GameTruck Consumer Sales

Whenever a new idea for a product or serve pops up on my radar like, I often stop and ask, "How are they selling that?" As I have written before, you need robust systems to generate buyer interest. Generating interest is essential, but not sufficient. For your business to flourish, you have to convert interest into action. That can a challenge.

Today, consumers dislike to talk on the phone. More and more they want to do their research up front and then make their purchase on their terms. According to Sherry Turtle, the author of Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation an increasing number of young adults, and even parents are avoiding conversation in favor of mediated communication. They would rather be texting, use online chat, or social media to interact. We have seen this play out at GameTruck, where we have invested in a host of solutions designed to make it as easy as possible for someone to book a party with us.

It might sound easy to provide online booking for a business like GameTruck, but it gets complicated fast. How can you let customers book their own events when you don't know where they are or where the truck is coming from or has to go? You must have very sophisticated software. We can't afford to let a customer reserve a date and time we can't deliver because of logistics. Only valid choices are available for each customer based upon the unique combination of a multitude of factors.

Of course, we still provide the human touch. You'd be surprised how many times a parent just wants to talk to a real person before they complete their order. I get it. They want to make sure that a real person is there. They want to know someone will care about their party. This is all part of the sales process.

Whenever a customer does connect with us, as soon as we have enough information to generate a quote, we do. It can be sent via email, text, or social media chat. The magic thing about the quote is the customer can book their party straight from the quote. They don't even need to call us again.

We have learned we must meet our customers where they are. Our customers increasingly avoid talk and lean toward digital communication. They want to feel like they are in control. All of our sales systems are geared to meet that need.

When someone asks me how we sell parties at GameTruck I answer, "As many ways as possible." We strive to make it easy for the customer to choose us. That may not always be the easiest thing for us, but every time we invest in making the customer's life easier, our business improves.

These automation systems also make our franchise owners lives easier as well. I remember the days when you could only book a party by calling us on the phone. That meant you had to call between 9am and 5pm. Our automated systems have proven, that given the opportunity, people will book a party at all times of the night and day. Selling when it is convenient for the customer is at the heart of our GameTruck sales system.

When evaluating a business concept, don't forget to ask, "How do they sell that?" It matters.