Beloved Appliance Retailer columnist Bob Johnson recently celebrated 20 years providing real-life, practical sales tips for sales staff in stores throughout Australia. To mark the occasion, Bob narrowed down all the pearls of wisdom he has personally divined and adopted from learned colleagues and mentors into a Top 20 set of favourite tips.

Most of the following ‘tips’ I’ve learned first-hand, from the many wonderful owners and managers with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working, and quite a few came to me via a kind of osmosis. And, yes, sometimes I have taken a tip from poor managers, by doing the complete opposite!

With a working life stretching back 50 years, one would think it would be difficult to come up with the number one tip, but I found it was pretty easy. I think the best tip I ever received came from an early supervisor, Jim Edwards, who was witnessing me, as a new manager, disappearing under a pile of disorganisation, frustration and unfinished tasks. During a high-volume chat he had with me about trying to do everything myself, he gave me some tips on delegation and, somewhere in that conversation, Jim said

1. “You should always train your replacement, because if you can’t be replaced you can’t be promoted.”

Oh, how right he was; that strategy has worked for me throughout my management career and I’ve passed that advice on to many hundreds of others.

It’s my #1 tip because, not only was I improving my chances of advancement, I was developing other people in the process, which was motivating for them. I was also proving to my teams that I trusted them; I was also freeing up time I spent on routine tasks, enabling me to focus on more important, business building endeavours. And I was helping people, which has been the driving force behind everything I’ve done in this fantastic industry.

Here are those other nineteen tips, in no particular order:

2. The customer may not always be ‘right’ – but the customer IS always FIRST. Give customers your undivided attention; be ‘in the moment’ when you’re with them, everything else can wait.

3. Keep customers informed. If you have to walk away from your customer to go to the store room or counter, tell the customer what you are doing. If you have updates on deliveries or non-deliveries, keep customers in the loop.

4. Over-promise and then over-deliver. Delivering ‘good’ service isn’t good enough — aim for ‘amazing’ or ‘outstanding’ service — that will get you talked about.

5. Thank as many customers as you can for coming into your store and invite them back.

6. Ask at least five qualifying questions before you take a customer near a product to show and demonstrate it.

7. Don’t give your customer too many choices. You’re the expert, so recommend a product based on what you’ve learned from the customers’ answers to your questions.

8. ‘Features’ differentiate products. ‘Benefits’ differentiate customers.

9. People often buy emotionally and then defend the purchase logically.

10. In relation to add-on items, don’t ask, “Would you like…?”  Simply say, “Now, you’ll need…” And when selling up or selling on, “let the customer put the brakes on”.

11. Welcome unhappy customers! Dissatisfied customers who have their problem resolved quickly, effectively and to their complete satisfaction actually become more loyal to the business than they might have been without the problem! Additionally, they often become ambassadors for the store and its ‘outstanding’ service.

12. When dealing with an upset customer/colleague there will be two aspects to deal with; the facts of the matter and the emotions. Always deal with the emotions first.

13. When thanking employees or co-workers for their work, be specific about what you liked and why you liked it.

14. Try taking the time to give your ‘thank you’ as a hand-written note/card and watch the reaction.

15. Don’t just send thank you notes to your customers; sent them to employees, suppliers and people you get good service from as well.

16. Have the store owner or manager personally call selected customers and thank them for their purchase/business if the sale was made by another staff member.

17. Do something different and newsworthy for your next promotional event. Customers have seen “Sale”, “Clearance”, “Prices Slashed”, et cetera, far too often. Be imaginative, even theatrical (‘Retail is Theatre’).

18. When building displays, the circle is a powerful focusing tool. Try it!

19. Never ever say anything negative about another company. As Will Rogers said, “Never wrestle with a pig: you both get dirty and the pig loves it”.

20. If you’re not enjoying yourself at work, how enjoyable is it for your customers?

Bob Johnson is the principal of Applied Retail Training. You can email him at training@exemail.com.au.