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The Difference Between Training And Educating Your Retail Sales Staff

Randy, a friend of mine shared a story with me that might resonate with you about mixing up your sales process.

He was in a high-end retail shop and spotted a white shirt to try it on. He came out of the dressing room and the salesperson said, “Wow, that shirt looks great on you.” Randy took notice, felt good at being complimented on his choice, picked up another and returned to the dressing room.

He came out, stood in front of the mirror and the salesman again said, “Wow, you look great in that shirt.” At first he thought, wow, two in a row.

Then he saw a woman come out of the dressing room next to his and the salesman said… wait for it… “Wow you look great in that.”

Randy returned to the dressing room, removed the shirt and left with nothing.

My Take
You can see from one aspect that the salesman was doing a great job of complimenting the customer. He aced his training and if there were no one else in the store, he might – might – have gotten away with it.

But the fact is, he didn’t. Why?

One of three reasons:

Because he was either trained to say the exact same thing or
He had become lazy or
He never was educated how to mix it up his sales process.

That’s a shame because the concept was right, just the implementation.

As you know, I train the Five Parts to a Successful Sale in my speeches, on my DVDs and in my book.

One of the parts I like to be the same is “Good morning, good afternoon or good evening.” I think it sets the stage that it is different than the rest of stores who are silent or can only say, “Can I help you?” It could be changed up I suppose but then I might just get, “How’s it hangin’ dude?” or “How are you today?”

Both of which are unacceptable.

The reason so many people struggle with retail sales training is that much of it is created like we were writing computer code, “If this… then do this.” The reality is you can’t script every interaction perfectly. That’s why you also need to hire people who can be trained to a higher level of education.

As you train someone, you have to educate them on the why you want it done a certain way.

Not because “I told you so,” but that it makes a better experience for the customer. Once they understand your goal is to honestly help customers choose from your merchandise, you’ll never hear the same thing when the customer comes out of the dressing room because every customer is different.

Training is only the first step, high sales come from educating.

What say you? Have you experienced what Randy experienced and if so, are you more skeptical towards getting help from a person in-store?

Learn more about how to improve your business.

Should You Offer Incentives to Bricks and Mortar Employees to Embrace the iPad?

Third in a series of posts on technology and humanity in retail sales training

retail incentives

Nancy, one of your best customers, comes into your store to view your new spring shoes.

Your number one salesperson, Bill, works with her to find just the right shoe, just the right style, just the right color.

Just one thing…

When they find the perfect shoe, you are out of Nancy’s size. Now it used to be OK for Bill to just say, “Sorry,we’re out, but you might try online” leaving Nancy frustrated and headed home to her computer to try to find it at another store.

But nowadays, as soon as those words, “We don’t have it” exit Bill’s mouth, Nancy, or any other smart shopper, is on their cellphone to Zappo’s or Amazon to check their stock for that perfect shoe.

It’s not because they didn’t want to buy it from you in the first place, it’s because the Internet has made it so easy that unless you step in and offer to get it for them instantly, they can do it on their phones in a flash.

Wouldn’t you rather have Bill quickly add within a nanosecond, “But I can have it shipped to your home free of charge?”

Of course you would. It saves the customer the frustration, and also gets you the sale.

How do you incent Bill to always add that?

That’s exactly what a visitor to my website asked me yesterday…

She was looking for how to incent her brick and mortar employees to embrace web sales via the iPad.

The more I thought about how to answer her query, the more I realized that retailers in general are trying to figure out how to provide a seamlessly integrated world, a world where customers can buy whenever and wherever they are, but also where store employees feel motivated enough to make the extra effort before their customer whips out their phone and does it themselves.

In order to be successful your employees must pre-empt a Red Laser or Amazon Price Check.

But incenting is not enough of a way to get employees to offer that online service in that nanosecond they have before their customer taps and finds the item for themselves.

No, you shouldn’t incent them to use the web because it doesn’t go far enough.

Employees typically get an incentive for doing one thing. If they sell a shoe tree with a pair of shoes, they’ll get an incentive of $5.00 for every tree. That will sell a lot of shoe trees, but it doesn’t encourage your employee to sell anything else. All the other add-ons are no longer as important.

You with me?

If Bill had an incentive to sell the red Jimmy Choo shoes, he would try to sell that shoe to every customer. Every other shoe would just sit there.

Look, retailers need to be clear about what an employee working on their salesfloor should really be there to do – sell all the merch, not just one type – however they can.

How do you get an employee to do that?

First and foremost they should be people who should want to have the satisfaction of helping people by getting the merchandise out the door. They should be proud of their brand and be able to move seamlessly from web to salesfloor and be paid equally for wherever they make the sale. That will allow them to embrace the web as just another place to find the item and make the sale. Just like a customer.

What to do

Upgrade your sales force to become commission-based or salary plus commission for every sale regardless of how it is entered in the system.

That means you’ll probably have to upgrade your POS abilities so those commissioned salespeople can seamlessly get credit whether they help your customer in the fitting room, at the cash-wrap desk, or via an iPad instore.

We often think of upgrades for computers, but upgrading your service means upgrading the people who deliver the service – your employees. Commission raises the bar and attracts people who truly understand the game of selling. They understand they don’t eat if they don’t sell.

True, commission salespeople have a bad reputation (put there more by movies than actual experiences), but without the reward of doing a very good job for every item they sell, your salesfloor is filled with so much beige.

So many apathetic bodies that result in…

So few sales.

Giving your entire organization a multi-channel commission system is the way to get the true rewards you sought with incentives – better customer service and higher sales.

Look here for more on commissioning you retail sales team.

If you missed the first two installments of this series, start here.

Your Greeting: How To Be Interesting In Retail Sales

What is the point of the first words of your greeting to a customer?

A. So customers know you work there and are available.
B. To put potential thieves on notice that you are watching.
C. To be be nice.
D. None of the above.

The correct answer is, Continue reading Your Greeting: How To Be Interesting In Retail Sales »

How to Training: Retail Sales Program for Store Meetings

Training your retail crew is a bit like hosting a barbeque.

Remember the last time you barbequed?

You prepared the food items carefully, lit the fire then added the food. You had to continue to check-in several times or you lost your dinner.

Likewise your retail sales crew has to be trained before they ever talk to a customer but you must continually check on them or you lose customers.

That’s why I created the HUDDLE program. It stands for Help, Understand, Develop, Direct and Lead Everyone.

So many times we know we should be helping our crew sell more but don’t know what to do. This program takes all the guess work out. Each self-contained lesson begins with learning fundamentals and what is required for the 5-10 minute lesson.

Here’s a listing of each of the 12 HUDDLES:

What words to use instead of, “Can I help you find anything?” and how to get your crew to greet everyone in a personable manner.
How to use a prop to make customers relax around you.
How to create the expectation of succeeding and challenging how we predetermine if a person will like us or not.
How soon to greet everyone and how to get it accomplished.
What to say when you follow-up with the browser instead of “Finding everything ok?”
How to find one thing you can comment on
How to look inside at something you have in common
How to be comfortable sharing yourself with others
What kinds of questions to ask to help funnel customer choices down to a few.
What is a feature and how do you find them
The link to features is easy, once you know what it is and make it relevant to the customer.
How to paint a picture so well, the customer sees the benefits of the add-on you suggest.

For the cost of about $11 a lesson, you get actionable and proven retail sales techniques that break down the mystery of selling your merch.

If you need more information about the program, you can go here or if you are ready to change direction and grow your sales immediately, click the add to cart button below to get your first lesson.