Retail Observer

JULY 2016 RETAILOBSERVER.COM 47 T he best way to maintain an effective team is to start with a solid foundation of these important assets. • Attitude: A positive, energetic, can-do attitude is the most important characteristic of a good sales professional. It's something that can't be taught and will significantly impact the success of your company. • Personality and style: Once again, this is something that can't be taught. Sales professionals who are friendly and likeable help build rapport and trust with your customers. It's often the tiebreaker when shoppers are considering similar products at comparable prices. • Selling skills: There are efficient, tried and true methods for organizing a sales conversation. Some consider these the steps of the sale. • Product knowledge: Making credible product recommendations is a function of matching your store's products with shoppers' wants and needs. As we said, it's important to make sure your team members understand the steps of a successful bedding sale. That makes it easy for them to hone their skills by focusing on their weaknesses and turning them into strengths. The first step to the sale is the greeting. More sales are lost because of a poor greeting than any other reason. I can't remember how many times I've walked into a store only to be greeted by, "Can I help you?" A better greeting is "Welcome to Bill's Mattress. How has your shopping been going today?" Studies have shown the customer will decide in the first 30 seconds whether they like your sales team and whether they want to buy from them. A great greeting is the easiest thing to teach, and will greatly increase the chances of closing a sale if done properly. The second step to a mattress sale is qualifying. This the process of asking probing questions that will help us determine how to solve the customers' problems based on how they answer. It's a good idea to make mental notes of the customers' answers and then use them later on in the presentation and closing portion. It is also important to understand the two types of bedding customers and why they came to your store. Research suggests that around 75% of them aren't sleeping well, while 25% are experiencing a life-change event, such as a marriage, divorce, child etc. These two shoppers are motivated differently. A life-change event involves qualifying for need, while a customer not sleeping well involves qualifying for desire. Qualifying for desire involves diagnosing a sleep problem in much the same way a doctor diagnoses a health problem. The third step is selection or comfort selling. In this step, we focus on 2 or 3 different products, and then determine which of those products creates the best "body comfort" for the consumer. This simplifies the selling process and eliminates two-thirds of the products in the store, making it easier for the shopper to make a buying decision. Once a consumer determines their "body comfort," they next issue is "wallet comfort," and this is a good time talk about price. The 4th step is presenting the sleep solution. Everything that was learned in the qualifying stage is used to establish the value of the product so that the benefits of the sleep solution outweigh its price. That's when the sale is made. The fifth and final stage is closing. Here we may receive resistance to purchasing the product. This resistance is categorized in two different ways. There's stall resistance which is typically an emotional response indicating a lack of confidence in the decision. Here the shopper desires affirmation. The stall's most common causes are a lack of urgency to buy, and the need for reassurance. Shoppers deserve emotional as well as logical reasons to buy. Often they make talking with their spouse the excuse for postponing a decision. Now is a great time to find out what they think the spouse would be most concerned about and recommend a solution to that issue. The second type of resistance is an objection. An objection is a logical response by the shopper generally indicating a lack of confidence in the company, the sales associate or the product offer. An objection usually means something is not clear and they're not completely confident that they have the information necessary to make the right decision. Stalls and objections usually indicate that we're on the right track. The shopper is going to purchase a mattress from someone, and great sales professions should always believe that no one offers a better choice than their company, their products and them. Handling stalls and objections involves listening to the shopper, encouraging them to fully express themselves and letting them know you understand the difficulty of purchasing a bed. Be sure to find out what the actual objection is, as the first objection may not be real one. We can soften the conversation by repeating the objection. That indicates you understand how the shopper feels and empathize with their situation. Assure them that it's ok to say yes and reassure them with additional information. You can then attempt to close the sale once again. Obviously, these are the basics. They're the "blocking and tackling" of business and are simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to helping your sales team get better. RO Frank Clark- Director of Bedding

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