What the best ‘sellers’ do that the rest do not

The Best

The Rest

Great Display: Have the thongs well presented with a full stand with all colours. Stand is in a prominent location such as being clearly viewable in the clinic waiting room.

Poor display: The stand is not in a prominent location. The display stand is not full and only has a couple of the colours.

Staff wear the thongs: Reception staff and workers all wear the thongs. They are all well-educated on the features and benefits of the product. The know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the product. They are super enthusiastic about the product and often end up ‘selling’ the thongs to patients / customer in the waiting room based on pure enthusiasm for the product.

Staff do not wear the thongs: Staff do not have a pair of the thongs. As such, they can only speak about what they have heard about the thongs and cannot speak from experience. It’s hard to be enthusiastic for a product you have not experienced for yourself. The staff have not been well educated on the features and benefits of the product and therefore cannot answer questions or educate patients / customers.

See the opportunity: If a patient comes in wearing thongs, the individual sees this as an opportunity enthusiastically tell the patient the issues with normal thongs and how Archies Thongs addresses these issues.

Miss the opportunity: For whatever reason, shyness, lack of confidence in the product, time constraints or simply disinterest, the staff member does not recognise that someone coming into the store or practice wearing thongs is a great opportunity to educate them about the negative effects of typical thongs and what Archies Thongs have done to try and address these issues.

Education in spare time: In the case of a Health Professional, rather than filling in the spare time of treatment session with small talk, they use this time when and where feasible to actively seek out opportunities to educate customers / patients about the issues with the design of typical flat thongs and how Archies Thong design addresses these issues. They don’t wait for customers to bring it up.

Small talk in spare time: Staff only bring up the thongs into conversation if they are asked about them. In the case of a Health Professional, once their issue has been well attended to, rather than using the ‘spare’ or ‘downtime’ of a treatment session as a means to provide some further health education, they go on to talk about current affairs or the weekends sport.

Use the most effective promotion: Using photos from the Archies Thongs image library, the practice or store runs a ‘Like, comment, share competition for a free pair of thongs on Facebook. In the process, they not only ‘tap’ into their current customers, but also their friends and friends of friends.

Uses ‘Ok’ Promotion: Practice / store post on their Facebook that they are stocking Archies Thongs, however, they do not run a like, share, comment competition, as such, they only ‘tap’ into their current database and do not utilise the friends of their current followers and so on.

Ask questions: When the customer has tried the thongs on, the staff ask the customer questions such as how does the arch feel, how does the strap feel and if these are issues, they let them know how they can be solved. E.g Stretching the strap . The staff also pay particular attention to the customer’s body language and look for incongruency between what the customer tells them and what their body language is saying. They then seek to solve the hidden objection or apprehension accordingly continuing to pay close attention to their spoken word and body language.

Does not ask questions: Staff fail to seek feedback from the customer and fail to monitor their body language. As such, they unwittingly make the customer uncomfortable by not adequately attending to their needs or concerns.

Stretch the strap: Staff let the customer know why a tight strap is important and that with a couple of wears it will mould to the shape of their feet, however, if it is too tight, they stretch it for them then and there.

Do not stretch the strap: Staff do not educate the customer as to why a tighter strap is important and do not stretch it for them when it is too tight. As such, the customer may either think that the thongs are not for them or they may wear them and have the straps uncomfortably cut into their feet.

Get the patient to go for a walk in the thongs: Almost always if a customer tries the thongs on, they end up purchasing them. As such, the best sellers goal is always just to get the person to try the thongs on. Even better, if a customer / patient is wearing thongs, the therapist or sales person gets their potential customer to see what the thongs feel like by walking 5 meters in Archies Thongs and then 5 meters in their existing thong for a direct comparison.

Do not get the customer to go for a walk in the thongs: They often fail to get to the crucial step of simply getting the customer to try the thongs on.

Friendly, kind sales people with their patient’s best interest at heart: The best sales staff are friendly, confident and super enthusiastic and they approach selling the thongs from the mindset that they are doing their customer a favour by educating them about the design issues of normal thongs and how Archies Thongs addressees these issues. Once a customer has been educated and they have given their professional recommendation, they leave it up to the customer to make their own mind up. They always remember our motto of ‘Make a friend before you make a sale’ and they always have the customers best interest at heart. They are in this to help the person get an awesome thong, not just to get a sale! The end result if often high sales and happy customers!

Pushy sales people: People do like to feel they are being sold anything and often do not respond well into being ‘coerced’ into buying something. This often results in less sales and less happy customer.