Want fries with that?

Most of us probably would have toadmit that at one time or another wehave succumbed to the fast-food drive-in experience. In case that doesn’t sound familiar, I will try to jog your memory:You pull up at a nationally known burger joint and stare at menu board,trying to figure out just exactly what willdo the least amount of damage to yourarteries while some barely audible kid’svoice blares at you from a tin speaker.Inevitably, whatever I order, whether it isa hamburger at lunch or a cup of coffeein the morning on my way to anappointment, the follow-upquery seems to be, “Do youwant fries with that?” Mostrecently, this query has beenrefined to inquire as to the sizeof fries I might want, addingthat I can be super-sized for asmall upcharge. The amazingthing to me is that it alwaysseems to be fries that are beingpushed, even if fries don’t exact-ly match up with my order.I’m the type of person whowould order fries if I wantedfries, so I am not a good candidate in thisenvironment. I have to assume, however,that this strategy works for most cus-tomers, or the burger joints wouldn’tcontinually use it. If you know the natureof retail sales people, you know that sug-gestive selling is a technique that mustconstantly be reinforced. I would assumethat to not suggest fries is met withsome mild admonishment at the veryleast—and with a much harsher repri-mand or some equally punitive reminderat worst.The bottom line is that the mar-gin on fries must be outstanding.IncreasedSalesVolume—andMarginThe point is, suggestive selling not onlyworks, but can add significant percent-age to store sales volume and margin. Inmost shoe stores, shoe care products,insoles, and even socks for that matterwouldn’t achieve the volume levels theyhit today if not for suggestion by a sales-person. According to the National ShoeRetailers Association’s 2008-09 BusinessPerformance Report, sales of non-footwear items increased from 7.6% ofsales to over 12% of sales between 2003and 2007. There is even some specula-tion that this increase may contributefavorably to the improvement in storeturnover that has been reported. I seethis as a distinct possibility.My contention is that suggestive sell-ing,whendoneproperly,isnotonlyaddi-tional sales and profits to the store, butalso service and therefore value to thecustomer. Inexperienced or poorlytrained sales associates are happy when acustomer simply makes a buying deci-sion for a primary item. The only otherdecision that therefore needs to be madein their mind is method of payment. Theseasoned sales person, on the otherhand, sees the selling process as justbeginning when the customer agrees tothe shoe, sandal or boot. Socks are a no-brainer for shoes and boots. There willalso be no better time to suggest shoecare products and insoles. Handbags andbelts in some stores can also improve thevalue of the transaction.MakeItFunGetting sales associates to rememberto offer additional items to acustomer requires constantattention. Making a gameout of suggestive selling canmake for a lively morningmeeting with the sales staff.Give the same item to sever-al different sales people atthe same time, and allowthem each thirty seconds topick up as many additionalitems as they can think of.Thirty seconds is about thetime you have to take a cus-tomers purchase to the cashcheck out area. Have each associateexplain what items they found, and whythey felt they would be a good compli-menting purchase, and then add up thetotal value of this imaginary sale. Thengive the associate who has come upwith the most profitable list of add-onsales some small recognition—say, fiveor ten dollars.This is all about more sales and youwant to instill the fact that the more yousell, the more everyone makes.This exer-cise brings a lot of fun and laughter asyou discuss the items and add up their“DoYouWantFrieswithThat?”Ritchie SaynerPage 221value. Watch how this simple little exer-cise translates into more added salesduring the days that follow. Better yet,use it as a kick-off to a week-long conteston suggestive selling. Give prizes for first,second and third place. Make it compet-itive—you can also post each day’sresults in the back room to make it funfor everyone.It’sNot“Pushy”I have heard store owners complainthat some sales people feel that theymight be pushing something on thecustomer that they don’t want. Myanswer to that is always the same: If thecustomer doesn’t want it, she will let youknow. If you don’t ask, you will neverknow—and your customer may havemissed out on something that she sim-ply hadn’t thought of, something thatcould make her day (or her outfit). One ofthe main responsibilities of the salesassociate is to give the customer theopportunity to make the purchase. Afterall, isn’t that is what sales associates arebeing paid to do? And who better tomake an add-on suggestion than a salesassociate, who has product knowledge,a sense of what goes together, and infor-mation on what’s trendy, fresh and/orunique?Retailers continually struggle to rein-vent themselves, refine assortments andclosely manage expenses and inventory.I encourage all retailers to pay moreattention to suggestive selling practicesthis coming year as well. Teach yourselfto listen to the techniques retailers out-side the footwear industry use in sugges-tive selling. It doesn’t matter whetherthey’re selling tires, food, jewelry, booksor something else. How they do it couldbe adaptable to your store, for whateverkinds of additional items you carry. Andthe next time someone asks you if “youwant fries with that?” you’ll be able torecognize suggestive selling for what itreally is: more sales and better profits.IRitchie Sayner is vice president of busi-ness development at RMSA RetailSolutions, which works with retailers toimprove performance.