Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor® blog at Retaildoc.com

Did you catch the Oscars Sunday night? On what was a particularly well crafted evening of entertainment with a good mix of humor, tears and celebration came the truck driver persona of Elinor Burkett a la Kanye West at last year’s MTV awards.

It wasn’t her moment but she shoved her way onto the stage, interrupting and speaking over director Roger Williams while accepting his award for directing  “Music by Prudence.”  Rambling and incoherent she was determined to make herself known. She did, in a bad way.

Do you have an Elinor on your sales team?  You know, the one who screams, “That was my sale!” The one who makes everyone miserable.  The one who has to say to the salesperson while the customer is at the register, “I greeted them,” or “Oh you came back after you talked to your husband.”  They have to put the other person in their place like Ms. Burkett attempted to do to Mr. Williams.

The problem is for Ms. Burkett, the whole world was watching.  The problem for you is your whole store is watching. It is a big turnoff to any customer in earshot but especially the customer enduring the battle.  Nothing screams, “WE WORK ON COMMISSION!!” more than that behavior.

If you don’t have a commission system, bonus program or other incentive you never have to deal with this – too bad for you because no one is trying to be a superstar, make more money or move product.  You probably are kidding yourself they are great at “customer service.”

If you have an “ups” systems, which I recommend where each person gets one “up” to greet a customer and then moves to the bottom of the order whether they sell that customer or not, create some rules:

• Once the customer walks out, you do not get credit for the sale.
• Close ‘em or lose ‘em – no business cards given to customers to “ask for me.”
• Never cut in on a sale unless the other person allows it privately first.
• Never mention whose sale it is or commissions in front of a customer or both of you lose credit.

Final thought: sometimes customers don’t want the original salesperson, they are giving your business a second chance so it is usually better to allow them to decide whether to speak to someone new or the original.

Set the ground rules ahead of time and you’ll reduce the chances of having an Elinor Burkett barrel their way into a sale, ruining your customers’ experience, and giving customers something bad to remember you by. Or worse, telling their friends on Facebook or posting a video on YouTube.

For more tips how to manage a sales team in my new book, The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Sales: How to Diagnose, Treat and Cure.

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