What is your Free Prize?

I am currently reading Seth Godin's Free Prize Inside and like all of his other books it is thought provoking. While it is a book aimed mainly at businesses and how they market their products and company to the public, it has some application in your retail sales efforts.

As a retail sales person what is your free prize? What makes you unique in the eyes of the customer? What makes them go "Wow, we are buying from him!". I am not talking about the uniqueness of the product or service you sell, I am talking about the uniqueness of you.

Unless you work for a company that produces a unique and exclusive item, your customer will most like be able to go somewhere else and purchase it. This is the problem of retail from your perspective, you are not the only one selling it. In fact in this day and age of internet shopping, your customer can come in and pick your brain for all of its knowlege them hop online and order it at a cheaper price.

What is it about you that makes your customer want to come back and buy from you? What is the free prize they get by working with you? What makes them want to say "Yes" before you even say "would you like one?"

And don't focus on the easy stuff like "Great Attitude, knowledgable about the products, or fast service" These are expected from the customer and probably something that is easily duplicated by the sales person down the street. What can you do to make your customers say "WOW" and keep them from every visiting your competition? How do you make it a memorable event.

Some thoughts:

* A car sales person who takes you for a test drive and states in the beginning "I am only here for insurance purposes, if you have a question ask me, otherwise pretend like I am not here and enjoy the ride"

* Carrying an MP3 player filled with 100's of albums in every variety of music style so when your customers wants to test out the new stereo system and didn't bring their own CD's, they have choices instead of listening to what you like.

* Sending a Thank You card to every customer, no matter how big the order. A Free Prize that gets referrals.

* Kitchen Equipment Sales - providing a customer your a favorite recipe they could try with the equipment they are purchasing. Maybe your business card on the back or inside the thank you card?

Do something that makes you unique and makes you stand out from the crowd. Are they gimmicks? Only if they don't produce consistent results.

My challenge to you is to go out and purchase Free Prize Inside and read it. Then perform a bit of Edgecraft and see what you can do to add a Free Prize for your customers that is radically different from your competition.