Three steps to boost sales
1. Start with great sales people
You might be thinking, “What kind of tip is this, telling me that I need great sales people?” I know you already know this. But, you should take a serious look at your sales force this week. Have a colleague of yours go into your store or call the sales line and inquire about your products or services. If your colleague is 100% totally honest, I bet you’ll find that he or she is dissatisfied with the level of service received.
Your business makes money when your salespeople make a sale. That means that great salespeople will make MORE sales, which will put MORE money in your pocket. However, you are not entitled to make a sale. You have to work for it, and if your sales team is not doing the job, they are essentially taking money OUT of your pocket.
Make sure you monitor your salespeople to see if they have a desire to make the sale. If not, get rid of them. There are plenty of people looking for jobs who WILL make the sale to keep their paycheck coming in each month.
2. Be active toward customers
Here’s where my trip and the salespeople in China come in. The Chinese are experts at selling and have a huge desire to make the sale. Every store I went into had a wonderful sales person. They asked if I needed any help immediately. If I picked anything up, they would make a comment like, “That is very good quality and I can make you a good price on it today.” They wanted to make the sale and they wanted to make it now. They were active towards their customers to make it happen.
By contrast, I can walk into 10 different stores in the US and only find one or two salespeople who genuinely want to make a sale. Too often I can walk into a store and not even be greeted by the salespeople. Which type of employee would you rather have working for you? The ones who can’t even say “hello” or the ones who put active effort into selling your product?
3. Upsell whenever possible
Chinese storeowners understand the value of upselling. At every purchase I made, I was presented with an opportunity to buy something else - usually a trinket conveniently placed by the cash register. The storeowners made a conscious effort to increase my customer value as I was pulling out my wallet.
Culled from www. entrepreneur.com