A Missed Opportunity is a Missed Sale

Missed opportunities can hurt your bottom line. If you had a natural tie-in to a big holiday or event, you’d be crazy not to take advantage of it, right? Yet companies miss the opportunity all the time.

When The Time Traveler’s Wife came out in theaters, I heard a lot from friends about how great the book was. While some wanted to see the movie and some didn’t, they all agreed the book was worth the time. Well, I love a good novel. So I made a point to stop by the bookstore when I had time. Since this was just after the movie landed in theaters, I expected a big display of the book.

A lot of people head in to buy a book when the movie from the book comes out. It happens every time a Harry Potter movie comes out – all of the tie-in merchandise hits the shelves. So I thought the booksellers would take advantage and make this book easier to find.

I went to two national chains and neither of them had a display out. They didn’t even have a stack of the books at the front of the store on the tables that every major bookstore has (for sales, recent releases, etc.). Nothing. Then I went back into the stacks where I thought the book should be. Again, nothing. Maybe I was expecting to find it in the wrong place (would it be filed as fiction, or science fiction?).

I could have asked for help, but the lines were long and clerks were busy. I really didn’t want to spend the time waiting for someone to assist me. Either of those bookstores would have had my sale if they’d had a prominent stack of the books. Instead, I went home and ordered online. And I probably got it cheaper than I would have in the store, although I was willing to pay a little more to have it right then.

Missed opportunity = missed sale. It was a natural marketing opportunity that the stores missed. Are you taking advantage of every opportunity you can?

image: sxc.hu