Are your sales reps truly listening to customers to find opportunities to personalize orders and earn your business more revenue?
The Flower Sale or Fail? column in the September/October issue of Floral Management showcases examples of those missed opportunities — as well as a few best practices.
Sales and service guru Tim Huckabee of the Profitable Florist called a Midwest flower shop and posed as a customer needing a “Sweet Sixteen” birthday order for his twin nieces, hoping it would inspire them to create something special.
The sales rep missed a few cues that would have made the gift more personalized — at double the price.
“In addition to all the billboard-sized cues I handed over in this call, I explicitly said, ‘Money does not matter,’” Huckabee wrote. “It was as if she never heard that and sold me the standard sizes and prices she offers to every customer.”
And she failed to suggest add-ons like balloons or teddy bears, Huckabee noted.
Listen to the call and read Huckabee’s column, Flower Sale or Fail?, to learn what else the sales rep could have done better — and what she did well. And, use this discussion board on the Floral Education Hub to let us know how you would have handled the call.
Amanda Jedlinsky is the senior director of content and communications for the Society of American Florists.
