Knowing Your Inventory

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to add on to an existing deal which significantly increased the revenue I was bringing in, howevever because the retail store I was working in was so busy I didn't have time to check the actual stock before I completed the deal. As it turns out, we didn't have everything that I had sold.

As the customer was picking up the items the next day and I was preparing the pick up order this is when I noticed that we were out of stock on some of these items. The result was that I had to call the customer and explain my mistake and that those three particular items would now be on order with the next shipment. I gave the customer the option of taking those items off the bill or picking them up when they came in.

Fortunately he was very understanding and elected to pick them up when the next shipment came in. This was the best for me, as taking it off the bill would have resulted in less revenue.

The silly thing is that I know better than this but got caught up in the business of the sale and "assumed" that we had everything. Had I taken the time at that moment the customer would have known we didn't have the product and could have made his decision right there.

The problem now is that he has somewhat of a bad taste in his mouth about his purchasing experience even though he was buying the best product.

The lesson being, check your stock and the availability before closing the deal to avoid these mistakes after.

The other point is, if the company had an effective POS system I would have know right on the spot that the items were out of stock. As sales people we need to have all of the information at our disposal to make quick decisions.