Saturday, 4:40 p.m. A couple walks into the shop. They are looking for a sofa. Not just any sofa: the sofa, the one that will finally replace the old one, which he finds “still perfectly fine” and she finds “no longer possible”.
Julien, the salesman, is impeccable. He smiles, he listens, he asks the right questions. He has them sit on three models, then a fourth “just to compare”. She strokes the fabric. He pats the armrest the way you pat the bonnet of a used car. Forty minutes later, everyone agrees: this is the one.
And then the sentence drops.
“Well… we’ll think about it.”
Julien is still smiling. He hands over his card. “Of course, take your time.”
They left at 5:22 p.m. They were never seen again.
The crime scene
If you run a shop, you know this scene. You may have lived it ten times this week. And like everyone else, you filed it under “normal”: people think things over, that’s healthy.
Except that, most of the time, they don’t think it over.
Few people go home, sit at the kitchen table and meditate on a sofa. So where did they go?
First suspect: the price
The ideal culprit; everyone blames it. But our couple never discussed the price. They read it on the tag and nodded. The price has an alibi.
Second suspect: the mother-in-law
She has an opinion on sofas. She has an opinion on everything. But she wasn’t there, and let’s be honest: you only ask your mother-in-law’s opinion when you are looking for a reason not to decide.
Third suspect: the internet
More serious. That same evening, the sofa was open in a browser tab, next to three competitors. But the internet stole nothing. It simply picked up what was lying around.
The real culprit
The real culprit wasn’t outside. It was in the shop, during those forty minutes.
Its name is the unspoken doubt.
A small question was floating in her mind: will this fabric survive the cat? She didn’t ask it. Nobody went looking for it. She left with it. Outside, Google answered, then a competitor, then a promotion.
“I’ll think about it” rarely means “I’ll think about it”. Very often it means: I still have a question, and I’m not sure you are the right person to answer it.
The cost of the damage
Let’s do the maths. The rent that brought this couple through the door. The advertising that convinced them to come. Forty minutes of Julien’s time. You paid for all of it. Someone else cashed in.
Now multiply that by the number of “I’ll think about it” moments this week. You are probably looking at the biggest revenue leak in your shop. It appears on no dashboard.
What Julien could have done
Not push. A customer who is pushed doesn’t come back either, and tells everyone about it.
There is a way to bring that doubt to the surface without pressure and without turning the conversation into an interrogation. Two minutes, at the right moment, before the customer walks out with their question. That is exactly where a large part of the salesperson’s craft lies. And it can be learned.
Epilogue
The couple did buy their sofa in the end. Three weeks later, online, 80 francs cheaper, delivered ten days late.
The cat didn’t need to think about it. It moved in on the first evening.
Julien is still waiting.
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