25 Ways To Increase Your Sales Today (by Doug Fleener)

25 Ways To Increase Your Sales Today (Doug Fleener)

(from Doug Fleener August 4, 2010 Newsletter)

If you own a retail business or restaurant, I urge you to print out this list and follow it. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Doug Fleener Newsletter (information at the end of this article). It's FREE.

1. Sell more. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

2. Be "on" from the moment you walk onto the sales floor. You have an important role to play so play it well.

3. Be genuine. If you can't, you need to change either your attitude, mindset, or job.

4. Never stalk a customer. If when you first engage a customer she gives you the cold shoulder, back off and give her a chance to get comfortable in the store and to see for herself that you're different from most salespeople. The way you engage others allows them to experience for themselves that you're interested in them as a person, not just as a customer.

5. Skip small talk and engage with purpose. For most of us that means developing a relationship with our customer and making sure he/she has a great experience in our store. Remember: never ask a customer a question if you don't care what the answer is.

6. Listen more, talk less.

7. Never talk over your customer. It's not only bad manners but it tells her you're not listening.

8. Don't show products, sell them. The difference is that when you're selling a product it means you know enough about the customer to choose the right product for him.

9. Focus the conversation on the outcome of the product and its benefits. As an example, people don't buy luggage for the sake of buying luggage but because they wish to transport clothing and other belongings from one location to another. Focus on how the end result at that destination will be enhanced because of the product itself.

10. Assume the customer is buying. Remove the idea that anyone is a "looker."

11. Do something nice and unexpected for your customer. It will almost always result in a stronger relationship.

12. Never ask a customer how he's doing. The phrase is trite, completely overused and most people who ask it don't really care about the answer. The same is true with "May I help you?" and "Can I answer any questions?"

13. Don't over greet or over welcome your customer. Once a customer is well into the store a simple smile and "hello" is sufficient. Customers would rather be ignored than greeted excessively.

14. Having a large selection of products for the customer to choose from increases the likelihood that the customer will make a purchase.

15. Reducing the number of products you show a customer increases the odds of making a sale even more.

16. Recommending one or two of those products improves the chance even more.

17. Skip telling the customer everything you know about a product. Instead give them the information they need to make an informed decision.

18. The only way to be able to do that is to gather information from the customer. That's why just showing products costs sales.

19. Help the customer make the purchase. If we've done our job it is only appropriate to give the customer an opportunity to buy what we're selling.

20. Forget trying to "add-on" to a sale. That's completely internally focused and self-serving. "Enhance" the customer's life with the products they're buying and you're guaranteed to sell more.

21. Don't stop enhancing until the customer says so. We like to compare it to the all-you- can-eat buffet. Your customer will tell you when he's full.

22. Use the kind of manners during checkout that would make your mother or grandmother proud. Use a lot of "please," "thank-you" and "you're welcome."

23. Always see a customer bringing a product into the store as an opportunity, not a burden. Assume it's a return until you've learned otherwise.

24. Follow-up a customer's purchase with a thank-you note, email, or phone call.

25. Contact a good customer to tell him about something new in the store and why you think it's something he would like.

26. Always go above and beyond for every customer. If it doesn't result in a sale today, it will tomorrow.

Doug Fleener is president of Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC, a retail and customer experience consulting firm. He is the author of The Profitable Retailer: 56 Surprisingly Simple and Effective Lessons to Boost Your Sales and Profits. Doug also publishes several industry newsletters including the popular Daily Retail Experience.

To read more about Doug Fleener, subscribe to his FREE newsletter and to receive a FREE copy of his book, The Profitable Retailer, go to:

http://www.dougfleener.com/

Retail Stores - How Many Salespeople Do You Need?

Retail Stores - How Many Salespeople Do You Need?

Are you paying five salespeople during times when you could get by with two? Or worse yet, are you losing potential sales because you're understaffed at busy times?

According to the On The Floor Journal, as a general rule, salespeople should be able to sell at least 10 times their hourly wage. For example, if a salesperson earns $9.00 per hour, he or she should sell a minimum average of $90.00 per hour over the course of a week.

Your total calculations can be done on a weekly basis. Take your weekly salary and multiply by 10. If your sales are higher than that amount, you should hire more sales people. In other words, you don't have enough sales people to handle the number of customers coming into your retail store. If you sales are lower than that amount, you are spending too much money on sales help.

You may also want to look at your figures during any one or two hour period of time. If your employees are being paid $9 per hour and you have 3 salespeople on the floor, your expected sales are 9X3X10 or $270. If you are doing sales in excess of $270 during this period of time, it's time to add a sales person. If you are doing less than $270 in sales during that period of time, perhaps it's time to send out one for lunch.

Obviously, this could get very complicated. You need to look at your sales statistics. If 1 PM is your busiest time of day, you need to make sure that you have an adequate number of sales people on the floor at 1 PM. Don't send your employees out to lunch during your busiest times of the day.

Banks notoriously used to send tellers out to lunch between Noon and 2 PM. Noon to 2 PM is the busiest time for a bank since lots of customers stop at banks during their lunch hours.

As a retail owner, you need to make sure you are adequately staffed during your business hours.

On the Floor Journal is a FREE newsletter published by The Friedman Group (a company specializing in helping retail stores increase sales and profits). Your can read the entire article at:

http://email.tailorednews.com/TMsubscribe.net/ViewOnline.aspx?u=GqPtLJ3FM1Gj&l=354108

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