The only way your store will standout from your competitors, that your crew will be different than any other, that you’ll make a profit as we come out of this stubborn recession is to learn to sell better. That comes from having a process, being coached and tracking results.
We have gotten so bad at selling anything that we can’t sell anything without a “deal.” That cripples an economy. People mark things down to make the sale, not make a living.
The secret to making angel/devil advertising work is to infer about the other business without saying the other guy is rotten. For example, some coffee houses fought Starbucks by relentlessly saying Starbucks beans were burned. This turns customers off. Even if some may believe it, it comes across as sniping.
Slow sales have allowed complacency in most retailers. More employees behind the counter. More dismissive expressions, “They’re just looking.” Don’t let your employees get away with being more comfortable with only one person, train now how to juggle many customers.
Many of the major retailers tout “experience” but in many cases – can we just admit it – you really are just Wal-Mart with less polyester. The same unenthusiastic, bored employees seeing their lives slip away you’d find at a mass merchant. The hive mentality that lets them find security stocking shelves, avoiding customers and sticking together behind the counter has left us shoppers aloof and alone. Your pleas to return go unnoticed because we know you haven’t changed.
High standards each and every day ensure the right employees do the right things. Training new employees to 100% and then making them work for managers who don’t run the shifts up to high standards is spinning your company’s wheels and lowering the brand perception in customers’ eyes. That means it destroys profits. There’s only one way to avoid that: an ongoing program of mystery shops.
Of course kids don’t want to pick up a family business making $40,000 a year! Would you? They are looking for prosperity, for profits, for the good life – not a job pulling in less than a Starbucks manager.
Think of a time when everyone just “bought” from you. Weren’t those days really great? Think it was all coincidence? I don’t think so. You brought it on yourself. Think and say to yourself (and others) “No ones’ buying” and guess what happens? Self-fulfilling prophecy, no one’s buying from you.But it’s hard isn’t it? Sometimes we really do feel that way. How to handle it?
I was speaking at the Sturbridge Inn & Convention Center in Massachusettes recently and had to print something at the business center. A guy was on the one computer checking email quickly and then a woman and her daughter got on. They were searching for something to do with dolls. After about 10 minutes I [...]
Looking to grow sales? Don’t allow your employees to cluster like somebody had racked them up. It builds a wall. And if you have a counter, it becomes a castle they can feel superior to customers behind.
