How Does Online Retail Sales Training Work?

By Bob Phibbs

Retailers, are you meeting your retail employees' training needs? Online retail sales training programs can help you provide better customer service and develop long-term relationships between your associates and your customers.

Customers need more than your products. The whole selling experience has to be meaningful to customers in one way or another, or they won't put down their devices and buy from your staff.

It is friendly, efficient, simple, informed...

Or it is none of these.

Why is retail sales training essential? With high turnover, low pay rates, and general job insecurity, staff can find well-done online retail sales training programs uplifting, motivational, self-satisfying, and a sign of respect.

But specifically, how is an online retail sales training program better than an instructor-led training? Often the cost of time off the floor coupled with travel isn't practical. Having your own in-house instructor is often ineffective as they struggle to keep up with going from store to store. Couple that with just finding the time for training sessions can be daunting.

As a result, even at the C-level, you may have thought you could ignore effective sales training and hoped staff would learn on the job.

But in a world where most consumers can most any product knowledge they need online ...

The only way to stand out in your brick-and-mortar store is to invest in the soft skills of your associates.

And if you can't afford to bring a sales trainer like me who understands retail is different than selling cars or life insurance to personally train every one of your employees, an online retail sales training program can be the answer.

Interested In Online Retail Sales Training? Click here to get your Complete Buyer's Guide

Retailers want and need certain features that only an online retail sales training program can offer:

Your staff can interact with the training sessions in real-time.
High-impact, contemporary videos for a contemporary audience.
Certification of completed training to motivate and reward.
Courses for managers alone, so they know how to keep the training going on the sales floor.
Instant access to track how individuals are progressing.
One-to-one training is available for employees anywhere they work.
Available 24/7 on laptop, PC, tablet, or store computer.
Reporting capabilities for accountability.

How will an online retail sales training program help with your challenges?

Give them a sales process that is easy to understand and that results in higher customer satisfaction.
With a turn-key system, you can work without needing additional resources.
You want employees to feel and embrace the system's values, be practical, and be personal.
It must train how to show genuine engagement with customers.

Your online training must be able to ...

Demonstrate the opportunity to be more human in an unfeeling world.
Build rapport.
Bring customers back to your retail store by developing a relationship with staff members.
Move the merchandise through a meaningful process.
Sell from confidence and not from figuring a discount on a calculator.
Handle objections and add on to any sale.

How online retail sales training program works.

Once you purchase the license for the system, you will go to a specific login page.
Your online learning portal may require adding your users; the system will email them their unique login credentials. You do not want to share a single login, or you will not be able to take advantage of the many reporting features.
It is important that whoever will be tasked to shepherd the training goes through the training courses before you ever assign training to your sales professionals.
Your online retail sales training program should include separate management training or train-the-trainer coursework. It is also important that they not only go through the courses, but they pass the tests with high scores. If not, you are setting yourself up for failure.
In SalesRX, my streaming sales training program, we suggest the managers start about three weeks before the associates.

How can you improve the skills of your retail sales employees alongside online retail sales training?

The key is going slow enough to present only one or two concepts per week and then using blended learning to practice what they learned using role-play before they use their knowledge with actual customers. Then your store managers can be coached on using the training solutions you purchased to increase your sales. And just like your management training, you can track an individual's progress, a whole store or region.

How do you get your team to adopt retail sales training methods?

The key to getting your retail sales associates to take in-house training or online training courses is to have a meeting and get their questions answered at the outset before staff members can be swayed against the learning or the lessons. Finally, you must hold the learner accountable for using the online courses to engage more with customers. If you aren't willing to fire someone for not doing what is taught, save money and plan your going-out-of-business sale because you won't survive.

In Sum

If you're looking to enjoy better customer service, develop long-term relationships, and sell your merchandise, an online training program has a lot to offer.

Look for a track record of success, a process that connects with retail employees of all ages, with quality source materials and easy delivery abilities.

You're in luck. I offer a virtual online retail training program capable of doing all of that in a scalable manner.

To learn more about online retail sales training, check out these posts:

Is Virtual Online Retail Sales Training For You?

8 Benefits of Online Retail Sales Training