Today is an exciting day for me! Today I start a new job as the National Sales Manager for HABA USA, a wonderful toy and game company I used to sell at Toy House. I will be responsible for helping the sales reps get more HABA toys into more retailers.

What does that mean for this blog and the resources on this page? Not a whole lot.

I will be blogging less, but the resources will remain, and the insights will only increase as I expand my scope of understanding of all aspects of the retail market. I will still be available for presentations and workshops (albeit my schedule will be a lot tighter and less flexible). And I will always be looking for new ways to help indie retailers and small businesses succeed.

In fact, because of my new position, I had this experience happen last Saturday that we all can learn from.

SATURDAY AT THE MALL

I needed to updated my wardrobe. After years of wearing Toy House logo shirts, and two years of working at home 85% of the time, my wardrobe isn’t ready for trade shows and meeting with retailers and reps. That meant shopping.

I went to a large mall with several of my favorite stores. I used to be a Dockers guy, but have found Haggar pants to fit me a little better. The outlet store was having a sale on pants, too! Road trip.

Of course, when you study retail for a living, you don’t shop like a typical guy—run in, grab, and go. Don’t get me wrong. That’s exactly what I did at Haggar. But then I walked the rest of the mall to see what was happening. Plus, there was a toy store in the mall. I wanted to know if they had HABA in their store.

The store was nice. Decent traffic as would be expected midday on a Saturday. A sales clerk approached and asked if I was finding everything okay (cringe). I said, “I was wondering if you carry HABA toys?” I had seen a few of HABA’s competitors on the shelves but not HABA at that point.

She said, “I don’t know. Let me check.”

While I kept browsing, she went up to the registers and looked it up. A few minutes later she came back and said, “No we don’t.” Then she walked away never to be seen again.

In her mind she thinks she gave me good customer service. She approached me and answered my question.

In reality she missed the boat completely. I handed her the most perfect opening for starting a conversation and building the relationship that could lead to a sale. She could have asked me one of several questions …

• What does HABA sell?
• Why are you looking for HABA?
• What product in particular were you hoping to find?
• Who are you shopping for?
• Can I show you some alternatives?

Instead she walked away. 

This is a problem we all have with our sales clerks. At best, they make an attempt at the low-hanging fruit, but never reach beyond that first branch. They shy away from actually helping a customer and making a sale. They back off at the first hint of rejection.

Last summer I created a new presentation for the Independent Garden Center Show called How to Push for Yes (Without Being Pushy) (click the hyperlink to download the FREE eBook) just to help with this situation.

If you want your sales team to go after the better fruit on the higher branches you have to first equip them with the tools to do so. Then you need to motivate them to step out onto the limb. That’s what HABA has hired me to do with their team. I am looking forward to it!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I love the IGC Show! Last summer they challenged me to create five new presentations from scratch that collectively went on to become my half day workshop The Ultimate Selling Workshop. this summer they have challenged me to create five new presentations on selling. As always, I am looking forward to that challenge. As long as I live there will never be a shortage of new lessons (or takes on old lessons) for us to all collectively learn.