In the last few weeks I’ve heard or read more people are picking up the old, “Sell me this pen” as an interview question.
The assumption is that the new hire better be able to do it or they won’t be hired because it “obviously” shows if they are a good salesperson.
Maybe…. Continue reading Employee Interviewing: Sell Me This Pen »
It was at the the end of a day-long sales training program I was conducting with a group when one of the owners piped up, “What we need are some gay guys to sell our merchandise.” I asked, “Why specifically gay men?”
She answered, “Because when we visited stores yesterday in the City, they were out and willing to tell anyone in a matter-of-fact way. They were personable, fun, you just wanted to buy from them.” I understood from her descriptions of several of these guys why she would want them to work for her.
Of course, for various reasons like EEOC commissions and how a sign would look in a shop window, we all know this isn’t practical. And not all gay people are that personable – just like straight people.
What intrigued me about this comment was all the qualities she had attributed to gay men, were really true of the Expressive personality type I discuss in my new book from Wiley & Sons, The Retail Doctor’s Guide To Growing Your Business.
Expressives tend to be extroverts who occasionally tend to make their private business public and sharing information without boundaries. An opposite of the Analytical, the Expressive is the Grasshopper living for today. Expressives worry about being like everybody else instead of being recognized for their uniqueness. Again, their enthusiasm and energy are the spark plugs for your team. Their showiness can be compared to a Peacock.
Their enthusiasm can make them feel a bit invincible at times; and can overwhelm Analyticals who want “just the facts.”
Expressive personalities have to process externally while Driver and Analytical personalities don’t. The downside to an Expressives’ natural inclination to show multiple possibilities might require the customer to bring them back to the product the customer is considering, not all of the other possibilities. Their natural enthusiasm can also inflate products’ benefits without devoting time to adequately explaining why.
Is that a gay thing? I don’t think so.
It all stems from the basic Expressive personality. What this owner identified was the personality type that happened to be gay; not a gay person. With me?
The Expressives I think are the most challenging of all the personalities. Their very energy is what keeps many from hiring them. Their creativity, individualism and self-assuredness can be threatening. And when you’re trying to teach them a rigid process your Analtyical employees can easily take to, this personality will constantly challenge why they have to do it “that way.” They will complain their creativity is being stifled – they feel like robots.
What we have to remember is the Expressive is the spark-plug to your crew. They are the one that adds color, excitement and fun.
Is that a gay thing? No, its an Expressive personality thing.
Should you recruit gay men to sell your merch? If they are Expressives – yes. If they are straight men who are Expressives – yes. If they are lesbians who are Expressives – yes. If they are straight women who are Expressives – yes.
You don’t need a lot of Expressives on your sales floor but at least one keeps things interesting and fun for your crew and your customers.
Not sure which of the four personality styles are on your floor? Have them take the quiz
Want to learn more about managing the four personality types and growing your sales by speaking to each’s very different needs? Steve Strauss, Mr. All Biz gave this tip in his column in USA Today, “Are you in retail? If so, then you should pick up a copy of a great new book: The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business. In this book, Bob Phibbs, the “Retail Doctor,” helps you with any issue your retail business may have – from marketing more effectively, to mark-ups and price points, increasing profit and much more. Steve says check it out!”
Thanks Steve!
I was on the Amtrak train from Hudson, near where I live in upstate New York bound for NYC yesterday afternoon. We’d left at 3:20 on time for a 5:55 arrival at Penn Station. At 4pm the conductor came back to Business Class and asked all of us to remove our earphones and bluetooth devices as the train slowed. “The northbound train has struck a trespasser just south of Poughkeepsie. We’ll have to wait about an hour, hour and a half while they get the ambulance.”
With that he disappeared. I tweeted what happened and got a direct message from Toddr who was traveling on the opposite northbound train.
The conductor came back, said it would be longer, they had to get a new crew. He didn’t want to guess but figure another hour. With that he left to the back of the train. He returned in ten minutes with cookies and water. “I went to the train behind us and got some snacks for you all.” He continued to walk through the entire train passing his supplies to everyone.
After the second hour I asked how likely it would be I would make an 8:00 curtain to see Jane Fonda in her play 33 Variations. “It depends, we should have a straight-shot in but if there are other trains in our way – we share tracks with MetroNorth – it will be longer.”
After the third hour, I called Telecharge who graciously let me out of the ticket. The conductor returned again to say there were too many conflicting stories to update, they were doing the best they could to get us through the mess.
He updated us for the following hour until we again were bound for NYC at 7:48pm. He came back, “Well, I guess you can see we’re moving.” People told him how grateful they were for his good humor about it all.
“This wasn’t so bad – I’ve been through much worse, like the time in Boston. It’s different when you have cars at 45 degree angles tipping toward a big drop to a river. This was just like a derailment.”
Twenty minutes later we stopped, after five minutes he came on the PA, “Folks sorry, we’re the in the dark why we’re stopped as well. Once I know something, you’ll know something.” We looked at each other shrugged and returned to our iPhones and laptops. It had been five hours we had been on the train already.
I was struck with how important crisis management is in every job. You can’t train for every disaster or circumstance but the people you hire make all the difference. Our conductor exhibited my Seven Tips For Managing A Crisis Or Disaster.
Contrast that to the debacles of Domino’s burying their heads after the YouTube video in NC surfaced, the Popeye’s Chicken franchisees closing after they ran out of chicken or the KFC Oprah free chicken promotion last week.
Here are my Seven Tips For Managing A Crisis Or Disaster:
- Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
- Be proactive. Alert people as soon as you know something is wrong.
- Don’t sugar coat but don’t catastrophize. Just the facts.
- Tell what you know, don’t hypothesize.
- Keep people updated with status.
- If appropriate, give the steps necessary to restore normalcy.
- Respond to questions with truth.
What potential crisis or disaster could hit your business that may have happened before? A death in a family? Someone injured at work? A fire? Earthquake?
The more you teach the general ways to handle a crisis, the more you’ll make it a stepping stone instead of a cliff. Something your customers and employees will be able to get through hopefully saying, “That wasn’t so bad.”
Just got this story from a friend in Long Beach, California about a recent trip to the shoe department at Sears. Would love to hear your comments.
“It was a weekday mid-morning and for some reason their shoe dept was hopping. It was me and 3 other parties mulling around looking at shoes. I could see that we all were helping ourselves.
I saw a few pairs that I really wanted to try on and the prices were pretty good so I waited it out-and when I say waited it out I mean after 20 minutes I brought the shoes to the counter and interrupted a ‘sales’ girl from her daze. She said she would check. She brought out 2 of the 5 I asked about (size 10.5 pretty standard stuff) and walked away.
No, not to the other side to help out, but back behind the counter. OK so I tried them on -walked but didn’t like either one-so I picked out a few others and bugged the attendant with my request.
This time she brought me one that felt pretty good. I had spent a good 45 minutes thus far and I liked these so I decided to give Sears what you call “a charity sale,” she did nothing to deserve it.
I got in line-yes line, behind two others who somehow were able to find something they liked and purchased the shoes. Later that night I pulled them out to show my wife. That’s when I spotted the ink-dispensing security tag still attached! At that point I decided I was done with Sears and would return them in the morning for money back.
The next morning I went down ready for them to challenge me or try to convince me to keep them. I had all my reasons ready. I was excited to let them know how they had failed me.
Once again I got in line behind a guy holding a shoe from the display and a lady holding two shoes. My turn finally came -I told the girl, “I want to return theses shoes for cash. ” She said, ”OK” opened the drawer and handed me the money! I asked her if she was the only one working because once again it was pretty busy. She told me, “No, my manager is in the back stacking shoes!”
Holy @#$# I just couldn’t believe my ears. I am amazed that Sears can stay in business- the management obviously don’t know what they are doing.”
Well readers, what do you think this was? A training problem? A management problem? A hiring problem? A stock problem? A brand problem? Please comment below.
I was watching the finale of the Celebrity Apprentice last night. I must admit it was the first time in years. (I would commend the first few seasons to anyone trying to understand characteristics of a team though – both the good and the bad.)
I had watched it all the way to the start of Season 6, when they came to LA and made the losers sleep in tents on the lawn. The boardroom cat fights grew in length and the “reality” kept ebbing. It seemed to become ways to pitch product placements by the seat of your pants.
Anyway it came down to Annie Duke, the world champion poker player and comedy legend Joan Rivers. Don’t worry, I won’t give the end away. I will say it was interesting, after a design firm pulled out of Annie’s plans and said it was due to Joan’s abuse of their designer, that Annie repeated that fact to everyone she talked to -all the way up to the final moments of the finale. Implying that if the designer hadn’t quit, she would have done better.
I flashed on the scene in Rocky Horror Picture show when Janet Wise says three times, “If only we hadn’t ______” and the audience would yell back each time at the screen “but you did!’
For Annie, the obstacle became a badge of honor. She may have thought of it as a way to get people to her side but it made her look weak. In sports they call it a “losers limp.”
How many employees do you know who blame the customer for them not making a sale? I used to hear it from salespeople on my team. The customer was a “jerk,” “too cheap,” “not ready to buy,” the list goes on and on.
The important thing to take away from this is to hire people that can take responsibility for their own actions. And if an employee screws up, it is up to us to make sure they 1) are able to admit it, 2)they know it is better to accept that responsibility and 3) not reward blame.
To change the dialogue after a missed sale, I would ask the salesperson, “Do you think you could have done anything better?” Many times, by asking this question, they were able to focus on the harder work of taking responsibility for the things they could change, not the easy way out of blame and “if only.”
Once the salesperson does that though, they have to let it go. Encourage them to learn from it, but not beat themselves up over it; just prepare to do better the next time the door opens.
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