Selling more retail is one of the fastest ways to boost your profits. Here are three tips to help boost your turnover.
- Know what you’re selling
You may not have been trained in sales, but by providing your clients with expert product advice you’ll find your retails sales will naturally increase.
Be the expert. Knowing the ins and outs of the products you use and sell will dramatically increase your confidence in recommending them. There are a number of products available, so focus on learning more about a couple of products each week.
Be prepared. Preparing answers to commonly asked questions or typical objections can help grow your retail sales. For example, when recommending a face mask, you may get the answer “I get mine from the supermarket”. Don’t take this as a no, instead provide the client with some useful information on how the products differ and why your recommended product might suit them better.
Don’t ‘sell’. If you’re genuinely selling products that are beneficial to your clients, then it won’t come across as a sales pitch. You don’t need to put a sales hat on, just speak about the products in a way that feels natural to you and your clients.
- Solve your clients’ problems
One of the best ways to upsell is with a problem solving approach. Often your client has a problem they’re looking to solve and you can help by providing them with a solution. Here’s how to use this approach:
Build a relationship. The most important aspect of this approach is to build rapport with your clients so they’re happy to open up and talk about their needs or problems. Then you’ll be in the best position to help solve them by providing products that address their concerns.
Ask questions. If your client mentions a need or problem, it’s important to ask questions to fully understand it. By asking lots of questions, you’ll better understand their requirements and be more able to recommend the right products to give them the result they’re trying to achieve.
Provide a solution or benefit. Once you have a clear understanding of a client’s problem, you can then make recommendations to address it.
- Working smarter not harder
Make more per appointment. You might not always be able to recommend additional services during an appointment but by working smarter not harder you can easily double the appointment value. A good example is a basic treatment which you may charge $50 for. By recommending a suitable product, you could easily double the value of that appointment.
Give yourself a challenge. Why not give yourself and your team the challenge of picking a product each week to promote and recommend. Choose a product, learn about its benefits and display it prominently. The goal is to use it during each appointment (as long as it’s relevant to the client) and explain to your clients how you’re using it and why. See how many of your clients purchase it – you may be surprised how easy it is to sell different products when you focus on promoting them.
Check in with your clients. Making sure your clients are happy with their retail purchases, it is important to your future retail sales. By checking in with them it gives you the opportunity to show you care, continue selling the product to them as they run out, and provides the potential to upsell to an alternative or additional products where appropriate. If the client’s unhappy with a product, it gives you the option to remedy the situation and provide something more suitable to them. There are a couple of ways you can check in, for example, ask during their appointment or use your salon and spa software to automatically send a text to clients a week later to check how they’re going.
We hope using these handy tips helps to increase your retail sales and boost your profits!
* Joanne Neville is the Marketing Manager at Kitomba Salon & Spa Software. For more information visit www.kitomba.com or call 1800 161 101.