Did you see this?
Customers today can’t be coerced into buying anything. Suggestive
selling is what sells customers. Most sales people wait for the
customer’s initiative and don’t even ask someone to buy. That’s one
big reason across the country I have found that for every 10 people
looking at product the closing ratio is 3 out of the 10. Do you
realize that is you were to sell 4 out of 10, that 4th person would
mean a 33% increase in product sales without any added expense?
Our industry is particularly difficult for customers to walk in and
say “I’ll take in”. Why? Because in our industry the customer is not
ALLOWED to touch our merchandise without permission.
Think about it. You can get into a $75,000.00 car and smell the
leather. You can take a $500 jacket off the rack and try it on and
you can hug a fur coat.
You just can’t touch the jewelry without someone taking it out of
the case. Many people feel like if they ask you to show it to them,
it starts a buying situation and after all, they were “just looking”.
I have given out the site for a retailer for selling
(www.ricksegel.com) and I have bought ALL of his things. (Knowledge
is power). I’ve listened to his 6 CD set of How to Make Your Retail
Business Profitable. On the last CD Rick talks about selling and even
though he doesn’t mention jewelry he talks about this subject. Rick
used to own a clothing store and at one time had a sales staff that
was in age from 50 to 80. He wanted to turn things around and raise
his closing ratio without any big training changes. These are “senior
citizens”, after all.
So after watching a super bowl game he noticed that all of the
million dollar super bowls ads were nothing more than “Hey, have you
seen THIS?”
So he started his staff to ask “have you seen this?”. This phrase
has one advantage. A store full of merchandise is confusing. “Have
you seen this” FOCUSES the customer on one thing and its non
threatening.
Salesmen at trade shows do that, and you buy.
So start having your sales staff use “have you seen this” at least
on two occasions:
-
If you can’t get the customer into buying (they’re just browsing
or you haven’t excited them as of yet) pull out an item and say “have
you seen this?” and place it in their hand or on their finger. -
After they buy, having an “add-on” raises your average sale.
Don’t ask “would you like to see some matching earrings?” just say AS
GET UP TO YOU WALK to the earring case say “have you seen this?” and
pull them out and hand them to the customer.
Now that they are gazing at the earrings, now would be a good time
for a COMMAND! “Here’s a mirror, PUT THEM ON”. (Said nicely of
course.) If the customer says “I’ve spent enough”, finish ringing up
the sale. But if they say “Too big for me”, show a smaller pair.
Rick says the key to “have you seen this” is not in TELLING the
staff to use it but to SHOW BY EXAMPLE. You need to show it to them
tomorrow in front of them and show them how well it works.
It does work. Your goal is to increase your closing ratio and to
raise your average ticket. Two items on a ticket will raise your
average ticket.
David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com