Just back from a bit of paparazzi-dodging in Milan (it was Fashion Week, and they were out mob-handed along the supermodel-strewn Via Monte Napoleone), and just have to report on a great little selling technique I inadvertently witnessed.
The missus and I were downing pints of Newcastle Brown Ale and munching on bangers-and-mash, people-watching from a glass-fronted cafe in the beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (said to be the world's oldest shopping mall), when a nifty trick the staff were using caught my eye.
Since you could see through into the 'mall', you could also see whenever a passer-by came up to look at the menu that was displayed on a board. Quick as a flash, a waiter would shoot outside, hand the person a menu-card, then just as quickly retreat indoors. I'm sure the two menus were identical, but what this meant was that the 'prospect' now had to come back into the cafe to return the menu. Neat.
Now, in fact, the three people that were collared by this technique while we observed all politely returned the menu and equally politely declined to stay, but it was clear that this was a tactic that had worked for the establishment in the long run: a nice variant of the salesperson's "assumed close" which uses a subtle physical method to help those "interested customers" who just need a bit of a nudge to say yes when it comes to agreeing to a buying decision. Cool.
