I still find it amusing when I tell people that providing sales tips for florists is one of my most favourite topics.
I'm amused at myself because of how far I've come in overcoming a deep-rooted dislike of "sales" – you know, the bad impression that smarmy used car salesmen and pushy sales clerks working on commission leave you with.
However, I've come to appreciate that sales is a valuable and, more importantly, helpful service to provide your customers. Because "sales" is very simple: us business owners have a thing to offer the world. People have a need for those things. Collectively our society has agreed that money is how we'll connect these two things.
That's sales.
But here are three key reasons why we make sales way harder than it needs to be:
- We don’t believe in what we’re selling (we don’t think it has any value)
- Our self-worth is attached to the price tag
- We judge our customers.."she doesn’t look like a customer who could spend that much" or "he doesn’t dress fancy enough so we’ll lowball our initial price point"
So, let's jump into my top 3 sales tips for florist to help you make more money in 2021.
Tip #1: Push it Online
My first sales tip for florists is to push as much as you can online. Why? Because your website is way better at sales than any human could ever be.
Your website does't suffer the same emotions as us humans do. It doesn't pre-judge people or worry about what a customer will think of them. It doesn't fear rejection. Instead, a good website presents the product, its benefits, the price and makes it easy to buy. Kapow!
So, think of your website as your lead sales tool regardless of what you're selling – workshops, subscriptions, flower deliveries, wedding packages, table styling – anything.
Tip #2: Price Anchoring
My second sales tip for florists is to adopt a strategy called Price Anchoring.
However, before we jump in, I want to remind you to review your pricing every year at the very least. Inflation and raises in wages alone mean your pricing is outdated by at least 5% on 1 January every year. This is true even if you don't make any changes to what you do.
So, make sure you're adjusting your prices to account for this natural rise in costs.
Ok, back to Price Anchoring.
Have you ever heard it said that the best way to sell a $2,000 watch is to put it next to a $10,000 watch?
It's true and is called Price Anchoring. Presenting customers with at least one very high pricepoint puts all your other prices into context and makes them more accessible.
And you can put this florist sales tip into practice on your own website. If you're doing everyday flowers, make sure you have at least one big-ass design in your online catalogue with a hefty price tag on it – a price that makes you uncomfortable.
Price Anchoring also applies to wedding florists. If you've been following me for more than about 3 minutes, you'll know I’m a huge fan of talking about price BEFORE your client even engages with you. So, if your dream is to attract clients who spend $8K on their wedding flowers, be the person who talks about $10,000 budgets on Instagram and your blog.
If you're featuring floral archways in your marketing, throw in some high-priced examples. Love our style but don't want to spend $5,000 on this archway? No problem, we can still create something lovely for $3,500. No problemo!
Price Anchoring is also great for Valentine's Day if you have a retail space – put out one magnificent 48 rose bouquet on display (with what will be a big price tag). However, don't be surprised if someone rocks up and buys it!
Tip #3: Relentless Marketing
My third sales tip for florists is about persistence. More specifically, persistence with marketing. So often we think, I posted about this already, why is no one buying?
However, your average human needs to see any given message between 8-16 times before they take action. And if you’re marketing on social media or Google, remember that your messages only get shown to a small portion of your follower base – so you posting about something 8 times might only reach many of your followers once.
As a result, you'll hear me talk a lot about being relentless (or repetitive) in your marketing. For example, you could talk about Valentine’s Day every day for the next 3 weeks, in all of your marketing channels, and barely scratch the surface of what’s possible.
But we are our own worst enemy. We get bored of our own messages and we think our customers are paying WAY more attention than they are. So, when I say be repetitive in your marketing, I mean getting to the point where you want to punch yourself in the face because you're that sick of hearing yourself talk.
And here’s my challenge to florists on this sales tip: talk about your next offer 10 times as a buy-in. Then, reset the counter and count up another 8 times. Only then will you be getting somewhere.
More sales tips for florists
And finally, learning about business and marketing doesn't mean you need a university degree or fancy-pants corporate experience. I do have these things and am happy to share everything you need to know.
If you want to learn more about my Flower Boss Bootcamp and see if it's right for you, sign-up for a free 20 minute Mini-Session with me.
💖
Kathleen
P.S. I've done a podcast on this topic which you may like. Find it on Spotify here or listen on the player below.
