Making More Sales When Customers Visit Your Store First

Being the first business your customers visit, won’t guarantee success, but it will give you a huge advantage. Give your customers a reason to keep you top of mind.

On a recent trip through wine country in southern Ontario, my wife and I took one day and visited a few of the wineries in the Niagara region. Our day started with a visit to Reif Estate Winery. There, a wine connoisseur spent time with us learning what we liked and disliked, explaining the different wines and providing some samples. We enjoyed his expertise, his passion for the wines and his willingness to help us out and proceeded to buy several bottles of wine prior to leaving for our next stop.

Upon arrival at the next winery a very pleasant young lady and gentleman went above and beyond to serve us. It was a wonderful visit. We tasted a few more wines and once again enjoyed the experience, but when it came time to leave, we bought only one bottle of wine. Not because we didn’t like their wine as much, but because we simply had bought quite a bit already.

By the time we stopped at our third winery, we enjoyed the tour, the tasting and the service, but ended up buying nothing. We had purchased all the wine we wanted and could easily carry back with us.

Leaving the wineries, it reminded me that being the first is so vitally important. That day we spent about 90% of our purchases at the fist winery. Not because it was any better than the others, not because it was the only place where we were inspired, only because it was the first place we stopped. Had we stopped at one of the other wineries first, the picture would have been the reverse.

What can you do in your advertising, in your messaging, in your call to action that will give your customers a compelling reason to visit you first, before they stop at a competitor for the same or similar products or services?

All to often, the first person out of the gate wins. How can you get out of the gate first and be the first business your customers think of?