Seeing a customer transaction over the finishing line. Sealing a deal. Making a sale. They’re probably the single most important aspects of business — they always have been, and always will be. Why is this? Because when a sale isn’t made, neither is a profit. And when a profit isn’t made, the necessary outgoings like bills and payroll can’t be paid. And when they can’t be paid, a business is going to find itself in a piping bowl of hot water. And when this happens to a business it is in serious, serious danger of being a business no more. So, if you are business owner, and if there’s just one thing you do, let it be making that sale! Below you can find advice on how to do so if this has become a difficulty for you and your business as of late.
In the world of sale making you have to try your best to entice your customers. To do this you have to display everything you possibly can about your business, without being too overt when you do so. This is because you want to ensure your customers not only know of the existence of your business’s services and produce, but you want them to see them. A tried and tested trick when it comes to displaying produce is to take to advertising them in a POS (point-of-sale) display .
Now, this may seem overt and too ‘in the face’ of your customers as, fundamentally, it is just a sales promotion that packs a lot of produce into one area. What’s more, it’s generally situated as close to the till as possible, which could deem it be a last ditch attempt at making a sale. But POS displays are not overt, simply because customers expect them to be there. They expect to see at least one big display in a store or in any other area that a business sells things in. Furthermore, they expect to see a POS display stood right in front of the till. This is just common shopping knowledge. So, the POS is one way you can get away with displaying a lot of items together, without it being too much for your customers to contend with.
And you should make sure your POS display has the mobility it needs to be able to be moved about your store by having Hudson Bearings’ locking ball casters fitted to the bottom of it. This means that your display, no matter if its curved or ridged, will be able to be moved freely. Thus, you can put it wherever you see fit! It is probably best to keep it as close to the checkout as possible, however, just to try and tempt your customers into making one last purchase before they pay up.
But making a sale isn’t just about displaying your produce in the most advertising and enticing ways. It’s about offering a service that induces a sale too. And one way to ensure your business’s services are inducing as many sales as possible is to make sure your employees are well versed in the art of deal sealing . Your employees are your field operatives. They are the ones who are out there, in the midst of the battle for sales, at all times. They are the ones who spend the most time out on the customer floor. Therefore, you have to ensure that your employees are able to seal your business a deal — especially when you, yourself are not there to oversee it. To do this, you have to ensure you provide them with the tools needed to seal deals. This could mean you — being the pro deal sealer you are — take to teaching your employees yourself about the ins and outs of the art. Or it could mean sending your employees on specialised corporate sales training. Whatever route you take, you have to ensure your employees are well versed in a number of areas. They should be as educated as possible in regards to the produce and services your business offers, as well as how to get the best of them in worded descriptions, so that they are able to sell. They should be able to get the best out of a conversation with a customer and lead it in the direction they want, so that they are able to negotiate. And they should be able to choose the right words and actions for the right situations, so that they are able to present. Basically, your employees need to be able to seal deals and make sales. And they need to be able to seal and make them quickly too. Deals can be sealed in seven seconds ; your employees should be aware of this and should always work towards it. If they can’t, then you will find that your business misses out on a lot of potential sales. This then means you will miss out on a lot of potential profit too.
Whether it be you, your employees or the way you display your produce that makes that all important sale, you have to make it. But what is that ‘all important’ sale? Well, it’s every sale you make. Every chance your business has to make a sale, and make a profit, should be treated uniquely. It should be treated with care. It should be treated as both the first sale you ever make, and the last. Every single time you are afforded the opportunity to grab a sale, you must grab it. This is because of the simple fact that you don’t own the power of the sale, your customer does. And when you are lucky enough to have a customer thinking about offering you a sale, you need to try and entice it out of them by catering to them .
You need to do this as you never know when you’ll next be lucky enough to be offered a sale by a customer. So, get out there and set your displays up in as enticing and advertising way as possible. Make sure your employees know how to sniff out when a deal can be sealed, and then know how to seal it. And make sure you, yourself are treating every single sale you make as your most important yet!
Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.