Tobacco Business

[ 84 ] TOBACCO BUSINESS [ JULY / AUGUST | 21 ] Upselling is a sales tactic tobacconists can use to introduce customers to new cigars or a product they didn’t know they wanted. Upselling can be used to help customers discover new products and services that your store has to offer and help them get more enjoyment from their intended purpose. Here are some questions you can ask your customers to encourage that bonus buy: 1. “Have you seen this yet?” 2. “Have you tried this new cigar?” 3. “Do you need a cutter with that? 4. “Would you like a humidification pouch?” Want to suggest a new product to a regular customer? Tobacconist University’s Jorge Armenteros recommends saying the following statements: 5. “If you like that cigar, then you will love this one.” 6. “I know you love that cigar, but I think this one will be a great follow-up to it.” 7. “This just came in, and all of the customers are going crazy for it.” Upselling is crucial for tobacco businesses, and tobacconists must train, practice and reinforce the process within their stores. Offer incentives to staff members, and create a culture of upselling in your store—your business will benefit from that unexpected sale. 7 UPSELL JUMPSTARTERS What unique challenges do tobacco retailers face when trying to upsell within their stores compared to other types of retailers? An unfair regulatory and taxing environment is the greatest challenge to retail tobacconists. The easiest example is the ability of no state tax mail-order companies having the ability to sell to consumers in high-tax states. Retail tobacconists in high- tax states educate and allow customers to purchase cigars in their stores, and when the customer becomes a loyal consumer, they often seek it out on the internet. This is a travesty! Many retail customers use brick-and-mortar stores as “testing” grounds, knowing that they will seek out the products they love at a lower price on the internet. This puts a physical limit on how much a retail customer wants to purchase from their local retailer—whether they will admit it or not. Regardless of how much they claim to support their local brick-and-mortar store, spending 10 times as much on the internet versus your local store creates a huge challenge to retailers. Bulk discounts, emphasizing immediate and guaranteed satisfaction, creating community and adding value in every way possible are the only ways to compete in this environment. How might a tobacconist upsell a service within their business rather than a product? How about upselling yourself for free? What I mean is, how about getting something free and intangible from the customer like an email address? Every retail tobacconist must make it their mission to get every customer’s email address! Ask your customer for their email address so you can communicate with them. This will allow you to upsell well into the future. Other services, such as lockers and private rooms, can be sold based on their functional value and sense of community. If you are selling such products, make sure to introduce them to your customers, give them a free sample so they can fall in love, and emphasize the social and community value that comes with the service. Speaking of email, many tobacconists today have gotten involved in e-commerce. How does one upsell online without it feeling like spam? That’s a tough one because getting customers to thoughtfully read emails is challenging in today’s world. Also, mail-order and internet-based companies are extremely graphic and tagline driven. Just look at mail-order catalogs and email headers and you will see the height of sensationalism and hyperbole. Retailers must focus on personal relationships and substantive communication, which plays to their strengths and natural competitive advantages. Never try to be something you are not. Tobacco Business recently released its Top 24 Cigars of the Year list. How might a retailer use a list like this or one from another media site to promote an upsell? That’s the easiest upsell in the world! We just open the magazine and point to it, and it will sell. The real world challenge to that situation is to sell a related product that you may carry, which is done by telling the customer why you think it is better or more interesting or a better value. Retailers have a strong love/hate relationship with top cigar lists because most of those cigars become hard to get immediately after the list is published, so this puts us in a difficult position. Many times a customer will come in with a top cigar list, and we must tap dance, storytell and educate to make a similar sale. Having experience, the ability to educate and earning the trust of your customers will be critical in situations like this. TB