- Hello.
I would like to welcome you,
to the Laramy-K,
optician works training center.
Where today we're gonna take a very slight sidestep,
and talk a little bit more about sales,
before we take,
Kansi the customer's frames from the frame board,
and over to the dispensing table.
(soft upbeat music)
Just like last week,
I realized I can not get a couple of housekeeping things,
before Kansi the customer arrives.
One, do not ever overlook,
kids frames for very petite women,
often works out really, really well.
Housekeeping two,
I would seriously avoid getting caught up in any of that,
silly,
face shape stuff or color stuff.
Sometimes you put a diamond on a diamond,
and it looks pretty darned good.
I did get a couple of emails from folks saying,
hey, you were talking about power and frame matching,
what about fully rimless and semi rimless?
You're right.
I didn't talk about that because,
that will be a complete separate video,
coming up in a couple of months.
Last piece of housekeeping.
I would encourage you to avoid,
trying to,
grab somebody by the ankles,
and drag them,
to your frame board or a particular brand.
Hear me out.
Where I worked,
we carried Costa and Rudy project,
as high end proprietary sunwear.
Back in those days,
there was some really, really good stuff.
We'd have someone come into the store and say,
do you carry Oakley?
And do you know what I did?
I didn't talk up Costa,
I didn't drag them over to the Rudy project,
I said, no we don't.
But,
here's a card for the gal down in Carytown who does.
I had stopped in, talked with her,
gave her our card,
said hey,
I know you don't carry Costa,
somebody comes in looking for Costa,
send over to us,
maybe a nice reciprocal thing going on.
If I've done my online shopping,
and all of my friends are wearing the Oakley whatever,
and you talk me into something else,
even if it's a superior product,
every time I get together with all my buddies,
for whatever it is,
and I'm the odd man out,
I'm not gonna be happy.
Think about that in general brands, proprietary stuff,
just kind of put it in the back of your mind,
and right on time.
As usual,
here is Kansi the customer.
- Hello?
- Hi, how are you?
- Good, yourself?
- Doing well today. Thank you.
- Are you ready to go?
- I'm ready.
- Good.
- Find some frames.
- All right.
Last week when we wrapped this up,
we talked a little bit about what we were gonna do,
this week.
And that included,
talking a little bit more about sales.
And I asked Kansi,
I said, hey,
is there anything that you would bring up again,
or bring up,
talking about that subject?
And she immediately jumped on reinforcing,
that we allow our customers,
to guide us on their frame choice.
I am old and out of the game for a while, right?
Especially the younger generation,
you've gotta be extremely careful
with the gender neutral stuff.
So,
let them show you what they want.
Not the other way around, right?
Might bite you on the bum.
I cannot believe it,
it is late October.
I think for the fourth or fifth time,
I get to say,
so I put on my,
pumpkin spice shirt for you.
Today we're gonna talk about,
sales 101,
also known as,
the basic tips or rules for the newbie.
I did not expect to start this stuff,
until like the middle of 2022,
but I'm getting this steady trickle of emails,
people asking for help.
Lots more on this to come,
but we're going to hit some highlights,
so you have some things to start working on.
Now,
rule number one is the one that,
nobody else is gonna talk about.
You're not gonna see this anywhere else.
Even the greatest of all time optician,
wouldn't necessarily be happy,
at any optical shop.
And what do I mean by that?
What I've been saying all along,
every store has a personality,
every optician has a personality.
Those two personalities have to mesh.
We all bring strengths and weaknesses,
to our skillset as an optician.
Only you know in your heart,
what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are?
And I'm sorry,
whether opticianry for you,
is even the right place.
As a newbie,
you gotta look inside your heart,
and decide.
Because even the greatest of all time optician,
she or he may be really competitive.
The place where they work,
may pay a great commission on a sale.
They thrive in a high pressure environment.
Where another optician,
they may even be the greatest of all time,
only likes to be out on the floor for a couple hours,
while the rest of the time,
they were in the lab making great pairs of glasses.
Everybody is different, different personalities,
it's got to match the store,
or you're not going to be happy,
and you're not going to be able to meet the sales
expectations of that place.
Number two,
normally number one,
and every other thing like this that you'll see,
is that we never ever assume anything.
Some people are incredibly hard,
to read.
Others are incredibly easy.
Sometimes you see,
somebody walking in the front door of the store,
and you kind of know everything about them.
Where others,
you don't really know much at all.
So we never ever assume.
We never judge,
we never judge the appearance of someone,
we never judge their decisions.
None of our business.
You can only see behavior,
you can't see reason,
or philosophy we talk about that on the website.
We never ever question the costs of the products
that we sell.
We start high and we go low.
Role-play this in a moment or two.
And we don't question costs unless they are in fact,
which's the word?
Wrong.
Okay.
There are places out there that do take advantage of people,
in very bad ways.
In that case,
find another job.
Look, let's be honest,
optician pay overall is not that great.
And there is a chance maybe,
that the customers that you work with,
well, their pay is considerably higher than yours.
So we don't judge.
We don't question,
their decision to pay a certain amount for a frame.
Starting high, going low.
Let's say this is our frame board,
and each one of these rows had a couple hundred frames,
instead of six i think it is, right?
And we went from our best,
to our better,
to our premium.
And then we had a discount row over here,
for folks that needed a pair
of when they took their contacts out.
I am going to start here.
I'm going to crowd her a little,
and kinda push her towards the premiums, all right?
Take your glasses off for me.
And we'd start with this row.
And I want you to try this on.
- Okay.
- And she would look in the mirror.
She would say,
- How much are these?
- Say those are 359.
- Okay.
- Do you like that?
- I do.
- All right.
- Without the color.
- Right? Fantastic.
Right?
Even very, very wealthy people,
hear the difference of a couple of hundred dollars,
in things that generally look,
kind of alike.
So be careful start high,
go low,
and never be embarrassed,
about the price of the things that you're selling,
as long as they are a fair prices.
If these were 695 dollars,
and when she asked me,
- Well, how much do these cost?
- Those are 695.
Even if that horrifies you,
as you may be very happy,
hang that amount for a pair of glasses.
Honest, true story,
all right? The place I used to work was,
one step under boutique.
And stuff would often cost
just shy of about a thousand dollars,
for a complete pair of glasses. Right?
And I would have people,
some say, well, how much is that?
And I'd say,
those are 495,
and they would be completely and utterly horrified and say,
I'm not going to be able to buy anything here.
And I would say to them,
look, I can't afford to shop here either.
- Exactly.
- It's the truth. I work here.
I don't mind selling this stuff,
and making my customers happy,
but you know what?
I couldn't afford this stuff either.
It's part of the job guys.
Kanzi actually is an artist.
She does all kinds of different painting.
And we just had a little side conversation,
share with the audience, what you just said.
- Well, it,
you just have to own your pricing,
when I was a face painter,
and I would tell parents, young parents,
how much I charged for an hour,
I would get the same,
horrified look,
of wow.
So, you know,
you are not for everyone.
As in,
all the glasses are not for everyone.
You just have to find,
the right glasses, the right price point,
for that customer.
- Exactly.
Yeah. I mean, hour, hour of your time is a lot.
- Absolutely.
- Yeah, you were paying for booth fees,
and you had to get to the,
fair.
- And insurance.
- Everything yeah.
- You had to build all that into your price.
- Absolutely.
- You were in business.
- Yes.
- Excellent. Good stuff.
Thanks.
- Rule number three for sales and the newbie.
Where do sales come from?
Sales come from confidence,
really is that simple.
How do you build confidence?
Well, you must know your products.
You must know what you're trying to sell.
That,
is your job.
How do you do that?
Well, you grab your trade magazines,
you grab your brochures,
you read stuff online,
you study the stuff that you sell.
You hold it, you touch it,
you feel it, you try it on, you wear it.
That's how you build that confidence.
And you need to do that.
I am off working with another customer.
I greet Kansi the customer.
I say, you can just start looking,
I'll be with you within just a couple of minutes.
And Kansi walks over to our frame board,
where we carry the,
Berlin eyes line, including the Dutz eyewear collection.
And while she's browsing,
she takes out her phone and finds out a little bit more,
about Dutz.
(clock ticking)
- All right,
can I help you?
- Yes.
I wanted you to let me know,
I, I, I have a problem with hypoallergenic,
I really need hypoallergenic,
Is this brand hypoallergenic?
(stammers)
- I dunno.
I can look it up online for you though.
- Okay.
Helen, that take a minute.
Maybe I'll throw a timer on it, right?
Your customer now knows more about the frame line,
than you do.
Where do sales come from?
Confidence.
You must know the products that you sell, right?
She found this.
I'll put it up there for you.
And this points out things about,
the Dutz eyewear collection logo free.
made from beautiful German stainless steel.
They're hypoallergenic.
They're coated with Swiss lacquer,
the same used for apple products,
right?
She knew all kinds of stuff before I ever came over here.
Now she could have been researching at home for hours.
It happens a lots of people.
She's got the world at her fingertips now.
Spend your time learning about the products that you sell.
Talk to your reps,
read about them online,
read the brochures that come with them,
especially that proprietary sun stuff,
they've always had that collection of brochures,
for you to go through.
And I mean, really learn the products.
One of the greatest strengths,
is when you actually know a little bit more,
or can gently correct them and say,
no, that's not exactly what that does.
What it really does is,
something really exciting and different, right?
That is gonna be a sale versus her going,
(chuckles)
walking away backwards,
all right?
Just what you don't want.
Now.
Number four, 'cause some stuff just never gets old.
Sales has always been built on the concept,
of what is known as features and benefits.
A feature is something that a product has,
it's benefit is something that it does.
How do you learn the features and benefits?
Especially if your proprietary stuff,
like your high-end sunglasses sports stuff,
the brochures that the company put out,
the videos that the company puts out,
and of course the reps that represent
that particular proprietary brand.
Talk to them.
Let's use the Dutz piece here.
Now it said,
when she was reading it,
it said that Dutz eyewear is logo free.
Logo free would be a feature of the frame.
If I pull this frame down and I look all over it,
there's nowhere on it that it says Dutz.
Now there are many, many people out there today,
that love quality products,
but hate brand names.
Hey Kanzi is one of them.
So a feature of this frame,
is that it is not branded logo free.
The benefit is,
she's happy to wear it.
They're made from German stainless steel.
That is a feature.
What is the benefit,
of her buying a frame
made from great German stainless steel?
Well, it's gonna be extremely strong.
It's gonna be relatively lightweight.
And once you bend it to fit her,
it's going to stay in that position for a really long time.
Feature,
benefit.
It is hypoallergenic.
So her first question to me,
she already knew the answer, I didn't.
Hypoallergenic is a feature of this frame.
The benefit is,
if she has a metal allergy of some kind,
and in the past hasn't been able to wear a metal frame,
plastics are generally a little less allergenic.
She could finally wear that frame of her dreams,
feature,
benefit.
It is coated with a Swiss lacquer,
the same used for apple products,
feature,
benefit.
And it's right here.
They even use a feature and benefits model,
that makes it chip and scratch resistant.
So, as old as sales itself,
learn that technique,
understand the difference between those two things.
Another thing that never gets old,
is the terms open-ended,
and life style questions.
And then we kind of get into that a whole lot again,
we'll do some of that later down the line.
What does it basically boil down to?
Well, it says talk less and listen more.
The conversation that I'm going to have with my customer is,
to sell her a pair of glasses and meet her needs.
Comfortable, look good,
cover all of her visual needs.
This is the dangerous part, right?
And this is why I talk about personality of the store,
and personality of the optician.
I don't wanna see pictures of her grand babies.
I don't wanna be be her friend on Facebook.
I don't wanna go out for tea with her.
I wanna sell the repair of glasses,
and I want her to be genuinely happy with it,
because that is my job.
If you're the other personality good for you.
Again,
your job is to sell for her a great pair of glasses.
Your job is not to become her new best friend.
So there's, a little bit too different.
And that also helps you with that,
those are 359.
Part of that is learning how to ask open-ended questions.
And you can build on this.
We talk about it on the website,
and we'll probably do another one of these,
down the road a little bit.
What is the difference between a closed,
and an open ended question?
Do you play golf?
- Yes.
- Closed,
right?
Yes. No.
That's how you answer a closed question.
Open-ended.
You had mentioned you played golf.
What troubles you,
when you're playing your golf game out there.
- Seeing far it's just too blurry.
- Gotcha.
- Yeah.
- Wasn't just a yes or no answer.
She had to answer me in a complete sentence,
from there we can run with it and talk more.
You actually are an artist.
I know that,
because I've seen her work out there.
What do you wear when you're painting,
and what exactly do you paint?
- I paint in art journals,
so I'm close up.
And so I wear office progressives because,
regular for progressive's,
I don't have enough close.
- Got you. Okay.
And that pair is getting up there in age,
Are those still doing well for you?
- They are doing okay right now but,
they're showing their,
showing their age.
- Okay.
Next time you come in,
maybe we'll update those.
- Okay.
- Just put that in your head.
Kind of listen to this, for that language.
Try to ask those open things.
Try to open up that conversation a little bit more,
instead of that yes, no stuff.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
please go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Watching us on Facebook,
please give us a like.
And make sure that every lens that you sell to your customer
comes from Laramy-K.
I'll see you again.
Next week.
The products that you sell.
(beeping sound)