“Check Out This Item!”

Shoppers depend on trusted salespeople to help in decision making. To do that competently, the salesperson should both have expertise about the product line and have clarified the distinctive needs and desires of the shopper at that time.
     When those are in place, a useful technique is for the salesperson to guide the shopper toward promising merchandise and say, “Check out this item!”

• This can serve as a great opening line in circumstances where the salesperson knows the customer well and a new item has been placed in stock. The message is, “I’ve been thinking about you, waiting for you to come by the store, so I can share with you my excitement about something I think you’ll really like.” Except “Check out this item!” is much quicker to say, and both the customer and the salesperson might be in a hurry.
• You’ll still want to greet most customers with “Welcome to my store” and then ask an open-ended question like, “What may I help you find?” Next, while collaborating with the customer in working through their shopping list, stay alert for opportunities to use, “Check out this item!” to produce add-on sales of merchandise the customer could benefit from knowing about.
• Where a customer is extraordinarily guarded or you’re having trouble reading them for other reasons, an enthusiastic “Check out this item!” can help you gather information by observing the reaction. It is a foot-in-the-door technique designed to assess how much trust the shopper has in you at this point.

     I’m a fan of scripting what we say and do with shoppers. It’s not that I expect the retailer to recite the exact words I suggest or carry out the precise actions I propose. It’s that I find scripting a good way to explain what I mean. Then I recommend the retailer be flexible in adjusting the phrasing and behaviors to fit their style.
     Renowned retailing trainer Rick Segel has his own version of the “check it out.” He suggests asking, “Have you seen this?” If this is more natural, I urge you to use it instead. Still, I’d suggest my phrasing be in the back of your mind. The words in “Check out this item!” serve as a reminder that our objective is for the shopper to have the item in hand, basket, or cart when they’re ready to check out. At the cash wrap, that is.

Click below for more:
Use Closed-Ended Questions Selectively
Put Foot-in-the-Door to Build Trust
Branch Out Scripts to Allow for Rituals