A Note About Staff: The Cashier Salesman

It was time to change my oil again. Not too long ago, I would have pulled into a Super Lube and waited for a little more than half an hour to get my car serviced--but not anymore. I change my own oil now and had to go in for supplies. While standing at the register waiting for my friend to bring over a better oil filter than the brand I usually purchase, the cashier struck up a conversation with me.

Apparently, not to many young ladies my age are willing to crawl under their car and get dirty just to safe a little extra cash. I thanked him for the compliment, thinking that would be the end of it. Nope. He seamlessly turned the conversation to sales. "You know" he said "If you're changing your oil today why not check the other fluids in your car. We have a special on windshield wiper fluid. Only 4 dollars." I had only intended to purchase what I needed for the oil change and this guy was trying to up sell me on something I didn't even want. I was going to have to turn him down, but before I could even open my mouth to politely refuse he followed up with "Its really high quality, if you haven't replaced your windshield wipers in a while, they probably squeak when they rub across the glass. With this stuff you won't get that noise anymore." Shock! How did he know that I hadn't replaced my wipers in a while? It doesn't matter. I added the Rain-X to my tab. Why? Because he made the purchase relevant to me. Though I was only changing my oil that day, he convinced me that 1) I could kill two birds with one stone and freshen up my windshield fluid while I was at it and 2) That it would solve a problem I was having.

The cashier salesman is a rare breed. Most of us encounter the type of cashier who gives us a company required greeting and proceeds to scan all our bar codes without making eye contact. When there is a personable body behind the register its disarming. A real person with thoughts and opinions on the products they are selling can do a few different things:

• Make the rest of the staff seem more knowlageable by extension
• Open up the customer suggestions
• Create a better customer experience
• Promote a better corporate image
• Increase sales

Going back to my example. When dealing with an auto parts store, customers expect a certain level of understanding to begin with, but personal use and knowledge of the products makes conversations sound more like testimonials and not sales speeches. When customers open up to suggestions, you are guaranteed a sale. They may not buy the product that day, but you can be sure that if they ever need that item, they will remember what you suggested and come back to you to get it. Everyone loves a good experience when they shop, it encourages word of mouth referrals and sales by extension.

A Cashier Salesmen does four things well:

1. Identify
2. Associate
3. Suggest
4. Explain

Back to my example. The cashier in the store identified me as a novice level do-it-yourselfer. Once he made the association between my car care interest and aptitude, he was able to suggest other things I could do for my car that were just as simple if not easier than an oil change. He also went so far as to explain his suggestion and why it would matter to me.

Cashier Salesmen are great but hard to come by. If you're a retail business owner, these are the people you can't afford to pass over. Even though I only added $4 bucks to my tab, the interaction with my cashier will be much more valuable to the company in the long run. I continue to buy from them because of all the useful suggestions and advice I receive on how to keep my car healthy--which is very important to me.