Why a poor B2C selling process can cost you customers
Do you feel like you’re spending tons of your budget on learning and development but your sales numbers don’t seem to be budging?
Perhaps one team in a particular location has sales numbers going through the roof whilst another can barely hit their monthly targets.
This can all be down to your selling journey. If you don’t enforce a solid process that works to warm up customers and close the deals, your sales associates could be costing you conversions daily.
What is a B2C selling process?
B2C selling or business-to-customer selling as it’s formally referred to, is a term used to describe businesses that sell directly to customers, unlike business-to-business companies that sell to a business employee or owner.
A B2C selling process is a set of steps your sales associates should follow when interacting with customers. It’s like a set of tried and tested rules that are most likely to lead to a sale.
Having a selling process cuts out any ‘ifs’ or ‘maybes’ because you know what works. This means your conversion time is quicker because your sales associates are spending less time figuring out what works and more time doing what works.
Your B2C selling process will vary depending on the product you’re selling, but one of the main factors that all B2C sales associates contend with is time. Their customers are most likely to make a purchase on the spot, unlike B2B sales, where the customer might go away and mull over the deal they have just been offered.
Your sales associates need to be on the ball, so they can strike whilst the customer’s ‘warm’ and convince them to buy at that very moment.
Example B2C selling process
To ensure all of your sales associates are maximising those opportunities, it’s crucial you have an effective selling process. Let’s say you work in a shoe store; your selling process may look a little something like this:
Greet the customer when they enter the store
Ask if they need any help
Point out the shoes they’re looking for and also alternative shoes similar to the ones they have asked for.
Bring the shoes out along with others that you’d recommend
Explain the features and benefits of each shoe
Use the customer’s name twice in the sale
Explain the returns policy
Recommend outfits to go with the shoe
Ask if they would like you to put the shoe behind the till for them
Offer protective spray for their shoes
Why this selling process works for selling shoes effectively
It warms the customer up by greeting them at the door and making them feel welcome. Offering them help makes them feel supported and valued, making them more likely to buy.
Offering alternative products makes the customer aware of other products they may not have considered before. This opens up their buying options and makes them more likely to buy.
Bringing out the alternative shoes makes their purchasing decision even easier because they can try on the alternative products.
Explaining the features and benefits of the shoe ensures you meet the customer’s needs and also makes the customer more invested in the product and more likely to buy. For example, they may have been unsure whether to go for the leather boots, but once you tell them they’re vegan, they’re sold.
Using the customer's name quickly builds rapport, making them feel more relaxed and thus more likely to buy. “Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” This is a widely used quote from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. And for a good reason, too: It’s absolutely true.
Explaining the returns policy reassures them and makes them feel comfortable that they could still get their money back even if they did change their mind. Nine times out of ten, they won’t change their mind once they’re home but knowing this information persuades them to buy.
Asking if you would like to put the shoes behind the till solidifies the purchase and removes any time for indecisiveness.
As you’ll notice, all of these steps make tiny little influences that can convince someone to buy. When they’re done in order, the impact can build up to create a huge difference in conversion numbers. Now let’s look at a poor B2C selling process and assess how it could cost you, customers.
What does a poor B2C selling process look like?
Customer walks in, staff are busy doing admin.
They look around and can’t find what they’re looking for.
No one approaches them so they ask a member of staff if they have their desired item in stock.
Sales associates say ‘no, sorry’ and carry on with their admin.
The customer leaves the store empty-handed.
Do you see how many missed opportunities were present in the poor sales process compared to the good process? The customer wasn’t made to feel welcome, no rapport was built, and there was no conscious effort from the sales associate to actually sell.
As a result, the customer leaves empty-handed, but the results could have been very different. It only takes minor tweaks in behaviour to start seeing big results.
How do I enforce a good B2C selling process?
We get it, you’re in head office, and you haven’t got the time to stand and watch the performance of shop floor staff on a daily basis. And nor should you want to either.
A lot of our clients faced the same issue. They wanted a way to guide behaviour on the shop and see the results without actually being present.
Enter, Ocasta Engage. A sales training app which makes it easy to train your employees on what a good selling process is.
Communication features make it quick and simple to remind sales associates of what’s expected of them.
Microlearning makes it easy for your staff to embed the knowledge.
The knowledgebase means your sales associates always have what they need when serving customers.
Kudos allow you to easily reward your sales associates when they stick to your selling process.
How does it work?
That’s a good question.
You upload all information about your selling process to the knowledgebase. You can create step-by-step guides making it easy for sales associates to follow your processes.
Use the acknowledgements to get confirmation that staff had read the process. This gives you peace of mind that everyone is aware and up to date with what’s expected of them.
Use the banners on the app's homepage to remind them of the process and link the banner to the step-by-step article.
Repurpose the selling process article into training material by adding questions and tasks to the article. For example, ‘should you greet the customer at the door?’ ‘What alternatives should you offer the customer?’
Use the analytics to see who’s learning and measure their progress.
Utilise the kudos feature to commend those consistently following your B2C sales process so you can start a continuous loop of positive behaviour.
Want to try our sales training app for free for 60 days?
Here’s how the pilot works:
A personalised, quick demo to check we're both a good fit for each other
If that goes well, a 60-day pilot in the field with your pilot sales team
If you’re happy with the pilot, you can launch it across your entire sales team
Join the likes of Next and Virgin Media O2, who all use our sales training app to improve customer service and increase sales.
Get started now and see how Engage can work for your business.
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