The boomerang sale

We were a salesperson’s dream – we had money to burn. My husband’s employer had given him a chunk of money to spend freely after reaching a significant years-of-service milestone.

The big purchase? A new stereo system. My college stereo system (circa 1992) didn’t integrate with today’s technology. After reading online reviews and window shopping for the past few years, my husband was eager to buy.

Soon, our living room was full of boxes, cables, packing materials and some cool new technology. Then came the hard part. For four futile hours we tried to set it up and integrate the new gadgets with our existing equipment. Normally I am savvy with electronics and figuring out how to properly connect wires and cables, but by midnight I had lost all excitement about our new purchase.

I stared at the technical manual and tried to make sense of the instructions. I read and reread the sections that seemed to match our tasks. After a frustrating week of tinkering, we packed the boxes back up and returned them.

The same night, we purchased a competing brand. Once home, we had the new system connected to our existing equipment and fully functioning within a half hour – thanks to clear documentation and straightforward equipment.

Our original purchase had solid reviews. It was packaged nicely enough to catch our eye at the store and draw us in to making the purchase – but its technical documentation failed so miserably the sale didn’t stick.

Money put into marketing your products is potentially wasted if you fail to have clearly written technical documentation to support your customer post-sale. Don’t underestimate the value of a solid technical writer and an excellent translator.