be a great salesperson

In this article in his series addressing how retailers can generate more profitable business, Mike Court, managing director of business growth specialist Conexus International, explains the importance of realising the sales potential of all your staff

Everyone working with you in your store, coming into contact with customers, is potentially a great salesperson. Those in your team working in the retail space are obviously there to sell, but it’s amazing what happens if your delivery and service people are also trained and motivated in spotting business opportunities, as they take your product/service promise to customers.

Often, an electrical retailer’s customerfacing team is disappointingly poor when engaging potential customers, in identifying wants and needs. A ‘need’ is a must have – the logical side of the purchase such as size, budget, power consumption.

A ‘want’, however, is the emotional side of the purchase - the colour, its image, aspirational value – and 94 per cent of all buying decisions are based on wants, not needs.

Fully understanding your customers’ wants can be very profitable, because when people ‘want’ something, they are less inclined to haggle over price. To find what people want, your team must ask questions concerning the intended purchase’s use rather than the product’s specifications.

They should also use questions to understand a customer’s motivations for the purchase and their lifestyle. They can then match what’s on offer to the customer’s buying decision-making criteria.

There are, however, wrong ways. Just recently, I overheard a store salesperson describing washing machines to a customer. He outlined the features of two washing machines as a list, but there were no questions about usage.

The customer pointed to another machine and asked: “What about that one?” The salesperson screwed up his face, shook his head: “That’s so expensive.” He then went back to explaining the virtues of the machines he was demonstrating.

But the term ‘expensive’ is relative. Some people buy just because something is expensive and on this occasion the customer didn’t buy. She smiled politely, told the salesperson she would think about it and drove off in her new Jaguar XK8.

What you need to do is work with your sales team, practising questions that identify wants and needs, customer buying motivation, and questions regarding a product’s use.

You also need to add value to each sale as often the margins on cables, accessories and add-ons are larger than the main purchase. Make sure you know how to weave the benefits of these products into the sales wrap-up.

Meanwhile, with the rest of your team – service/delivery – you need to be looking at ways to harness their potential to promote your products and services. You also need to arm them with special offer leaflets when they make their calls, explain the key products you’re promoting, brief them with questions relating to your target products and invite them to product demonstrations.

And finally, once you’ve completed the sale, don’t forget to follow up on it. Two weeks after a purchase phone the customer and ask if they are happy with the product/service.