sales person retail shopping perfume
Jo Yong Hak/Reuters
Price is the amount of money your customer pays for a product.  Value is what your customer perceives the benefits of that product to be, and the emotional connection he/she has to the product, the employee, and the company, in relation to the price.
How retail associates handle and present products to her/his customer adds - or reduces - the perceived value. This is true whether the products are drills, luggage, or diamond rings.
I've seen a salesperson treat a $40 product as if it was priced at $500, and I've seen a salesperson treat a $500 product like it was worth $40. Guess which salesperson sold more?
Here are some tips for increasing a product's value when showing/handing it to your customer:
1. Create anticipation. Start talking about the benefits, or the emotional connection, BEFORE you present the product. Many of you do this naturally, but everyone can integrate it into the sales experience.
"Let me show this piece" doesn't create anticipation.
"I have the perfect product for you" does create anticipation.
So does "You are going to love this one."
2. Don't just hand your customer a product; present it. Methods like using both hands to hand a customer the product, using an open palm, or holding the product out in full presentation as you hand it to him/her communicates how valuable and special the product is. The higher the price point, the more flair you should add to the presentation.
3. Have every customer experience the product. This seems like it should be a given, but it doesn't always happen. It doesn't happen because the salespeople don't instigate it. It's our job to put it on the product, get them to turn it on, get them to try it out, get them to push or pull it, or whatever experiencing the product is. By experiencing a product, it substantially increases the product’s value and the likelihood of the customer purchasing it.
4. Don't talk about features and benefits of the product. Let the customer experience them. This means not going into the specifics of the value until it is in the customer's hands. Say a product has an ergonomically enhanced handle. Don't talk about the handle. Have the customer use the handle and then ask them if they feel difference. This is one area that even good salespeople can improve in.
5. Turn these tips into action.
a. Pick one or two of these value-added actions that offer you most opportunity this week.
b. Practice/role-play your value-added action with your manager or a colleague before the start of your shift.
c. Have a colleague observe you with a customer, and then tell you one or two things you did well in adding value, and one or two things you might do even better next time.
d. At the end of your shift, share with your manager how you added value to a customer's product and experience, and the result of doing so.