Up Selling in a Down Market

How to Earn More from Every Sale

How often does a customer enter a children’s clothing store to hunt for the perfect outfit for their boy or girl, without considering any coordinating accessories? The customer brings the outfit to the counter, pays for it and leaves. A missed opportunity for up selling. The racks of matching hair accessories or socks are right there on the counter, perched for added impulse buys. Part of providing good customer service is to suggest add-on sales.

Review Your Selling Style

Every store owner knows the benefits of add-on sales. But the sales staff may need a refresher on ways to increase the dollar volume of every sale. Here are some tips to get started. Ask your sales staff for other tips about how they can increase sales.

Displaying items that match at Cherry Tree - Kalispell, MT

This helps customers accessorize

• Limit up sells to items that are priced less than the original item being purchased.
• Limit the up sale to one or two. Anything more than that may frustrate the customer.
• Have a positive attitude and smile. The interaction with the customer needs to be sincere, polite and helpful. Be perceived as wanting to help the customer, rather than just trying to make an extra buck.
• Be attentive and thank the customer. They return to your store for both your merchandise and the people’s product knowledge and caring attitudes.

Show Your Employees the Way to Success

A customer brings a yellow dress up to the counter to buy for his daughter. The retail clerk says, “That is a wonderful choice, your daughter will look great in that dress.” The clerk directs the customer’s attention to the rack of hair bows and barrettes and says, “This set of bows would look great with that dress. Would you like to include them with your purchase?” The customer agrees and now the sale is higher with just a simple suggestion.

Display matching outfits.

For up selling to work, employees who are directly involved with customers need to be trained. There are many seminars and training programs available. A simple and cost-effective method would be to go through your product line and group together items that go well together. Another example would be to enhance opportunities for impulse buys by attractively displaying smaller items around the register. Some examples include:

• Socks and hair bows to go along with a clothing outfit
• A small book basket to go along with a children’s book purchase
• Children’s soaps to go along with a baby bathtub purchase
• A bug net to go over a stroller to go along with a stroller purchase
• A travel size container of baby wipes to go along with a diaper bag purchase
• A mobile or matching lamp to go along with a children’s bedding purchase
• A belt to go along with a pair of pants

These product groupings can be coordinated by the manager, or by all employees to get them actively involved in the process. If employees are appreciated and feel part of a team, they are more likely to remember the sales techniques and be proud of their sales accomplishments. Have employees do some role playing activities to work on their sales techniques. Demonstrate the power of suggestive selling over pressure-based selling. Have fun acting out both styles! A customer who feels pressured into spending more money will be turned off. Show your team how to “read” customers. If a customer is not open to suggestion, don’t push too hard. The suggestive technique is simple to teach and very effective. The role-playing exercise will actively show the employees how to use the method without feeling push.

Place inexpensive items near the register

Motivate Your Employees to Reach Sales Goals

How can you keep your employees motivated to sell more? Training, goal-setting, praise, recognition and reward will get your sales people wanting to do more. Some employers use money as an incentive to employees. If there is a bonus system to reward up selling, employees are more likely to continue to up sell. A defined system needs to be established and explained to all employees who will be involved in up selling items.

The economy may still be down, but sales can be looking up in your store with more attention to maximizing profits from every customer. Let The Giggle Guide™ know your success stories! What employees in your store have done an outstanding job and how?

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