Creating an Effective Retail Sales Strategy
How to create a retail sales strategy that works!
Do you know how to create a sales strategy? This is the top question I get when I’m putting retail managers through training. I use a tool called a Day At A Glance worksheet, but it’s more commonly known as The Daily Sheet, and there’s one box labeled “Sales Strategy” right under “Product Focus” that gives everyone trouble.
“Amanda, what do I write in that box?”
Today I’m breaking it down for everyone, because Holiday is coming and it’s important that we get this right if we’re going to experience any type of meaningful growth over these last two months of the year.
First, you have to know the numbers, collect them, understand them. I see so many stores stop there, and unfortunately you’re not even close to being finished. You have your sales goals but now what? The numbers mean nothing without a plan to make them happen. I say this all the time but here’s another reminder in case you’re new around here: you are happening to the results. Which means your planning absolutely makes a difference if it’s well thought out and well executed. We can sit back and let the sales do whatever they want, but sales results are always better when we’re actively influencing the service quality in our store with a solid plan and organization.
“I want to make $1200 today” is a great start, but what will you do to make it happen?
You have to believe it. If you’re apprehensive or doubtful you’re simply not approaching goal setting with the positive energy or the BELIEF required to get it done. Goal setting and strategy creation have no room for self sabotage. If you can’t get behind the plan, make one that you can get behind. One that gets you extremely excited, and will get your team and your customers excited too.
The first thing that derails plans all the time is a lack of energy and commitment to the plan. If you’re the leader, it’s important for me to tell you:
NO ONE WILL STICK TO THE PLAN IF YOU DON’T STICK TO THE PLAN.
It’s totally fine to rewrite the plan, to pivot, to adjust, but there’s a difference between pivoting and abandoning. Please be mindful of which you are doing.
Let’s say your product focus is shoes. It’s now your job to make sure you're doing everything you can to support that focus with your actions and your words.
So the shoes are on promotion.
How will the customer know that?
How will you pull their attention to that promotion and more importantly all the wonderful shoe options?
Here’s what I’m looking for:
Is there signage around the whole store marketing this promo?
Are the sales associates consistently telling each customer about it with energy and enthusiasm?
Are the shoes moved to a prominent area of the store that will grab the customers attention?
Are shoes fully stocked in all sizes?
Are sales associates asking customers what their shoe size is and grabbing them a shoe to go with their outfit while they’re in the fitting room?
If the answer is no, then we know we’re not doing all we can, and we’re not taking ownership and control over influencing the sale. Our actions and words aren’t actually supporting the product focus which makes our goal much harder to achieve. We don’t have a strategy at all.
I could even argue that this is not truly a product focus if you aren’t actively and consistently directing the customers focus to the product. It’s not a product focus if you and your team aren’t focused on building sales around that product consistently all day long.
So, let’s back up and walk through the steps of making a rock solid sales strategy.
You have to know what you’re trying to achieve. What is the goal? Be specific. Without specifics it’s really difficult to make a plan. Know the goal you want to achieve and reverse engineer your day.
Identify where you want the team to concentrate their effort with a product focus and some promotions. You have thousands of products and if you try to sell all the products to all the people, you’ll be pulled in a million different directions. You won’t know what to say to the customer when they come in. Select products and promotions that help you achieve your goal easily, and don’t you dare feel bad about having an agenda. Your plan is to simultaneously take really good care of both your store and your customer and that’s nothing to feel bad about.
For example: Stacy wants to make $3000 today. She knows she needs to make $500 an hour. She only has one promo right now that is 3 for $20 headbands. That promo is not going to help her sell $500 an hour, so she knows that can’t be the first thing she talks to the customer about. Instead, she makes the product focus blazers. She has twenty blazers priced at $60 each. She knows that if she layers a shirt under them, talks them up to each customer and THEN tells customers about the headbands later in their shopping experience she’ll be selling at least $115 per customer. That focus can absolutely help her make her $500 sales goal each hour.
3. Control what you can. What can she do to make sure each customer knows about the blazers? Right now she knows they’re on a rack in the middle of the store on the wall, so she moves the blazers near the front of the store on a rack with some attention-grabbing signage. They will be the first thing the customer sees when they walk in. She creates a thoughtful display with lots of different tops and bottoms that mix and match with the blazers. Then she posts these different outfits on social media, and creates a sense of urgency around them by reminding her followers that she only has 20. Last, she makes sure she tells every customer about the blazers when they walk in and adds at least one to each fitting room.
It’s important to note that Stacy did not put the blazers on a promotion or discount. She’s simply building excitement around a product that is a popular fall style staple right now by controlling what she can: her enthusiasm, the product placement, the merchandising, the signage, the marketing, and how consistently she’s talking about them. You do not need to put a product on a promotion to sell it quickly. You do not need a thorough strategy though.
4. Communication. Now, as each new team member on the sales staff comes in for their shift, Stacy is telling them about the blazer focus, what she’s been doing and how it’s helping them achieve their goals. She sets the expectation for them to do the same, and keeps the focus and enthusiasm going. She explains why consistency is important, and how they cannot skip or neglect the product focus.
5. Monitor the metrics. Stacy will continue to track her progress, and the success of the blazers sell through. If the team is struggling she will re-evaluate and they will adjust their approach (what they’re doing and saying) until they start to see the results that they want. They cannot get discouraged if the first two shoppers don’t buy blazers, or don’t seem excited about it. They have to keep trying. Consistency is important. It’s important that the team pivots and adjusts based on the customers needs because although blazers are the focus, if the customer truly doesn’t want a blazer, the team should listen and make more appropriate customized suggestions. Knowing what the customer isn’t interested in can be just as helpful. Through a process of elimination you can still use blazers as a great measuring stick and use that information to help the customer find something they really love.
It’s important to note that all strategies are fluid and you will absolutely have to adjust and pivot in the moment with every customer so we can offer them a customized experience based on their needs.
6. Write it all down. Your team can’t read your mind and they might need something to reference, especially when you step away from the sales floor. Make sure you write down the plan, and step by step how you expect everyone to follow it. Build enthusiasm, excitement and energy around the product focus, and test them on the info by asking them to repeat back what you have told them. This is called a run down.
After reviewing the material I would ask things like:
So what’s the product focus?
And how are we going to bring those to every customer's attention today?
How many blazers do you think you can sell before your shift ends?
What are you going to sell with the blazers to get every customer over $100? Awesome! Let’s see!
Where are you zoned today?
What are your responsibilities in that zone?
This little quiz is meant to check their understanding, and to hold them accountable to the plan. I have now insured that they cannot come back later and tell me they didn’t know something or they didn’t have all the details. Now you’re ready to create your own sales strategy.
Once you have your goal ask yourself the following questions:
Which products ( or combo of products) will help us achieve our goals today the fastest and the easiest? And why?
What can we do in store (that we have full control over) to bring more attention to this product?
Are we skipping anything that could help us provide an incredible shopping experience to the customer? Is there anything we can do to be more thoughtful?
Is the store set with signage, marketing, and merchandising to help us support our product focus and sales goals?
Is it written down?
Has the team been quizzed?
If you need any help creating a sales strategy, or establishing a routine in your store that helps you get all of this complete quickly each morning, I have tools and resources available. Don’t forget to have fun with it and reach out if you have any questions!