Selling with percentages

Yesterday I started my seasonal job in retail. And I am still amazed at how difficult it is for consumers to do simple percentages in their head.

Quick- what is 15% of $82? (No cheating, do it in your head.)

I come up with $12.30, but did you?

Most customers cannot do a percentage in their head to know how much they are saving. As a salesperson you must be quick on the draw with the answer. So I am going to show you a method that I was taught early on that will make you look like a rock star.

Let's look at our previous question of 15% of $82.

First, 15% is really 10% + 5% right. So lets find 10% of 82, which is $8.20. (All you do is move the decimal one spot to the left.)

Second, we need to find the additional 5%, but that's even easier because 5 is half of 10, so we just need to half $8.20 which is $4.10.

Third, we add-- $8.20+$4.10=$12.30

Now let's try a higher percentage. 30% of $49.99.

First, 30% is really three sets of 10%. So what is 10% of $49.99? It's $4.99.

Second, lets multiply $4.99 by three. But those nine's can be pesky so lets round it up to $5, that will be easier to mulitply. Now we have $15.

Third, $15 is close and we could subtract that from $49.99 and get $34.99 but thats a few cents off. In fact its three cents off because we added a penny to each $4.99 to get five. So we will subtract an additional 3 cents and get $34.96.

Remember, when selling with percentages always start with 10% of the amount and multiply or divide from there.

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