Doing this ONE thing will make you more money…
I was out to eat with some friends at a local sushi restaurant and after we ate our rolls, I kept going back and forth about ordering the really tasty green tea mochi ice cream. One one hand, I’ve been working hard to eat well in the new year, but on the other hand – I really wanted the ice cream. I wasn’t quite decided until one of my friends decided to order it. She and the waitress had a little mis-communication figuring out what flavor she was going to get, which must have flustered the waitress because she as soon as she got my friend’s ice cream order, she turned and walked away from the table. If she would have asked me, I would have ordered the ice cream. But since she didn’t, I kept my mouth shut.
When you or your employees are dealing with customers, ensuring consistency with ONE thing will dramatically improve your bottom line.
Ask for the sale. Every. Single. Time.
When I worked in banking sales in a previous job I would come up with excuses for myself if I wasn’t careful – the person didn’t act interested, I’ve asked them about the product before, the last customer was rude, etc, etc, etc. It wasn’t until that I made it a non-negotiable part of every transaction did I start to be more successful in the position.
In another banking job that I worked, I was on the ‘front line’ and worked with customers every day, but was not trained or given incentive to make sure that the customer had and understood all of our different products, was spending their money with us instead of a competitor, or spreading the business brand message. In my opinion, this is a huge opportunity lost. Consumers need to be educated on the value of your products in every step of the buying process. They need to be reminded of your brand promise at every contact. They need to know when you have new products that benefit them. They need to be asked for a sale.
Disclaimer: I’m not advocating that you ask a customer to buy something RIGHT AWAY first time they come in contact with your business. But, give them (tasteful) opportunities to buy at several points during the buying process.
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