Retail Selling Tip: How To Engage A

Customer

If you're looking to increase your sales, it will only come from mastering retail selling.

And that can be hard...

In the old days sales people knew how to be friendly because they were treated better in stores
than they were on the street.

Nowadays with reality TV where everyone sees others belittled and the sitcoms where everyone
is a wisecracking cynic, everyone is seeing the worst behavior modeled. Interacting with people
has become harder and our sales associates have few positive role models to guide them.

As a result, the art of being friendly, of engaging a stranger has disappeared from most retail.

After a friendly greeting, it is up to the sales associate to look for something unique about the
person standing in front of them. This second part of the sale is what I call the Windows of
Contact.

You want to find something you like about them, compliment them and then find something in
your experience to tell the customer about. Common windows of contact are jewelry, hairstyles,
and clothing.

You begin by finding something you honestly like or notice about them – people will see through
phoniness.

For example, a woman walks into your store with a “Soccer Mom” T-shirt and two small
children in tow. The obvious window is soccer so you might say, Good afternoon, did they win
today? Or Did you just come from a game? Bonus points if you asked the children something
about the game.

Then it would be up to you to speak from your own experience about soccer.

Perhaps you played in school and could say, “I was goalie in college, I really loved it when we
beat Ohio State” Or “I’ve got two kids myself that play in the soccer league at Greenville High
school.” Or even “I never played soccer, my game was baseball. I was the MVP when I played at
Hoover High school in '76.”

The second part of this is the most important because it lets you become memorable.

If you're not memorable, they won't return to you.

And my goal of a customer service is that when they leave they are willing to crawl naked over
glass to repeat it. That's why they will drive past a bunch of your competitors -because they
know someone at the store on a much deeper level.

Without that connection, you are a robot where people are asked what they

want, they tell you, you fill out some forms and their products are either taken with them or
delivered.

In Sum

Always remember we are in the people business, which means you must notice them and share
something of yourself if you want to build loyalty. That loyalty pays off big when they talk to
their friends about the nice people down at your store – something your competitors can’t even
think about having their customers say!

Your greeting makes the difference...from the moment they walk into your
brick and mortar store.

It should feel like you are welcoming a friend to your home.

What are those first precious moments like for your customers?

What are they noticing as they get their bearings and get focused on their shopping?

If your store is like most, one thing those customers won’t notice is a helpful salesperson.

They won’t notice a person who stops whatever they are doing to focus and welcome the
customer who just arrived.
 Discover how to provide excellent retail customer service with this comprehensive primer

Not to pitch something or ask some lame question like, How are you today?

But to actually engage a stranger.

It doesn’t matter if it is a luxury flagship, a tony retail chain or the corner boutique…

Far too often, sales floors become a playground for poorly trained salespeople who are engaged
in a game of hide-and-seek with your unwitting customers. They may be grouped behind the
counter, or lurking behind a display or increasingly, texting on their smartphones.

Make no mistake, they are there for each other, not the customer.

Whatever they’re doing, if they’re not engaging with customers, they’re not helping your bottom
line. When a customer walks into your store and nobody offers to help them, it’s natural for that
shopper to assume that nobody wants to help them.

Is it any wonder mall traffic is down 15%!

Meeting vs. Greeting

A simple Hi isn’t enough. Millions of people walk past the Wal-Mart greeters every day,
completely ignoring their welcome. Why?

Because those greeters don’t evoke any feelings of helpfulness. We know they’re just standing
there as part of a marketing scheme to give the illusion of helpfulness.

Such greeters don’t feel genuine.

How ARE you?

How’s it goin’?

Hi, let me know if you need help.

I hate that crap!

For shoppers to feel the employee’s helpfulness and welcome are genuine, the greeting must
actually be genuine.
Exceptional customer service comes from an attitude of both hospitality and
assistance.

When that happens, the customer receives not only a welcome, but they have a face with a name,
and they sense they will receive the help and service that they craved so much that they put down
their smartphone and made the trek into the store in the first place.

This immediately puts them more at ease and starts building the rapport that is necessary for an
exceptional buying experience.

Timing is Everything

So, how soon should this meeting occur? In most instances, give the shopper enough time to get
through the door, arrange their belongings, and start scanning the sales floor. Fifteen seconds
works in most situations.

If you approach them before they get their bearings and before they’ve decompressed from
traffic and the hectic nature of their lives, you could be seen as an overbearing, needy obstacle
who makes shopping a chore.

They may be running through a list in their head, putting their car keys in their purse, or just
trying to get the lay of the land. Interrupting that process and demanding a response with some of
those lame questions above can make you an instant nuisance… and cost you a sale.

Why?

Because when you force a stranger to be polite...phony really...you have effectively shut them
down.

And when you stupidly ask, “Can I help you?” the gag reflex takes over, and the customer
automatically says, “No.”

You never want to ask questions at the start of a tenuous relationship that can be answered
with a no.

On the other hand if you wait too long, the shopper looking for a friendly greeting may feel
ignored and become to some degree aggravated. I’ve walked into a lot of stores looking for a
particular item that wasn’t where I intuitively thought it would be located. Each aisle I walked
down raised my irritation level and boosted the chance of me going elsewhere or just ordering
the item online. It sure would have been nice to have a name and face to ask for help.
Introducing not Imposing

The greeting is your chance to make a positive impression and set the tone for the entire buying
experience. Maybe the client doesn’t want or need your help right away, and that’s fine. They’ll
remember that help was offered and you were available to them.

You don’t need to stalk them. Just welcome them with an open heart.

Even in the internet age, politicians still go out and shake thousands of hands during a campaign.
Why? Because they know that a simple meeting can change a person’s entire outlook and turn
them into a customer.

Greeting your customer with a slight delay and with the expectation that they will be nice to you,
along with just the word Welcome, can make all the difference between we’ll see and we’ll take
it.

Retail Sales Associate Training: 9 Ways To

Get Better At Selling
9 Ways To Get Better At Selling In Retail

1. Make a friend
Rapport-building sounds so technical and de-personal and yet it is the heart of making any
human interaction a success. And it is more than how you greet customers. Finding something in
common, something not related to the merchandise in front of the customer begins to build
rapport. I call this type of personal selling opening a Window of Contact which requires a
salesperson to notice something physical like jewelry, clothing, even the type of smartphone the
person in front of them has. The salesperson then comments on that item with a question and
shares something related about themselves based on what that customer answered.

You can't do it en-mass; you can't do it by formula, by rote or by script. That's why it works. It
acknowledges that each person is unique, different and interesting - both the shopper and the
salesperson. But it does take retail sales training to avoid reverting to using some sales pitch.

Download the complete buyer's guide to streaming video sales training here.

2. Sell people on value.

The “selling snow to an Eskimo” comment may be intended as a compliment of someone’s
selling ability, but in truth it highlights what a salesperson shouldn’t do. It inherently makes a
salesperson sound dishonest. It really says that the best salespeople are just slick and slimy fast-
talkers who can make people buy even what they don’t need.

This is why so many people are afraid to even say they are salespeople – they think that title is
icky.
 Discover how to get started with retail sales training with this comprehensive primer

Selling products or services that aren’t genuinely useful, enjoyable, or in some other way
beneficial to a particular customer may help a retail salesperson’s short-term sales, but in the
long run, you can’t be a great salesperson if you don’t consistently provide value to your
customers.

You’ll be a sham, and customers will smell it on you. Worse, you’ll be selling based on
discounts to override the customers’ suspicions you can’t be trusted. You'll be what a prospective
customer is most afraid of - being sold something they didn't want.

Selling merchandise to customers that they’ll later regret buying will result in poor customer
service and people who won’t return and will likely spread negative impressions of you and your
brand all over social media.

The best salespeople not only understand this principle, they put it to work when they are selling.
They show that an item’s unique features give that one customer a unique benefit. For example,
“This measuring tape has an eraseable writing surface on the side, so you can write your
measurement on it and not forget.”

Learn How To Earn Customer Trust And Close More Sales

3. Challenge their perceptions.

If a shopper tells you he is looking to buy a cheap 50' garden hose because "every damn one of
them breaks after a few months so I don't want to put a lot of money in it," it is up to the
salesperson to challenge their perceptions. To sell the premium $40 hose, the successful
salesperson has to say something like, "You know the water in a hose that is out in the summer
heat can boil? That makes the lining susceptible to tearing and shredding, like you're
experiencing now. This hose has a triple reinforced and insulated lining preventing that and
staying flexible even when it freezes."

What the shopper really wanted was to not have a hose that broke. The hose company saw a need
in those types of customers and came out with premium hoses to help them. When a salesman
doesn't challenge a customer's perceptions, the premium items sit - until they are marked down.

4. Be honest.
Most customers are savvy enough to tell when someone is being honest with them—and they
like it! If they feel they can trust you, they’re more likely to buy and the greater their customer
satisfaction.

Never overstate the value of a merchandise or service, and don’t gloss over potential
shortcomings. Not only does dishonesty hurt your retail store and your own reputation – it makes
people leave without buying!

That means if you don’t know, you don’t just shrug your shoulders ;you tell them you will find
the answer right then from someone else who knows.
5. Add-on, Suggestively sell or Cross-sell.
Great salespeople always try to increase the sales total once the customer has selected their main
item or product. Examples of these suggestive selling techniques include sheets for a bed, purse
for a dress, belt for jeans, compost for a tree. Adding-on isn't anything for a sales associate to
feel guilty about. As a salesperson, that's their job--as long as they're honest - there's that word
again - and sell items that provide value.

Often, you can upsell or cross-sell by identifying a shopper's fears. If you can understand what
customers are worried about, then when you are assisting customers, you can demonstrate
additional products or services that can genuinely help solve their problems. And that's whether
you work in boutiques or department stores.

For example, if you were selling all-leather shoes and a customer kept talking about how much
they got caught in the rain, it would be a good upsell to show them the rainproof spray at the
counter. You are doing the customer a service, not trying to load them up on worthless product.
(Ice to Eskimos.)

Other times, you're appealing to customers' desires, which sometimes are not clarified in their
own minds. If you can identify what a shopper is really after, you can gear your personal selling
toward meeting that desire... and can often make a larger sale, as well as make the customer
happy by finding additional products that will make their purchase easier, faster, more stylish or
complete. That's what makes a great salesperson and increases customer satisfaction from
making the effort to drive to your store.

6. Learn from your successes and mistakes.

You don’t stop learning to be a salesperson when your training is over—skills development is an
ongoing process. Why? Because great salespeople are students of behaviors. They want to
understand why a customer did or didn't buy from them, what they might have done differently
or how they might have presented the higher-priced merchandise more appealingly.

Great retail salespeople treat each customer as an opportunity to learn what works and what
doesn’t with potential customers, and they always look for ways to improve.

7. Go the Extra Mile.

Selling is like anything else—persistence pays off. You don’t want to be pushy, but you also
want to be diligent in your follow-up, both pre-sale and after-sale if necessary. Show customers
that you genuinely care about their experience and want to help them. Thats because so many
other retailers couldn't care less about their customers. Consistently making small personalized
contact can go a long way toward increasing your sales. In many ways, making a sale is a
courtship, and there’s nothing wrong with “wooing” customers as long as you’re honest and
forthright.

8. Pay attention to customer psychology.

Great salespeople focus on “reading” customers’ personalities and making adjustments in sales
technique based on the personality type. For example, introverts require a different selling
approach than extroverts do. Take note of how various kinds of people react differently to sales
approaches, and alter your techniques accordingly.

9. Don’t Act Desperate.

No matter how much you want to make a sale or need to make a sale, don’t approach a customer
with dollar signs in your eyes. Remember that you’re selling them something that will make their
lives better (or you should be), and your attitude ought to reflect that to the customer. They
should feel like you’re helping them—not that they’re helping you!

See also, How To Approach A Customer In A Good Way

In Sum

These aren't the only strategies for how to be a retail salesperson, but the best retailers are always
are looking for ways to stay the best. Practice these tips daily on your sales floor and you'll enjoy
riches your friends who are afraid to sell could never dream of.

The best way to learn a proven retail sales process that covers everything from how to greet a
customer to suggestive selling, handling objections and more.