Good salesmanship

A few months ago, while in Uruguay, I bought some lapacho furniture from a guy who brings it straight from Paraguay.

He doesn’t have a shop or a showroom.

His brand is Señor Lapacho. Not very polished. Just Instagram, a few pictures, and a very clear proposition.

The furniture was simple but beautiful, solid, well designed, and half the price of what I would have paid in a high street store.

But the most interesting part was not really the price but the feeling after buying. The service was great. The quality was very high. The design was what I was looking for. The whole experience was simple, direct and trustworthy.

So I wanted to buy more. He didn't push. I simply wanted more of what he was selling.

But then of course came the problem. He had nothing else.

Tables. Bar tables. Benches. That was it.

I found myself asking the best commercial question a company can ever provoke:

“What else do you have?”

That sentence is one of the purest indicators of value creation. When customers don't need convincing. When the next purchase feels obvious.

At that point, the problem is no longer demand, but whether the company has enough ambition, breadth and execution capacity to capture the trust it has already earned.

The best commercial problem is a customer asking:

“What else do you have?”

The worst answer is:

“Nothing.”