Oasis Valentine Designs

Smithers-Oasis North America Design Director Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI, is a speaker and author known for her "edutaining" floral design tips and Southern charm. She has four decades of design experience, is past president of AIFD and lives in Carrollton, Georgia.  Valentine's Day can easily be the busiest day of the year for a floral designer. Almost everyone has a potential Valentine - someone they'd love to surprise. Lucky for us, flowers are the favorite gift of this exciting sweetheart's holiday. It's easy to postpone prep and dread the day due to all its craziness, but that isn't a good idea. Careful planning in advance is the insider's secret for organizing this chaos into a successful day of sales and customer satisfaction. Florists already know to prepare for the traditional phone-in orders for delivery of dozens of red roses or bouquets of red tulips. Let's look at 6 tips for planning your Valentine's Day sales we can take to inspire more non-traditional sales and impulse buys. Click image for arrangement recipe Prepare in advance To appeal to everyone's wallet, develop recipes for arrangements in a range of prices. Offer similar designs in at least three price points-budget, moderate and exceptional.  Concentrate on flower combinations that feature long-lasting flowers such as alstroemeria, carnations, mums or liatris. Include designs with less fragrant flowers like anthurium. protea or green plants to suggest for those who have allergies. Ask about allergies when making a sale. Create each of the designs in your menu to determine the cost of labor and materials. Take photos of these mock-up designs to use in sales sheets with customers and your advertizing media. Make your procurement lists from these recipes. Showcase the designs in your cooler and begin taking advance orders. Click image for floral design recipe Suggest upgrades Use interesting materials as upgrades to basic arrangements. In this design, Snakeskin Wire was wrapped around the foam, inside the vase, to add a pop of color in the first design. Midollino Sticks were added to the second design to expand the space for the arrangement giving it more perceived value. Offer a hands-on floral design class In advance, offer a DIY class showing attendees how to use one of the Smithers-Oasis heart forms to create their on heart-warming designs for the holiday. Using poms, carnations or roses offer varied priced 'heart & flowers' packages they can purchase to create their own design and 'give their heart' to a loved one. Make it easy to buy flowers Advertize that you have gifts to suggest for all ages and relationships: fun gifts that children can enjoy including balloons, candy and stuffed animals; inexpensive flower designs for parents and grandparents; small floral thank you gifts for teachers, co-workers or friends; and glorious bouquets of specialty flowers for that 'special someone'. Offer exclusive customized designs for a premium price. Display eye-catching 'grab and go' impulse buys for last minute shoppers. Post photos of your Valentine Flower Collection on Social Media. Accept walk-in orders to be picked-up via Facebook private messaging. Tweet and post photos of the arriving abundance of fresh flowers. Inspire a passion for flowers Tell the story of where your flowers are grown, how to care for them or any other interesting information you have to share with your customers. They will enjoy retelling the story as they give their gift. Ask for specifics about the recipient and offer suggestions that will help meet their needs or preferences. Talk up the 'treasure' (the value points) of the gift they are choosing for their loved one. Make it feel good to buy flowers, so they will want to return. Utilize fragrance and color Create impulse sales by clustering flowers that are really fresh and just opening around sales counter to be seen and touched. Be sure to include some really fragrant blooms like stems of Oriental lilies, hyacinths or roses. Use signage to offer the name and price of the flowers. Group flowers together that would arrange well for DIY buyers. Preparing your shop for Valentine's Day sales? Watch this quick video of Valentine planning tips  from OASIS Floral Design Directors Frank Feysa, AIFD, PFCI and Neville MacKay, AIFD, CAFA. "Have you started your plans for Valentine's Day?" Sharon McGukin sharonmcgukin.com Every OASIS Floral product, completely described Oasisfloralproducts.com has the complete information you need, including sizes and colors, on every OASIS Floral product available. You can create a list and order where you prefer, including from the site. Just shop as you normally would, adding items to your cart. When you're ready to check out, transfer your cart to the participating distributor you select. The distributor will process your order, ship and bill you directly. It's that easy! If you have questions, ideas or concerns, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-321-8286 or support@oasisfloral.us. See what's happening on our social sites

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Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.com I will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988 thanks! Christina Burton-Fox AIFD

Up selling 101 by Floranext

Easiest Way to Increase Flower Shop Profits? Upselling 101

Posted by Admin on Jan 20, 2016 in Florist Marketing, Florist Resources, Opening a Flower Shop |

What is the easiest way to increase your flower shop profits? Getting new customers isn’t always easy – but selling more to those that walk in the door doesn’t cost a penny.

Florists can commonly enjoy sales increases of 20% or more when they start upselling. How can you do it – and how can you get your employees to come along for the ride?

Keys to flower shop upselling

The best part of upselling is that it’s practically effortless. The customer has already decided on purchasing from you so the hardest part of the sales conversation is completed. You already have a connection with them and have identified and solved their current needs.

Here are four points to remember when florist upselling:

1. Connect with Customer – By Collecting Information: Find out as much as possible about why your customer is purchasing their flowers and bring up additional product that might not have thought of on their own. They will appreciate it. Express genuine emotion about birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
2. Wait until the sale is over: Upselling occurs after the customer has already decided to buy something. If you try and upsell before that, it looks pushy. But afterwards, it should look like great customer service.
3. Make the upsell affordable: As a general rule, upsold products should not increase the purchase total by more than 25 percent. That is why it is easy to add-on a $1.00 drink to your $2.00 hamburger order
4. Upsell with a purpose: Don’t just try to get rid of last year’s plush animals with every flower design, customers will see right through that. Always upsell items and services that match your customer’s floral purchase and needs.

Upselling 101 – How to Train Flower Shop Employees to Upsell! 

As the floral owner, your task is to transform your staff from order-takers to order enhancers. To do this, you need to build their sales skills one step at a time. You will want

1. Attitude – Start by emphasizing that it’s the attitude of helping or making your customer the winner that’s all-important.
2. Process – Prepare in writing your complete up-sell procedures. Remember to put together upsells that make sense.
3. Live Training – Spend a quiet afternoon doing live training with employees to give them a feel for how to sell.

Flower Shop Employee – Live Training

Live training is the way to make sure your employees understand the importance and how to upsell. Take a quiet afternoon and walk through different scenarios with employees:

• Scenario 1: Birthday flowers – mother buying flowers for teenage daughter
• Scenario 2: Wedding consultation – bride and mother visiting for final consultation
• Scenario 3: Anniversary flowers –  husband buying for wife of 25 years
• Scenario 4: Thank You flowers – secretary sending flowers to business associate

Make it fun! Have the store owner play the customer. Have other employees or friends listen in and give letter grade(A, B, C, etc.) to an employee on the following:

• Grade 1 – Connection with Customer – did the employee understand and connect emotionally to the customer?
• Grade 2 – Upsell timing – did the upsell come in at the right time in the conversation?
• Grade 3 – Upsell offer – was it an appropriate upsell offer, did it seem natural?

Example Flower Shop Upsells

• Have offers ready that upgrade their flower purchase like “for an additional amount we can add 30% more flowers to the design” or “for $$$, we can add a few more upscale flowers to enhance the arrangement.”
• Mention the addition of a complimentary product to any flower design. For a birthday, a stuffed animal, balloon or decorative candle or product should be highlighted. For a wedding, an additional throw-away bouquet or flowers for the Godparents perhaps.
• Initiate a flower arrangement subscription plan for customers who send arrangements regularly. This plan will send an arrangement each month for a set number of months for a certain cost. This is a great way to increase service to your customer and your bottom line with monthly guaranteed sales.

Practice the upsell procedures first before you give them to the staff. Have a meeting with your staff to go over the upsell procedure. Brainstorm with your sales staff the best way to enhance your florist customer’s experience. Do mock upselling interactions with each salesperson.

Have the staff watch you talk with and help flower shop customers first. Demonstrating what you expect each to do with each customer.

Watch your staff in action. Listen to them work with the customers in-person and on the phone. Find something they’re doing well, and then build from there. Never ever let them down-sell. Never should a staff member say “are you sure you want to spend that much?” “Use this flower instead of that because it is cheaper and will cost you less.” The customer has come to you for your flower expertise; never downgrade your services or product!

Last Thoughts on Flower Shop Upselling and Increasing Profits

Everyone in your flower shop should be taught and expected to upsell. Upselling can spell the difference between “just getting by” and having a profitable year. Still have some doubters of the importance of upselling? Test it out 100 times and tally the results. It should stop the nay-sayers

Upselling is not only for in-person or phone selling. Are you upselling on your floral website? You should be offering add-ons to all orders like chocolates, plush animals, etc. It’s a no-brainer!

It’s now time to take upselling to your shop! You ready? You have nowhere to go but up!

Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.com I will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988 thanks! Christina Burton-Fox AIFD

Florists Review Tip of the Week

Share this tip         January 18, 2016 The Secrets to Longer-Lived Florals On Valentine’s Day, customers will be looking to you to wow them with your long-lasting blooms. Beyond their initial excitement at receiving a stunning gift of flowers, recipients will most remember just how long their blooms remained beautiful. Now’s a great time to make sure your staff’s flower processing and care steps are on point to get the best vase life from all of your flowers and arrangements. Have a daily “huddle” with staff to go over key flower care points, such as proper flower food dosing proportions, proper holding temperatures and times, the importance of regular cooler cleaning. Have this meeting standing up and make the timing fit your day. Encourage staff to bring their questions and feedback about best practices. Don’t forget the importance of educating customers as well. Each holiday arrangement should come with simple written instructions about regular watering and re-cutting of stems where appropriate.

Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.com I will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988 thanks! Christina Burton-Fox AIFD

Mayesh Minute: Floral Boa at TSE2016

Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.comI will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988thanks!Christina Burton-Fox AIFD

Oasis ideas for Valentines

Smithers-Oasis North America Design Director Sharon McGukin, AIFD, AAF, PFCI, is a speaker and author known for her "edutaining" floral design tips and Southern charm. She has four decades of design experience, is past president of AIFD and lives in Carrollton, Georgia.  When I owned my flower shop, I spent a lot of time planning and preparing to galvanize Valentine's Day sales. I was always searching for interesting ways to capture the attention of my customers. I found that featuring new trends was my best bet.  How can you inspire your clientele to fall in love with your 2016 Valentine's Day Collection? Try showcasing heartwarming designs featuring these trendy new looks. From elegant and artistic to fun and funky, these floral trends are sure to win a cupid's heart.  For this Valentine's Day, the OASIS Floral Products design team created Pop-Art, Renaissance, Impressionism and Art Deco inspired designs. You can see the designs and recipes here. And you can watch the videos explaining each set by clicking on the video images below. Impressionism Click image to watch video on oasisfloralproducts.com Inspired by fine photos and art gallery impressions, this look appeals to the finer senses with floral finesse. Textural detail is important and bright colors preferred, but remember to soften the look with the soft, smooth lines of loosely gathered flowers. Add interest by accessorizing with the fine detail of Beaded Wire or metallic floral wire. Art Deco Click image to watch video on oasisfloralproducts.com Create floral works of art for your clientele this Valentine's Day. The Art Deco 1920's - 30's era ushered in the age of playfulness. To mimic this style, blend an energetic mix of architectural detail with geometric form using decorative wire. Add natural motifs and a touch of glamour. Design Valentine flower arrangements in ESSENTIALS containers that celebrate the fun, fanciful, yet functional style of Art Deco. Pop Art Click image to watch video on oasisfloralproducts.com Everything old is new again as our Pop Art trend revisits the 60's. Bright. Bold. Funky. Abstract. Think Andy Warhol. Dynamic lines add drama. Static lines add visual strength. You can easily incorporate both using the versatility of colorful and malleable Midollino Sticks.High energy and enthusiasm for life are elements of this collection. Keep your holiday color palette in step using the eye-catching array of colors available with Colour Regen floral color spray. Renaissance Click image to watch video on oasisfloralproducts.com Celebrate the artistic age of the Renaissance with the romantic look of Valentine's Day flowers in deep, rich, glorious color. Mix the natural elements of fruit with flowers in a classic design that highlights texture and form. Incorporate flat wire for the glow of an unexpected sheen. Lush. Luscious. Lovely. However you describe them, the style and grace of these sumptuous designs can easily warm a loved one's heart.  Have fun creating stunning new floral designs for your clientele this Valentine's Day with cherished styles from the past.  Which style is your favorite? Sharon McGukin sharonmcgukin.com Every OASIS Floral product, completely described Oasisfloralproducts.com has the complete information you need, including sizes and colors, on every OASIS Floral product available. You can create a list and order where you prefer, including from the site. Just shop as you normally would, adding items to your cart. When you're ready to check out, transfer your cart to the participating distributor you select. The distributor will process your order, ship and bill you directly. It's that easy!  If you have questions, ideas or concerns, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-321-8286 or support@oasisfloral.us. See what's happening on our social sites

Floral Design Elements with Jerome Raska: Designing With Bulb Flowers

Unsure how to view the class schedule or how to sign up for a class.....email me at: flowerclassroom@gmail.comI will be glad to answer any question at: 913-708-2988thanks!Christina Burton-Fox AIFD

EFD Discount on 2016 class sessions

It's almost the  New Year and we all want to try new things.....
Learn to work with FLOWERS....It's amazing... artistic...everyday is a BEAUTIFUL Day....

Floral Discount until January 15, 2016

Discount on any session EFD [Explore Floral Design Class]
#floraldeisgnclass  #floraleducation  #learntodesignwithflowers
Here's the deal:
$350 off the class price
8 students per class

regular price: $1,864.50   SALE PRICE  $ 1,514.50

HERE'S THE LINK FOR PAYMENT
Copy and paste this link for your payment, pay with any credit card or your pay pal account.  This does qualify for the pay pal credit/pay in 6 payments if you apply thru pay pal:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ZUH5TCALLS344


I can't wait to meet you in the classroom and share my floral passion with YOU.

Class Schedule on right hand side of Blog, search the Blog for the Explore Floral Design class 2016 for additional information.                                                                        Have questions??  Call me{Christina} at: 913-708-2988

Oh, the places you will go with this hands on floral experience......everywhere you want to go!

Christina Burton-Fox  AIFD
floral artist and instructor