Marina has an incredible talent for upselling at the till
Having previously worked as an English language teacher, Marina ended up working at the Heart of England Co-op whilst caring for her elderly parents who both suffered from ill health. Four years ago, when they tragically both passed away within months of each other, Marina went through an incredibly tough time, but the group was extremely supportive. “The Co-op was fantastic,” she says. “They said ‘don’t worry, just take as much time off as you need’. She made a gradual return to the workplace and found comfort in talking to her customers. “I’m so lucky, because it’s a local, everybody knows me and I know them,” she says. “So it was lovely, you know, people were buying me flowers and cards.”
She’s on first name terms with all her customers and tries to give quality time to those who need it, assisting vulnerable customers with their shopping and chatting to people who need cheering up. “I talk a lot,” she grins. “I know what’s going on in their lives and put a smile on their face.”
By getting to know her customers’ wants and needs, Marina has also mastered the art of upselling. “Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t. I’ve just gotta keep going,” she says. As well as focusing on that week’s particular ‘active sale’, she also uses her initiative to grow basket spend. “Sometimes you can figure out what they’re going to make and say: ‘well you’re making this big Bolognese tonight’ and then I’ll have a look and say: ‘Do you want to get yourself some mushrooms or do you want some onions and they’ll rush off and get something extra for that dish. Or if it’s a present they’re buying, I might say: ‘maybe a box of chocolates would be nice with that bottle of wine, or have you got a gift bag?’ You just kind of put it into conversation because you don’t want to force anybody, but they might just have forgotten to get it.”
The number of active-sell items are regularly monitored by the Society and can be broken down by individual colleague. The Co-op reports that Marina’s upselling makes up 70% of the upselling total for the whole of her store!
She is also excellent at persuading customers to join the group by encouraging them to sign up for a points card. Over the past year she has recruited 75% of the whole store’s membership recruitment target completely on her own. In the two-week period before sending in her awards entry, the Co-op claims Marina had recruited 18 new members when the weekly target for the whole store is 15 new members a week!
Despite her best efforts, she doesn’t receive any incentives for her amazing sales performance, but claims that she remains motivated. “I don’t get any incentives, I wish I did! But I do it because I like to challenge myself,” she says. “I’m thinking I want to sell all these.”
New team members are often left in Marina’s capable hands as she shows them the ropes. “I’ll help them as best as I can,” she says. “I feel as if I am an approachable person. So if they need anything, I say ‘don’t worry, just call me’.”
In addition to volunteering to help train people, Marina helps out across multiple areas of the store, including on the bakery, running date checks on products such as sandwiches, cakes and bread; sorting unsold newspapers and magazines ready for return; and early morning checks to ensure the store is ready for business. “There is a lot more to the job than just standing at the till,” she says. “Even though I’ve been here for this long, I’m always learning.”
The winner of Sales Colleague of the Year will be revealed at The Convenience Awards on September 13th
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