Ten sales tips for furniture business owners and design associates.
1. Do plenty of research to discover precisely what your prospects problem is. Then discover precisely how you will remedy it.
2. There must be a clear benefit to the customer or prospect for using your product or service, and it MUST be communicated. Said another way, answer this question from their point of view: How will I clearly benefit from this product or service?
3. Treat your customer or prospect the way you would treat yourself or a friend.
4. Place your marketing materials and marketing efforts where you know your customers and prospects will certainly see them. Don’t waste your time feeding the ducks at a roller rink. Go where your prospect is highly likely to be. If possible, seek out the most successful prospects you can find—those that can purchase your offerings without struggle.
5. Talk to your prospect in terms of money—how what you offer will save them money, make them money, increase the value of what they already own, or help them to be more comfortable and successful around money. Or, help them to save time, have better health, or reduce stress which is actually saving them money. Show them how they will get a return on their investment; Show them the value of their purchase.
6. Your only job as a business owner (or business team-member) is to increase the income that comes into your business. Otherwise it is a hobby or ministry (which is fine if you want a hobby or ministry).
7. Don’t make excuses.
8. Ask the prospect to decide for him or herself is the value of your offer makes sense, and since you have communicated how it will solve a serious problem or create a great return on investment, they will agree that it does.
9. See objections as communication in disguise. Objections are big clues your customers give you to show them how you really can solve their problems. Reaffirm and settle their “fears”, then always go back to the real issue and don’t get sidetracked. Clearly show the bottom-line benefit and the exceptional value of your offer. Interestingly, it is never about price. It is always a question of whether the price they pay will be fully recovered in some form of meaningful value. Answer their question of how your offer will create for them a much better life!
10. Everyone you meet can either help you succeed or work to thwart your efforts to succeed, even if you think some people are inconsequential. Show respect to everyone— even if you think they would never be your customer or client, and treat them with dignity. You never know who they know or who they might talk to (or in what position they might be one day)!
Have a Wild Week of Your Own Business Wisdom!
Margo
Margarett (Margo) DeGange, M.Ed. is a contributor to FURNITURE WORLD Magazine an a Business and Design Coach in the Home Fashions Industry. She creates and delivers custom training programs for managed businesses and their sales consultants to help them communicate better with customers and increase sales and profits. Margarett is a Writer and Professional Speaker, and the President of The DeGangi Group and The DeGangi School of Interior Decoration, with both on sight and on-line courses in Interior Decorating, Marketing, and Redesign. For almost 20 years she has helped individuals and managed business owners in the interior fashions and decorating industries to earn more while fully enjoying the process.
Two of Margo’s popular products for furniture store owners and their sales professionals are The Decorating School Crash Course Power-Ed Pack (9 design lessons on video/audio with 12 hours of content), and the matching Decorating School Crash Course Learner Files to measure learning, provide added interactivity, and motivate sales consultants to own their opportunities for growth.
Visit Margo DeGange’s website at www.DecoratingForProfits.com for more information. Send email and questions to her at Margarett@furninfo.com.