Sum up your needs to land the best buy

There are many ways to celebrate the autumn equinox that announces the turn of the season. One such way is to look as outlandish as you can possibly be on Halloween night.

This year I decided that I would ‘trick or treat' the neighbourhood children dressed as little Red Riding Hood. After much searching I found the perfect red-fitted jacket with an attached hood at the biggest mall in the neighbourhood.

The store had sizes above and below my size. I walked up to the sales girl and asked if she had a UK 14 in red colour. She batted her long eyelashes and purred: "Habibti, we have green."

"No, but I want red," I said. After a rather deep sigh, she said "We also have black, ma'am."

You may be tempted to call her behaviour evasive. However, the above situation shows someone trying to ‘save face'. Some cultures avoid embarrassment like the plague. In this case, the sales assistant felt disgraced by the lack of product availability.

She tackled this quandary quite brilliantly. The customer asked question A, but she answered with question B. The assistant assumed the need was to buy any jacket and, based on this assumption, she offered alternative products.

Much to this customer's dismay, the behaviour did indeed circumvent any perceived awkwardness. When faced with such situations, customers typically feel one of three emotions.

Frustration: The customer questions if the assistant has understood the language. You will find many people repeating their questions in a slow tone while exaggerating the natural pronunciation of the words. Most would presume that the sales assistant is new to the trade language.

Neglect: Shoppers may feel cornered into a sale. When a sales assistant is perceivably pushing an unwanted product onto the buyer, it appears as though the staff is focused on meeting their daily sales quota. Here, timid consumers feel neglected by the sales staff, while assertive shoppers feel attacked. Both mindsets perceive the assistant's behaviour to be presumptuous.

Offended: Customers become irate if they feel that the sales assistant is insulting their intelligence. This usually takes place when well-informed customers who have previously researched products online or in catalogues know precisely what to purchase. Such personalities also tend to feel wounded when their stellar background research has not borne fruit with the final close of the sale.

When shoppers label the store staff's behaviour ‘evasive' or ‘illusive', they begin to feel unimportant and overlooked. In effect the customer feels insignificant.

Alternatively, when consumers label associates ‘insolent' or ‘audacious', they feel as though their own personal boundaries are being disrespected and encroached upon. Either way, both outcomes result in zero sales. Selling is a delicate ballet of intrinsic intuition and peripheral communication. The solution is to be truthful about the current state of affairs but to ask customers enough questions so as to understand the need behind their wish.

Going back to my situation, not knowing that I wanted to play dress up, the associate assumed I simply wanted a jacket. If she had enquired further I am certain she would have offered me the stunning alternative I discovered as I was about to exit the store.

About two racks before the doors, I stumbled across a saucy red dress with an attached hood. I immediately did a double pirouette with glee and bought the dress.

The big secret here is that most consumers are blinded by product stereotypes and do not always know what they want until they see it. Sales assistants are typically aware of their full range of merchandise.

Thus, it is only after store staff understand the need behind the product stereotype that they can offer meaningful alternatives.

The writer is a Dubai-based entrepreneur.