Lessons from Brookstone

Brookstone recently announced that it is closing its 100+ mall stores to focus its energies on the 30 brick-and-mortar airport locations and ecommerce.  It's another sign of a niche brick-and-mortar retailer throwing in the towel.  For more than 40 years, Brookstone offered quirky, niche products ranging from drones and all types of remote controls to 3D printed pens.  Similar to Shaper Image and Radio Shack, Brookstone did not adapt to the changing retail paradigm that has resulted in a significant decline in shopping mall traffic.  But it would be a disservice to Brookstone to blame online competitors and Amazon as the primary reason for its restructuring and substantially smaller footprint.

 

Brookstone did not sell many things that people needed, points out DPHA Conference Workshop Leader, the Retail Doctor Bob Phibbs.  Instead, they sold products that people wanted.  There are few items sold in a decorative plumbing and hardware showroom that consumers need.  Almost everything featured in a showroom falls into the category of wants.  A key to continued success is to determine the motivation for a "want".  Doing so will enable you and your sales team to overcome objections such as "it costs too much".  When price is questioned, determine why a customer considers the price to be too high. Determine if they want to make unique design statements in their home and the goals they want to achieve.   When you can change the dialogue, you can transition the conversation from price to how the products you recommend will make your customer feel and how much enjoyment they would derive from those purchases.  When you can determine goals, motivations and reasons for objections, you can easily overcome price and other reasons not to buy.  

 

Phibbs points out that anyone standing in front of a decorative plumbing and hardware sales professional made an effort to travel to the showroom.  There is a reason they made the trip.  Most objections come at the end of a conversation, which most of the time reflect that the sales professional did not bond with the customer or transition from someone trying to sell stuff to a trusted advisor. There's a good chance that many of the sales professionals at Brookstone mall stores did not transition to trusted advisor.  They were simply order takers.  

 

To help your team better connect with your customers, have them write down what customers object to and brainstorm how you and your team can respond to them.  More skill and savvy are required to convince consumers to purchase products that they want instead of need.