday and anniversary cards.

Sara Butterfield likes to decorate her notes with stickers. She used to put confetti inside until she heard from some of them, “Sara, if I have to clean up confetti one more time . . .”

We completely leave it up to the sellers whether to go beyond these familiar occasions—and many do everything from a congratulatory card for a child’s graduation to congratulations on moving into a new home to a sympathy card for a death. Anything that you might send a close friend or family member is appropriate. A sympathy card would not be done after one or two visits, but certainly for someone who has been a client for many years and with whom a friendly relationship has been built. Many times sellers even go to the funerals or to sit shiva.

One of the best ways to someone’s heart is through the kids. If you see something in the paper or on social media about a child’s accomplishment, cut it out and send it to the customer, or just use it as a reason to make contact. In all likelihood, it will mean more to the person than recognizing something he or she is involved in.

Since we urge associates to think of customers as friends, there’s not much that should be ruled out of bounds. If someone loses a job, you might send a little note saying “thinking of you” or suggesting, “I miss you. Why don’t you drop in for a cup of coffee?” Something similar would be fitting when a customer is getting a divorce. As long as you are compassionate and caring and genuine, it is hard to imagine overdoing it.

If people lose their job and must go job hunting or if they get divorced or lose weight, guess what they need if they can afford it—a new wardrobe. They need the right suit for a new job—the new office could be more or less conservative than where they had been working. And depending on who initiated the divorce, and if there is a new person in their lives, they clearly want to introduce a whole new look. You don’t want them to go to a competitor because they would be too embarrassed to tell you they lost their job or spouse.

Denny Flanagan, my airline pilot friend, is maybe the only pilot in the world who writes thank you notes. On layovers, he prewrites them on his business cards to let passengers know how much he appreciates their flying with him. During the flight, he adds their names and distributes as many as time permits. He also gives thank you cards to his fellow employees, thanking them for their dedication and hard work.

In the coach section, he says he targets those in the middle seats first. His goal is to emotionally and physically make their seats bigger. He knows what it’s like to be the victim of “middle seat syndrome,” when the people on either side wish you weren’t there.

As Denny related to me, “You have now been in your seat for an hour and not a word has been said from your new neighbors. Because to do so would mean they would have to be nice and give up their claim to the armrest. They have already witnessed you going through a whole range of middle seat aerobics, and still mums the word. The only time they do talk to you is after the plane has landed and you are grabbing your bag to leave. They say, with a big smile, ‘Have a nice day.’”

That all changes when down the aisle comes a flight attendant, who stops at your row, leans over, and says, “Excuse me. I have a note for you from the captain.” Emotionally, Denny just made that seat bigger. Physically the seat becomes bigger because “your new best friends next to you feel like heels for treating you the way they did. They would also like to know who you are and what did the captain have to say. In order to do this they have to be nice, and we know what that means—giving up the armrest. So one leans left and the other leans right, and two armrests magically appear and are yours for the taking. Now you can enjoy your flight talking to your two new best friends.”

And would you believe all the frequent fliers that knew Denny from all his personalization actually booked an entire flight when he was captain from Chicago to San Francisco and took him out to dinner.

How often should you communicate with a customer? I remember that years ago we did surveys of our top customers, both male and female, and I believe that our female clients said they received phone calls (this was before the shift to emails) four to five times a year. And I would say good clients or superclients would be double that. The male clients were only called two or three times, and they checked the box that they would have liked to be called more often.

Our sellers also send small gifts periodically to regular customers, including flowers, picture frames, my Hug books, and other items like ties, socks, hats, and T-shirts. Most of them go by conventional mail, with real stamps, signed by sellers.

Steve Pruitt, of Blacks Consulting, told me about a family business in Florida that was a great client of his. Each year the owners went to Maine, mostly to dine on the fabulous lobsters. Then the wife of the owner came down with cancer, and the family couldn’t make the Maine trip. So Steve had lobsters flown in from Maine as a surprise.

Steve Trachtenberg, when he was president of George Washington University and was raising funds for the school, liked to send cheesecakes and pickles to friends of GW and big contributors. Why not? They told him they loved the gesture.

A B2B salesperson I know had a difficult customer who had covered his walls with pictures of warplanes. The seller happened to have a picture of a new plane being developed for the military. He sent it over with a note: “Didn’t know if you had this one, but thought you might like it.” The next time he paid a call, the customer asked him to stay for lunch. Needless to say, he never had trouble seeing the man again. The picture is now framed on the customer’s wall.

One thing I don’t believe in is loyalty programs, even though they are commonplace at retailers. Many loyalty programs are a disaster in our industry. It’s all a game. It’s all about points. In the stores, the sales associates squirrel away the bestselling items they have for their customers and wait till double-point day or triple-point day to show them the clothing. Sometimes the customers don’t buy at all, and the sales associates could have sold the ones that the customers didn’t buy many times over.

Instead of a formal loyalty program, isn’t it wiser for a seller to do special things for loyal clients? A bottle of wine, some chicken soup when they are sick, a couple of sleeves of golf balls, lunch, dinner, tickets to a Broadway show. We try to touch every customer with a one for good measure loyalty act that is special for him or her.

The point is that the loyalty comes not because of how many points people have or how much they spend but simply because they are our good customers.

Of course, it’s not done carte blanche. Associates record in the computer when they give something away. And that gets audited, so the business can see if someone goes overboard.

The competitive environment demands that you keep raising the bar. Customers have all been to town and seen the elephant. Everybody’s been to Disney World. So you have to look for fresh ways to wow customers and exceed their expectations. All sellers are pole vaulters trying to clear a higher height without knocking off the bar.

FIVE STEPS TO WARM COMMUNICATION

When you’re communicating with customers by email or personal notes, don’t just dash things off. Have a thoughtful process if you want to achieve the desired result. I have my own five steps, plus OFGM, that I always follow, and they actually echo my stages of the selling process. After all, when you send an email, you’re in effect making a sale too, trying to please someone.

This may sound silly, but I think it’s a really important tip, and I’m convinced it works. I would try to smile while writing the entire email or note or while making the phone call. Because when you smile, guaranteed you will be positive and passionate. Give it a try! Think of it the next time you read an email or receive a note. Can you see the person who has written you smiling, or do you envision the person going through the motions with a bland face?

Now for the steps:

1.   For an email, choose something simple for the subject heading and have it pick up on one or more of the Ps that I love: positive, personal, passionate, proactive. For example, “Special Sale Ends Monday” or “Your New Suit Is Ready to Wear.” I have tried here to make it simple with a little bit of passion, and with the “suit” subject line, I have tried to convey a little bit of a sense of urgency and personalization by using the word “your.”

2.   For the salutation, try to use the first name of the customer, again the person’s preferred name (Bob, not Robert; Beth, not Elizabeth). I like to use “Hi” and then the name.

3.   Then, for the body of the email, if at all possible, I would add one simple sentence that is personal: “I hope you and Susan and Samantha have a wonderful holiday season.” Or “I hope that new hip replacement is healing well.” Or “Wasn’t it great that the Broncos beat the Patriots” (as long as you know the recipient is a Broncos fan). Then you proceed with the main thought of the email, again thinking of those Ps. I might say, “The special sale of the suits that you wear is going now and ends on Monday. Hope you will come in.” You might even say, “I have put aside a blue suit in your size and will hold it for you for two days,” or “I will be calling you shortly to see if I can set it aside for you.” The point is you try to be specific. You might write, “I have a special ring for your wife that I know she would love for your anniversary.” You don’t just say we have a lot of suits for you; you say we have one you would like. Be specific!

4.   For the closing sentence, use something like, “Hope to hear from you soon,” or “I will be calling you.” And then do it. Make the call!

5.   For the goodbye, I love “Warmest regards,” or better still when appropriate, “Warmest personal regards.” I can still remember the first person that used that phrase with me, and it was probably 30 years ago. I still love it. Anyway, pick a favorite, but it should be warm and fuzzy and completely genuine. Today, I sometimes say, “Happy hugs,” or “Happy healthy hugs.”

And if you have room, add the one for good measure, a P.S. It can sometimes be the strongest or warmest connection of the communication. Such as “I hope Fluffy, your lovely cat, is doing well.” Or “Let’s hope the Yankees slaughter the Mets!” (Or vice versa.)

THERE ARE LIMITS, BUT NOT NECESSARILY JAIL

Naturally, there are certain limits to staying in touch. If you read in the paper that a good customer is being indicted, you might be wise to just keep quiet.

Though I actually did send a handwritten note once to a customer who was on his way to prison for committing a financial crime. At his sentencing, when the judge asked him if he had anything to say, he replied, “Yes, I am very sorry. I made a huge error and will do anything to correct it, and I accept your full punishment. When I get out of jail, I intend to lead a legal, productive life.”

And so I sent a note saying how moved I was by his statement to the judge and that I respected his integrity after clearly making a huge mistake. He wrote me back a note of thanks.

Five years later when he got out of jail, he came to Richards, our store in Greenwich, Connecticut, and he was a new man—including his dimensions. Frankly, I hardly recognized him. He had been a 46 regular when he went in, and prison food, plus new discipline and resolve, had condensed him to a 42 regular. In my customary way, I gave him a high five, and he responded with a big smile.

And then, deadpan, he said, “I need some suits, Jack,” followed by a long pause and then a huge smile as he added, “But no more stripes.”

We send a blast email during the holiday season wishing all our customers warm holiday greetings and a Happy New Year. One long-time customer who went to prison for a brief spell continued to get our emails, and she wrote back saying how touching and kind it was that we remembered her while she was “away.”

The general idea is to keep your name and the name of the store in front of the customers without ever being a pest. Our surveys tell us that our customers enjoy our personal contacts a lot and feel that they show we care. We do.

If you haven’t heard from a customer in a while, give the person an “I miss you” call. You never know what might happen.

Marilyn Wallack inherited a customer, a business executive, from someone who had retired, and she noticed that the woman hadn’t been in for a year or two and she had been a fabulous customer. Marilyn called her up, and her opening question was, “Why did you stop shopping at our store?”

I think these simple direct questions work well when you are dealing with a businesswoman who understands selling in a business setting. She told Marilyn the reason, and it was so sensitive Marilyn wouldn’t even tell me. Anyway, Marilyn fixed the issue. The woman started shopping at our store again and has now become a good friend and customer of Marilyn’s and our family’s.

Joe Cox hadn’t heard from a particular customer in a couple of years. So Joe called his house and asked for the man. His wife answered and said he was very ill. Joe expressed his sympathy. The man’s wife asked who he was. Joe said he was his clothes salesperson and usually sold him his suits. He loved 44 regular Brionis. And she said, “Oh, I’m so glad you called. I’ve been wanting to call you because he has lost a lot of weight and is in a hospice and will probably pass in the next couple of weeks. Could you pick out a nice suit for him in a smaller size?”

And of course, Joe did, and the man’s wife was very grateful. It wasn’t exactly what Joe was anticipating when he made the call. But the man was buried in the new suit, going out looking very much in style.

IF NECESSARY, CATCH THE REDEYE

Getting customers to come back means accommodating them in every way possible. And I do mean every way.

David Lynn, a sales associate at Richards and head of our men’s made-to-measure business, had met a new customer in the store. The man was in a hurry, and he was waiting to pay for some ties; we were busy, so David rang them up for him. David read him as someone who might become a loyal customer.

David gave him his card, and a short while later the man called and wanted to come in the next day for some custom suits. Well, it was not the most opportune time. David happened to be in Las Vegas with his family. What did he do? He caught a redeye in, the last one into Kennedy, during a brutal snowstorm. The plane almost crashed.

Later, David mentioned to the customer how he almost crashed for him. The customer joked that they were even. The first day they met, he backed up and smashed his car into a pole in the parking lot. As an extra hug, David paid for having the car detailed.

The man bought some suits and has become a terrific customer. Credit the redeye.

Yes, sellers must be flexible—and have stomachs able to accommodate at least two meals back to back. Brian Wyckoff, a friend in the financial services business, told me how he once was on his way to see a client with his boss. They grabbed lunch just before the appointment. When they arrived, the first thing the customer said was that he hoped they were hungry because he was able to get reservations at a great Italian place.

Of course, Brian and his boss said that sounded great. They smiled away as they somehow shoveled down their second lunch.

Where a lot of sellers go wrong is that they turn an accommodation into a frustration. They do a ham-fisted one for good measure.

Not long ago, my wife, Linda, went to this chain furniture store to look for a new sofa and easy chairs. She had a very pleasant salesperson named Joe who helped her find what she wanted. When she went to pay, Joe strongly suggested she open a store charge account and said she would get a sizable gift certificate to spend in the future. Linda doesn’t like to open new accounts, but she also doesn’t like to turn down something for free. She did it. Afterward, she told me, “What a fulfilling shopping experience . . . got what I came for . . . plus that extra you talk about, Jack, the one for good measure that your mom taught you.”

Some months later, Linda waltzed into the store, spotted Joe, and said she was ready to use her certificate. “Where is it?” Joe said.

“I don’t know, Joe. I figured you had it,” Linda said.

“No,” he said, “it was attached to your bill.”

Linda asked if he could just check the records and if she would be able to use it now and work out the paperwork later.

“Afraid not,” Joe said. “The store will send you a replacement in a few weeks.”

Linda left with mixed feelings. It crossed her mind, “Why the heck didn’t Joe just tell me that at the time of purchase?”

A month later, her replacement certificate in hand, Linda returned to the store and found Joe, and he helped her pick out some things that amounted to about half the value of her certificate. When she got to the checkout, Joe told her, “Oh Linda, I’m afraid you have to use it all in one shopping visit.”

Exasperated, Linda rooted around for more items that she didn’t even necessarily want, while the woman at the counter used a calculator to tabulate everything until she hit her number.

This is the way to do a “one for bad measure.” It could have been handled so much better by eliminating the hoops.

DO THE LITTLE THINGS

One of Barbara’s great clients at our Long Island Mitchells of Huntington store mentioned to Chris, my nephew and the store manager, that her oldest son was going to have his bar mitzvah. Chris told her that we would take great care of her son and his little brother. Over the course of several appointments, we got both of her kids outfits so they would look extremely dapper and ready for the big event.

The day finally came when Barbara’s client came by to pick up the outfits for her boys. Chris thought to himself, “Why not put a lollipop in the breast pocket of each of the boys’ suits?” You see, each time they would come to the store for a fitting, the boys would always have fun picking out their favorite flavor (which changed each week).

So that’s just what he did—put a lollipop in each suit, packed the suits up, and sent the two outfits home with their mom.

A few days after the big day, Chris got a message from the mom saying how great the two boys looked, adding, “Oh, and they loved the lollipops.”

Again, it’s the little things that matter—and we always try to do the little things as well as we can. So many sellers are so focused on the sale. And some of them may well make calls and send out perfunctory emails. But it’s doing little, memorable extras that truly make an impact on a customer.

Marilyn Wallack actually made a video for one of her clients showing how various outfits could be used for a major presentation that she was making at work. Once one of her clients was having a bad day and complained bitterly how difficult it was to put the prongs in the holes of a belt and have the belt remain stationary on her waist. So Marilyn sent the woman a video of how she should adjust the belt and how easy it was to do. The woman came back and was deeply appreciative.

Cathy Ubell, one of our wonderful sellers of women’s clothing at Wilkes Bashford in San Francisco, shoots off pictures of clothing from her cell phone to customers she feels might be interested. One day, she took pictures of two scarves and sent them on to a customer. The woman happened to be driving nearby and examined them on her phone. She called Cathy and told her, “I’ll take them and be right over to pick them up. Come meet me outside.”

She pulled up outside the store. Cathy dashed out with the scarves, and her customer drove off happy as a clam. Drive-through shopping, just like at Burger King.

So often I pass stores that compete against ours and spot customers knocking, sometimes banging, sometimes begging at the doors two minutes after closing, and the security people or salespeople are shooing them away. Secretly, I love it! My mind jumps to so many occasions when our sellers do just the opposite. We welcome these customers in as if they were a dash late for our dinner party—with big smiles.

It was no surprise to me when a couple came in one day and made a very nice purchase—lots of fashionable new items. The man said to me, “You know why we popped in today?” I said that I didn’t.

He told me: “Several weeks ago, we were in town, and it was freezing, and my lady friend needed something to warm her body. And the concierge at our hotel said to try Wilkes Bashford. By the time we got here, it was 30 minutes or more past closing; but I waved to a nice young chap [turned out to be my nephew Tyler Mitchell], and he let us in. We bought this nice shawl, and my girlfriend was toasty the entire time in San Francisco. We were back in town and remembered the kindness of your people. She needed another scarf. The first one was so beautiful and luxurious that someone stole it!”

Yes, we are proud every time we open our closed doors. At closing time or occasionally before opening time.

Once a new customer had a great shopping experience with Frank Gallagi at Richards. A few weeks later, he showed up again, and he looked for Frank. It was his day off. The man, who was on the demanding side, got upset—maybe even a tad rude—and left.

The next day, the man was at his office in New York when his secretary buzzed and said, “A Frank is here to see you.”

“Frank who?” he asked.

She said, “Frank, your clothier from Richards.”

The man was embarrassed, humbled, and thrilled that Frank would surprise him by taking a train to Manhattan to show up and apologize—and he hadn’t done anything wrong. But you better believe that the man became a friend and loyal customer. And he told that story to others probably a thousand times.

WARMTH THROUGH THE INTERNET

We are the type of business that likes to see the sales and feel the real possibility of a profitable business before risking time, energy, and money on something new. As a result, for years we resisted selling over the Internet. Furthermore, in the early stages we questioned whether other retailers’ online business was profitable.

There is no question that Internet selling is here to stay, and so we went full speed several years ago and will continue to grow this channel of distribution in our business. Regular users know that it works best for them when they can search for an item, find the best price, click, get free delivery, and be able to return the item if they want, all in their home, office, or bed.

But until online selling can be personalized so the customer somehow can easily interface with a real person, there still will be lots of room for brick-and-mortar selling. I’m positive of that.

As I’ve been saying over and over, there are two parts of the sale—the emotional human connection and the intellectual, pure-product fact part. Let’s face it; it’s kind of hard to get an emotional attachment to a website. Of all the things I’ve been talking about in the selling process—the power of people, the power of touch—few of them come across on the Internet. Certainly there are good and bad websites, and the good ones are quite attractive, but I still don’t think web buying rises to the same level of an interpersonal relationship as when you go into a store or meet with an insurance salesperson or actually drive a new car.

From my perspective, the Internet reminds me of how store displays used to be, with everything enclosed in huge glass cases, the way valuable jewelry is today. Hearing Dad tell me stories of those old days is one of the strong reasons why I believe customers will always need to go to a real store. Unless they can figure out how to feel cashmere or walk on carpeting on their computer!

That being said, it is up to the brick-and-mortar people like us to add channels of distribution. The buzzword concept of omni or multichannel is essential in the modern world. So I do believe that great stores with great sellers these days have to have the Internet as one of their tools.

We knew that many customers were shopping online, some of them a lot, in our luxury area. Despite the fact that stores are making little, if any, money in this space, even our clients, especially those that live outside our driving market area, are buying online. And thus once we were satisfied we knew how to do it to best benefit our customers, we forged ahead.

Russ, our computer-fluent son, and Andrew, our marketing whiz son, and Beth, our director of analytics, spearheaded the project. Our idea was to create a site that reflects the shopping experience in our eight stores.

We call it MPix. The heart of it is an electronic photo imaging system. It works this way: We have quality pictures of almost all our clothing and jewelry products loaded onto the website. Our sales associates can page through it and use their knowledge to assemble a curated list of items that they feel their customers would like to see and, the hope is, buy—in their size, of course—and then the associates send along the pictures. It’s a very special interactive system, with product options from all our stores.

The whole point is to be as personal as possible. I’m against what some businesses do, which is to send out email blasts of sale items or new arrivals, making no effort to sort whether the products are even faintly appropriate for the recipients. So you have men getting emails about a lovely new nightgown. You have customers who bought a tablet two days ago getting an email about a great new tablet.

What always bugs me is that so many of these come-ons warn, “Do not respond,” because there’s nobody available to respond. Selling means being available—both on the floor and electronically. We want our customers to feel the warmth and imagine the smile of an associate right through their computer or smartphone.

Customers can also sign onto our site, and a picture of their seller pops up. Then they can browse. When they spot something that interests them, they can ask their sales associate to put it aside in the store they shop in for consideration. Reserve it, we call it. Then they can come in to see it, feel it, try it on, and then, if they like it, buy it. Or of course, if they live in Minneapolis or Helena, Montana, or even New York City, they can buy it online.

This gives our sellers a valuable and potent tool to include in their toolbox. And it’s one more courtesy for our customers.

Traffic on our site has been beyond our expectations. One key piece of data we’ve gleaned is that a far higher percentage of visitors to the site are first-time customers than is true of shoppers at our stores. So it’s been an invaluable source of new business.

One really remarkable feature lets customers view previous purchases, and if something was bought after October 2014, they can actually see a picture of it. If they can’t remember a pair of jeans they liked and want another pair, perhaps in a different color, they can look it up themselves anytime they want—they can do it sitting in bed at four in the morning if they so choose! Eventually, I dream about having a virtual closet where items purchased from us will be arranged in a manner that reflects their closet—with clothing items that match arranged together.

You can never tell how the digital world might land a sale. Iwona Kelly, one of our superb shoe specialists at Richards, had a client traveling to San Francisco. Before the woman left, Iwona advised her to drop in at our Wilkes Bashford store there, since that store has some shoes that Richards doesn’t carry. A few days later, Iwona noticed a shoe she thought would be perfect for her customer, and so Iwona “MPixed” her. The customer happened to be shopping at one of our competitors and was looking at that very shoe. She walked up the block and bought it at Wilkes Bashford.

A lot of consumers, I know, use brick-and-mortar stores as vehicles to sample products, and then they go and buy them online, often because they think they can get a better price. Retailers know this phenomenon as “showrooming.”

My feeling is that if you deliver exceptional personal service, your customers won’t showroom. They will buy the products from you, even if the price is a tad higher, often because it’s not exactly the same plus you’ve offered them additional value—value like alterations.

Linda, though, buys a lot online, more and more it seems each month, and also uses the Internet to discover what is in a store. She may buy something online and then go to the store to see and feel other items that interest her.

Clearly basic items and those where size doesn’t come into play are easiest to sell online. And as I like to say, if you live in Arkansas or Idaho, you will, of course, depend on online. But it’s even better if you can connect with a real-live experienced sales professional who knows you or wants to know you on a first-name basis. Isn’t that preferable than a voice from a call center in India?

HAVE A ROUTINE

Great sellers don’t leave things to chance. They don’t operate simply on impulse. They create routines and then follow them. It’s part of executing a plan and having discipline.

I read once about how marathon swimmers are exceptionally disciplined and attentive to routines. Diana Nyad, the great open-water swimmer, spoke of how all the swimmers she knows methodically count their strokes and keep lists of every swim and the exact time.

These habits become ingrained and spill into other aspects of their lives. Nyad, when she takes a plane flight, carries with her a large-sized pack of M&Ms. When she settles in her seat, she opens the package, counts the pieces, and returns an equal number of each color to the package. She divides the duration of the flight by the number of candies. Then she gulps them down according to her calculated rate so that she swallows the last one just as the plane lands.

I’m not suggesting that sellers do this, but I strongly recommend keeping simple to-do lists. I do it all the time. Ideally you list each task and specify when you want to start it and when you want to complete it. As well, note whether it is urgent and important or important but not urgent—in other words, in some way prioritize your tasks. I believe you should show your lists to your assistant or whomever you work with in order to complete these goals.

Leave time in the morning before you go to work and time at the end of the day to evaluate where you stand on these lists. Obviously, if a task involves other people, it is always fun to celebrate when you cross that baby off the list. Maybe a high five, a hug, or a drink.

Debbie Turtoro is a remarkable shoe and handbag specialist seller. When I started chatting with her on the selling floor at Mitchells, Debbie was literally holding a couple of dozen notes—sticky notes, colored notes, notes scrawled on the back of envelopes with names on them. I asked, “What are all those colorful pieces of paper?”

She said, “I don’t sleep very well because I always think about our customers, and when I can’t sleep, I scribble names on these notes that I think I should call or one of our other specialists should call because we just got a new shipment of something.”

Debbie sets dollar and customer goals for each day—for customers, she aims for seven or eight on a weekday, ten to fifteen on Saturday. “I look at customers almost as a picture,” she says. “How can I complete the picture? I feel I’m doing the finishing touches. I say come here—come into the living room. I have something for you.”

Every seller ought to establish a minimum number of calls to make each day. I know that Joe Durst uses Wednesday, his day off, to set up his whole week. He’s on the phone or working his emails all day. Karen, another of our sellers, told me she does an hour or so at home to prepare. Arnaud arrives an hour early to get going. I find that a good goal is to have two-plus appointments a day and more on Saturday—plus be prepared to help walk-ins and to help teammates sell!

Joe Derosa, one of our veteran sellers, has a routine that includes reviewing the big sales he made to his customers and clients a year before. Then Joe calls or emails the customer and says, “I remember so well when you bought that beautiful shearling coat last year about this time, and I have a beautiful new jacket that I think would look perfect on you.”

And he might even take a picture of that new jacket and email it to the customer to bring the person back into the store.

Judy Brooks from Richards gave this capsule summary of her routine: “On Monday mornings I get my playbook and go through my client list. I look at who shopped this time of year and has not been in yet. Also I look at anyone I have not connected with in the past couple of months. I will then write a list of people to contact for the week. I will email them and either try to set an appointment or just reach out and ask how they are. I also walk around the floor. If I see something that just came in, I think of who would like it and either send a picture or make a phone call, telling them, ‘I have the perfect pieces for you; come by and see me.’”

One big reason to have routines is that they discipline a seller to anticipate and be proactive. And you discover little nuggets to use during the selling process.

Scott Nugent, one of our great Mitchells sales associates, is a stickler about being very prepared for appointments. When he Googled one customer in advance of an appointment, he somehow discovered that the customer had an outstanding tax refund check waiting for him from the state for $1,500!

Needless to say, the man was delighted when he came in and Scott told him. Put him right in the buying mood. A win for the client, a win for the seller, and a win for the store (after a great sale)! Win/win/win.

THEY BRING YOU EGGS

Our sellers have been offered homes for a vacation in Hawaii and Florida; apartments in New York; tickets to ball games, the Final Four, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon.

From whom? Their customers!!!

One of our customers raises chickens, and so when she stops at the store, she often brings eggs for her favorite salespeople.

When one of our regulars shows up and we know the person is celebrating a milestone birthday, we’ll have a cake waiting. And guess what—we have customers who bring in cakes when they know it’s their sales associate’s birthday. When my brother Bill reached his seventieth, he probably had 10 cakes presented to him.

This is what happens when you sell the Hug Your Customers Way and your customers become your friends. They act like friends—because they are friends.

Judy Brooks had the idea to arrange breakfasts and lunches with customers she didn’t know that well, not to discuss clothing or do any sort of selling, but just to get to know them outside store turf. She does them together with a couple of people who are friends. “I want them to know me as a whole person,” she says.

One customer hadn’t been in the store for eight months. After one of these breakfasts, she showed up a day later and bought a bunch of clothing. They had talked about spirituality at breakfast, and the woman brought Judy a book on spirituality as a gift. “If they know me as a whole person, it takes the focus away from seeing me as just selling clothes,” Judy says. “I also have this interest and that interest, and I have a wonderful husband and son. Then they will think about me more and come in to see me and then, guess what, they will shop with me.”

Some of our other sellers do the same thing, deepening their relationships. When’s the last time your cell phone salesperson or appliance seller invited you to dinner? I’ll bet it’s never happened.

When Judy’s father died, a lot of customers came to the funeral. Same thing when her mother died.

Any number of our sellers dine with customers, take vacations together, play golf or tennis together, go to plays or movies or sporting events together.

When I asked Iwona Kelly, one of our wonderful sellers, what makes her the most proud, her answer was, “Having such close relationships with my customers. When I was sick with breast cancer, the people that reached out to me, and the notes and the flowers from so many customers, were beyond anything I could imagine. By doing the next right thing daily with my customers and being as helpful as I can to them, they reached out to me. I tear up when I think about it. It’s my proudest moment in retail ever.”

Theresa Goncalves, the manager for customer service in our Westport Mitchells store, told me one day: “What I love is when I walk around the store, hearing what the sellers are talking about with their customers. It’s not always about the clothes. They are talking about where they are going on vacation. The sellers are telling them where they went on vacation. It’s awesome. They know each other’s children’s names. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever seen.”

Amy Jarman has a few ladies that come in just to go next door and have an ice cream with her, and they don’t ever feel pressured to buy something when they are here. They just drop by to say hello and see their seller and friend.

My nephew Scott shared with me an amazing thank you note from a customer, which ended: “You and all your employees are so special. It is very rare to find such caring people. You and your family are doing a terrific job, and I am honored to be a customer.”

Can you imagine? Honored to be a customer? We’re honored to have each and every customer who comes in our doors.

EVEN SELLING IN THE BATHROOM

I get kidded that I’m always selling! But I am. All sellers ought to be. Almost every time I travel, I meet current customers, and just by reconnecting with them I’m selling. This happens a lot when I get upgraded to business or first class (our culture on expenses is don’t spend the money unless it touches customers, so I virtually never elect first class). They usually tell me fun new stories about themselves and their family and often a story involving over-the-top service in the stores.

And I’m always prospecting for new business. I gave my business card to a gentleman who was working out with me one morning. Who knows—he may need a new topcoat. When I’m waiting in line to see a show, I’ll strike up a conversation with a stranger in front of me and exchange my business card and tell him what I do. Maybe he needs some shirts. I was waiting with my mother-in-law at the eye doctor, and I was chatting with another patient. Before we were done, he knew I was in the clothing business, and he had my business card. He might want some sweaters.

I know our great sellers always carry business cards with them, and literally in a bathroom, if it’s a large one, they can exchange cards, or at the hockey game or the bar or the dry cleaner. Our sellers are proud and always want to make a new friend, a new customer.

Years ago, whenever I ran into sales associates outside the store—on Sunday at the supermarket or in the evening at a movie—I would always check to see if they had a business card on them. If they did, I gave them a dollar. It was just a little game we liked to play, and it reminded everyone to always be prepared to sell.

You may not think so, but great sellers are selling even when they’re undoing a sale—when a customer shows up with returns. No one likes returns, especially sales associates who have worked hard to listen and find just the right item, and then you see the customer coming through the door with a garment bag or after Christmas with a stack of boxes.

It’s a little easier if, like us, your sellers are not on commission, but the instinct for sellers is to head for the hills when they see things coming back. It’s important to recognize that it’s just another part of the game. Handle the returns with genuine graciousness and the same sort of upbeat and personal exchange as when you’re making a sale. That helps a lot with the next sale. We always want the customer extremely satisfied. And we want the message to go out that “Mitchells made me feel simply great. They took the shirt back with a smile and with the same friendly family feeling that they did when I bought it!”

Which brings me to wolves. We had an old client who bought a Zegna sport coat, wanting it shipped to his Wyoming home. Going the extra step, we shipped it early. Problem was, the customer got there two days later, after a snowstorm. He found the coat had been outside on the porch, where it was attacked by a wolf!

It had been shredded and lay in a million pieces all over the lawn.

UPS, which delivered the coat, wouldn’t cover the cost. It said the cardboard containing the jacket was “too thin.” Naturally, we immediately told the customer we would replace the jacket. Somehow the Zegna representative heard the story, and it wound all the way to the top and CEO Gildo Zegna in Italy. We have such a great relationship with Zegna that he offered to make a made-to-measure coat for our customer at his Beverly Hills store. Our customer preferred to do it at Wilkes Bashford.

Replacing jackets devoured by wolves, well, that, too, is part of selling.

Sander Lusink, a good friend of mine from Oger Fashion, which has a number of fine men’s stores in the Netherlands, told me a little hugging story that I love. A salesperson from an Oger store in Rotterdam noticed a car on the street that had a parking ticket on it that had run out. At his own expense, he bought a new parking ticket and wedged his business card under the new ticket. The car’s owner returned and noticed the thoughtful gesture. He walked into the store to thank the salesperson. Before he left, he had spent 4,000 euros on clothing.

Now there’s a guy who is always selling.

ONE FOR GOOD MEASURE RECAP

•   Stay in touch, if you have permission, so the customers keep returning.

•   Forget cold calls and do warm calls.

•   Do the little things—like putting lollipops in suit pockets—because those little things can matter more than the big things.

•   Use the Internet the right way—to supplement human selling, not replace it.

•   Have a routine and follow it—set up your day before your day happens.

•   Always keep selling—even when wolves get involved—and go ahead and pay someone’s parking ticket.