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A Tale of Two Cashiers

It was the best of cashiers, it was the worst of cashiers …

I did something foolish. I went out shopping on Saturday, December 15th last year. Yep, that Saturday. One of the two or three busiest days of the year. My staff and I used to love those Saturdays at Toy House. We were always pumped up and ready to have all kinds of fun with the crowds of people.

Not this gal.

I waited in line as expected. Placed my items on the belt. Waited some more. When it was finally my turn I said to the cashier a joyful, “Hello. How are you?”

In the most monotonous, apathetic voice she could muster, she answered, “I’m here.”

That was it. She didn’t say anything more until she had rung up all my purchases and asked, “Mperks, bottle slips, or coupons?”

No “Hello.” No “Thank you.” No “Fine, thanks.” She didn’t even say those phrases I really hate at checkout like, “Are you ready to check out?” or “Did you find everything?” Heck, by this point I would have taken any kind of interaction. She didn’t even say, “No problem,” when I thanked her for ringing me up.

Any excitement I had for the upcoming holiday was quickly Grinched out in her doom and gloom. I walked back to my car somewhat deflated and dejected.

Fast forward to yesterday. Same chain, different store. I was greeted with, “Hi, how are you today? Looks like you have a pretty good shopping list here.”

By the time she had finished ringing me up, we knew each other’s names, I knew some of her past work history. I knew why she was working where she was and what she “just loved” about working for them. We talked about my purchases. We laughed about the shopping bags that wouldn’t separate from each other easily.

It was a generally pleasant conversation that ended with, “Thank you for coming in. Hope to see you again.”

I’ve shopped this chain all my life and never once been asked to come back like that. 

According to a John Gattorna study published in 2008, the leading cause for customers to switch stores isn’t product or price. It is indifference. Here are his numbers:

  • 4% Natural attrition (moved away, passed on, etc)
  • 5% Referred to a competitor by their friend
  • 9% Competitive reasons (e.g. price)
  • 14% Product/service dissatisfaction
  • 68% Perceived Indifference

If the “I’m here” cashier had worked for me, she would no longer be “here”. If you can’t be happy and enthused for the busiest time of the year, you don’t belong in retail. At the same time, I would be doing everything in my power to encourage more conversations between my cashiers and customers like the “Hope to see you again,” cashier. I actually do hope I see her again.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Notice how I didn’t mention anything about their efficiency or skill with the actual cash register and bagging? I have had horrible baggers, slow movers, and cashiers not trained well enough to know even the simple procedures at this chain. But the two that stood out the most were both because of their attitude. 

PPS One of the cashiers was a Baby Boomer. The other was a Millennial. Guess which was which?

Another Phrase You Need to Quit Using

One downside to being a speaker for the retail industry is that there aren’t a lot of speaking opportunities in December. (It is also an upside in that I had a lot more time around the holidays, but I digress.) With all that free time, I took on the project of replacing the cabinets in my friend’s kitchen. He had a broken cabinet, plus wanted to do some simple remodeling and moving of appliances. It was a fun project.

One day shortly after finishing that project, I happened to be walking through the cabinet section at Lowe’s with my girlfriend. We were talking about some of the cabinets we might have chosen for the project.

A sales clerk approached us and asked, “Are you finding everything okay?”

“Yes, we are. Thanks.” I cringed as I said it because it rolled off my lips without a moment’s hesitation. It was as knee-jerk a reaction as “Just looking,” or “I’m fine. How are you?”

The annoying thing is that I often asked that same question of customers at Toy House. I often got the same response. Until I learned a better way.

We all know not to ask a customer, “Can I help you?” Now asking the customer, “Are you finding everything okay?” is the new no-no.

Why? Because the knee-jerk response kills the conversation with the finality of a Clint Eastwood Smith & Wesson.

OTHER WAYS TO OPEN

There are a whole bunch of other ways the salesperson could have opened the conversation.

He could have used a question about the product we were admiring …

“Are you admiring that set for the color or the style?” I would have answered color. My girlfriend would have answered style. And we would be talking.

He could have led with a feature …

“Have you seen the new soft-close drawers on that unit? You have to try it.” I would have opened a drawer and he would have had the opening (both figurative and literal) to talk to me about features and benefits.

He could have used a personal statement …

“You’re looking at my favorite style. I’ve been dreaming of remodeling our kitchen with those. What style would you put in your dream kitchen?” We probably would have talked for several minutes.

He could have even led with his name …

“Hi guys. I’m Carl, your kitchen remodel expert.” I would have responded, “Hi, Carl.” I might have even taken his card.

The point here is that there are many ways Carl could have opened a conversation that might have led to a sale. Big sales like kitchen cabinets rarely just happen out of the blue. They take time and effort, and a relationship you build with the customer first.

“Are you finding everything okay?” implies that the customer is in control, you don’t really want to help unless absolutely necessary, and a relationship isn’t even on the salesperson’s mind. The customer really only has to give you one of two responses—Yes or No. If she says Yes, you’re out of the game before you even got in. If she says No, there still is no guarantee she’s going to ask for your help because she still doesn’t know or trust you.

Half the time she will lie and tell you Yes when she means No just to not have to deal with you.

The next time you and your staff get together for training, work on alternate openings to “Are you finding everything okay?” and strike that phrase from your vocabulary. It will help you convert more customers into relationships which will lead to more sales.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Sure, I wasn’t in the market for cabinets that night. The salesman didn’t know that. And with that opening he was never going to find out. The opening of the relationship is not only crucial to making today’s sale, it also sets the foundation for a long-term relationship and customer loyalty. For more ways to meet and greet your customers, check out the FREE eBook The Meet-and-Greet: Building a Long-Term Relationship with Your Customers.

The Heart of Customer Service is the Heart

I did a presentation for the City of Mason this morning. Not their businesses, their employees—DPW, Police, Fire & Safety, Bill Payment Desk, Clerk’s Office. Debi Stuart, the City Manager, hired me to talk about Customer Service. Debi recognizes that even a city office and government employees need to be constantly working on offering better services and better service. She is transforming their government into a model that every city should follow.

My usual Customer Service presentation is to take a look at every interaction a customer has with your business through the eyes of the customer to see what she expects, what you’re actually doing, and how you can raise the bar. Unfortunately with five departments, three distinct customers for each department, and several different types of interactions per department, we didn’t have the time to explore each of those interactions.

(Yes, I did say three distinct customers—the Citizens, the Business Owners, and the other Departments within government. Make sure you are identifying all the different customers you have for your business.)

Because of the time limitation, instead we focused on feelings and emotions with goal of getting the “customer” from Grumpy Cat to Happy Cat.

When you stop and think about the average citizen’s interactions with the different facets of government, more often than not, the citizen’s default mode is Grumpy Cat. If I tell you that you have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (or SOS office here in Michigan), you instantly go Grumpy Cat.

If you are pulled over by the police, have to call for a firetruck or DPW, or have to go in to pay a bill, you are a far distance from Happy Cat. The goal of customer service in most of these situations is to change the customer’s feelings. (Okay, maybe you won’t change their feelings for the better if you have to arrest them or write them a ticket, but there are still better ways to handle those interactions.)

This approach is no different than it is for a retail or service-based business.

Your goal is to make the customer happier than they were when they first entered your business.

And you have to do this while making them part with their money.

George Whalin was the first to teach me that a sale only happens when the customer decides she wants the product more than she wants the money. The customer only gets there, however, when she feels that her life will be better with the product. That is an emotional response.

The heart of Customer Service is your ability to touch her heart and make her feel better. Products are simply the means we use to make our customers feel better. We weren’t in the business to sell toys. We were in the business to make people happier (“We’re here to make you smile.”)

  • If you sell shoes, you’re doing it to make people feel better about their appearance and/or their health.
  • If you sell jewelry, you’re doing it to connect people to each other, to build lifetime memories and moments of nostalgia.
  • If you sell pet supplies, you’re doing it to bring joy and comfort to people.
  • If you sell cameras, you’re doing it to spark creativity, preserve memories, and bring joy.

This morning we looked at the emotions of the typical customers each department interacts with the most. Then we looked at how to change those feelings from Grumpy Cat to Happy Cat. I could already tell that this was going to be an easy transition for the employees of Mason based on the answers they were giving me.

Wanna live in a small community where the government really does care about the citizens and shows it through their interactions with you? I’d recommend you look at the City of Mason, MI.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It was an interesting exercise looking at the emotions of the different customers for each department. For instance, some people who interact with the police are Angry while others are Relieved. Identifying the emotions and looking at each one differently, however, gives you the chance to explore how to make that particular customer feel better. Have a discussion with your team about emotions and what it takes to make people happier. When you get into the mode of looking at the customer’s emotions, you will find yourself adapting to their needs more quickly and easily, which will help you change their hearts. We had Listen, Show Empathy, and Treat Them as People (because they are) as our responses quite often today.

Stay in Season or Drive Them to Amazon

I was in Target two days ago. They have a huge selection of swimsuits front and center. Tonight and tomorrow we’re going to get 3-5 inches of snow. Sunday is going to be 12 degrees Fahrenheit with a minus 5 windchill.

Unless you’re going to Florida, no one in Michigan is thinking about swimsuits. Heck, with the holidays only a couple weeks behind us, most of us don’t even want to imagine trying on a swimsuit right now.

Earlier this week my son went to Target also. He was looking for earmuffs. No luck. Plenty of swimsuits, but only a small section of hats and no earmuffs at all.

He spent the next two-and-a-half hours driving around town looking for a pair of earmuffs.

He found a $2 pair at CitiTrends, but the quality matched the price. He walked two malls, visited several stores, including three big-box stores, and came home empty-handed with cold ears. And he’s a Generation Z!!

Only after exhausting all the brick & mortar stores he could think of in town did he go online to Amazon to order.

That’s the point. When you drop this season’s goods to make way for next season’s goods, you lose a lot of in-season sales.

When do many people shop for a swimsuit? Three times:

  • When they are planning a trip somewhere warm
  • When they try on their swimsuit for the first time and it doesn’t fit.
  • When their swimsuit is ruined because of a spill, a tear, or a split seam.

Two of those are smack dab in the middle of the season, not months before.

When do most people shop for mittens, gloves, and earmuffs?

  • In the fall for Christmas gifts
  • When the first cold snap hits
  • When you’ve lost or destroyed your current pair

Those last two groups want desperately to find a pair in a brick & mortar store. Yet, many of those stores let them down.

Most of my competitors were already sold out of their sleds by this point in the year. With 3-5″ snow predicted for tomorrow, I would be making a killing selling sleds today, and another killing replacing everyone’s old sleds that break tomorrow. All because my competitors aren’t staying in season.

You can put the spring stuff out if you want. Just don’t put away the winter stuff—unless you want to drive your customer base to Amazon.

There are far more people still buying in-season than trying to get a jump on shopping for the next season.

Just sayin’ …

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I had that problem two summers ago when I was teaching sailing. I wore a swimsuit every single day. I had two to get me through the season. One died on me in the middle of the summer and the other got snagged on some rigging. It was July and I could only find one store that still had swimsuits in stock. They all had winter coats, though, and probably plenty of earmuffs. In July!

PPS My son said he would have gladly shopped local but couldn’t think of a single local store to try. As it is, we forgot one store—a regional sporting goods store—until just after he had checked out online. The second point of this post is that his generation is supposed to default to shopping online. Don’t believe that for a second. They only shop online because you make them.

Don’t Make the Simple Things Difficult

I borrowed my buddy’s Ford Transit Van. You’ve seen these vehicles. Big, tall, lots of seats, or in my case, lots of room for hauling stuff when the seats are removed.

When I got to my first destination a warning light came on telling me the tire pressure was low. It didn’t say which tire, but no problem, right? I’ll just check them all at a nearby gas station.

Unfortunately the tires on this vehicle required 86psi and $1.50 later I found out the little silver box at the far side of the gas station parking lot didn’t have the power to get me more than halfway there.

Again, no problem. My Honda dealer where I take my Pilot for service has air hoses right inside their service bay drop off. The Ford dealership is right by my house. I assumed they would have the same.

At 4:15 pm I pull into the Ford dealership’s service bay. No hose. I get out of the van and head to the service desk just in time to watch three people walk out of the room, leaving me all alone.

I look for a bell. No bell. So I wait.

Five minutes later I am joined by a lady with a white Ford Taurus. We stand there wondering where everyone went. She mentions the lack of a bell. Just then a guy in a Ford shirt walks in with his head down, goes over to the desk where I am standing, picks up a brochure and starts thumbing through it. I didn’t want to disturb him while he was deep in thought, so I waited to speak.

I never got the chance.

Without ever looking up—as though he was trying to avoid eye-contact—this guy took the brochure and a stack of papers off the desk and walked out of the room. He was gone before either of us could utter a word.

At 4:23 pm another guy walks into the room and starts shuffling papers. I say, “Hello,” for fear he might walk out before speaking, too. “Hello. What can I do for you?”

“I just need to get air for my tires.”

“Oh, you need to go around the corner to the other side of the building to our tire department.”

“Oh, okay.”

As I head to the van I see him exit the room, having never acknowledged the lady with the white Taurus.

I pull the van around the corner. There are several bays, but none that you enter like the service bay, so I find a parking spot and enter an office/waiting area. There is a gal at the counter with the employee.

The employee has the customer sign several papers and they leave together with paper floor mats and a mirror hanger with her service number. I wait.

The employee returns, starts shuffling papers, places them in a folder, then places them in a filing cabinet, not once looking up at me or even acknowledging my existence at the counter. I wait patiently. At least—unlike the service area—someone is actually there.

At 4:35 pm, after doing something on her computer, she finally turns to me and asks brusquely, “What do you need?”

It took every ounce of restraint by now to not blurt out, “Someone who gives a shit?”

Instead, I explained I just needed air in the tires of my van.

“I don’t have an open bay right now. Have a seat and we should have one open in the next hour.”

“No thanks.”

I drove the van down the road to the Honda dealership.

At 4:42 pm I pulled into the service bay. Brad looks at me quizzically in the Ford Transit Van and says, “Hi Phil. What are you doing with this vehicle?”

“I’m borrowing it from a friend. Had to move some furniture. I just need some air in the tires.”

“Give me one second to finish up with this customer and I’ll be right there.”

I knew how to pump air, so while Brad finished with the other customer, I grabbed the hose. I was on the second tire when Adam, one of the other service folks, came over to check on me.

“Hey Phil. Are you trying to take our jobs here?” he joked.

Two minutes later the tires were all filled to 86psi. Brad, Adam, and I had a nice laugh about my trials down the road at Ford. I thanked them. They thanked me. And I drove away.

Wait, did they just thank me for coming in to their building to get free air? Yes. They. Did. And they were upset that they didn’t get to inflate the tires themselves.

The Ford dealership …

  • Didn’t greet me.
  • Didn’t have a way for me to let someone in service even know if I was there.
  • Didn’t acknowledge my presence on three occasions.
  • Didn’t have an easy solution to an easy problem.

I left twenty-two minutes after I arrived without solving my problem.

The Honda dealership …

  • Greeted me immediately (and by name)
  • Told me when they would help me
  • Allowed me to help myself
  • Had an easy solution to an easy problem.

I left five minutes after I arrived with problem solved and some friendly banter on the side.

Which dealership would you rather visit?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I told this story to a friend of mine who drives a Ford. He started defending the dealership saying it was probably just a perfect storm of timing. I told him he was probably right, but they still lost a potential customer because of their inattention and poor attitude. Whether you like it or not, you are often defined by your worst moment—at least on Yelp. If you greet customers and keep the easy stuff easy, you’ll have far fewer “perfect storms.”

PPS I actually liked driving the Transit Van. In fact, I’ve driven several Ford vehicles in the past. I left Ford when this same dealership screwed me over with no remorse on a service call twenty years ago. Doesn’t look like things have changed. Brand loyalty only goes so far.

Self-Diagnosis Tool #3 – Customer Service

My favorite Smile Story was actually told to me by a customer, not my staff. Dawn had three grandchildren coming to visit her for five days. She wanted to have a different gift to give each child each day they were there. Fifteen gifts in all. Lakisha said, “I’m on it,” and led Dawn all around the store.

A few weeks later Dawn called me. “Phil, I have to tell you that gal of yours was fabulous. My grandkids loved the gifts. My grandson, he’s seven, turned to me and said, ‘Grandma, these gifts are better than if we had picked them out ourselves!’ Thank you, thank you, thank you! And thank Lakisha, too!”

That’s the phone call every store owner and manager dreams of getting.

If you’re regularly getting that call, you’re doing the right things with your staff and with your customer service. Go back to Tool #1 Core Values and Tool #2 Market Potential or wait until tomorrow for Tool #4 Cash Flow.

If you’re not getting that call at all and would be totally shocked if you ever did get a call like that, read on.

NOT AS UNMEASURABLE AS YOU THINK

Many people say Great Customer Service is not quantifiable, therefore it cannot be measured. I disagree. There are numbers you can run to see whether you and your sales staff are doing right by your customers.

I showed you two ways to measure your Customer Service in the post The Right Measuring Cups – Repeat & Referral Business and Units per Transaction. They are good starting points even though neither of those is completely perfect.

Sometimes your Referral Business is because of a product you sell that is hard to find. Sometimes it is because of some Over-the-Top Design element in your store your current customers tell their friends they have to see. I knew a jeweler who had a $30,000 diamond ring, way out of the league for that sleepy summer tourist town. She had tons of traffic right up until the day that ring finally sold. Once the ring was gone, her Referral Business dried up.

Sometimes your UPT grew because the hot item that year had several accessories or attachments. The following year the hot item had all those things included so your UPT fell.

I would still start there and see what you learn.

OTHER PLACES TO LOOK

If I were to come in to your store to do this diagnosis, here are some places I would look to get a handle on your levels of customer service.

  • Team Member Handbook – Do you have one? What does it cover?
  • Training Videos – Do you have them? If not, how do you handle new employee training?
  • Continued Training – How often does the staff meet for training purposes? What are you covering? How do you measure results?
  • Your Store Policies – Are they Customer-Centric or Business-Centric? Who do they protect?
  • New Hire Process – How do you find new employees? I want to see your Help Wanted Ads, Job Descriptions, and Interview Questions

If you don’t have a Handbook, you should make one. Write out all your policies. Write out all your philosophies. Write out how you will measure their employment. Have an HR professional and an HR lawyer proof it to make sure it is legal. Then give a copy to everyone and use it as your guide. It puts everyone on the same page and helps eliminate confusion from different team members saying, “That’s not how I was taught to do it.”

Training Videos are another way to make your staff training consistent and thorough. They don’t have to be fancy or even perfect. You can shoot them fast and simple on your phone, post them privately to YouTube, and provide the links to your new hires. If you don’t offer Training Videos, how else can you ensure that training is consistent and thorough? One way is to have the same person do all the trainings. Another is to include a checklist of everything to be covered. No matter which method you use, there also has to be a final check. One person who will verify what the new hire has learned and send him or her back for further training if necessary.

Continued Training is a must. Back in third grade I may have learned how to golf, but I’m still a few million hit golf balls shy of going pro.

“An amateur practices until he can do it right. A professional practices until he cannot do it wrong.” (source unknown)

One way we measured the results of our continued staff training was through Smile Stories. Every staff meeting began with Smile Stories where my team would share the different ways they made customers smile. Those stories not only reinforced the culture and the goal of the store – “We’re here to make you smile!” – but they also encouraged the team to actively seek out opportunities to make customers smile.

Store policies should be Customer-Centric, meaning they are in place to protect and help the customer. Liberal return policies, easy layaway plans, and helpful services that make less work and less thinking for the customer are the hallmarks of Customer-Centric policies. If you limit what forms of payment or how much someone has to spend to use a credit card, you’re telling the customer that your nickels and dimes are more important than them. Once your product is no longer exclusive or hard-to-find, they will leave for someone who treats them better.

If you have aligned your business with your Core Values in a market with a lot of Potential, and are taking care of your customers the right way, you should see your Share of the market steadily climbing upward. Rarely does a company get through all three of these tools without recognizing areas that need shoring up. Start working on those.

Tomorrow we do math. (Just giving you fair warning.)

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If Cash is King, why does it fall all the way down to fourth on the Self-Diagnosis priority list? Because all the cash in the world won’t help you in the long run if your business model is flawed. Those first three priorities are all about your business Goals and Strategies. Buying and selling product is simply a means to the end. Notice how I didn’t say, “We’re here to sell you toys!”? Our goal was much bigger than that. Sometimes your Cash Flow problem is because you aren’t attracting the right customers (Core Values), don’t have enough customers (Market Potential), or are driving customers away (Customer Service). Make sense now? Get those three areas right first. Then you’ll know if your Cash Flow problems are truly Inventory Management problems.

Go here for Self-Diagnostic Tool #4 – Inventory Management

The Downside Builds Trust

I’ve been using a new auto shop for repairs for my vehicle. I met the owner a few months ago, liked him, and gave him some work. I was happy with the work and the price, so naturally, I called to get a quote on some new work.

My buddy wasn’t in, but I got his main front desk guy and told him what I needed. He said he would have to check it out and get back to me. Then he said something that totally blew my mind.

He said, “I am really bad at remembering to call people back and I don’t have a good reminder system here. If you haven’t heard from me by 11am tomorrow, call me.”

Now my first reaction could have been, “Are you kidding me? Between Google Alerts, Smart Phone Apps, and Post-It Notes, how could a business person be so bad at doing one of his primary jobs?” 

Surprisingly, it wasn’t. Instead my brain went to all the times I called a place and they never called me back. This guy warned me that him forgetting to call me back was a possibility and even gave me the deadline by which I would know to call him back.

It was refreshing.

Sure, Great Customer Service dictates that you always call a customer back at the soonest possible time. You never forget. Great Customer Service also dictates telling the customer the deadline by which you will be calling back. In this case, by 11am tomorrow.

Here is why what he did was the next best thing to “never forgetting.”

First, he recognized one of his flaws and wasn’t afraid to tell me about it. It takes guts to do that. It also builds trust when you admit what you cannot do. Second, he gave me the deadline. Third, he managed my expectations.

Imagine if he had only said, “I’ll get back to you.”

I might have called him four hours later only to find out he didn’t have the information yet, which would have either pissed me off, frustrated me, or destroyed some of the trust we were building, all because I didn’t know it was going to take him more than four hours to find the answer.

I might have called him back the next day to hear him say, “Oh, I forgot,” which would have blown all the trust right out of the water.

Instead he managed my expectations, which gave me an even higher sense of trust.

He knew two pieces of information I didn’t know—how long it might take him to get an answer and his own shortcoming of getting too busy and not always remembering to call everyone back in a timely fashion. While one of those might seem like a negative piece of information, letting me know both of those things turned it into a positive.

Don’t be afraid of sharing your downside and your shortcomings. Sometimes that is the information the customer needs to more fully trust you.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS He called me back in ten minutes with a full explanation of everything they would have to do and why. He not only set the expectations, he blew them out of the water them by a wide margin. That’s Great Customer Service!

Christmas Quick Tip #13 – Reload the Paper

In the interest of time, I’m keeping these posts short and sweet to quickly give you tips to make your season just a little bit better.

Here is tip #13 …

RELOAD THE PAPER

The next two Saturdays will likely be the two busiest days of your year. One thing we always did during this time of year was make sure we started out our busy days on the right foot.

We reloaded our cash registers and credit card machines with fresh rolls of paper.

Each night before a busy day we took off the half-used rolls and put on fresh ones. This way we were less likely to run out of paper during the day.

Sure, there were those awesomely busy days where we would go through more than one roll per register, but at least those outages came during peak staff times. Nothing looks more unprepared than to run out of paper on the fifth transaction of the day.

We would then use those half-used rolls of paper in January when business was a little slower.

It is a little thing, but it adds up. Reload the paper in your machines before your busy days. It helps.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Also check all your other supplies like staples in the stapler, ink pens that work, scratch pads and notebooks, a fresh “No List”, etc. Take five minutes on a Friday night and your Saturday will be that much better.

Christmas Quick Tip #12 – Prep for the Men

Keeping this blog short and sweet through the holiday season, here is another quick tip to make this season your best ever.

Here is tip #12 (You can find the first tip here.)

PREP FOR THE MEN

(Yes, this is a generalization. No, not all men shop this way, but enough do so you should be prepared for them.)

In the toy industry we call the 7-10 days before Christmas “Man Week.” This is the time dads, grandpas, and uncles come swooping in to do their Christmas shopping.

There are three things you need to know to sell to men.

  • Men are impulsive buyers – we love demos!
  • Men want to make the big splash – we love to be the hero!
  • Men are quicker to bust the budget – show us the good stuff!

You have two days until they descend upon your store to optimize it for Man Week by creating more hands-on displays, making more signs, and merchandising the Big Splash items better.

Every man has always wanted to play Santa. Help him do it with style.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For a more detailed explanation of Man Week and how to sell to men, please read the article I wrote for edplay Magazine here.

PPS Besides feeling like a hero, men also want to feel smart. Praise their purchases. Build them up. Help them be the Hero. It not only pays now, it pays later because you will make a customer for life when you make a man feel smart.

 

Christmas Quick Tip #7 – Lead with the Best

Of all the Christmas Quick Tips I will give you, this one will be the hardest to master and quite possibly the most rewarding when you and your team do master it …

Here is tip #7

LEAD WITH THE BEST

Your customer is looking for solutions. Yes, at this time of year we call them gifts, but at the end of the day, they are really solutions to problems.

When you offer suggestions, unless the customer has given you a price range right up front, ignore price altogether and start by showing the best solution you have.

It doesn’t have to be the most expensive. It just has to make the most sense.

The tendency of most retail salespeople is to sell from your own pocketbook and start by offering the cheapest solution. That doesn’t win hearts (or build profits). You can use the cheapest solution as the fallback when they balk at the price of the best solution, but always lead with the best.

A customer will expand his or her budget if the product offered truly fits her needs.

You are a solution provider. Your job is to provide the best possible solution first. Then the customer can decide what she’s willing to compromise to fit her budget.

Teach your team that goal number one is to solve the problem in the best way possible. Always lead with the best.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Never open with the question, “What’s your budget?” First, they almost always lowball you well below what they would actually spend for the right product. Second, it pigeonholes you and often keeps you from showing her the right product. She’ll tell you when it’s out of her league, and you can adjust your offerings from there.

PPS Some of my favorite stores have successfully talked me into buying a more expensive item than I planned. I love those stores because in each case the solution was worth the expenditure. On the flip side, there are stores I won’t visit again because they tried to upsell me something that wasn’t the best solution to my problem. Always lead with the BEST.