Here is a Keep It Successfully Simple sales tip you’ll want to share with your entire team. While it certainly applies to selling Valentine’s Day gifts, it is also on point for anyone that actively engages his/her customers.
Last summer I worked with a store that caters to tourists on an island along the Atlantic coast. I watched a little girl walk up to a small box of seashells for sale. She had a big smile on her face as she picked it up. Then her eyes went really wide.
The little girl took off with the seashells, shoved them into her mother’s side and exclaimed, “Look at these seashells. They’re beautiful, and they only cost five dollars.” Then she bellowed, “THIS PLACE HAS AWESOME PRICES!”
It was priceless moment. (Pun intended.) It was also a great reminder that love almost always trumps price. We sometimes assume that when a customer doesn’t buy something after looking at the price that the purchase wasn’t made because “it’s too expensive.” In fact, the customer just didn’t love it enough.
Here a few love tips you can use to create results you’ll love.
1. Never assume something is too expensive for a customer. You owe it to your customer to show her the products she might love. Showing anything less than that because of how a person is dressed, her age, or any other reason, is a poor experience. Focus on the customer and products, and price will take care of itself.
2. Don’t show or discuss the price of a product until your customer asks. Most of us don’t do this on the first item the customer looks at, but we have a tendency to do it once a customer has asked about the price. There’s no need. Asking about price once doesn’t mean he wants or needs to know the price of everything he looks at. It means he probably didn’t love the first item, and so price was part of the decision process – on that particular item.
3. Have the customer tell you if she likes or loves an item. You can usually see when a customer spots something she really, really, likes. When that happens, ask her, “Do you like it or love it?” The good news is that either answer gives her permission to buy. When she tells you she loves it, price will not be an issue. And when she says she doesn’t like or love it, that opens up the conversation for what she just might love.
So let me ask, which one of these tips will you put in to practice today? Managers, you might discuss with your team other ways to help your customers find and purchase products they love.
