By Scott Nichols

How many times has an employee called you and said they can’t sell anything today? “Nobody is buying anything! I swear I’m trying, but literally everyone is saying no!”

I hear this all the time, and it’s frustrating because every single employee who goes through this has the potential to do amazing things. I remember, many years ago, an employee called in her last hour of her shift and said she hadn’t sold anything at all today. I asked what she knew about any of the customers coming in today, and the answer was she knew nothing about them. I gave her some advice, and in that last hour, she reached her goal for the day.

I think most of us put the effort in to succeed, but in most cases still struggle to find success. In a previous article, I mentioned the 90/10 rule: 90 percent of what we do is easy.  The meaning behind this is simple: Most things we do at work, anyone can do. It doesn’t take a lot of talent to clean a bed, mop the floor, or fill spray bottles. Also, anyone can tell a customer about a sale, but just because you tell someone doesn’t mean they’re going to buy.

The magic of employee success happens in the 10 percent. You find out who has charisma, tone, and great body language. This is where you find out who can transition between a “Hi, how are you doing today?” and bringing up a bottle of lotion. This is also where you find out which employee can give one or multiple reasons why a customer needs this lotion. Most importantly, this is where you find out if the employee can make a sale.

If this part is so important, why is it only 10 percent of the job? Consider this: If you follow any sport, a player has less than a 10% impact on the game. Yes, they might have the game-winning shot, but that shot was only a few seconds of a three-hour game. If Michael Jordan scored 40 points in a game, that only meant he made shots 20 times or less.  Each shot only takes a few seconds. Let’s just say a shot takes three seconds to take. Twenty shots multiplied by three seconds is only one minute. An NBA game is 48 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, Michael Jordan plays defense, dribbles the ball and does a lot more, but pretty much anyone in the NBA can play defense and dribble the ball. The magic was made when Michael Jordan shot the ball, and all his scoring took less than a minute.

So, we need to find the magic! The magic is what is going to separate an employee from the rest of the staff. I think first we need to establish what the magic is. The magic is making the sale and doing it in a way the customer is happy about. There are many ways to make a sale – all you need to do is go to Google or Youtube and you will find 1,000,000,000 different ways to do it  Each way will have five to 20 steps you need to follow to effectively make a sale. It ends up being way too complicated and goes by the wayside. For today’s article,  I am going to talk about three simple things I found you can do to create magic behind the desk.

1. Value: Are you giving the customer any value? This is extremely important! If you are trying to sell a $150 bottle of lotion to a customer and the customer sees zero value in buying the lotion, you are going to strike out. Let me give you an example: Let’s say you are looking to buy a brand-new car. The vehicle you want is about $5,000 over your budget so you’re thinking this isn’t going to work. With your current budget, you can’t swing the extra $100 per month the $5,000 would add. But it’s the car you want! In most cases, the dealership would then show you a different vehicle in your price range.  The dealership who has the magic would do it differently. This dealership would explain how this car can save you up to $150 a month in gas alone.  So instead of going and looking at a different car, the dealership is getting you into the car you want, found you a way to afford the extra $5,000, and you’re saving $50 a month on your overall monthly budget! Now, that’s magic and value!

For instance, for customers who are in a rush, live a little farther away, or who live busy lives, the $150 bottle of lotion allows them to tan faster and keep their tan longer…see where I am going with this?

2. Do you know why the customers who are coming in today are tanning with you? Most of us will know the vacationers and the people getting married, but we probably don’t know why the others are tanning with us. It’s important to find out why they are tanning with us. How can we help them achieve their goal if we don’t know why they’re tanning? The difficult part is when you have seen a customer a few times already this month, and you now ask them for the first time. Some customers will tell you it’s none of our business, and sometimes we must deal with that. These customers are usually tanning in our lower-level beds, and these beds work and they’re getting tan. But we know they don’t work as well as our higher-level beds.

Your goal is to find out why customers are tanning. If you can do this, then you can start to explain to them why the higher-level beds with all the bells and whistles work better. You can incorporate what tanning lotions work better for them than others. It’s a great conversation starter to help you help them achieve their goals!

3. Did you make the customer happy? It’s our job to make the customer happy! The employee who can do this will be the employee who has the highest sales. Did you do anything special for the customers today? Maybe you talk to them about their tan and get them to upgrade. Did you continue to talk to the customer when they came out of the upgraded tan? In most cases, they will love the upgrade and love you for giving them something better. The customers will walk out your door happy.

Our goal is to make magic happen and get better at the 10 percent of our job that makes all the difference. If you’re struggling with your sales, I recommend you record yourself selling.  Listen and find areas in your sales pitch that you could improve on. I understand hearing your own voice can be cringe-worthy, but it’s a vital step in the right direction.

The next time you are struggling with sales, I want you to ask yourself, do I know why the customers are tanning, did I give them value, and did I make any customers happy today?  These are important questions to be honest about because it’s important for making sales.  Make this a habit so this can become a part of your daily routine when you see customers.  In the end, the better you become, the happier your customers will be.