Who would have thought that a holiday in Bali would turn into a powerful lesson in how to capture the heart of a customer and close a sale against stiff competition? True story.

This isn’t about hustlers bugging tourists on the beach. It’s much deeper than that.

A few weeks ago we went on a family trip of a lifetime to Bali. We were wandering through a street market looking for ingredients for an exotic meal we were planning and my daughter was transfixed by all of the exotic fruits on offer.

The woman at one of the stalls spotted this, and without requesting anything in return, gave my daughter a nice ripe banana to taste.

It was clear she got as much pleasure from seeing my daughter happy as my daughter did in receiving the gift. We went on our way and didn’t think much of it.

20 minutes later, on the other side of the market, faced with another beautiful fruit stall, our daughter asked if we could buy some more bananas to take back to our villa.

We did buy some. But not just any old bananas. We spent 15 minutes retracing our steps and went all the way back to the lady who’d given my daughter the free one.

Moral of the story? Giving value that will delight your customer before expecting any immediate return will pay off in customer loyalty and increased revenue, over time.

Let’s keep this going - do you have a similar story you’d like to share?

#dominiccolenso #sales #impact