Thursday, August 27, 2009

Encourage Customers to Buy Extra Items

Consider the "puppy on approval" sales technique. If a pet shop owner carefully analyzes the purchaser and decides they'd be a good match for the dog, the owner says, "Take the puppy home, and if you decide after a few days that you don't want to keep it, return the puppy along with any unopened bags of food and unused puppy play toys. I'll give you a full refund."
     Those puppies rarely are returned.
In Making Money Is Not Illegal, Immoral or Fattening, Art Freedman suggests a variation he calls "insurance." Here's what he has to say:
     "Some employees think it is fine to say to a customer, 'Well, if you need help, I'll be right over here stocking the tote. But if he'd asked me what project I'll be working on, and I said I'm going to be painting my bathroom, what's going through that employee's mind? What color paint will Art want? What else will he need, like rollers, masking tape, drop clothes.
     "I've trained and coached my employees on related-item selling because we want to make the larger sale and we want the customer to have everything they need to get the project done. I talk about insurance, and here is what I mean by that: If the customer says, 'I'm caulking the bathtub and think I need two tubes of caulk,' we'll say, 'As insurance, get three. If you don't use the third, you can always return it unopened.'"
     When the customer ends up finding they do, in fact, need the extras, they're grateful to you for saving them a trip back. When they find they don't need the extras, they have the opportunity, at the time of the return, to look over other items you carry.
     Want more details? See page 107 of the book.

No comments:

Post a Comment