The Secret To Easily Selling At Higher Prices Than Your Competitors, Increasing Your Closing Ratios And Having The Happiest & Most Productive Sales Staff Around.

One of the most frustrating issues retailers deal with is the staff. Specifically the salespeople.

Why is this so difficult?

You may be surprised to hear that your salespeople’s effectiveness is a direct result of your advertising! How can that be?

What does your advertising have to do with your salesperson’s effectiveness?

Everything.

Your advertising dramatically influences the types of customers you bring in the door.

The truth is most retailers advertise cheap price over and over and over again. It’s not surprising then, that when the customer comes in they are looking for a good deal.

I know many store owners who are frustrated with the poor performance of their salespeople. They want their salespeople to sell higher margin items, when in reality,

It is the salesperson who should be frustrated with YOU

For using advertising that takes a good customer and turns him into a price shopper!

Even a customer that is willing to pay a significant amount of money on your high margin furnishings will default to cheap price because of the way you have advertised to them.

My dad just told me about his experience looking for a new recliner set. My dad loves his recliners, so when has to replace them, he’s not looking for the cheapest thing on the market. He spends a lot of time in it, and wants something he’s going to be happy with.

He and my mother went into a very popular regional home furnishings store several weeks ago. The salesperson talked to them as they were looking at a few recliners they were interested in. As soon as the salesperson saw that they were looking at a model that was one of the more expensive, he took them to a cheaper model.

 

The sales person stopped them right as they were essentially selling themselves on the more expensive recliner and said “Hey lets go look at this one over here, it’s actually about $200 less expensive than the one you are looking at.”

 

So they followed him over to the cheaper one. They didn’t like it nearly as much. And so it began…the salesperson showed them all the options. Dragging them across the showroom making sure he told them how much each one costs, and what a good deal it was.

 

Soon my dad had forgotten about the one he liked, had seen enough, and decided to leave the store altogether. He still has the same old recliners in his front room.

 

Granted in this example, it was the salesperson who ruined the sale. BUT…Are you doing this exact same thing to your customers in your advertising? If you are like most retailers, I guarantee you are.

You see, when you fill your ads with only pictures of products and the prices you are creating the wrong selling environment from the outset. You are encouraging that potential customer to take your ad and compare it to everyone else’s ad in the newspaper.

You create a price shopper by giving them ammunition to go to your competitor and show them your price just to get them to lower theirs . Then they show up or call back asking your salesperson to lower the price or they’re going to buy from someone else.

Of course this creates a frustrated salesperson. A surefire way to frustrate and de-motivate your sales staff is by setting them up as a commodity.

I was in sales for a long time. I sold what I considered to be a commodity for a long time. I hated it. I had no respect from my customers. I was nothing more than an order taker in my customers mind, and every sale defaulted to cheap price.

This type of environment makes a salesperson feel worthless.

And salespeople who feel worthless, usually are.

It wasn’t until I was able to position myself as the expert for my customers that I started to enjoy what I was doing.

 

This is the single most important lesson you can apply to your store.

Expert positioning.

An example I always use with our members is that of a general practice doctor and a heart surgeon. Why is it that a heart surgeon makes $750,000 per year and a general practice doctor only makes $125,000? The answer is simple. It is because the heart surgeon is an expert in a very specific field. He is an expert. He has a niche.

Imagine how different the sales situation would be with a customer who received your ad offering a “13 Point Pain Relief and Better Sleep Consultation?” Or a “17 Deadly Sins Of Interior Design In-Home Audit.”

The customer who responds to this offer isn’t coming in because you have mattresses on sale for $599. He’s come in because he needs help. He’s looking for someone to solve his pain, whether that is back and neck pain or poor sleep pain.

These customers are willing to pay for expertise. You are the one that can provide it. Imagine what having tons of customers like this will do for your closing ratios, and staff morale, not to mention margins.

Your customer has come to your store already 80% sold on doing business with you because you are THE authority. Now all you have to do is simply follow through with what you’ve promised in the ad and you’ll close the deal.

But, I must caution you, advertising with this type of an offer is totally different than everything else you’ve done. You MUST follow the guidelines of direct response marketing to make it work properly.

Your ad needs to have:

• A powerful, attention getting and compelling headline
• full of proof elements
• testimonials
• guarantees
• interesting body copy
• a powerful offer
• deadlines
• A few other components that go along with it.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that putting your company logo and some manufactures brand names on an ad then offering a “13 point consultation” will accomplish this...it won’t.

The whole ad needs to be focused on establishing a compelling reason for your customers to come in and see you. When done properly, not only will this type of advertising bring in higher quality customers, it will bring in tons of them.

We’ve seen our members double, even triple the amount of qualified traffic they have in their stores with qualified customers using these strategies. It doesn’t matter if you sell bedding, furniture, appliances, etc. No matter what you sell, following these guidelines you can separate yourself from the cheap price competition, and have they happiest sales staff around.

 

 

For More Information about the Traffic Guys programs to put Loads of paying customers into YOUR store call 800-393-2054, click HERE.