Hello and welcome! I’m Kelsey Thompson and I’m a florist and strategy nerd. You may know me from my marketing and flower shop consulting business, Petals and Profits. I am all about helping florists bloom without burnout. In each episode of this podcast we’ll dive into real life tips to increase your profits and peace of mind.
Ok, let’s get back to the good stuff - making those sales! Do you ever struggle with phone sales - or those people that stand by the display cooler for 15 minutes but don’t know what they want?
It can be kinda awkward to bring the conversation around to the budget, especially for new employees.
That’s why I love the “bouquet of the day” method.
Simply put, choose an arrangement each day - or each week, or each month - and focus on selling that specific bouquet. This is not only easier on your sales staff, it is easier for your customers! Removing indecision and creating limited choice is the best way to move a customer to purchase.
Now there’s a couple of different ways you can go about this, and it totally depends on how you like to operate. I can admit sometimes I’m option 1, sometimes I’m option 2!
Option 1 is for our planners. This is taking a floral holiday mentality and applying it to daily orders by featuring a specific recipe.
Plan out your featured bouquet for the whole month depending on what’s in season, and the most cost effective fresh product. And prebook or bulk order accordingly
You’ll be keeping your cost of goods down and taking the guess-work out of your ordering, which is always a win. This can be a bouquet already in your online catalog, or something your team designs as a new or seasonal item.
If I’m doing it this way I often use it as an excuse to get rid of a slow moving container or accent item as well. For example, if I’m super heavy on pink vases after Mother’s Day, my featured bouquet for June is going to be a mix of bright pinks, yellows and oranges in a pink vase. If I have a tote overflowing with butterflies, you can bet that my featured bouquet is going to have butterflies in it. Use it to manage your excess inventory!
Or choose a bouquet from your website that you know you have good profit margins on and plenty of containers for. Print a photo and description of it and hang it next to your phone. And I want you to make sure this description has three things.
- Keywords to sell
- At least 2 price points
- Upsells and cross-sells listed
Let’s break those down. So number 1 is keywords to sell.
Make sure the description uses colors and feeling to describe the bouquet - no customer wants to hear you just list a bunch of varieties that they may not even know. On your sale print out make a list of words to describe the bouquet that evoke emotion or write an actual script. For example, let’s say you have a cube that you sell that has pink roses, white alstroemeria, white carnations, green buttons, purple statice and a purple butterfly. What key words can we pull out of there that the general population will understand and relate to?
How about this?
“Our featured bouquet this month is our “Hearts a Flutter” arrangement. It’s a low and lush 360 degree design that includes pink roses with classic white blooms, all accented with a happy little butterfly and a bow! Our Premium version is absolutely gorgeous and it goes really well with a box of our lavender truffles.”
You’ll notice the only thing I mentioned by name was pink roses. I didn’t list out specifics for the other flowers - a lot of people don’t know what alstroemeria is. And I didn’t even promise a certain color of butterfly or container. I used words like “lush” and “classic” and “happy” to describe the bouquet. I sold a feeling. This gives your designers way more flexibility. Of course, if someone asks specifics, give more information. But I’ve found that over half the time people are like “yep that sounds great”.
Did you notice that I started them at the high end of the price range and also cross sold a gift item? I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but learning not to sell out of your own pocket is important. That brings us to the second thing to have on your sales description: all the price points of your featured bouquet. This is especially important when you’re training new employees. Start at the highest price point when suggesting the bouquet. The worst they can say is no. And then you can offer the medium price point - and they’ll probably say yes OR direct the phone call to the budget they had in mind.
The third thing to include on the sales description is a list of upsell and cross sell items. You can upsell things like the container the bouquet is in, or offer to add more pink roses. Cross sell items could be things like gourmet snacks, a candle, a butterfly yard stake, etc. Things that would pair with the featured bouquet. List. them. out. It’s much easier to remember to make these add-on sales if you’re looking at an actual list of them.
So maybe you’re thinking - Kelsey! My grandma would like that bouquet, but that featured bouquet is not going to be everyone’s vibe. And you’re right - designs are not one size fits all. But you don’t have to have just one featured bouquet at a time. Choose 2 or 3 in different design styles that you’re focused on selling that week or month. Bonus if they have some cross-over flowers so you’re ordering efficiently, of course. Then use the recipient’s information and card message to help guide your phone conversation to the right Featured Bouquet offering.
The goal with this is to be able to streamline your fresh product turnover by focusing heavily on your most profitable or seasonal stems. Plan ahead for the month or week and focus on selling one product - or collection of products - to really turn a profit and increase your average order.
Whew! That was option one for the Featured bouquet method. So remember back at the beginning when I said Option 1 was for planners? Option 2 is more “roll with the punches” style. This is perfect for when you need to move something out of the cooler fast or just as a general sales technique.
Take a visual inventory of your cooler first thing in the morning.
What do you need to move out? What color or varieties do you have a lot of?
Keep a mental list or make an actual note and keep it by your phone.
For example, you may have some orange lilies that need to go, or maybe you’re feeling a little heavy on pink stems or sunflowers.
So write “orange lilies, mixed pink flowers, sunflower” on your note so you can work those into your bouquet of the day description. You can also make a short list of upsells and cross sells for the day, just like in the planned version. The only difference is that this will be more fluid. Have one-ofs floating around your store? That is your featured bouquet or the product you cross sell for your next phone call.
So how does this play out in a real life phone order? Let’s do a mock phone sale.
We’re going to jump into the scenario at the point where I start to discuss what product I’m sending…. I am totally holding a pretend finger phone up to my ear right now, so play along ok??
Ok Mr. Smith would you like to send your wife some flowers, a plant, a gift item or a combination?
A fresh bouquet? For sure! Our bouquet of the day today is gorgeous.
It includes warm tones of pinks, orange lilies and stunning sunflowers.
It’s $124.95 and it’s like a vacation in a vase! The girls at the office are going to be wowed.
Oh you were thinking something in the $60 range?
No problem, we’ll do something smaller for her desk and make sure to still include a sunflower, I know she likes yellow. Would you like to add a bag of our Birthday cake popcorn? It’s always nice to have an afternoon pick me up.
Sure thing? Ok great!...... etcetera etcetera and finish the order.
Can you hear how selling a specific item made it smoother to introduce the higher price point? Having a product in mind translates to more confident selling and speaking.
This is also a great way to sell through what’s in your cooler. We use this method all day long at holidays to move colors or fresh product that is selling slow online. It’s designers choice without the uncertainty the words “designers choice” can leave in a customers mind.
My dirty secret? I just visually track my cooler and make them up as I go. It’s kind of fun! I may have 2 or 3 “bouquets of the day” in a 4 hour period on a busy holiday as we sell out of one thing and move on to the next! I like to work on the fly and like the challenge of setting a price point goal and selling that price point.
Make a challenge for your staff to sell “x” amount of bouquets that week, or track who sells the most over the course of a month and do a cash prize as an incentive. I bet you’ll see your average order amount start to move up.
Ok, if you know me you know we can’t talk about sales techniques without talking about its kissing cousin - marketing. Here’s a few ideas to establish a “featured bouquet” as a staple of your shop.
#1 Start your day or week by making up a few of your featured bouquets, then sharing it on your social media stories - #bouquetoftheday! Have your customer comment with their favorite flower in the bouquet or help you name it. If I have a monthly featured bouquet, doing a poll on social media to have my customers name it is a huge engagement driver. Then I share the link to purchase on my website after the poll results are announced, and sometimes choose someone from the voting audience to receive a small version of that bouquet. This is a fun way to quote unquote advertise your bouquet for sale, without it being sales-y.
#2 - If it fits in your marketing budget, partner with another local business to do a “Bouquet of the month” giveaway. Maybe the local radio station announces birthdays every day, and at the end of the month they choose someone from that list to get a birthday month bouquet. Or a local coffee shop let’s you display a bouquet with a QR code at their counter, and they get to give it away to their customers as part of a cross promotion. One summer I delivered a single flower to different businesses around town throughout the month, and people could check in on social media when they found it and be entered to win The featured bouquet at the end of the month.
#3 Make a sign for your bouquet and feature it front and center in your cooler. Making something seem special or limited time is a great way to drive faster purchase decisions for your walk-in customers. If you really want to dive into marketing psychology, make a different bouquet at a higher price point than your premium featured bouquet, and have it in the cooler as well. Your premium featured bouquet now looks like a great value - which of course, it is!
Utilizing a featured bouquet strategy can make your phone sales smoother, engage your social media audiences and even take some stress out of flower ordering.
Can you see this being beneficial at your shop? Here’s your action plan for the week.
Start your next week by pinpointing 3 varieties or colors in your cooler that you want to push, as well as one cross sell item.
Write them on a sticky note on the phone with a price point or even a product description if you prefer that. Offer your featured bouquet to just five customers this week and track how you do with order values.
Then head to our Marketing for Florists Facebook group and share how it went! I can’t wait to hear your feedback. Speaking of marketing…
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