"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
g.com...
This year has been something, up and down the east coast Wal*Mart and
Costco has been selling phals (from Costa I think) that includes a care
sheet telling people to water by placing a couple of ice cubes on top of
the mix every week. I am so sick of ice cube questions. Here are some my
standard answers:
I do not think the plants I am selling would thrive on ice cubes, you need
to talk to the grower you bought the plant from.
Why would anyone tell you to put ice on the roots of a tropical plant?
Those instructions are to keep the plant alive while it is blooming. They
assume you will throw the plant away when it goes out of bloom.
Ice cubes? What a novel approach.
I am not real happy with any of these answers, anyone have some ideas?
Pat
IMHO, all these answers are appropriate. IMHO this goes back to
credibility. The customer bought a plant that came with written
instructions therefore Costa (or whoever) has instant credibility. The next
guy has to do some work to supercede that authority in the customer's mind.
This may create anxiety in the customer's mind: have they made a bad choice
in purchasing their cute flower? So should they listen to you or should
they believe the handout that came with their plant? Who to trust?
You need to establish your credibility. And, here's the rub, it has to be
done one-on-one, one person at a time at a sale or other venue where you
don't have the time to deal with these questions knowing full well that your
time will probably never translate to a sale or repeat sales.
So what to do? Create your own handout correcting the myths of Phal
culture? Give a short talk at the next sale on the Top 10 Myths of Phal
Culture? (That means someone will have to cover your booth while you talk)
IMHO the good news is that the customers who *ask* you questions like these
haven't bought in to Costa's handout and therefore are ready for
assimilation into the Phal Collective. Photoshop your picture over Dennis
Leary's in the latest Hulu ad, 'Your brains ain't done yet.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-jfrjXrOyc
Because we're the Phal People and we want to take over the world.
K Barrett