Making your cash register sing

80 per cent of the retail industry will struggle to identify any advantages of the products they're attempting to add-on sell. Photo / Thinkstock

I'd like to share a great tip with you from Blair Stevenson, Brava Ltd on how to add on to a sale.

The famous McDonald's add-on question, 'Do you want fries with that?' works for them, but you shouldn't try a similar closed-ended question. It significantly decreases the strike rate (the percentage of customers who buy the add-on product).

Instead, divide information about your products or services into three categories:

1. Feature: a physical part or characteristic of your product or service.

2. Advantage: translates the feature into a reason for the customer to purchase.

3. Benefit: what the advantage will do for the customer.

Why? Sales effectiveness research has identified that talking to the customer only about features has absolutely no impact on the likelihood of making the sale.

Talking about the advantages that those features convey has a positive impact on the likelihood of making a sale. Talking about the benefits that are specific to that customer has a very positive impact on the likelihood of making the sale.

If you or your sales team don't have enough information to know exactly what the customers' needs are, then have them specify the advantages of the product to the customer they are attempting to add-on or cross-sell.

Sounds easy? Check what your salespeople are doing right now. If they're typical of the retail industry, 80 per cent will struggle to identify any advantages of the products they're attempting to add-on sell. And more than 90 per cent of them will lead into an add-on selling pitch with a closed question.

Even worse, they might be selling based on price - I wrote about this problem when visiting a hardware store: Losing your sale on price.

Written by Debbie Mayo-Smith, One of New Zealand's most in-demand speakers, trainers and bestselling authors. Debbie works with companies that want more effective staff. For more tips and business ideas sign up for her free monthly newsletter.