How to sell retail

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

Some things to remember when selling retail

Treating customers well is as much a part of an effective selling technique as offering a worthy product and using attractive showcases. A good attitude reverberates. Nothing turns a potential customer off more than a salesperson who is uninvolved with the sale. Learning how to sell retail is an art form that requires practice and fine tuning, like playing (and/ or selling) a violin.

When you take care of your customers, they take care of you and show you their appreciation with return business. One important aspect when learning how to sell retail is to realize that it is much easier to keep a current customer happy than to spend money and marketing efforts on getting new ones.

Some tips about how to sell retail

1- Always say ?yes? to a customer

Even if you don?t have the particular outfit or size or style a shopper seeks displayed on your own store hangers, find a way to direct your customer to someone who can help them. This type of attitude always produces a positive response and is an important aspect of how to sell retail.

2- Review and promote your services proudly and accurately

When learning how to sell retail, you want your customers to feel they have gotten their money?s worth. Review what you have to offer and charge fairly for your services. Discuss all your steps to success with your customers and be proud about it. You can say, ?we took care of all your (clothing, printing, cosmetic etc) needs in one visit.?

3- Offer personal assistance

The customer is your business, (your only business, to paraphrase those baby food people). When learning how to sell retail, it is important to realize that at that exact moment in time the customer before you is the most important person in the world. Know your customer’s goal and don?t be afraid to ask how you can help him or her achieve it.

4- Guarantee your product

If you don?t believe in the product or service you are selling, then you really shouldn?t be selling it because like the unwanted edge of a slip, it will show. This is a significant rule of thumb when understanding how to sell retail that is just as important as drawing attention to a product by buying attractive store display fixtures.

5- Project confidence

Never underestimate the power of a smile when learning how to sell retail. Avoid saying, ?I don?t know? to a customer. ?Let me check on that for you? works much better, and deftly disguises a lack of knowledge. Stay busy is another axiom when understanding how to sell retail.

6- Make it easy to close the sale

Let customers know you are available for questions and can have everything ready for them whenever they need it. Accommodate special needs like, picking up an item later in the day or maybe shipping a product to a different destination even if you don?t usually offer such services. Go out of your way for each customer and it will be easier for you to close your sale and close other ones in the future as well.

Customer satisfaction is the most important ingredient of any successful retail business. If you hold the key to customer happiness, which concerns convenience, consideration, respect and satisfaction, your reputation and your retail business will thrive.