17 Ways You Can Make More Money in Wireless Retail

Wireless can be a tough industry to profit in. The market is saturated with mobile products, increasing competition, and apathetic customers who are inundated with yearly new phone releases. All of this makes for increasing restrictions, decreasing margins, and a general feeling of ​“oh, sad” for wireless retailers.

But there are some simple steps you can take right now that can boost revenue, and it won’t involve a complete overhaul of operations or brand. We’re here to turn Notorious B.I.G on his head and say ​“mo problems – mo money!”

Read these 17 tips to how you can make more money in wireless retail.

1) Have an on-going training process for sales associates. Training should be an ongoing process, not an event that happens once in a while. As your sales associates get better at selling, you make more profit with each passing hour.

2) Sell a ​“Music Bundle.” Ask every customer that comes in if they listen to music and if they do, show them the bundle! It could include more data, more memory on their phones, a speaker, or headphones, etc.

3) Set minimum and maximum inventory levels and stick to them. Work with a vendor to ensure you don’t have empty peg space but also that you’re not over stocked on items you’ll need to throw into a discount bin later.

4) Allow customers to pay their bills in your store. It’s an opportunity for customers to come in your store more often, build a relationship with you, and the opportunity to sell them an accessory or upgrade their devices while they are there.

5) Seek out new accessories. Ask your suppliers what the coolest item is that they have right now and make that your accessory of the week or month to train staff. Start stocking more Internet of Things (IoT) items that provide higher margins.

6) Ensure your staff talk to every person that comes in – even if it’s your customer’s friend or spouse! Just because they are there with someone else doesn’t mean they don’t need anything.

7) Raise your prices! If you raise the price of every accessory in your store by $2 and split $1 to your store and $1 to your sales associates you will make more money guaranteed. How many accessories do you sell in a month? Multiple that by $1 and your that’s your minimum increased profit.

8) Commission your sales associates well. Especially on accessories. And make sure that their commission they are being paid is clear to them or visible for them to track to encourage more sales.

9) Set sales contests. A little healthy competition never hurt anyone but be sure to have fun with it. By having sales contests for your sales associates you’ll see an increase in sales – either because they want the reward, or they just don’t want to be the one to lose.

10) Build out a loyalty and/​or referral program. Reward your customers for buying more and encourage them to share their great experience at your store with others. Create a referral program that gets those others to come into your store as well by offering both stakeholders a reward. Document these programs for your customer somewhere such as on their receipt.

11) Reconcile. If you’re not reconciling back to your carriers and vendor,s you could be leaving money on the table. Make sure you are getting every dollar due to you and that you weren’t overcharged.

12) Enable Dropship. Dropship is an easy way to sell more accessories without ever having to carry them in-stock or pay for them up front. Plus: You can easily add virtual items to any existing invoice so there’s no need to run two transactions if your customer is also buying a product or service that’s in-store.

13) Meet regularly with your store managers. Assess performance, set and measure goals, and let it trigger coaching and training opportunities. Take a look at top and bottom performing sales associates – ask the top ones what they are doing well and then use that to train the bottom performers. While you’re at it, get on the store floor once in a while and set an example of how to sell.

14) Measure traffic patterns and walk outs. Be sure to staff up during peak times to avoid customers walking out empty handed and prevent your sales associates from not having the time to up-sell or properly educate the customer.

15) Market to your customers. Depending on what your carrier allows, use e-receipts, email marketing, online and social media advertising channels to share your brand message and promotions.

16) Add a repair bench to your business. This is a great way to get customers back in your store and you have the opportunity to help them do what’s best for them – either repairing the device, returning it under warranty, or helping them to upgrade to a new one.

17) Sell pre-owned cell phones and tablets. Especially if you’re repairing devices, you potentially have the opportunity to sell pre-owned ones to customers. With used devices you can set your margins and potentially open up a new customer market that can’t afford the latest technology.

This is just the beginning. The holidays are a great time to see tons of increased revenue, especially in wireless. Check out our step-by-step path to the holiday season because it’s never too early to get prepared to make way more money. Mo money – mo money!