Making that sale in your boutique:

This is taken from the Hiring Your Staff section of the 2007 Edition of the How to Open a Boutique ebook. Please see Table of Contents >>> for full chapter details.

I want to also devote some time to selling ability because when it all comes down to it, you may have the nicest crew in the world but if they cannot sell, you will not be in business for very long.

I also want to say that you do not have to be an aggressive sales person in order to sell. I have found that product knowledge and friendliness are the combination required for a winning sales team.

Keep in mind that you are opening a boutique. The reason customers shop in boutiques instead of department stores is because they find unique and special things, and they get far better customer service.

In order to give your customers great customer service, your employees will need to know what your products are, how to care for them, where they come from and even if you plan to order more and when that shipment might arrive, etc.

For example: Customers would come into my boutique daily in search of gifts for a teacher, friend, mother, daughter, etc. Here is how I would help them. Customer says, "I need a gift for a friend.”

I can handle this two ways:

I can say, "go ahead and look around and if you see something you like, let me know”.

Or, the better way…

t-shirts

I can say, "I have the absolutely perfect thing, we just got in these t-shirts which are the most popular things in the store.

They are one size fits all, we have long sleeve or short sleeve and they come in blue, red and black.

The customer now says, "she likes black a lot.” I then say, "great, let’s do short sleeve as it is summer, in black, and put it with this necklace and earring set – it looks great together.”

How do I know that? I know because I am familiar with all the inventory in the store. Your customer now says, "Maybe I don’t want to give her clothes because I don’t know her size”.

I then say, "OK, how about the jewelry items and we can put it with this vanilla candle and potpourri set. It is from a new designer called Chantal and she makes beautiful gift sets. She was just written up in Vogue…”

This may seem a bit over the top but the point I want to make is for you to take control of the situation.

The customer wants to make a purchase but she does’t know what to buy. She has come to you for help so do your job and help her. Offer her a lovely gift wrap to make her life easy and not only will she buy from you today, but she will come back to you every time she needs a gift because she knows you will take care of everything!

Another point I want to make here is that you should not overwhelm your customer with options. Too much is not a good thing, as it will confuse them. Try to narrow down what they are looking for and then show them the "best” you have in their budget.

Make sure your employees know what you have in the store. One thing I always liked to do was have my employees arrive 5 minutes or so before their shift.

They were responsible for seeing all the new lines that had come into the store on their days off and knowing where everything was in case we had "rearranged” the store.

I would also make sure they knew any unique or interesting quality about any new produces we received. I can guarantee to you, product knowledge from a friendly and helpful sales associate is the best way to ensure making a sale.

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Jewelry		Lingerie
Apparel		Handbag
Bridal		Wedding
Maternity		Kid’s Wear
Shoe		Sports Wear
Sneakers		Gifts
Children's clothing		Clothing store
or whatever type of retail store you can dream up