Like chess, the art of engaging a customer on the sales floor starts with the very first act of engagement. Most sales assistants have their own pet phrase, and most of the time their opening move results in failure. By far the worst possible thing your staff may say (first thing) to a customer is:

 “Can I help you?’

 

There are practical reasons, psychological reasons and social reasons why this approach is a poor opening move:

ONE: Customers hear this so often, they have practised their response and it is likely to be ‘no thanks, just browsing.’

TWO: It is a closed-ended question and after their response, there is nowhere to go except to back off. (Less enthusiastic staff know this and love that it means less work for them – or I am I just being cynical?)

THREE: Because it is a closed ended question, you have at best a 50% chance of a positive response. (Customers are hard to find and you would surely like a more than 50% chance of a sale?)

FOUR: The question creates an imbalance in the power-relationship where a customer feels that they have been identified as being ‘in need of help’ and they interpret that as being targeted as someone that could be ‘sold to’. (These are sub-conscious reactions, but they are nevertheless real.)

The only time that this approach works is if the customer is really in a hurry and have been frustrated by the lack of avaliable service. In this case we missed the buying signals and getting a sale out of this situation is attributable to the customer's tenacity and/or l;ack of alternative options and not selling skill. Unfortunately this happens often enough to make people think that 'can I help you' works just fine.

 

The above opening line is the worst, but is closely followed by:

• “Just yell when you need me.”
• “Won’t be a sec.”
• “Just browsing?”
• “You all right there…?”

I won’t elaborate on all of them – let's focus instead on what to do next.

 

The first thing is to actually time your approach properly by reading the approach signals. And secondly, adopting the right body language clusters. Assuming you get that right, a sincere, welcoming smile is quite adequate – especially if you are wearing your badge and/or uniform (effective symbols of authority.)

 

OR SIMPLY

“Hi or Hello or G’day” – followed by…

“That’s a nice…" and say something positive about the merchandise they are handling.”

 

There are other more advanced techniques, but the hardest part is unlearning the bad habits first.

Have fun

Dennis

One of my clients recorded the best day in 22 weeks last Sunday because a new sales assistant - decided to focus only on this one thing she learned from Sell$mart. (She said she lacked the confidence to try all/more things.) It thought you (regular readers) might like to know the secret.

Before I tell you; here is why it is NOT a good idea to up-sell:

• Up-selling is poor retail practice.
• Customers love to buy but hate being sold to.
• They have trained themselves to recognise when they are being sold to, and will resist.
• Even if you succeed, they will not have enjoyed the experience, so you would have won the battle but lost the war.
• But most importantly it is the wrong thing to do because there is a better way that is proven to increase your average sale.

Always offer/ show/ include your most expensive item when you are in a sales situation.

In some situations (a retailer of billiard tables) increased the average sale by 81.8%, but even if not that spectacular, the best day in 22 weeks isn’t so bad either

I will spare you the psychology behind this, but suffice to say that if you always include your most expensive option, you obviously cannot ‘up-sell’.

Train your staff to always talk top-of-the line.

Have fun
Dennis
PS: I am on the road with News Ltd talking to newsagents all over the state so I won’t be able to respond to comments, but I would love to read your war stories in a few days – please comment.

One little freebie promotion from the vault for you to try out. (We don’t have to wait for Christmas to get into the spirit of giving, right?)

Concept: Buy two matching puzzles. The size of the puzzle depends on how many customers you have on your mailing list. (You do have a mailing list right?). If you have a very large list for an individual store you may have to have more than one prize. Build one puzzle and stick on a wall, but take one piece out of the puzzle. Make sure it is large enough and visible enough with good signage explaining what it is all about.

Execution: You can execute in one of two ways:

Customers receive a mailing with one piece of the (matching) puzzle, and they are invited to the visit the store before a certain time and to spend a certain amount, or buy a certain product.

OR

Have a bowl of all the pieces of the other (matching) puzzle on the counter and everyone that spends more than X gets to draw a piece and match their piece to the missing gap of the completed puzzle. This way you are opening it up to all the customers who meet the criteria. (You could require them to join your mailing list too.)

Determine your prize: It can be anything from a gift voucher to hamper, but I like the idea (over Christmas especially) of pinning 100 scratchies to a mini Christmas tree. The potential value of the prize could easily be millions – which registers on everyone’s radar, and the cost is low and the customer is guaranteed to win something!

KPIs: Set your objectives for number of sign-ups (new customers), average sale, participation rate etc. Only if you achieve your objectives, will you repeat it. If not, dump it and try something else.

Total cost $300 plus mail out/communications costs.

But hey, this is RetailSmart, so you are not going to get away without having to think about the promotion.

Before you use it, run it through this little checklist and determine if it will do at least ONE of the following things for your business:

1. Increase the average sale?
2. Increase stockturn of a category that is below par?
3. Draw additional customers to my store?

If you would like a 1-page planning template (Word format), just email me (contact details here) and I will send it to you

Let me know how you went.

Have fun

Dennis