I have several ongoing discussions with my teams at both my
Tri-Cities - Atlanta Airport and
Dunwoody - Sandy Springs Centers. I will cover those in this space from time to time. Today, I want to share the debate around a transactional vs. a consultative business. And how one model leads to point a misspelling on a sign, and the other doesn’t.
There are many successful transactional businesses out there. They provide their customers with the products or services they seek. Rarely do they need to engage in a dialogue with those customers. Frankly, many customers do not want the dialogue. I know that when I am at a big-box store looking for the item I want, I am disinclined to welcome a salesperson’s intrusion.
Since we are all consumers in one form or another, we probably have a shared set of expectations around our decisions to buy something. We may want help available, should we need it, though finding that expert in the right-color jacket responsible for the area of the big-box store can be a challenge.
Consultative businesses are different. They welcome interactions with their customers, knowing that their principal value lies in listening to the customers’ needs and coming up with the best solution based on their expertise. In fact, they count on these connections to drive the value of their products or services.
AlphaGraphics is part of an industry that straddles both of these types of businesses. Yes, we offer execution to our Clients who know what they want. And we consult with those looking for ways to reach their intended audience using visual communications. Our internal debate is about which of these two models is
more like us.
Our tendency is to gravitate to the transactional model, since we live in that space as individual consumers just about every day. My push with the teams is that for many small and medium-sized businesses, it is in the consultation that
we prove our worth. There is risk, yes, but it is a great feeling when our Clients adopt our recommended solution, and it works. Also, our Clients will appreciate when we catch and point our an obvious misspelling in their signs, instead of wasting time and money on a bad solution they designed.