Dec 30, 2011

Sign on to selling more produce

Pick up any business magazine these days and it is almost guaranteed there will be an article on social media and the need for farmers, suppliers and retailers to join Facebook, Twitter or one of the other social media pages if they want to grow sales.

While I agree with this sentiment, I am also concerned we will forget what we already know about making a sale. In the exciting hype and need to learn new skills, we should not forget some of the basics.

For example, have you taken a look at your signage strategy of late? We all know that the role of signage is to provide consumers with information to enable them to make a decision. In fact, the role of signage is to increase the average sale per customer, which means we need to design product signage that maximizes sales opportunities.

One of the first mistakes we make is to assume the consumer knows the products we sell. Just because we are familiar with the product doesn’t mean the customer knows it as well as we do.

I came across an example of this recently in a fruit and vegetable store just outside Baltimore. The retailer was selling mango, one of my favorite fruits. I mentioned this to the store owner, and he said they did not sell well in Baltimore. I was puzzled by the comment and asked why. He mentioned it was a tropical fruit and that it only appealed to people who knew the fruit as it grew in the Caribbean region.

I then asked a few of his shoppers why they did not buy mangos. The answer was consistent: They did not know how to peel the skin off the fruit.

A simple sign solved the problem, and sales started to increase. The retailer told me it was “common sense.” The consumer told me it was “rare sense.” The key is to think for the consumer when preparing signs.

What do you need to put on the sign to grow sales?

There has been plenty of research carried out, mostly in Michigan, on how to develop signs that will sell more fruit and vegetables. Yet we often ignore that research.

The golden rules are: 1. Tell me what it is. 2. Give me three benefits in bullet format. 3. Tell me the price.

A simple sign like this can make a major difference to the stock turn on the shelf.

I still see signs that say just Celeriac, Boysenberry, Star Fruit, Pineberry and Coriander, and the grower assumes the consumer will know what to do with the produce or will find out. Customers do not have time to do this research; they expect the supplier to do this for them.

The three benefits are important. If it is less than three, the consumer assumes you do not know a lot about the product. If it is more than three, the consumer assumes it is too complicated and sales go down.

Writing the sign in lower case makes it easier for the consumer to read, which can also affect produce sales.

Signage is a critical part of making the sale, and it is the role of the grower, as the expert, to put the story together for the consumer.

As we get more involved in social media, we still need to remember the important aspects of displaying the produce in-store and helping the customer to make decisions.

By John Stanley

John Stanley is a coach, consultant, author, speaker and trainer from Kalamunda, Australia. He was the keynote speaker at the 2011 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO. For more information, visit his website.