Tips, Tips, and More Tips
Certainly, a 12-percent unit sales decline doesn’t mean all companies are struggling. In fact, our panelists said the contrary. Either way, any bit of advice goes a long way for an industry competing against tons of technological gadgets, with another one, iPhone, now being released.
“One thing I’ve seen is some salespeople don’t properly qualify their customers,” said Baggs. “But that, I mean, ‘What kind of music do you play? What type of guitar do you have? What is your application going to be?’ You must focus on things that don’t necessarily always make the biggest sale, but things that really help the customer. A proper sales relationship has to start with finding out what a consumer really needs and matching those needs with the proper equipment. We try to pick dealers that our ideal customer will naturally gravitate to. So the dealer can have confidence that when they recommend our products that we’ll fulfill the promise.”
Warrick held a similar sentiment. “The biggest thing is knowing the features of what you’re selling,” he said. “The biggest thing with guitar amps is there are just so many flavors out there. You really have to qualify your customer. Is he a rock guy, is he a blues guy, is he a country guy? What sound is he looking for? You have to sidestep your own biases and try to find that best amp for the customer.”
“You sell an amplifier on sound,” added Delaney. “They just don’t sell themselves out of the box. They must be hooked up of course, and the sales staff really needs to know how to sell it. You must be able to give a customer a walkthrough of what the features are and show them where the amp shines as far as emulating certain sounds. Any retailer must be hands-on with showing the amp, and truly walking the customer through a demo is the best sales advice.”
“Treat every customer with respect,” said Bowcott. “Even if it’s an 8-year-old kid, if you spend 20 minutes with that customer and not worry about what offers the most [profit], you can end up with a customer for life. The great thing about our industry is once you have a customer hooked, it’s a lifetime commitment.”
But what if you have salespeople who work on commission only? “That is a real dilemma,” Bowcott said.
It is a dilemma indeed, and Bowcott said making sure your salespeople are serious and care about the products and the industry is most important when facing that problem. That way, they will want to get to know the product well and will have another motive other than making a few bucks.
He concluded by mentioning one more sales tip. “If someone comes into the store trying to buy something and you guide them to something else for the wrong reasons, you’re going to lose the sale. There’s nothing wrong with selling up. Selling up is amazing. But if you try to sell sideways for a few bucks, the customer may not react well. If the customer wants certain features and you steer them to another product, I know I wouldn’t react positively as a customer.”
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