ATTENTION ALL SALES PEOPLE - NEED ADVICE - PLEASE HELP

[sydneyseller87]

Currently working in a retail clothing store and having some success with an up selling technique we are starting to develop HOWEVER having trouble selling one add on item at the registers being a $3.00 eco friendly tote bag SO I am calling all sales people with any advice on any techniques on selling something along these lines, is it the wording or something that we might even be over selling? Facts on the bags.

* $3.00
* made out of mesh/eco friendly material
*have various versions of the one same bag just with different brand logos on them
* literally look like any other eco/tote bag (natural colour)

 

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[ChrisV]

Before everyone comes in and rips him a new a**hole:

The No. 1 job billionaires and multimillionaires held before they got filthy rich

And why it’s important for all of us to do that job, too.

www.marketwatch.com

Hint: it's Sales.

Many of today’s self-made billionaires and multimillionaires held a sales job, or jobs, when they were younger — a fact they consider crucial to their current success, according to research conducted by sociologist and historian Rainer Zitelmann and published in his recent book “The Wealth Elite.”

Zitelmann interviewed 45 individuals, whose net worth ranged, on the low end, from 10 million to 30 million euros (roughly $11.3 to $34 million) to, on the upper end, several billion euros (more than $3 billion), and whose wealth was either entirely self-made or built on inheritances that were later multiplied.

“To date, researchers have either underestimated or totally ignored the critical role of sales skills in self-made, ultra-high-net-worth individuals,” Zitelmann tells Marketwatch. “Among those in our study, it was the factor they themselves considered [to have] played the most important role in their success.”

 

[Womat]

Currently working in a retail clothing store and having some success with an up selling technique we are starting to develop HOWEVER having trouble selling one add on item at the registers being a $3.00 eco friendly tote bag SO I am calling all sales people with any advice on any techniques on selling something along these lines, is it the wording or something that we might even be over selling? Facts on the bags.

* $3.00
* made out of mesh/eco friendly material
*have various versions of the one same bag just with different brand logos on them
* literally look like any other eco/tote bag (natural colour)

As in the article posted by @ChrisV, educate yourself on how to sell. Then use the new skills - Assess, Adjust, and Act.

 

[Kevin88660]

Hi Mate, I am salesman from Singapore. Australia is beautiful and I go there frequently.

I am in financial sales. Not really into selling tangible items. What I said probably you have heard before.

I suggest focus on the benefit not the features. Said it with an excited and passionate tonality.

 

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[sydneyseller87]

Hi Mate, I am salesman from Singapore. Australia is beautiful and I go there frequently.

I am in financial sales. Not really into selling tangible items. What I said probably you have heard before.

I suggest focus on the benefit not the features. Said it with an excited and passionate tonality.

Thanks heaps buddy, yes Australia is quite amazing!

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

Price them higher.

 

[Kevin88660]

Price them higher.

I am not sure about that. Aussies are very get used to rejecting requests for charitable donations. I used charitable donations as example since the OP is selling a pricy item on it being environmental friendly.

I was in Brisbane a few months earlier. A girl holding a tin can asking for donations for intellectually challenged young people looking for work. As a habit I gave a few dollars and I cannot forget how happy she is.

After that I went to buy a drink and sat somewhere nearby. For the next twenty minutes she approached a lot of people and everyone rejected her. That will not happen in Singapore because people here are conditioned to at least give a few coins for charitable causes. In Singapore if she asked ten people three will give.

 

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[SD Entrepreneur]

Assume the sale! Ex. "You'd like to add this $3 tote before it sells out (or goes up in price), right?" If hesitant act surprised since everyone is buying them, reiterate the value/benefits...

 

[reedracer]

Make it a premium. Free if you spend x where x is 25% higher than an average sale. I can never pass up a premium.

 

[Curtis Randolph]

No one can solve your opportunity for improvement for you, there are too many specific local variables, your location, your customers, etc., but this may help:

Whenever you have challenges with face to face sales, it is often that the marketing was done too quickly and/or ineffectively. i.e.- the suggestion above, "make it a premium" is a change in the marketing, not the sales effort.

Marketing - the creation and ongoing improvement/optimization of the offer
Sales - the presentation and support of the offer.

Keep these two categories in mind as your team engages and incrementally improves the effort and MEASURE the results...then you will see improvement over time.

Hope that helps.

 

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[ChrisV]

Hi Mate, I am salesman from Singapore. Australia is beautiful and I go there frequently.

I am in financial sales. Not really into selling tangible items. What I said probably you have heard before.

I suggest focus on the benefit not the features. Said it with an excited and passionate tonality.

Yea and focus on the Eco-friendly aspects. People buy stories, more-so than products. Especially the types of people who would buy an Eco-friendly tote bag. It's the reason people buy Priuses and products that lower their carbon footprint. Make them feel like they're helping the environment by doing it especially if they're liberal.

From a famous Case Study on how master marketer Edward Bernays (nephew of Sigmund Freud) changed the way people people perceived women smoking. Before that, it was only socially acceptable for men to smoke in public.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7XbrYkf4Z8


He essentially marketed women smoking as 'freedom.' He marketed it as faminism and challanging male power. Somking was then 'cool' for many decades. You also see the opposite being true. Anti-smoking ads have not market smoking as 'dirty.' Where it used to be 'cool' to smoke, now it's almost shameful. All through marketing.

Other notable example is how Bernays made 'Bacon and Eggs' a staple in American Breakfast. Companies were looking for a way to sell more bacon, and were unclear on how to do it. They hired Bernays to help them, and he marketed 'Bacon and Eggs' as 'the all American breakfast.' Now the two are like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Another rather famous example was DeBeers marketing of the diamond engagement ring. Engagement rings weren't even a thing until the 30's. They brilliantly made it seem like you didnt truly love your woman unless you spend one months salary (or whatever) on her ring. Now? Good luck getting married without getting your girl a ring.

Point here is positioning. If you want to sell more bags paint people who use them as nobel people who care about the environment, and those who don't as evil litterers who bonk baby seals and pour motor oil in lakes.

 

[MHP368]

whats the wording you use when you try to upsell the eco tote bags? and at what point during the sale of the main product do you introduce the eco tote?

 

[Johnny boy]

Currently working in a retail clothing store and having some success with an up selling technique we are starting to develop HOWEVER having trouble selling one add on item at the registers being a $3.00 eco friendly tote bag SO I am calling all sales people with any advice on any techniques on selling something along these lines, is it the wording or something that we might even be over selling? Facts on the bags.

* $3.00
* made out of mesh/eco friendly material
*have various versions of the one same bag just with different brand logos on them
* literally look like any other eco/tote bag (natural colour)

I don't want a bag and neither do most people. That said, it's only $3 so you should sell them this way.

Strategy 1: Help them pick out their clothes and say "here's a bag for you" and take their clothes and put them in a bag for them without them saying anything. Say "these are awesome they're like 80% off it's only $3". And just ring it up with their clothes. Enough energy and they'll just let you "sell" them.

or

Strategy 2: Raise prices by a little and give away the bags for free when people buy clothes.

*you will sell much more bags if they like you BEFORE they come to the register. At the register, you're just some dickhead upselling bags. But if you're awesome and charismatic before they get rung up (go to Nordstrom if you need an example of customer service), and they'll be likely to listen to whatever you say just to stay in good report with you and then they'll buy the bag just because of you*

Then, use these skills to sell expensive things instead of $3 bags.

 

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[Champion]

Have you tried selling it higher yet? Would be super happy to hear the results.

 

[minivanman]

Mark them up to $10 and then try what Johnny Boy says/ These are usually $10 but today they are only $3.... I wouldn't use a percentage, that makes people have to think.