The power of sampling

Last nights “The Apprentice” highlighted once again the tremendous power of sampling.

“Ere, let us have a little bit of that to try mate? – go on – I’ll give you a job if you do“

For those who didn’t see it the teams were dispatched to France with British food (of their chosing) to try and sell to the French at a local market. The local team decided, in a quite wonderful move of stupidity, to buy some revolting cheese from Makro and try and tempt the french with it. They failed. But more interestingly and potentially far more successfully they also bought some high quality sausages and tried to sell these. The sausage producers suggested that they offer samples since this helped sales. Simple stuff, you would have thought, and very logic.

But the team leader, an ex-army type, created a ludicrous little stove out of a baked bean can and some flammable gel. In the end they couldn’t get the sausages to cook properly and they ended up trying to sell them at cost to local restaurants. But one gobby member of the team wouldn’t stop trying. She badgered a local restaurant and managed to borrow their cooker. She cooked the sausages, cut them up and offered the samples to the market visitors.

And surprise, surprise they sold. It’s such a simple trick and it is so often ignored in so many cafes. It follows so logically on from my last post about asking for the sale.

“Would you like something to eat with your coffee?” – is a great start but….

“Would you like something to eat with your coffee? We have these brownies which are delicious – would you like to try a piece?”

…is ten times more powerful. I have proved countless times both in my own businesses and with clients that this improves sales.

You may not necessarily just improve your brownie sales (or whatever you are sampling) but you will also improve general sales through the law of reciprocity (from Cialdini’s Influence). Which in it’s simplest form means that if I offer you something for free you feel slightly beholden to me and will want to give me something back. It’s a strategy as old as the hills and used in many, many industries but often overlooked in the coffee business.

So whey not try a little scientific study this week. Look at last weeks sales of a specific product and then decide to sample it this week. Play around with a few different items and analyse the sales increases. As ever, test, test, test. Keep testing and keep trying until you have consistent strategies that work for you and help to increase profits. And with this strategy you increase profits and give your customers a better experience. Win-win.

Incidentally the seminal book on how to influence customer behaviour (ethically) is Robert Cialdini’s Influence – The Psychology of persuasion It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important marekting book I have read.

Johnnie