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Getting festive: top tips for independent retailers
December 12, 2012
We were told that Monday 3rd December 2012 was Mega Monday (or Cyber Monday as others call it). Apparently, on this single day, up to £10,000 per second was being spent online.
There are always forecasts like this, and always on the first Monday of December. I’ve never seen a retrospective analysis to determine if it’s true or not, but what I do know is that once Cyber Monday (or mega Monday) has been and gone the focus of Christmas shoppers begins to move away from online and toward physical shop-based retailers.
With two peak shopping weekends to go before Christmas, retailers need to stock up, spruce up, get festive and bring in extra staff.
The next two weekends are likely to have the highest footfall (especially since few online retailers will be guaranteeing delivery by Christmas on orders placed after 15th due to the overload on couriers and postal services) so you need to be ready to make the most of it.
Here are a few top tips:
- Get as much of your seasonal stock out on the shop floor before you open as possible — you can’t sell what they can’t find and you don’t want sales staff away from the shop floor, stocking up, when you are busy.
- Make the windows look super inviting — make the display enticing, engaging and really draw them in. You can even have someone outside, inviting people in for a hot drink and mince pie to warm up while they browse. It won’t cost you much to offer but is a really welcome touch, especially in the bitterly cold weather!
- Make sure you’ve got lots of staff on hand — to assist customers, to sell, to wrap and (sad to say it) to make sure if the shop gets very busy you are not the victim of shoplifting.
- Think about what you can do to make the customer decide to buy from you rather than elsewhere. What are your key value-adds? Is it a unique product? Locally produced? Made in the UK? Handmade? Is it the service? Or your gift wrapping? Perhaps you can deliver to their home that evening or hold for later collection. Do you offer an extended refund policy or warranties?make sure you promote your value-adds.
- Make it fun. Put the festive music on, have some mistletoe in the doorway, wear festive hats, dress up — if your shop looks like the most fun place to be on the high street, a haven of fun, warmth and festive joy, people will want to spend a little longer there, even if they are working against the clock to finish their gift shopping.
So, lots of ideas and I am sure you have plenty more too. The key is to make the most of those two big weekends when footfall should be noticeably increased. And make it a very merry, Indie, Christmas!
Clare Rayner is the author of The Retail Champion: 10 steps to retail success.
How to make your tills ring this Christmas
November 29, 2012
Each year, the Christmas retail floodgates open with November’s Black Friday and December’s Cyber Monday and the festive shopping season continues with sales of epic proportions. In fact, Adobe Digital’s Online Shopping Forecast for the United States and Europe estimates that the online retail sector will make approximately $2 billion on Cyber Monday alone.
But the Christmas season is not just a time for big brand advertising — smaller merchants can also make the most of the festive retail fever. Below are some practical tips for retailers of all sizes looking to profit from the Christmas shopping rush.
1. Originality first
Finding an original gift at Christmas can be hugely challenging, especially in an online landscape crowded with big brands offering discounts on bestsellers. However price isn’t the only consideration — originality can be a huge selling point. The old adage “it’s the thought that counts” is still true today; people want to know their loved ones have thought about what they would like to receive. Data analyst group Experian predicts that Monday December 3rd 2012 will see UK consumers spend 15 million hours shopping online. And throughout the month, time spent making e-commerce purchases will reach 375 million hours. A lot of this time browsing will not result in a purchase, as people are unsure of what to buy. The success of retailers like Notonthehightstreet.com prove the value of originality and inspiration.
2. Shoppers want details
With a vast content universe just a few clicks away from a retailer’s online shop front, it’s easy for shoppers to get distracted as they consider their seemingly endless purchase options. 21st century shoppers like to make an informed choice, so providing them with rich content will be critical to converting sales. Merchants should consider engagement tools such as videos to demo key products for Christmas, or interactive images that let you see how an item of clothing would look as part of an outfit.
3. Curate stocking filler collections
Savvy merchants should look at Christmas from a shopper’s perspective. Most of us are faced with a raft of uninspiring Christmas lists from indecisive family members each year. What do you get your Dad apart from another pair of socks, and how can you think of an original gift for a partner you have been giving birthday, Christmas and anniversary gifts to for many years? Rather than taking a product-led approach, merchants should consider taking a demographic or price-led approach and curate Christmas collections, such as “under £10” or “for the in-laws”. This way they can engage and inspire shoppers, taking some of the legwork out of the illusive present hunt.
4. Ride the festive social buzz
Shoppers will be actively hunting for promotions and interesting gifts on social platforms (and not always in their free time). VoucherCodesPro.co.uk recently found that the average Brit in full time employment spends up to 1.5 hours per day on social network sites during work hours. That equates to 7.5 hours per week. The most common times for switching on to social networks at work is between 10am–11am and 3pm–4pm. Tap into festive offer hashtags in the run up to Christmas, or run Christmas-themed competitions with the chance to win a gift bundle.
5. Make a lasting impression
Christmas is a stressful time for shoppers, but it’s a huge opportunity for a merchant to make a favourable brand impression. This should include everything from the basics of offering good customer service and speedy delivery to added extras, such as gift wrapping, personalised notes or tailored free samples. While all these things should leave customers with a warm fuzzy feeling, retailers also want to ensure shoppers come back again and again, so you could consider providing existing customers with special offers to reward their loyalty on an ongoing basis.
6. Festive timing
Throughout the year, Monday has highest conversion rate for online retail. Data from Rakuten’s Play.com reveals Brits combat the Monday blues with an evening of online retail therapy — indeed, Play.com clocks its highest browsing and buying figures from 8pm–10pm every Monday, while mobile browsing surges on Monday morning from 7am–8am. Time your Christmas communications to hit when shoppers are more likely to make a purchase, whether this is through offers, suggesting items, or even limited edition products that will only be available for a short period of time.
Make the most of the Christmas shopping rush by extending these tactics across all your channels, from your website to social, and from email marketing to mobile communications.
Happy Christmas shopping season!
Adam Stewart is marketing director at Rakuten’s Play.com.
What Steve Jobs taught us about marketing and sales
October 26, 2012
Friday 5th October marked one year since the death of Steve Jobs, but his legacy as an entrepreneur lives on. In particular, there are important sales lessons that we can learn from Steve Jobs.
In particular I admired his ability to release new products that people didn’t even realise they needed until he released them! At which point they became must-buys for a lot of people — and that’s coming from the owner of an iPod, iPhone, Macbook Pro and iPad 2.
So what sales lessons can we learn from him?
1. Don’t be afraid of being different
Steve Jobs was never afraid to stand out from the crowd and to pursue things that other people thought were stupid. Until he did them and the people stood back and applauded. In a sales context, what aren’t you doing right now because other people think it’s stupid?
2. Love what you do
One of Steve’s favourite sayings was “love what you do”. My question to you is “do you love what you do?” The answer for most salespeople, and most people in general, is “yes, when things are going well”. I’ve always said that in my opinion, sales can be the best job in the world when things are going well…. And the worst job in the world when things are going badly! So for those of you that don’t currently love what you do, you need a more compelling reason for doing what you do.
3. Turn your TV off!
I remember Steve saying: “We think you watch television to switch your brain OFF, and work on your computer when you want to turn your brain ON”. I’ve always loved that saying. When I ask most salespeople “how much time do you spend on trying to improve your sales or your sales career against how much time do you spend watching TV?” guess which one is normally most popular? Most salespeople I meet rarely work on their sales career outside of work and even inside of work they rarely work on improving it — they just end up doing it.
4. Create a buying experience
Steve Jobs and Apple were fantastic at creating a “buying experience” every time you bought one of their products. Anyone who has bought from Apple will confirm this! Whether it’s an iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac or anything else in their product line, if you’ve bought one you’ll know that it’s a bit different from the usual buying experience.
An Apple store experience is just that — an experience. The majority of people on the shop floor know exactly how to answer your query, or find someone who does in a minute. Does that have any impact on how many people buy more products from Apple? Of course it does!
5. Don’t fear failure
The majority of people I speak to, at some point, have to deal with failure. So therefore most people also have to deal with a fear of failure. Something that happens in advance of an event that they think will mean failure for them. So one of the things that I do when I work with an individual or sales team is to look at what failures they’re afraid of. Number one on this list is usually cold calling, or in some cases, any kind of sales calls at all! How many of you or your team are putting off calling a prospect that could be a really good source of income for you, because you feel like you’re not ready?
Andy Preston is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a leading expert on sales. His website is at www.andypreston.com.
Congruence and the art of selling
October 17, 2012
Selling has changed over the years although much remains as it always was. Many of the attitudes of a successful salesperson have remained consistent but to be successful, salespeople also need new types of behaviour, skill sets and knowledge.
A useful model is BASK (Behaviour, Attitude, Skills and Knowledge)— getting all four right is essential for successful selling. Attitudes tend to be constant within a person. And while we can choose our behaviours, they naturally align with attitudes. Meanwhile, both skills and knowledge can be learned.
There has been a big shift in recent times. Our customers are more discerning and knowledgeable than ever. Sometimes they may have picked up the wrong information, or only have partial knowledge but it’s our job to use our knowledge and sensitivity so the customer doesn’t feel they have it wrong.
Don’t be pushy
We know that customers go through a buying process, no matter what they are purchasing. Salespeople have to guide customers rather than “push product” at them. Our approach needs to reflect that buying process rather than solely focus on a sales process. A successful sales process is structured and yet flexible and it helps the customer through their buying process.
It’s all about finding “congruence” — the point where the offering meets the customer’s needs and aspirations and the salesperson and the buyer are agreed on a course of action. And that is when the sale is made.
Understanding the personality of the customer is a vital part of the process. Some customers may find a particular approach patronising or even annoying.
Being congruent is not about imitating the customer, but it is about making our approach more acceptable to them and engaging with them more readily. Some may call this rapport — although we believe true rapport takes longer to form — but at its simplest, it is about establishing a connection with the customer.
Kieran Maloney is the founder/owner of sales consultancy KMC Associates and author (with Barrie Smith) of In Search of Congruence – and Success in Selling.
Three questions every salesperson should ask themselves today
October 10, 2012
There is no doubt that in a web-enabled digital age, the role of a salesperson has to change. Quite simply, in most markets, prospects now have more access to choice and information than ever before. This has altered the way buyers access choice and make decisions. Simple logic would, therefore, dictate that sellers have to react and alter their own behaviour.
Below are three questions every salesperson should be asking themselves today:
1. Where do I add value?
Quite simply, salespeople used to provide value by turning up. In a world where there was limited access to information, seeing a few sales reps was an efficient way for a customer to find out what was going on in a particular marketplace. This is no longer the case. Today, customer perception is that they can find out most of the information they require online. Therefore, salespeople have to define where they provide value in a face-to-face meeting. Regurgitating information that is already widely available, is not enough. Today, salespeople need to provide “insight”. That is, a perspective and understanding of which the prospect was previously unaware. This means that salespeople now have to be real experts in their field.
2. Do I understand the context of the purchase?
In a world where the customer is empowered, they have often undertaken much of their own research before they even speak to a salesperson. This means that salespeople are often seeing prospects a lot later in the buying cycle. In this scenario, it is imperative that the salesperson understands the context in which the purchase is being made. No-one ever wakes up in the morning and decides they want a new software system, training provider or photocopier. Understanding the events that are driving the interest in the purchase is vital.
3. How do I create a sales experience?
The web has provided everyone today with a voice. If they choose, people can post comments and views on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others and be read by an audience of which they could only have dreamed, a few years ago. People have become empowered and more active. For example, nearly all of the biggest shows on British TV today allow the audience to decide the outcome. People no longer want to be passive recipients. Now, they want to be involved in the process. In this context, just going through a boring sales presentation will not capture the imagination of a customer. Today, salespeople need to get the customer involved in the process. In other words, they must provide an experience.
These are just some of the new paradigms that salespeople have to deal with today. It is the best salespeople who will consider these type of questions and outperform others who are still trying to make the “old models” work in a world that has moved on.
- Grant LeBoff is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and CEO of the Sticky Marketing Club.
You can read more about improving your sales in our dedicated sales strategy section.
How to avoid the summer holiday hangover
September 19, 2012
The summer holiday period can be a frustrating time for salespeople. Buyers and decision-makers are on holiday or are busy covering for colleagues who are. Your own production, warehousing and delivery staff are off and you may have been away as well.
If we’re not careful, that summer holiday feeling can drag over into late September, and even October in some cases. And by the time you come to your senses, it’s nearly Christmas and your sales figures are nowhere near where they should be.
To avoid that summer holiday hangover, follow the simple tips below and just watch the impact on your sales figures.
1. Take a long hard look at your pipeline
September is a great time to sit down and analyse your sales pipeline. You’ll have had a number of people say to you “call me back after the holidays”, and perhaps now you’re struggling to get hold of those people? Or they suddenly don’t sound as keen to meet you (or buy from you) as they did before the holidays?
That’s probably because the “call me back after the holidays” was a simple objection, and you didn’t deal with it very well! Now, it’s a few weeks later and their level of interest (if they had any in the first place) has cooled from lukewarm at best to pretty much cold. Sometimes you can revive it, and sometimes you just need to move on.
2. Be more realistic
As salespeople, we tend to be positive. Sometimes we’re even guilty of being over-positive. And nowhere is a better example of that than with our own sales pipeline.
I’ve worked with some salespeople in the past that are entirely convinced that everything in their pipeline is going to come in, and probably this month. And most salespeople probably need the majority of it to come in, to have any chance of hitting their target.
However, September is the time for more realism about sales pipelines. If the people who said “call me back after the holidays” are no longer that interested, get them out of the pipeline.
3. Re-qualify if necessary
This is a really important point and one that is overlooked by the majority of people. If it’s several weeks since you spoke to the prospect last then there is a good chance that their situation has changed.
This means that their buying motivation may have changed, the drivers behind their initial interest and potentially the business or divisional goals may well have altered in that time. Therefore it’s imperative that you re-qualify the sales opportunity to ensure there is still good potential for bringing in this piece of business, quickly.
4. Get things moving
Once you’ve taken the above steps, for any potential deals or prospects that are still in your pipeline, it’s important to get them moving. Far too many salespeople sit on a big pipeline, with deals or customers that have been stuck at one stage or another for ages, without any idea of when or how they’re going to move to the next stage.
Depending on the length of your sales-cycle, if you’ve got deals or prospects that have been “stuck” at one stage or another for a while, you need to take a close look at them and determine some actions to get them moving through the pipeline, or get them out.
Sales managers and directors much prefer realistic pipelines to ones that are pie in the sky. It also can be quite demoralising for a salesperson to have an unrealistic pipeline, as the more deals or prospects that don’t convert, the worse the sales person feels, and their confidence, attitude and motivation are affected — therefore they’re less likely to bring in the other deals.
So, be more realistic about your pipeline, get the deals or prospects out that are unlikely to convert, re-qualify them if necessary and get what’s left moved through your pipeline — and you’ll see an immediate impact in your sales performance.
Andy Preston is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a leading expert on sales. His website is at www.andypreston.com.
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