Here’s a tricky sales situation: A customer calls mid-week, requesting an arrangement for her dinner party for 12 on Saturday. She wants all orange tulips. It’s mid-August. Oh, and she wants to keep the price “as low as possible,” since it’s just “a little something for the dinner table.”
So what do you, the sales person, say to satisfy her?
That’s the challenge sales expert Tim Huckabee of FloralStrategies wants florists to consider. He will collect responses through the rest of the month and will announce the winner next month on Facebook. The prize: $50.
Monthly sales challenges have been a longstanding part of Huckabee’s “Total Training” package which includes a slew of services. Among them: access to his famous secret shopper calls, a podcast, management flashcards, and a 15-minute call for advice.
“I decided to open the sales challenge up to the public, in part, to make people aware of the Total Training program,” Huckabee said. “But it’s also a good exercise to keep people on their toes.”
It’s Huckabee’s mission to make florists recognize the importance of sales skills (they are essential to stay in business, after all) and to appreciate that, like everything else, these skills will plateau without regular practice.
“Anyone with a high school diploma can answer the phone, but it takes critical thinking to get the best sale possible,” Huckabee said. “It frustrates me knowing that there are people who travel to events like SAF’s convention solely to enter the Sylvia Cup. They think that’s their only outlet for creativity, but that’s far from the truth.”
Want to challenge your creative thinking? Submit your solution here.
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