You sell what you are sold on

Back in the day, I operated menswear stores in Canada. A constant frustration was that my part-time employees thwarted potential revenue by failing to sell what was really possible given the opportunities they had. Let me explain.

Part-time employees tended to sell the least expensive clothes in the store. Instead of selling the $750 suits, they often steered customers to the $299 styles. Instead of promoting the $50 or $100 ties, the part-time staff often sold the $19 discount variety. Rather than selling multiple shirts to a buyer, they often sold just one.

While I coached the workers to sell the higher-priced items and multiples of the lower-priced items, my training didn’t create a discernable result. I even increased the commissions they could earn—still no change.

Comparatively, my full-time staff confidently sold the expensive clothing. If someone wanted a pair of socks, they would often leave with two or more of the better brand. The difference between the average transaction value for full-time staff compared with that of part-time staff was dramatic.

There had to be a reason for this difference. Both were trained the same way and had the opportunity to sell the same items to the array of customers who walked through our door.

But this one little clue helped explain it: The full-time staff had tried on and experienced wearing the clothes we sold while the part timers had not. The full-time staff had the income to buy, at a discount, the more expensive clothing we stocked, which wasn’t the case with the part-time staff.

The part timers sold what they did in the manner they did because they couldn’t imagine themselves buying anything other than those styles. It was difficult for them to sell something to a customer they didn’t believe they would ever purchase themselves. They possessed a huge mental sales block; they could not sell what they were not sold on.

Are you or your staff experiencing a mental sales block?

To sell your services at an appropriate and profitable price, you have to believe that, as a prospect, you would gladly pay that price in exchange for the service provided. You must be firmly committed to the value you provide and then be able to translate that belief—with conviction—to the prospect. If not, you and your staff will be unconsciously drawn to sell at the lowest possible price—the one you really believe it is worth.

Tom Adams is an executive coach and strategic advisor to the records and information management industry. To learn more about how he helped his part-time staff to sell more high-priced items, go to http://TomAdams.com/sell-sold-on.