Addressing a lunchtime gathering of retail buyers at a Classiflora Zelari open day at Waltham Abbey on Thursday, Neville Stein said poor sales ability was “the missing link”. “You have to recruit the right skills and train people well,” he said, “Customers want and need to be sold to.”

He urged his audience to share important information like the centre’s average transaction value (ATV) with sales staff and invite them to improve it. “The quickest way to grow your business is to sell more to your existing customers,” he said. “Encourage staff to seek out your customers’ problems, enhance customer desire, and deal with customers’ fears – many customers won't ask a question because they don't want to look stupid.” Good sales staff, he said, focus on product benefits rather than features.

He offered the following six-point guide to the structure of the sales process:

1.Greet, smile and make eye contact

2.Establish the customer’s needs

3.Create rapport

4.Propose solutions

5.Close the sale

6.Reinforce the benefits of the purchase

“The more conversations you have,” Stein added, “the more you sell.”