5 Habits for Upselling Your Customers With Your Supply Department

Darin Dewberry, Pete Garcia Company | Garcia Group

Since fresh flowers are a large majority of business for most wholesale florists, the supply departments can sometimes be forgotten. Here are some good habits for up-selling your customers with your supply departments.

Ask leading questions to get the customer to talk about their business. 

By asking questions that start with "How," "Why," and "What" you are going to get more details from the customer when they answer. 

Examples:

• "What container do you have in mind for these flowers?"
• "How are you going to display this product in your store?"

Once you have asked the question, quiet down and let the customer talk. 

Rushing to get to the other topics on your punch list can sometimes get in the way of learning more about the customer and their business.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. 

When they order fresh flowers, think about the other parts of the arrangement.

They need a container for most of the fresh flowers they buy, right? That container could be made of glass, ceramic, metal, wood, wicker, etc.

If they say they need a glass vase, then they might need preservative to put in the water, possibly a ribbon to go around the vase, a stick-in pick to accent the arrangement, or a card holder and enclosure card to include with the final product. If they are using a wicker basket, they might need a plastic liner, wet foam, wood wired picks, etc.

Visit your customers whenever possible.

We are all trying to do more business with less people in our companies and this can keep us seemingly shackled to our desks for most of the day. By planning some time during each month to get out and visit a few customers, you can learn more about their business and make suggestions in the future based on what you see. Your customers will also place more value in these suggestions if you reveal to them that you are making these suggestions because you visited their location.

Increase your knowledge of your supply department by learning the features and benefits of one supply item each day. 

This knowledge could come from the vendor packaging, the marketing flyers, the vendor website, or even a vendor sales person. You don't have to know everything about every item in your supply department. If you learn the features and benefits of a few items within each supply category, you will almost subconsciously start to relay this information to your customers in your communication with them. Customers want a person schooled in product knowledge, both on the fresh and supply sides of the business.

Good Luck!