The Fruit is Ripe for Picking!
In most retail stores that I visit, selling additional items is the low-hanging fruit. In order to maximize every opportunity, salespeople must attempt to sell additional items with every opportunity. Don’t sell yourself short in this area. The fruit is ripe and ready for picking; people not only want, but need to buy numerous gift items for a multitude of different people. Just because someone is buying something for that one special person for the holidays, doesn’t mean that you cannot provide a customer service by selling him/her additional goods.
It is, without a doubt, a customer service to sell additional goods especially at this time of year. The customer just might have an anniversary, birthday, or some other special event coming up in the near future. The Valentine’s Day holiday is only six weeks after Christmas. Now is the time to discover what other special events that the customer may need to buy for, and to discover what other items of your merchandise that the customer will need.
Effective Adding-On comes early in the sales presentation. If you add-on too late, it may seem to be very pushy and aggressive to the customer. The finest salespeople start the adding-on process early in the sales presentation. It is my advice to ask every customer a minimum of two good solid add-on based questions. For example:
- Who else is on you Holiday Gift giving list?
- What other special events do you have coming up?
- What did you have in mind as a Valentines Day gift for your loved one?
- What else does he/she have that they will be wearing with this?
- Tell me about her jewelry wardrobe.
- What does he/she dream of having next?
Brad Huisken is President of IAS Training and author of I'm a Salesman, Not a Ph.D.! and Munchies for Salespeople
Copyright 2010 Author retains ownership. All Rights Reserved.
