Make the decision easy

Make the decision easy!

There is a wine shop in Australia called The Flying Grape, and I was reading recently that their solution to helping out befuddled buyers was to put little tickets on bottles that gave just the sort of help and advice we all need; ‘Rare’, ‘Best wine of its kind in the shop’, ‘Hard to get’, ‘Old and worth drinking’, ‘Worth buying now’ and ‘Best value of any wine’ were some of the things they said.

This made the decision on buying the right wine so easy.

Closer to home, three years ago I attended a wine tasting hosted by Hawkes Bay vineyard, Ashridge Wines.  They were generous with their samples which were all accompanied by a degustation course provided by the host restaurant, Waitete Orchard Café (since renamed Down Thyme).

I don’t know if this was their intention, but when it came to asking for the order we were all reasonably happy and ready to buy.  Most couples spent freely.

But here’s the clincher.  We were all offered the chance to sign up for their wine club and an automatic 6 monthly delivery of the owners’ cellar selection.  Most of us joined, and now three years later we, and a lot of the club members are still getting the deliveries.

As with the Flying Grape, the underlying principle is to help the buyer to make an informed decision, and in the case of Ash Ridge, make the decision easy by picking the wine, advising the customer before delivery and giving them the chance to change it or reject delivery.

Definitely two opportunities found!

So what about your business? Can you add a few labels or shelf talkers to your products that will make the choice so much simpler?  Or can you set up an automatic delivery or subscription service for some of your products?

And, if you sell a service, are you making sure that clients know your service is genuinely great value, or what other people are doing with the service, or what it will specifically do for them?

Simple stuff, but not many businesses do it.