Sharing Product Details With Customers

So often stores are saturated with products that customers never even know exist. Wall shelves are stacked deep and display bars are heavy with inventory that even employees aren’t educated about. As managers and store owners, it is essential to communicate product details with your sales team so that they don’t become lost in your store displays. Instead, your sales associates should actively communicate these details with customers in an effort to help customer’s make informative shopping decisions. Without sharing the details of your product information, it’s likely are losing sales.

[tweetmeme]To kick start this game plan with your sales team, a Product Orientation should be planned. This Orientation can be as formal or informal as you see necessary for your store, but the main goal either way should be to get your team educated on all your products. Whether you are selling footwear, soap, telephones or toys, there are always details to learn about that will help enhance your products in sell-thru. A few key things to consider include:

1. Have a reference spot dedicated to product knowledge for your associates to refer to. This could be a bulletin board in your stockroom or a binder filled with product information – or both. Identify key highlights on products that should be among the top details for them to share with customers. For example, if a new product has recently replaced an old product, identifying what makes the new one better would be critical in communicating to customers.

2. Create a list of “How To Share” details for your associates to reference. This list should give easy conversation openings into how they can share product details with customers. Aside from direct questions being asked by the customers, associates should initiate these conversations to help encourage sales. An example is, “We recently received this (name product here) and have found it’s (name specific feature here) to be very effective in (name purpose here).”

3. Give your associates challenges to meet in regards to educating themselves and educating customers. If you don’t set the bar high for them to reach, they won’t know how far they should go in terms of learning and sharing. Some associates will naturally want to learn new product details and in return, they will likely share these details with customers. But many associates need an extra push – and that push needs to come from you.

The goal of educating your team is not just to make your job harder and their days busier, but to gain additional sales as a result. Informative associates equal informed customers. Clients will become more educated on your overall product assortment and in return, more sales will be made. There is nothing more satisfying than a customer returning to a store after being given a great product sales pitch and saying, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that product you showed me.” Your reward? Sales. More money. Happy customers. Satisfied employees. The list can go on and on! So what are you waiting for? Start educating and start selling!