Retailing is about selling. Everything we do is about having customers purchase merchandise from us.
We make our shops look nice so that customers will buy more merchandise.
We advertise so that more customers will buy.
We promote so that more customers will buy.

But if we do everything right - we have the best displays, the best location, the best advertising, the best promotions, the best merchandise, at the lowest possible price - and a staff member ignores or insults a customer - it's all for nothing.

Successful retailing depends on positive contact between the customer and staff. Think of selling as providing a service. After all, that's what your customers want.

Too many small business people spend inordinate amounts of time and money trying to increase their profitability by attracting new customers, when all along they’re allowing a goldmine of profits to slip by right under their nose.

What is a Bump?
On each and every transaction you have the opportunity to increase your margins dramatically with a simple “bump” or “up-sell”. Bumps are offers made at the point of sale by giving a simple suggestion.
For instance, when I’m on the road, one of the easiest places for breakfast is McDonalds. I always order a Sausage Muffin and a flat white and each time I go to order, the counter person asks me if I’d like to have the large coffee. Errr, yeeesssss. This is a good example of a bump.

“What’s the point of training my staff? I no sooner train them and they leave.”
So many times, this is the lament I hear from retailers. My answer is always the same:
“Your choice is to train them and run the risk of them leaving, or NOT training them and run the risk of them staying…..”
As a store, you’re either getting better or getting worse and in order to succeed, you need a store that is clean, well organised, properly merchandised and with salespeople who are trained well and WANT to sell.
I hasten to add, though, training for the sake of training – with no means of measurement – is a waste of time and money. What is the point of spending time training people if you don’t measure the improvement in your business?
The only reason to ever do sales training is to improve a sales statistic.
Let’s assume you have a store that is ready to sell. The product is displayed beautifully, the store is organised and as clean as can be. All the elements are in place for you to really sell and expand the business. The key element missing is: SALESPEOPLE.

It’s a funny thing, the decisions you make and where they take you. Never ever in a million years did I think I would “sell” anything.

The thought of selling was anathema to me ... and yet my first job was in a retail business (administration area NOT selling), I worked for a while in a legal firm – billing out hours (but never considering it “selling”), worked on ministerial staff in Federal politics but again never considered anything we did “selling”, and so it went until one day a friend of mine needed my help.

He asked me to help him sell some products he believed in.

I was nearly sick.

Because the “selling” involved standing up in front of people and “selling” his product.