3 Simple Ideas To Increase Summer Sales

by . Posted on
Increase Summer Sales
23 Jul

It seems like kids just naturally know what they have to do to be successful at sales.  Be available when the customer wants to buy, have something the customer wants, smile a lot, chat it up a bit and have tons of fun.

Maybe it is just that simple when it comes to making sales during the hot summer months.

Here are three Simple ideas that can have an immediate impact on your summer sales.

1. Improve Night and Weekend inquiry first Impressions:

70% of the night and weekend mystery shop calls show that prospects who call after work are being helped by someone who, in their opinion, is not trained well and has trouble offering even the most basic help and information.

Shoppers are reporting that in most cases, they would not consider visiting based on their experience.

  • The person answering the phone, especially at night, should be professional and capable.  They should be comfortable to asking a few questions and making the prospect feel valued without giving away the farm or asking them to call back in the morning.  Can your night staff pass this test? 
    • Answer the phone in three rings or less and provide a standard, professional, upbeat greeting?  Remember that the prospects will judge your service based on their first impressions. 
    • Ask some basic questions, get the critical information and make an appointment for the follow up.  Our mystery shops show that in more than 50% of the calls, the shopper is not even asked for their phone number.
    • Walk the caller through a simple sales process to reassure them that they have called the Right Place.  In just a few minutes the night staff can ask a few questions and then confidently reassure the caller that they don’t have to look any further for the best place for their loved one.  

2. Web inquiries:

50% + of the web inquiries were not responded to at all and 65% of the web inquiry responses occurred after the first 6 hours and/or had grammatical errors.

  • The sales team should be providing immediate and personalized web Inquiry follow up and follow through:
    • A personal email from a sales person within 15 minutes.  These days shoppers will just move on to the next website unless the response is immediate and engaging.   
    • A standard Email format for content, grammar and spelling.  We are finding a lot of inconsistency and even grammar and spelling errors.  
    • A compelling reason to chat by phone as soon as possible.  Often the response to a web inquiry does not suggest or enable the shopper to do much except call back.  
    • A phone call to the prospect within 5 minutes if a number was provided. 

3. Incoming sales calls:

54% of the mystery shoppers said that they did not feel they connected with the sales person and were neutral or worse as far as their intention to visit the community as a result of their calling experience.

  • The sales team should control the initial call by asking questions and listening vs. talking and no laundry listing.
    • How to listen instead of talk on the call
    • How to build trust and confidence with the caller
    • How to ask the appropriate questions to learn the situation and urgency
    • How to ask for the visit in a clear and direct way and overcome objections

Download The Peak Phone Sales Call Guide.

You can learn more about our state of the industry mystery shopping at  www.Peak PerformanceMS.com or reach Will Nowell directly at wnowell@peakperformancems.com at (602) 284-0124.

Will Nowell is the President of Peak Performance MS and the author of ValueMatch Selling.   William Nowell has been providing sales consulting and training in the retirement industry for more than 25 years.

by Will Nowell