Bike trade sales tips #6: The Runway Strip Part 2 – Avoiding “Can I help You?”

You spent effort and money to bring customers into your shop, maybe in enhancing your frontage, social media marketing or something else. And now it’s paying off and you have customers in store… so how do you best approach and serve them? It’s the crux challenge that every bike shop faces and – handily – there are some simple sales tips available from industry sales expert John Styles, in the latest of his articles for CIN…

So last time (Sales Tips #5) we looked at ‘The Runway Strip’ from Paco Underhill’s best-selling book Why We Buy. So now let’s have a look at what happens after the consumer has ‘landed’ in your store. Whether you’re brand new in the bike trade or been at it for years, greeting customers seems to be natural for many, OK for some and ‘uncomfortable’ for a few.

Avoiding “Can I help you?”
When consumers come to a halt at the ‘X-Spot’ – I still hear many staff using something like “Can I help you?” And although that can work, it’s not always the best. Because it demands that consumers immediately think and engage – that they commit or reject.

The other trouble with any phrase that contains the word ‘help’ is that it implies you have more knowledge than them. Which of course you do, but it harks back to a time when shopkeepers were considered all powerful, and the consumer well… less informed. And as we discussed in Sales Tips #4, where information is asymmetrical (for example complex financial products or automotive sales) there are many horror stories of consumers being misled or mis-sold. So, consumers are naturally reticent to admit any lack of knowledge, especially when buying complex products such as a bicycle or eBike.

Consumers nowadays are generally better researched (or at least think they are, every mechanic knows how a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing). And they want to feel empowered. Donnie Perry talks about this in his fantastic book Leading Out Retail where he suggests questions around the research a consumer has done.

Another reason why ‘help’ phrases don’t tend to work is that psychologically they imply weakness or a need to be helped. This means the consumer can become concerned that you might start helping them and continue helping them for the whole time in the store. Not allowing them any time and space to themselves, to make their own choices about things.

 Travel – An Easier Greeting

Just a “Hello” can be better, because it’s more neutral, and doesn’t demand their thinking power. But the best greeting I’ve heard in stores, and one that I confess I’ve borrowed for many consumer shows, is something about their travel: “Where have you travelled from today?” and/or “How was your journey?”  Because nine times out of ten, it allows the customer to feel at ease, talk about something neutral and unload a bit of stress – without commitment or rejection. Very often they free wheel right into the reason why they came to your store, without you even needing to ask.

A question that does the work for you…
Sometimes, they give you some great steer on where the sale is going. I remember greeting a couple at one consumer show viewing a high value road bike. As he was circling it, for the fifth time, she, with arms firmly folded told me “We’ve come all the way from Bolton today” then leaned a little closer and added “he’s been agonising over that bloody bike for years, I just wish he’d get on and buy it, can’t we just put him out of his misery today?” Fabulous I thought, she’s on board, he’s just too scared to ask. Let’s get that sorted.

See you at the Landing Gate
Sometimes your customer won’t engage where ‘X marks the spot’ and heads off straight into the store. They don’t want any help just yet and off they go. One of the things I’ve noticed can be uncomfortable for store staff, especially the new team members, is how long to leave that customer browsing before offering to help again. And how to do it.

I’ve seen staff members wait and watch, wait and watch, wait and watch, feel a bit stressed, make a long march directly to the consumer, say “Can I help you?”, get a second No, and then march all the way back to the till – feeling frustrated.

Act Busy But Approachable

So how to approach consumers a different way? Act busy, you could even grab a couple of props. Maybe a clipboard, some stickers, a bit of POS, maybe even a pack of bar tape. Make yourself seem “busy but approachable.” Chances are, you do have stuff to do, so it’s not entirely an act anyhow. And as Paco puts it “The store is the stage, and the employees are the actors.” So, Act Busy – even if you’re not.

It means you’re not just marching directly to the consumer. It may seem silly to begin with, but making sure you have something else to do around them puts them at ease. And this makes it easy and natural to let them know that you’re available, but you’re not going to pounce on them and spend your whole time with them.

That’s one of the things consumers fear most, being latched onto and not being given the time and space to consider things for themselves. People are too polite to ask for a time-out. So, as you approach your consumer, keeping busy as you go, you can much more easily say “I’m just doing my re-stock list but I’m available for any info you might need” or “I’m going to be back-and-forth a bit, but happy to stop and give advice on ……”.

The Right (Side) Approach

Another thing “props” help you achieve is a “side approach”. This is something that Paco’s book talks about. Based on his thousands of hours tracking and observing consumers in stores he noticed one important thing. Consumers respond best to an approach from the side.

It means you can approach near the merchandise they are looking at and it’s obvious to the consumer you have a ‘reason’ for being there. That your approach isn’t just about them.

Why? Because, if you approach someone from behind, at a fundamental level it’s unsettling, surprising, predatory even. If you approach someone face-to-face, it can be a little awkward or even confrontational at times. When we approach from the side, wherever that’s possible, it’s more friendly. It’s better to be shoulder-to-shoulder, side-by-side, facing challenges together, right?

In summary….

So, we can boil this approach down to four things. Being aware of “The Runway Strip”, approaching from the side, while being busy-but-approachable and using the easiest greeting question (travel). Here’s a little graphic for each of those things.

Now if you want to remind yourself or another member of your team to do these, just print them off and stick them somewhere around your till where they’re going to be noticed. After all, you probably have dozens of stickers around the shop anyhow. So, here’s a few that might just close one more sale or help a new member of staff settle in.

For experienced store staff, these things may be obvious, they may do this instinctively, without perhaps even knowing why they do it. But it’s not obvious to everyone. So, if you have a new starter or part-timer who is uncomfortable greeting customers, show them how to do it, don’t assume they’ll just pick it up through observing you.

Why? Because – as you know – retail is detail, a game of marginal gains, where every little helps.

You can catch up with John Styles in a sales tips workshop this September, at CIN Live 2026.