Retail Sales Training: Employee Assumptions Kill Sales
I was lying in a bright yellow inner tube floating in the “La-Z-River” at the JW Marriott resort Tuesday afternoon after my speaking event.
While looking up at the clear blue sky I heard a young woman behind me,“Yeah, I don’t know why we can’t just be spontaneous.”
I turned around to find a very attractive, blond woman in her late teens.
She continued, “But we have to ask, ‘Is your chicken pesto OK?’ or ‘How’s that maple walnut cookie?’ or ‘Want some dessert?’”
Her companion, a young man swam past me telling her, “Yeah, I mean, if customers wanted it they’d ask.”
The young woman added “Yeah, they just don’t get it, no one wants to hear, “Do you want some muffins to go?’ They just want to pay and leave.”
Could this have been your employee?
The one you thought was great?
Her sticking points seemed to be her assumptions no customer would appreciate someone checking in to make sure the food was good, could possibly want something else and why her trainer provided scripts to help her.
After finishing up at the pool, I changed and went to the restaurant which was dead. I pulled up at the bar and a young man introduced himself, got me a menu and chatted with me before suggesting “his favorite” item.
After learning I was a Yankees fan, he changed the channel to the Yankees game. He put the order in and after delivering it, asked how I liked it. After I finished, he asked if I saved room for their famous banana cream pie.
It was a great experience – that’s why he got a 25% tip. He got it.
It’s about serving others and engaging them.
That is what separates those who genuinely want to help, from those who just want a job.
Without mentors to help teach this concept and mirror it, you end up with my swimming buddies questioning why they have to do something. The assumptions they make about your customers translate into thinking the minimum is what customers want.
It isn’t.
Those kind of employees can kill a business.
Thank you Bob. Those kind of employees have killed many businesses over the years. You have spoken a very real truth here. Customers want to be engaged, they want to be asked how their meal or how the service was for them. As providers of our wares and services we simply need to provide the best that we can with every customer. Engaging a customer is most certainly a start in that direction.
Imagine going to a grocery store and not finding every thing you wanted and simply checking out with some of what you were looking for. The cashier, if she\he did not ask “did you find everything you were looking for” (and then follow up by getting the items you could not find) would be doing both the customer and the store a diservice. The same is true in almost all businesses where customers are served.
The majority of customers want to be taken care of. They will not always ask for desert, but if offered to see the deserts they are much more likely to purchase one.
The same was true at a major home repair store here until just recently. For at least two years, you could go in there and there was almost never any one to help me find what you wanted. Do you think customers would continue to shop where no help is readily available. I started vising a store about twice as far away just because I was wasting my time in the closer store not being engaged. I realize that I am spending my time now driving further, but I get exceptional assistance at this store. People will go out of their way to be served better.
Thanks again Bob.