Business Development Specialist

Using the marketing principle promotion in a retail environment is absolutely essential if a retailer is to ensure maximum sales.  Getting the promotional mix right is a sure way to keep the sales rolling in, what is the promotional mix, it is 5 ways in which you can promote your products, not all of them get used at once and depending on your target market some of them may never be used.  These 5 areas are advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing as a retail store manager I would like to concentrate on sales promotion and personal selling as these are the main areas under your direct influence.

Sales Promotion: There is one phrase that has stuck with me from the very first month I worked in retail and my manager at the time was telling me about the basic techniques in merchandising his imortal words were “eye level is buy level”.  His reasoning was that shoppers generally are lazy people, if items don’t stand out or are not staring them in the face then they wont see it, obviously you can’t have everything at eye level but a good manager will be able to prioritise which products would benefit the most in that position whilst still complementing the overall look of the store.

Which one stands out??

In a shop full of products how do you make a specific product stand out, for me, it was always keep it simple, if it was a single product then the “eye level is buy level” rule applied, get it under the customers nose, if you have sales literature to go with it even better, make sure it is in a prominent are within the store with maximum foot flow passing it, if you have windows, get the product in the window.  If there is a whole range of new products, then the “eye level is buy level” will not fit the bill so why not dedicate a whole wall to them or put them on stands towards the front of your store so as your customers come into the store so they trip over them, again, get them in the windows if you have them.  All this is common sense, why do I need to be spelling this out, in my experience it is too easy for a manager to over look the basics, especially if they are being inundated with stock from head office several times a week.  This is just a reminder, stand back, look at your store with customer eyes, what stands out, does it look good, is your store conveying the message that you want to convey?

Personal Selling: How good are your staff at selling your products, do they have enough product knowledge, when was the last time they had sales training, have they had sales training, do they no the importance of good customer service, do they practice good customer service?  Lots of questions and questions that every store manager should aask them selves.  Every store manager should also be a trainer to ensure their staff have to tools to sell the products confidently.  In the last of this series of blogs the last principal is people in this blog I cover off staff in a lot more detail.  Suffice to say, without them in most retail environments you will never be able to maximise your sales.

If you have any questions regarding anything in this article feel free to contact me or post your comments below.