Retail Sales Training: 5 Tips To Train Employees To Hustle
I wanted to purchase a new pair of shoes so I tried Nordstrom. Three employees each waited on three customers oblivious (to me at least) of the other five of us walking around the department.
It’s a phenomenon I’m seeing repeated more and more probably because slower sales have produced a retail sales force that is used to working with just one person.
But that’s like a juggler who can only keep one ball in the air.
Or an ostrich with their head in the sand; they are oblivious to the rest of the customers in the store.
That lack of retail sales training can cost you sales – big time. In Nordstrom’s case, a couple pair.
Customers aren’t willing to “wait” for the employee to get around to noticing them.
And they shouldn’t, it takes a lot for customers to get in a car and visit a brick and mortar store only to be given the cold shoulder because their employees could only deal with one customer at a time.
I had a business owner tell me that he had, “A really great gal but she spends about 1/2 hour with each customer.”
I thought, that’s not a really great gal if she can only wait on 16 people in a day.
It would be like a McDonald’s only able to serve the number of people who could sit down in their dining area. They’d lose their profitability because fast food is a numbers game.
So is retail.
Your employees have to be able to juggle many customers and make sure they each feel like they are important and valued.
Here’s five tips how to train employees to hustle…
- Ask permission from the first customer.
- Greet the other customer.
- Get back to the first person quickly and thank them for waiting.
- Restate where they were in the sale.
- Confirm they got it right.
- All the while not rushing anyone.
If a customer comes in while a salesperson is with someone else they should say, “Excuse me, do you mind if I go greet that customer? I’ll be right back.”
Then wait for their permission before they greet the new customer. If you can have the customer read something or put a product in their hands before leaving, so much the better.
When the employee returns to the original customer they must say, “Thank you for waiting,” and restate where they were in the sale. For example in a toy store it might be, “So we were looking for a toy for your son who likes art but hates clay. Is that right?”
You need to train your employees to be hospitable, not hostile. That’s why we ask permission to leave and thank them when we return.
It’s important employees do not say to the current customer, “Hold on, I need to go greet them” and leave or yell, “Someone will be right with you,” to the new arrival.
Next time you’re in a busy restaurant notice the best servers, they can do this easily. You can tell because they check in frequently with their tables, upsell and focus on those customers while always keeping their heads up for who just sat down at their station. That’s how they get higher tips than the others.
Slow sales have allowed complacency in many retailers. More employees behind the counter. More dismissive expressions, “They’re just looking.” Don’t let your employees get away with being more comfortable with only one person, train now how to juggle many customers.
Otherwise that one person will buy, but the majority who try your store, especially when its busy, will walk out because they were ignored.
And in this retail environment, never be back.
As you develop juggling to an art, you’ll find your busy store produces the best results because people are comfortable waiting and shopping; many times selling each other as heads-up employees act like hosts rather than order takers.
Want to train your employees how to sell your products?
Check out my Help Understand, Develop, Direct and Lead Everyone (HUDDLE) 12-week retail sales training e-course here.
I like your pool table analogy. I set up my store’s floor plan like a pin ball machine, since it is a long & narrow space. There are some round displays in the center. Every time a customer “hits” or “bumps” the side or center displays, I hear the ding, ding, ding of the machine and see it translate to sales. I always train my employees not to cluster. Especially during Christmas when we have more employees, I’m on the floor making sure it doesn’t happen. I also use the analogy of juggling, as well as the “sales dance” because some customers may want to do a tango and some may want to do a jitter bug- so the employee will have to adjust accordingly. And my final analogy is “looking for windows of opportunity” to approach and engage customers.
Bob…how long has it been since you have actually worked in a retail store? Do you not realize that about 50% of the customers that go into brick and mortar stores these days are the ones who are extremely high maintenance and require 100% attention from an employee? These are customers that refuse to shop online due to fear of identity theft. They are also the same customers who would never ever buy anything without first trying it on or touching it or getting out the ole handy tape measure to see if the product will fit in their space.
I deal with these types of customers all day long and if you leave their side to assist another customer for even one minute, they leave the store mad. So it is not that the employee has become lazy and complacent and cannot multi-task. It is more of a thing where some customers DEMAND 100% attention for the entire duration that they are in a store these days.
I have a regular customer that comes in once a week and always buys the same exact things every single time, yet she ALWAYS needs an employee to stay by her side the whole time and walk her to each item.
I realize that you are supposed to be the retail expert here, but your analogy of 3 employees trying to give outstanding customer service to 8 customers is not very realistic.
Travis, I sell on the floor many times a year with young and old in a variety of situations with my clients. I didn’t say employees were lazy and complacent – you did. The point of the post is training. Great retailers are hustling and ringing up multiple sales every day. Thanks for visiting.
Yes sir. You are correct.
I am one of the best multi-tasking employees you will ever find. I know how to greet other customers who approach and let them know I will be with them soon as well as answer phones while ringing up customers and asking them if they have a rewards card etc…
What I am referring to is when you only have 1 employee on the floor and there are 3 high maintenance attention seeking customers in the store at the same time. How do you overcome this without making any customers mad?
After all, good customer service is all about doing whatever the customer wants you to do within reason. Some customers want you to be at their side for 30 minutes and it is just the way it is. Other customers are evasive and don’t want any help at all. It’s just a huge challenge when multiple time consuming customers are in the store all at once.
No one said it was easy Travis, you’re right it is challenging.