Adam Hankinson, Managing Director at Furniture Sales Solutions, shares three top tips for a jolly Christmas sale.
The holiday season is nearly upon us and with the Christmas period accounting for around 20% of annual furniture sales it’s crucial that we make the most of every opportunity. Here are 3 techniques that we’ll be encouraging our delegates to really hone in on this December.
1. Set focused, achievable goals
Even though your store’s going to be busier than usual once your sale begins, this doesn’t mean that you should let the good sales habits you’ve developed over the rest of the year fall by the wayside.
Just focusing on improving the part of the sales process where you know you’re weakest can make all the difference. For example, if your approach tends to be poor then focus on welcoming every customer with a genuine smile, some useful information to help them navigate the store (e.g. “Just to let you know the sofas on display come in multiple colours, materials, sizes, etc”), then an opening that allows for you to re-approach them.
2. Be the perfect host
With the rush of customers in your store it’s easy to get overwhelmed and try to rush through as many interactions as possible. Instead, we recommend that you deliver the same friendly welcome and focused attention to every customer as you would any other time of year.
Customers are likely to be feeling even more rushed and stressed than usual about the whole shopping experience, probably visiting multiple stores in the little free time that they have at this time of year.
Bringing them into the fold and slowing the process down by asking meaningful and relevant questions to fulfil their needs will help them relax and make them much more likely to make the purchase in the end.
We’d encourage you to smile and acknowledge every customer who enters, even when you’re with your customer, as even this small gesture helps to create a positive shopping experience.
3. Learn to handle “When does your sale finish?”
You’re likely to hear this all the time over the Christmas period, sometimes even before the sale has actually begun! It’s a question that I think deserves a lot more consideration than most people give it.
When the customer asks this, what they actually mean is, “When does the sale finish… because I’m interested in a particular item, and I would like you to give me justification and reassure me why it’s ok to buy today”.
With this in mind, our answer should sound something like “Great question, if I were you I’d ask the same. This particular promotion ends on X date, but if you just show me the sofa you’re looking at it may be that this product is falling in or out of that promotion”.
This then allows us an opening to start to guide the customer through our usual sales journey, telling them all about it, getting them sat down on it, finding out all their needs and wants, as well as justifying all the reasons that they shouldn’t defer buying it (e.g. “Just to let you know this is on a 20-week lead time…”).
Try these three simple tips to make the most of the Christmas rush, create happier customers, and record-breaking sales!
