Did you jump start your sales in January?

Did you "Jump start your sales" in January?

If you did -- great! So you tried to focus on a suggestive selling campaign and it worked - maybe a little, maybe a lot. If it was just a little, what went wrong? You focused on suggesting a specific product that complements another. You trained all of your employees on what to say and how to say it. You posted advertising. But the dial only moved a small amount.

Here is a list of questions to ask yourself:

(1) Do my employees know how well they are performing on suggestive selling every day?

(2) Can I track every successful suggestive sell or upsell?

(3) Can I show my team a daily report of their progress?

(4) Did I reward success?

Often organizations will hire great people, train them to suggestive sell, and expect great results. There is another piece to the puzzle. You must track every suggestive sell on your POS (register) or ordering system and post results daily. Then follow it up with mystery shopping to verify the suggestive sell is being done consistently and correctly. Finally reward those who are succeeding.

On a weekly or monthly basis, send your team through a "refresher" training to incorporate more complex suggestions. For example, if a customer says "yes" to adding extra meat, then follow it up with asking if they want bacon also. Keep asking until the customer gives you a "no" response.

Suggestive selling is one of the easiest ways to increase your businesses overall success, especially if the above four steps are followed. Now, go jump start your sales again!