Easiest Way to Increase Flower Shop Profits? Upselling 101

What is the easiest way to increase your flower shop profits? Getting new customers isn’t always easy – but selling more to those that walk in the door doesn’t cost a penny.

Florists can commonly enjoy sales increases of 20% or more when they start upselling. How can you do it – and how can you get your employees to come along for the ride?

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Keys to flower shop upselling

The best part of upselling is that it’s practically effortless. The customer has already decided on purchasing from you so the hardest part of the sales conversation is completed. You already have a connection with them and have identified and solved their current needs.

Here are four points to remember when florist upselling:

1. Connect with Customer – By Collecting Information: Find out as much as possible about why your customer is purchasing their flowers and bring up additional product that might not have thought of on their own. They will appreciate it. Express genuine emotion about birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
2. Wait until the sale is over: Upselling occurs after the customer has already decided to buy something. If you try and upsell before that, it looks pushy. But afterwards, it should look like great customer service.
3. Make the upsell affordable: As a general rule, upsold products should not increase the purchase total by more than 25 percent. That is why it is easy to add-on a $1.00 drink to your $2.00 hamburger order
4. Upsell with a purpose: Don’t just try to get rid of last year’s plush animals with every flower design, customers will see right through that. Always upsell items and services that match your customer’s floral purchase and needs.

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Upselling 101 – How to Train Flower Shop Employees to Upsell! 

As the floral owner, your task is to transform your staff from order-takers to order enhancers. To do this, you need to build their sales skills one step at a time. You will want

1. Attitude – Start by emphasizing that it’s the attitude of helping or making your customer the winner that’s all-important.
2. Process – Prepare in writing your complete up-sell procedures. Remember to put together upsells that make sense.
3. Live Training – Spend a quiet afternoon doing live training with employees to give them a feel for how to sell.

Flower Shop Employee – Live Training

Live training is the way to make sure your employees understand the importance and how to upsell. Take a quiet afternoon and walk through different scenarios with employees:

• Scenario 1: Birthday flowers – mother buying flowers for teenage daughter
• Scenario 2: Wedding consultation – bride and mother visiting for final consultation
• Scenario 3: Anniversary flowers –  husband buying for wife of 25 years
• Scenario 4: Thank You flowers – secretary sending flowers to business associate

Make it fun! Have the store owner play the customer. Have other employees or friends listen in and give letter grade(A, B, C, etc.) to an employee on the following:

• Grade 1 – Connection with Customer – did the employee understand and connect emotionally to the customer?
• Grade 2 – Upsell timing – did the upsell come in at the right time in the conversation?
• Grade 3 – Upsell offer – was it an appropriate upsell offer, did it seem natural?

Example Flower Shop Upsells

• Have offers ready that upgrade their flower purchase like “for an additional amount we can add 30% more flowers to the design” or “for $$$, we can add a few more upscale flowers to enhance the arrangement.”
• Mention the addition of a complimentary product to any flower design. For a birthday, a stuffed animal, balloon or decorative candle or product should be highlighted. For a wedding, an additional throw-away bouquet or flowers for the Godparents perhaps.
• Initiate a flower arrangement subscription plan for customers who send arrangements regularly. This plan will send an arrangement each month for a set number of months for a certain cost. This is a great way to increase service to your customer and your bottom line with monthly guaranteed sales.

Practice the upsell procedures first before you give them to the staff. Have a meeting with your staff to go over the upsell procedure. Brainstorm with your sales staff the best way to enhance your florist customer’s experience. Do mock upselling interactions with each salesperson.

Have the staff watch you talk with and help flower shop customers first. Demonstrating what you expect each to do with each customer.

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Watch your staff in action. Listen to them work with the customers in-person and on the phone. Find something they’re doing well, and then build from there. Never ever let them down-sell. Never should a staff member say “are you sure you want to spend that much?” “Use this flower instead of that because it is cheaper and will cost you less.” The customer has come to you for your flower expertise; never downgrade your services or product!

Last Thoughts on Flower Shop Upselling and Increasing Profits

Everyone in your flower shop should be taught and expected to upsell. Upselling can spell the difference between “just getting by” and having a profitable year. Still have some doubters of the importance of upselling? Test it out 100 times and tally the results. It should stop the nay-sayers

Upselling is not only for in-person or phone selling. Are you upselling on your floral website? You should be offering add-ons to all orders like chocolates, plush animals, etc. It’s a no-brainer!

It’s now time to take upselling to your shop! You ready? You have nowhere to go but up!

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Other Florist Profit-Related Articles

• Top 10 Ways to Make a Profit Owning a Flower Shop
• 5 Ways to Get People Into Your Flower Shop
• Opening a Flower Shop – What I Wish I Knew!

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