Hey, it’s Bob Negen. And in this episode of real retail TV taken from the holiday selling course in the Retail Sales Academy, we’re going to explore the differences between your regular year round customer and your holiday customer. Hey, it’s Bob Negan, and this is another lesson in your ongoing professional development. In fact, this is the first lesson in a series of lessons on holiday selling.

Because as you know, the holiday customer is different than your regular customer. And although it seems self evident that the holidays are different than the rest of the year, it’s important to explore why they’re different in in the the sort of things you need to bring to the table during the holiday as a seasoned retail professional salesperson. The first thing to recognize is that during the year, and I’ll call everything that’s not part of the the holiday season, the year. But during the year, most of the people who come into your store are looking for something for themselves.

They’re not necessarily a gift. Yes. I know some people come into your store and buy gifts, but most people are buying for themselves.

During the holidays, however, most people are looking for gifts. So during the season, yeah, I mean, during the year, you’re selling to the end user. During the holidays, you’re selling to the gift giver, not the end user. And so the definition of the perfect purchase changes a little bit too, doesn’t it?

Because during the year, the perfect purchase is what’s right for them. During the holidays, the perfect purchase is the perfect gift. So what you need to do as a retail professional is you need to use all of your powers. You need to use your skills as a questioner.

You need to engage in active listening more meaningfully than you do during the year because you have to determine two different things. You have to determine what the perfect gift is. You have to learn about the person who is going to get the gift, and you have to learn about the person who you’re talking to, the giver of the gift. Because although, of course, you want the gift to be perfect, you want it to reflect the personality of the giver.

So you’re just going to need to really, really focus and engage and get to know those people that you’re talking to, because it’s a little trickier than just talking to the end user. So that’s the first thing. You need to be skillful. You need to be sensitive to the fact that they’re giving a gift.

But you also need to understand that during the holidays, a lot of the people who come into your store will have never been in your store. They’re looking to you and your merchandise for the perfect gift. And, you know, so there might be something about the name of your store or someone may have recommended your store, but they’re in your store for the first time. And when they come into your store, while we normally say, you know, give them a a fifteen to thirty seconds to acclimate, you might wanna give them a little extra time.

Give them a little extra space. Let them come into your store and become comfortable. Let give them a chance to look around and see what you sell and feel how they’re going to feel about your store. And then when you engage them, again, it’s the same thing.

You’re really asking questions as skillfully as you can. You’re engaging in active listening, you know, as best you can. You’re you’re doing everything you can to help them get the perfect gift. Because, again, the perfect gift is the perfect purchase.

Well, I hope that you found that distinction interesting and helpful and your action item should you choose to accept it is to schedule a meeting or perhaps even just have a standup and watch this video. Watch this episode of real retail TV with your staff, discuss the differences so that they and you will be better equipped to deal with those wonderful, wonderful holiday customers.