Why you shouldn't fear Retail Selling

Janine Hall discusses how to help your staff get over the costly fear of retail selling.

As a business owner it’s frustrating to see your staff experience a genuine fear around selling retail products.

Worse still, if you and your staff aren’t turning over a minimum of 25 per cent of your treatment visits (it should really be 50 per cent) into problem solving sales, you are literally letting thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of cost-free profits walk out your door.

Let’s face it we’ve all bought something that we didn’t need, and it can leave you feeling incredibly disappointed however for every bad purchase choice there’s an even better experience of someone teaching you the many benefits of a product and how it can solve ”your” unique problem.

How can you help your staff get over their fear of retail selling and become problem solving experts?
Have you ever been into an Apple Store? You can ask staff anything and they’ll answer with more than enough information that quite often exceeds your expectation. Which leaves you feeling educated and pleased because they solved your problem, price isn’t even relevant because of the service you receive.

How do you create that environment for your staff?
Through the power of conversation and tuning into your listening skills your customers will tell you their fears, biggest problems and what they need help with. A consultation conversation should never be missed no matter how regular your client is. It should simply be part of your treatment plan.

Why do you do this?
Imagine a doctor who didn’t take your blood pressure or ask about how you where, or check your medication? Would you go back? I would say probably not.

This conversation isn’t about trashing another product or service — it’s simply about listening to your customer’s needs. When you can teach your staff this, not only will their confidence grow but they’ll see the benefits of listening and problem solving rather than selling products to people that don’t need them.

Three easy ways to help your staff get over their fear of selling:

Sit down with your staff and really listen to their fears around this as it will be a very powerful conversation. Have they had a bad experience? If so talk about this and empathise with them, after all you’ve probably had a similar experience. Write down and highlight all their feelings around both bad and good experiences they’ve had and express how you want your staff and clients to feel.
Educate your staff in the benefits your products offer? You could do this by highlighting certain problems every week and sharing the different ingredients in your products to help them understand. Use notes around your staff room. I suggest only concentrating on one problem a week as it will help build and focus staff confidence.
Create an incentive program for your staff and your customers. You could even hold a six-week challenge with a weekly treatment and/or exclusive online educational beauty wellness transformation boot camp.

Salons, spas and clinics face a massive problem when they can’t utilise their ability to solve problems through product sales with many therapists not instructed on how to sell — so easily turning into fear about the whole selling ‘situation’.

So let’s all help our therapists understand the power of conversation and strip away the fear of selling.