How to teach your employees the right attitudes and approaches to increase sales with very little extra effort.
"Learn to help customers and add to your daily sales" No doubt you already know that customers buy more from store employees that are friendly, cheerful, and helpful. A smile and a kind word can go a long way towards building customer loyalty and repeat visits to your store.

You can make your store more valuable to your customers and increase your weekly gross at the same time. The secret is to help your customers buy items related to those items they have already picked out.

You have two choices when it comes to making more money in your store:

A. You can attract more customers to come into your store or

B. You can sell more to each customer in your store.

It's a sad but true fact that only 25% of the customers who enter some stores actually make a purchase. 75% walk out empty handed.

"SELL" is not a 4 - letter word. (OK technically it is a 4-letter word but it is not an off-color 4-letter word).

"SELL" is what you and your employees must do to increase your income.

In a store, "SELL" has to be handled softly, patiently, and with good humor.

Here are some tips that work:

1. Greet each operson who enters your store with a friendly "hello" and offer to help if they need it.

2. Answer customer questions quickly. If you have enough employees, make each employee an "expert" in one section of your store. Use this "expert" knowledge to answer customer questions. It doesn't hurt to praise the employee when they do a good job of helping a customer.

3. The best time to help your customer is at the cash register. Following a customer around your store could be offensive to the customer, but everyone needs to conclude the sale at the check out stand. Stress the importance of customer contact at the register during your daily sales training for your staff. You will get great results if you spend 3 minutes or more every day talking sales strategy with your employees.

4. Teach your employees to notice what the customer is buying. If they are buying a flashlight, suggest batteries; if a new cooking pan is the purchase, suggest large spoons or stirrers. This is called "Up Selling". You help the customer to remember all the items thay might forget. The more questions you ask, the more opportunity to up sell.

5. Every single customer should be asked if they found everything they wanted. If they did not, offer to help. If you can't leave the register, call someone who can. Don't make the customer feel that it is an inconvenience to help. Make the customer feel appreciated.

6. Determine what the most popular add-on items will be and stock them close to the cash register. Please don't stock so much at the register that it looks like a clutter of product... Keep the register area clean and simple.

7. Teach your employees to SMILE.

These tips may seem very simple. I hope you are using them already. You'd be surprised how many stores I visit where nobody is practicing any of these selling strategies. Make your store stand out from the pack. Make your store a pleasure to come back to. Make your store the profit center you desire.

You have an advantage!

About the Author

Lee Karjala is the Director of Special Projects and Newsletter Publisher for STK International, Inc. The semi-monthly newsletter targets issues of interest to the owners of Dollar Stores, Convenience Stores, Supermarkets, Drug Stores, Variety Stores and the Wholesalers who service them. He is a proud graduate in Communications from the California State University at Fullerton, California. To subscribe to the E-mail newsletter, mailto:news@stkinternational.com or visit their web site at http://www.stkinternational.com.