Using Employee Down-Time as Sales-Time

A few summers ago, my family and I vacationed in Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, MI.  On the island, employees would hustle to get sales as they were giving out samples and soliciting customers on the street - doing just about everything possible to get a sale, and they often did.  People were spending all kinds of money.

But Mackinaw City was different.

Separated by a bit of water, Mackinaw City had quite a different culture than the island as several of the stores just didn't seem like they wanted to make a sale.

For example, I had found the "Triptonic 5-D Movie Ride" on Trip Advisor and saw that it had fantastic reviews.  Amazing reviews.  Therefore, I had it on my list of possible things to do for my family, but was definitely on the fence about it as it would cost me a pretty penny for my family of five..

When I eventually found the ride, I walked over to check out the ride and see if it was something I wanted to spend my money on.  The problem was that the employee working the ride was sitting down - inside the ride - spending her time on her smartphone.

She didn’t ask me if I was interested.  She didn’t explain how the ride worked. She didn’t acknowledge me.

She didn’t even look up from her smartphone.

She was just waiting for someone to interrupt her from what she was doing and ask her if they could pay for the ride.  In her mind, that was her job.

So, I ended up falling off the fence as I wasn’t convinced that the ride was worth the money.

I am convinced that this employee could have easily doubled her shift sales just by engaging those who walked by - if she had just used her down-time as sales-time.

I, for one example, would have paid for a ride for my entire family if I had just been tipped off the fence in the right direction.

Action Item: Determine one way your employees can use down-time to sell to prospect customers. Consider using incentives to encourage employees to make more sales.