How To Get Shoes For Retail

Five Retail Sales Training Tips From Selling Shoes

selling shoes in retail

I'll get to my tips for selling shoes, but first, a story about how my knowledge of retail sales training began at the feet of others.

I put myself through college in the '70s as a men's shoe salesman. My shoe store was run by a sales manager whose simple motto was, "Sell shoes."

There were five of us on the floor at any time which was a problem for a 700 sq. ft. shop. We were all commissioned working against an hourly wage (also referred to as our "draw.") Because of this, we had an ups system, much like in baseball. The process worked like this...

Once you engaged a customer, you went to the bottom of the order. As enough customers came through, you progressed up the order. When it was your "up" that meant you got to wait on the next customer.

Whether you sold them or not, that was your chance to make a sale

Blow that, and you were back at the bottom.

Don't satisfy them and you got product returns that cut into your paycheck.

Because of that, you had to build trust with a customer quickly and, knowing how much guys hate to shop, make it easy for them to get their annual footwear purchases out of the way. Which meant always looking for the higher ticket via helping the customer get what they wanted.

Selling shoes in a store has to be better than online

Back then, and still today, most clerks in shoe stores would just ask a guy's size when he picked up a shoe. Our sales team always replied to the customer, "Let's check that because one foot might be larger than the other."

We did truly want to find the exact size:

Because it saved us time, half the time the guy was off by a size from what he told us.
Because if you didn't know from the start by the length and width that the guy had very narrow or wide feet, or if his instep was too high or low, it would automatically limit the choices the salesperson had to work with.

Having understood why we measured everyone, the sales process was then to mentally match up the customer's foot and what they said they were looking for before going to the stockroom.

That way, if the customer had limited options, the trainee could collect all of his choices at once, saving the customer time and maximizing the sales opportunities.

This sales strategy also kept trainees from a conversation about features and benefits on the sales floor about why a particular product was so well made or why it would fit a customer's foot, only to go to the stockroom and discover there was no shoe in the customer's size.

Your up would have been wasted...

How to get started with retail sales training with this comprehensive primer.

When I took over the store, I trained the men's shoe salesmen to bring out four boxes of footwear; the requested pair, a pair in the same color, but a different style, the originally requested pair in another color, and a casual.

After the customer decided on the original pair, he would invariably ask the salesperson, "What's in those boxes?" This is much easier selling when they ask rather than you push.

The salesperson would reply, "I found a few others in the back. Would you like to see a few more in your size?" The customer would, 99 out of 100 times, answer "Yes."

They'd often buy two or three pairs of shoes where many shoe stores would have sold just one if any.

World-renowned author Paco Underhill shared his tips for selling shoes based on his own 30 years of research:

How to sell shoes in a retail store

1. Get the customer to sit down

As we get older one of the subconscious decisions we make is based on seating height. We recommend a shoe department/store have three heights so short, medium and tall customers have natural choices.

2. Ups systems in selling don't work

An Ups system is a pecking order of who waits on the next customer. The last one to interact with a customer is "up" for the next person that walks in the door. But the next salesperson doesn't work to juice sales.

Sale staff needs training, direction, and strategy - who is the best person to serve the customer that just sat down? Also note, wealthy Muslim women, don't like their feet being touched by a strange man. Give them a female sales associate.

3 Provide good full-length mirrors

Shoes, particularly women's shoes are bought to compliment an outfit. Higher-end shoe stores should consider a changing room.

4. Make it obvious between women and men's shoes

In athletic shoes a clear unambiguous separation of men's and women's. Girls are not threatened by shoe gender, guys are.
Thanks,

5. Provide different flooring surfaces

Selling athletic or hiking shoes think about a test track. The longer "the look" the more likely the sale.

Here are five tips from selling shoes that made my store successful:

A unified focus on what the #1 job was: Sell shoes.
Not assuming, confirming what size they thought they were.
Getting ahead of returns.
Keeping options open.
Arousing curiosity.

Selling shoes can teach you a lot about selling everything else

I know a lot of people who made money selling in the retail industry - particularly in shoes. The whole experience was one of pampering and catering to the customer.

Contrast that to the selling process now - that you have to try on your own shoes after asking for your size and trying to figure out if they fit. No wonder so many owners are nervous about online !

'Cause here's the thing: if all your clerk can do is run and fetch products from a stockroom - either aided by an iPad or not - they add no value to the transaction.

That part-time job selling shoes is where I first learned much of what I still teach today about persuasion, presentation skills, energy, sales techniques in retail, teamwork, and success.

Nowadays, I study and question what seemed so simple and try to put into words what is so very hard for so many.

That's because...

Customers don't realize that when they have an exceptional experience it is not by chance, but by the training given to the sales team.

Retailers of all sizes need to get back to basics and look at who they hire for the sales floor, how they are onboarded, and how retail sales training can be mutually beneficial for all.

Take my free 5-part email course to learn how your retail store can outsell any online retailer. You can get started with your first lesson by entering your name and email address below ...