Introduction to Retail Sales
Sales seem to be a tough job for a number of people. However, a cakewalk for a few. But then, have you ever imagined or tried to understand why it has been simple for those experts or those professionals? How can you sell well and effectively in this competitive market? Is it really easy? I do not call it easy if you do not use the right sales tricks to sell your products and services. Trick? Yes, it is; the sale is a trick you should get right if you want to sell. And, of course, selling to individuals is not easy. So lets us see how and what can help you sell better.
Tips to Improve Retail Sales
The word ‘Retail’ refers to selling goods in small quantities. This word is derived from the Old French word ‘Tailler’, which means to “divide, to pare, or to cut off” Retail was 1st understood as a noun with a meaning that is selling in small quantities. Ok, let us make this simple by simply calling ‘Retails Sales’ the selling of goods and products, even services, in small quantities. It is nothing but selling in small quantities.
If Retail sales are in small quantities, what challenges might you come across? Let’s just name them,
- Multiple channels
- Employee efficiency and loyalty
- Competition
- Customer loyalty
- Increasing customer profiles
- Customer acquisition
And the list of challenges does not end here, as problems and issues never end. What needs to do in such situations is to look for solutions, as many solutions as possible, to increase retail sales.
Retail Sales Tips & Tricks
Following are some tips and tricks:
1. Presenting Yourself
The basic and very 1st rule of sales and service is being presentable. That is, when you enter work or when you are going to meet a client, make sure you follow your company’s dress code or your company’s formal dress code. Following your dress code and being formally dressed tells your customers that you respect them and value their needs and requirements. Hence it is extremely important to be dressed presentably before you see or visit your customers.
Again for a retail sales representative, presentation is very important, for he is the very 1st face of the company or the company visiting the customer. To be the face of the company need not be taken lightly, as the retail sales representative’s presentation is the company’s. And the 1st impression is mostly the last. Hence make sure you are presentable enough before you visit a customer.
2. Talk Carefully
When talking to a customer, you need to choose your words carefully. We have been taught that with the company’s ID card, watch what you talk about. If you say something irrelevant and ill-logical, you are talking against your company and yourself. You wouldn’t want to spoil your own image, and I am sure even your company’s image is in front of people and media. So when you talk, talk relevant, talk business and talk ethical. It’s how you talk, and what you talk about can earn you business. Controlling what to talk about, how, and when is a trick that requires much practice.
3. Listen Attentively
One major trick of sales and also marketing is listening attentively. Yes, there is a difference between listening and listening attentively. When you say you are listening, you are only listening. You are not listening to address someone’s problems or give resolutions. On the other, if you listen attentively, you pick up important points from the conversation with the speaker. This gives you an idea of what the customer wants and his requirements. Getting to know your customer and his needs will help you sell better. Hence listening attentively is a very important trick, and even this can be mastered with practice alone.
4. Be Good at Service as Well
You sell, and that completes your target. However, does that give you a customer that will return to you? You sold your customer bought. Does that add up to customer loyalty? Nah. You need to do more to get more business from the same customer. More business can come either from the same client or his references. How can that work is the question now? To sore customer loyalty and customer references, you must treat and serve the customer well. No, No, that does not make you the customer’s salve. However, it earns you more business either now or in the future.
Good customer service and good and helpful behavior with the customer are a very good way and a very good rule of getting your customer back and earning him as a loyal customer for your company and yourself.
5. Know the Person Whom you are Selling to
Knowing the customer is not knowing the customer by his name. It knows him by his profession, requirements, needs, and to some extent, his monthly and annual income. By knowing your customer and his requirements, you can sell the right product to your customer. See, precisely, pushing your customer for a product is not the right option. Knowing what he wants and accordingly selling a product to him is what is important. Hence knowing your customer well is an important part of retail sales.
6. Product Knowledge
Before you start selling anything to someone, you need to know what you are selling and how the product or service will benefit your customer. Now to know what you need to sell to whom, you first need to know what your company is selling, know the product, its benefits, and downfalls. After you know the product, you can now analyze what customer to target to sell these products to. Knowing your company and its products and services is extremely important as it will help you sell better and help the customer buy better.
7. Do not Push your Sales
Achieving your sales target is not your customer’s responsibility. It is yours, and you must find a way to get your targets done effectively. To sell your products, you cannot sell an irrelevant product to your client. You must study your client’s requirements and needs and sell your products accordingly. So having a target is not your customer’s fault. You cannot sell something the customer does not require. Doing that will do you no harm initially; however, it will take away customer loyalty from you, not fetching your sales in the future and neither references from the same customer.
8. Be Truthful to your Customer
Lying is good for selling initially; however bad for your coming business. When you are selling something to your customer, you give the customer information about the product. On that basis, the customer trusts you; for the customer, you are the company because you represent the company. If you lie to the customer, he will never again trust the company or the brand for the lie of a sales executive, which is not fair. He; that is, the customer will not return to the company for the company’s products or services. You are losing on the customer, his loyalty, this future business, and his references. You are losing out on a lot of future business. So being true to the customer and selling him the right product is right if you want more business from the client in the future.
9. Cross-sell
Cross-selling is smart selling. There are a number of ways of selling. For example, if a customer has entered your store to buy a microwave, you can sell products relevant to the microwave. Cross-selling fulfills the client’s requirements and helps you achieve your sales targets. This is known as smart cross-selling. This was just an example. For people in the service industry, a banker can sell a savings account to the client, and along with a savings account, the banker can also sell his client a minor account to increase saving or sell his customer a saving option like a mutual fund or insurance as per the requirement of the client.
10. Take an Extra Step
To create customer loyalty doing the routine is not enough. You have to go that extra mile. You have to do something extra to grab their attention and assure them that you are there to guide and serve them better than anyone else. Going the extra mile can also be talking politely to your customers and ensuring you treat them with respect, affection, and understanding. Along with mere selling, if you also give your customers selling, you can ensure the customer will return to you for more business. So what if service is not your department, you can at least guide your customer to the person who can solve their issues or give them service. There is no harm in simply guiding your customer to the right person politely. This will increase your worth and future prospect sales.
11. Understand your Customer’s Requirements
To understand your customer’s requirements, it is very important to know your customer well. Understand his psychology, surroundings, standard of living, taste, and necessities, or rather what he is looking for. Understanding is a process here. Every time you have a client waling in with different requirements and necessities, you need to keep understanding what he wants exactly each time and deliver accordingly. If you cannot deliver exactly the same deliver something closest to his requirement; however, make sure that your customer leaves the place satisfied and happy.
12. Learn from your Mistakes
No one is perfect, your customer, you, and neither me. All of us learn from our mistakes. Well, making mistakes is never a crime, and repeating your mistakes is also not one; however not learning from your mistakes is a crime. Take your mistakes and your errors positively. Understanding your mistakes only gives you an opportunity of learning from your experience. And until you try, you will not get the experience you are looking for. Until you experience it, you will not get it just right.
So take your mistakes as your best and your biggest teacher. Learn from your mistakes and your experiences.
13. Attend Company Training
Most companies these days train their employees by conducting sales meetings and various online and classroom training for their employees in order to motivate their employees to meet their sales targets. Tools like retail task management software can further support these efforts by streamlining task delegation, tracking progress, and ensuring team accountability. This training is held by sales heads and experts to confirm that sales targets are met by appropriately training their teams. This retail sales training must be attended to and applied while interacting with your customers because training is given on the bases of the experience of the industry and individuals.
Conclusion
Sales are tough but a cakewalk for some because some can do it perfectly. Well, selling to individual retail clients includes a number of hurdles; however, these huddles should not be a reason to stop you from achieving your targets and proving yourself at work. Well, use the tricks perfectionists use to get these sales just right. From being presentable to learning from your mistakes and attending training, at the end of the day, it is all about selling and selling right, as you will be questioned for your sales only and only at work. To get them right, you need long-term relationships with your clients. To maintain this relationship, you must start and keep it right until the end.
Remember, from all the notes above, right here. It has only been about selling and selling right to the right customers. Maintaining customer relationships with the right attitude will help you get your customer back and sell better, whether fresh sales or cross-sell.
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