I've spent more hours working retail than I care to admit.

My wife and I went shopping at the mall yesterday, and it was a pretty horrifying experience. Our local mall has somehow managed to banish every bookstore, toy store and nature store from its premises, leaving us with a pet store (that will probably be out of business soon), a “Club Libby Lu” (which is going out of business), a GameStop and a slew of clothing stores, gift shops and cell phone kiosks. Blech.

Now, for those who don’t know, I have a fairly successful background in the retail industry — when I was working for EB Games (which is now GameStop), I was the top-ranked manager in the entire Midwest for 2 years in a row, and when I left the company to go back to school, I was ranked #2 behind the regional manager’s home store. From what I’ve been told, I was the only manager in the history of the company to ever do that. (To be fair, my employees were a big part of the effort, and they deserve credit too!) But it wasn’t just because I was really, really into video games — even when I worked in an Eddie Bauer, which was way out of my element, I was the top sales associate in the store fairly consistently.

So, yeah, I know a thing or two about retail. And what I want to say right now to anyone else who is in the retail business is to stop asking me if there’s anything I’m looking for when I walk into your store. This helpful-sounding question actually kills more sales than you’d think.

“Huh?” you might ask. But trust me, I have a good reason for saying this.

It all begins with the reason why the question is being asked. Let me set up the scenario for you.

[Sean walks into the store. An associate greets him.]

Associate: Hi, how are you today?
Sean: Great.
Associate: Is there anything I can help you find today?
Sean: Nope, just looking.
Associate: OK. Let me know if you need me.

Most of us have encountered this scenario before, and it appears that the associate is doing the right thing. He or she is being visible and offering assistance, right? That’s how you start a sale, isn’t it?

Wrong. The associate is being lazy and inept. Offering to help people find items is customer service. Sales is a process of building a rapport, listening to the customer’s needs, making suggestions, and closing. A good salesperson is not concerned about the transaction that will be made, but the overall impression the customer has of the experience. This is very important, since customers tend to return and want to deal with the salespeople who helped them before. They also tend to return items less and to buy more liberally.

So, here’s how the scenario should properly go:

Sales is ridiculously easy... if you actually make an effort to get good at it!

[Sean walks into the store. The Associate walks up to greet him.]

Associate: Hey, how’s it going?
Sean: Great.
Associate: How’s the traffic out there? Pretty bad?
Sean: Um, yeah. A lot of people seem to be out and about today.
Associate: (groans) I guess that means the food court’s pretty packed, huh?
Sean:  Oh yeah. We waited 20 minutes for our food.
Associate: Thanks for the tip. Hey, have you been in here before?
Sean: Um, maybe once or twice.
Associate: That’s cool… yeah, I always like to let people know how the store’s laid out so they can find things, you know? We move things around all the time in here. We’ve got mens’ clothing to the right, and womens’ to the left.
Sean: I didn’t realize that. Thanks.
Associate: No problem. Go ahead and have a look around. I’m going to go say hi to these people who just walked in, but let me know if you need any advice or have any questions or anything.

I know what you’re thinking … “Who puts this sort of effort into talking to customers?”

Well, I did, and it always paid off for me. Even when I was busy, I tried to make time to talk to customers this way. And I tried to make sure I wasn’t re-using the same lines over and over, but legitimately continuing the conversation.

You see, the problem is that you don’t want the customer to say, “I’m just looking,” because what they’re really saying is, “leave me alone. I don’t like salespeople.” When people come into a store with that attitude, they’re not going to be very good customers, and associates aren’t going to be very good salespeople. What’s more, the phrase “I’m just looking” kills any further attempts at building rapport. The salesperson is defeated they moment they ask a question that can lead to an, “I’m just looking,” and the customer will be more resolved to do just that for fear of having to talk to the salesperson again.

So, listen, retail sales people — don’t ask, “Is there anything I can help you find today?” or “Are you just looking today?” or anything of the sort. Instead, compliment the person on an article of clothing, or talk about the traffic on the roads, or ask about the weather, or tell a joke, or do anything other than ask people if you can help them. And once you’ve established rapport, don’t just offer to help them find things; offer your expertise and advice. Trust me, it works. I’ve got the trophies to prove it.

“Why are you sharing this information?” you might ask. “Do you really want salespeople to be more competent?”

To which I reply: Absolutely. I’m not afraid of salespeople, but I am afraid of incompetent, disinterested employees who give bad advice because they don’t care about their customers. Good sales associates listen to customers’ needs, offer good recommendations and make the shopping process easy and fun. And, when customers come in with problems, good sales associates dazzle them with customer service so much that the people rave about the service they received. I love shopping in stores with good sales associates, because it’s an easy process. I hate shopping in stores where the sales associates are just standing around and feebly offering assistance.

Good service goes a long way. I still hear from my old customers how much they miss me and my team of employees, all of whom understood these principles. People tell me how much fun they had shopping in our store, how much they enjoyed our recommendations, and how much they loved the level of service they received. They tell me that the people who work in my old store now are nice, but that they don’t really seem to care that much.

And so, in closing, let me implore upon you, retail sales people — make the effort to actually sell and forget about this “May I help you?” stuff. It’s better for everyone involved, and you’ll come out of it feeling better about yourself… especially when your numbers start climbing.