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HIDDEN TREASURE: The Secrets to Building a Successful Accessory Sales Plan By Jimmy Ralph Imagine being able to add thousands of dollars of profitability to a location per month without increasing any overhead. How, you ask? One word: accessories. For many wireless retailers accessory sales are an afterthought - a category that provides some incremental sales and profitability, but one in which the true potential remains untapped. From a consumer standpoint, accessories are both needed and wanted. Utilitarian accessories such as car chargers, carrying cases and handsfree are basic necessities of operating a wireless phone, and in some cases, even mandated by state law. These are the type of accessories that customers need, but far too often retailers fail to fulfill this need, only to lose the sale to someone else later. The second major category is fashion accessories. Fashion items are purchased more out of an emotional want than a need. Consumers buy colored pouches, faceplates and all kinds of fashion accessories to dress up their phone and stand out from the crowd. Properly merchandised fashion accessories can sell themselves. So where do you begin? Like any successful business, you’ll need a plan. Simply purchasing the accessories and hanging them on a wall will not get the job done. A well-thought-out accessory sales plan includes assortment planning, in-store merchandising, pricing, promotions, training, sales incentives, program launch and ongoing follow-up. To begin, it is best to take stock of what you are currently doing. What are your total accessory sales? What are your sales per location? What gross profit is generated from accessory sales? From there you can build your plan. Accessory Assortment Which accessories do you plan to sell? It is often helpful to start with the handset models you sell and begin identifying the accessory items you should stock for each model. This process will identify what items are missing from your current assortment and which items overlap. Then think about categories. Treat Bluetooth as a category. Carry a range of models in the good, better, best philosophy and make sure each one has its own unique set of features and a distinct price point. Treat fashion as a category – look at it from the consumer’s point of view and build your assortment from there. Part of your assortment decisions will also be based on your vendor. Partner with a vendor that can provide good packaging, consistent supply and value-added services such as signage and displays. Merchandising A logical assortment plan will lead right into your store merchandising plan. Evaluate your store space. Do you have the proper display fixtures? Professional fixture companies often offer affordable “off-the-shelf” merchandising solutions. Merchandise in categories. Place all of your Bluetooth together with proper signage. Place your fashion items in the most visible locations. Remember, fashion purchases are emotional. If a customer sees something they like they may buy it. If they can’t see it, the chances of them buying are slim. Your merchandising will act as a silent salesperson, complementing the efforts of your sales team. Pricing and Promotions To determine your base pricing, evaluate your competition. Compare their prices and strategy and come up with your own. You don’t need to have the lowest price. In fact, many retailers leave thousands of dollars in profitability on the table by pricing their accessories too low. Once you’ve set your base pricing, create bundles or package deals. This gives your customers a reason to buy multiple items, increasing your revenue and profitability; and just as importantly, it gives your sales team a value proposition and something to get excited about. Training Product knowledge and sales techniques are the key secrets to your training program. First your staff needs to know what you carry, where to find it, how it works, and what it fits. This part is easy. Sales training is the part that can take time, practice and coaching. Often your biggest challenge will be overcoming your sales team’s existing mindset. They often feel guilty asking customers to buy accessories. They prejudge and don’t think they’ll want them, or that their customers don’t have the money. Turning around that mindset and teaching them to present accessories with confidence, just as they do the handsets, is a key to success. This training process becomes easier when coupled with a strong incentive program. Sales Incentives Motivate your team! It’s the old “what’s in it for me?” routine. While many retailers already have some kind of compensation in place for accessory sales, a secret to “kick-starting” your sales drive is to offer some short-term incentives that aren’t strictly monetary. Create tiered sales goals by store and/or salesperson. For each tier, pay out prizes – make them progressively better as the tiers get higher. Lay out a BIG PRIZE for outstanding performance – a trip to Las Vegas or a plasma TV. Appeal to their emotions. Publish weekly updates and rankings so everyone can monitor their progress and see where they stand against their peers. This creates a competitive environment and a great deal of excitement. The secret here is that for a reasonable investment you can create the sales behavior that will continue even after the contest or promotion is over. Launch Plans Start your program with a bang! It is best to launch everything at the same time. Have the inventory, new displays, and new signs arrive at your locations and the training event take place all in the same week. It will catch everyone’s attention and make them realize there’s something worth paying attention to. The bigger deal you make of your new accessory sales drive, the more effective it will be. Follow Up Once you’ve launched you need to keep the excitement going. Set your goals, monitor them and communicate progress. Award the winners and coach those not yet on the program. On a recent Retail Business Development project, a multi-store chain followed these simple secrets and enjoyed an immediate improvement that doubled the company’s accessory sales practically overnight. You can do the same! Good luck and happy selling. Jimmy Ralph is President of Retail at Retail Business Development (RBD). RBD is a premier provider of retail management outsourcing, consulting and training services for the wireless industry serving wireless carriers, master agents and independent cellular dealers. For more information visit www.retailbusinessdevelopment.com or call 866.869.6975
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