How On Site Sales Assist Helped Double Sales?
When you think about On-Site Sales Assist, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it another salesperson, is it a clerk who processes the transaction, or is it maybe a person that helps re-stock and bring the product out?
That’s what I thought until I was presented with an opportunity to bring in a sales-assist team for one of my 18-day events and I had a decision to make. It was tough because I had the budget to do so but I couldn’t see the value in doing so.
I have always struggled with the concept of hiring a team of people to “assist in sales” mainly because I thought these teams of people are not fully immersed with my brand and because I couldn’t justify getting help when my team was big enough to handle the volume without any help.
I evaluated the pros and cons and decided that for this particular event I would give it a shot. The presentation the team put together changed my paradigm of what a sales assist team is and how they will benefit my event. With more than a pinch of hesitation, I embraced this partnership and launched the event.
Two days into the event I was already sold on the idea of hiring a sales assist team. Here are the 3 reasons why:
1. They were special event experts
Although my team was composed of sales professionals a lot of them have not done special events before. Selling at trade-shows, off-site events and special events is very different than selling in a retail location. We were targeting customers who had no intention of buying our product before engaging in a conversation with us and the sales assist team did exactly that, engaged walk-by traffic in conversations.
After they engaged them in a conversation, they were able to filter the opportunity customers with a few questions and bring in a sales professional to take over the conversation. They had designed games and activities to help engage the crowd without focusing on our product directly. The purpose of the activities and games was to show the crowd a good time, create a memory, and make people comfortable in our environment.
2. They allowed my team to do what they do best
By not having to worry about bringing customers in and trying to engage a crowd, my team was able to focus on what they do best. They spent a lot of their time discovering needs, connecting with customers, presenting solutions, and closing sales. They didn’t have to think about learning a new skill of pro-actively starting a conversation about their product with a crowd that 10 seconds prior to walking by our booth had no intention of buying our product. The whole process really made my team comfortable and feel less out of place.
3. Ultimately they cost less
After seeing the benefits of having a separate team to do the special event type work I started thinking of making this a permanent process for all my off-site events. After looking at the costs involved in hiring temporary staff, hiring a recruiter, designing a training program and turning these employees over as much as I would have to, hiring an on-site sales assist agency is much more cost-effective and better equipped to add value.
6 Benefits of Pop-Up Shops
Temporary retail establishments have been growing in number, popping up on street corners, in shopping centers, at events, in airports, and more, as more brands begin recognizing the benefits of pop-up shops. There are a variety of pop-up stores, ranging from modular retail establishments to those housed in shipping containers; regardless of the format, there are several advantages in setting up a pop-up establishment:
Because pop-up shops are often temporary in nature and smaller in size than conventional retail stores, the cost of rent is usually lower. This is especially advantageous for new businesses that don’t yet have the funds to lease a more traditional retail space and, if necessary, have the option of closing down the temporary location to avoid more costs from a low-sales location.
Pop-up shops allow for a more selective approach to selling and marketing. Instead of being locked into a long-term rental agreement, the brand is only committed for a fixed period of time, which means the brand is more able to adapt to changes in its business and marketing plans. What’s more, a brand can open up a pop-up shop only when traffic and sales are expected to be high, and then close it down during the slower months.
One of the primary benefits of pop-up shops is that they help a brand generate buzz. Pop-up retail establishments are often fantastic marketing tools because they tend to draw attention from crowds. People are interested in the sudden existence of a store, especially if they look unique — for instance, a shipping container. As Robert Humble of HyBrid Architecture, a firm that designs shipping container projects, says, “There’s a certain built-in marketing cachet that [container stores] have that other businesses don’t.” Big brands such as Target, Levi’s, Adidas, and the Gap have used pop-up shops to generate buzz around a product or promotion.
The low-cost and temporary nature of pop-up shops allow brands to engage in test marketing new products and promotions to gauge future demand. Major companies like BMW’s MINI have opened up pop-up shops for this purpose, while smaller businesses have used pop-ups to try out a new business idea, such as Softroom’s ‘Wahaca Southbank Experiment, a pop-up Mexican restaurant in London.
A pop-up store’s temporary nature creates a sense of urgency among consumers to buy now. Unlike traditional retail establishments, the pop-up store itself is presented as a “limited-edition” item that people must take advantage of in the moment or regret their inaction later. According to the co-founder of Think PR Claudine Gumbel, “There’s a certain passion about things that shout ‘act now!’ and that has transpired into the way we shop too.”
Pop-ups allow a business to extend its brand and build awareness. For online businesses, especially, pop-up shops provide a way to interact with customers face-to-face and also educate them about new products, services, and features. This can be particularly beneficial for brands that have complicated offerings or want to capture a market segment that would not normally visit the brand’s site or buy from the company online. For example, Google launched a pop-up store in Australia last year, called Androidland, to introduce and educate customers on the Google Android mobile operating system.
Article was courtesy of http://www.trendreports.com written by Katherine Vong
Find out more about how Retailors Group can help with pop-up shops.
