Do you feel alone at the top? As the owner of your flower shop, the stress and pressure that comes with running a store rests solely on your shoulders. When your sales fluctuate from week to week, or even worse, when the sales don’t happen at all, you are the only employee who brings home a smaller paycheque. It’s a simple equation but it doesn’t have to be that way. If you and your staff are operating as a team, with a vested interest in driving and increasing sales, it’s a no-brainer that you’ll sell more flowers.
This revelation is what Heather de Kok, AAF, AIFD, PFCI, the owner of a Grower Direct shop in Edmonton, shared with the audience at CFBF West. The event was a one-day business forum, hosted by Canadian Florist, that was held in Edmonton this past August and de Kok was one of the day’s speakers (you can find the full story on the event on page 22). She recently implemented an incentive program in her shop and the results have more than pleased her. “With incentives, I let my staff make money and this for me has turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever done. If you haven’t been ‘incentifying’ your staff, you’re missing out on big dollars,” said de Kok.
Prior to the program, de Kok said her staff just didn’t have a strong drive to sell – employees knew that no matter what they did during their shift, their financial reward, or paycheque, would be the same. “Before, what happened was staff came into work and then they went home. But if there’s an interest for them to upsell and add on to that vase or add on to that gift box, then at the end of the day some of those girls can go home with $400 or $500 more a month. This sounds like a lot but that probably translated in my sales to between $3,000 and $5,000, so it’s a pretty small investment to make when you’re looking at the big scheme of things,” de Kok said.
Not only does de Kok give her staff a bonus each time they sell a second dozen, when they upsell or when they add on to a sale but employees also receive $1 every time they get a customer’s e-mail address, thereby growing her customer database. Through her POS system, de Kok tracks her employee sales and said this has increased exponentially since adding this program to her shop. Looking at her numbers she’s already up from last year and poised to finish this year with her best sales figures ever.
As a result of this incentive program, de Kok says her staff members directly feel the financial impact if sales decrease, as well as the benefits if sales increase. It’s the extra push to really work with the customer to make sure their floral needs are met and money isn’t left on the table.
What’s more, a sales program like this creates a working environment where everyone is engaged and more personally involved with the success of the shop. It’s not just the owner anymore – if customers aren’t coming into the shop, then everyone is affected and working together to find a solution.
Look at how you can kick off such a program at your shop. You can even start slow – challenge your employees to move one particular item each week and reward the person who sells the most. Providing incentives to your sales staff gives them the passion and enthusiasm to sell, sell, sell and your customers the encouragement to buy, buy, buy.
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