In a recent column, I had spoken of the importance of the in-store experience and how critical the right kind of sales people is for success. Once we have the team we require, what next? Can we just place them on the shop floor and expect them to start delivering results?
The question seems illogical, but surprisingly in so many situations this is what happens due to exigencies — a new shop is opening, people are needed, so find the bodies and put them in. In others, it is because of ignorance, or a lack of thinking. The result is the same.
An unprepared team is set to work, it soon loses steam, have poor sales and the team gets blamed.
It is more complicated to make it work when the recruits are fresh. So many recruiters fall into the ‘experience’ trap, thinking just because the new salesperson has worked in the same or a related field elsewhere, he can plug and play into the new set up right away.
This is lazy thinking. The two companies could have completely different ethos. Their approaches to sales may be different; for example, one may emphasise margin, the other volume. It also assumes that the environment in which the person worked had no contribution towards performance.
Sometimes even an average to poor salesman may be able to produce acceptable results in an outstanding organisation. But in an environment which is not as supporting or structured, he flails about like a boat without a rudder.
This is why before a new salesperson is brought onto the sales floor, he or she must go through a proper induction and training. First, to simply learn the practices and procedures of the new store. Then an enculturation into the new organisation, its decision-making structures and internal routines. Finally of course, the all-important grounding in the products, their strengths and selling arguments.
Where the facility is available, training sessions in a controlled environment are ideal. However, in the case of smaller and newer setups, it is useful to have a mentoring programme with someone who has the knowledge and skills taking the new person under wing to help him settle down.
A word of caution though. Mentoring programmes need to be monitored and supervised. Too often, they simply remain on paper and the hapless new salesman is left to swim in the deep end without a life jacket.
In in this region, there is the additional element of new employees coming from overseas. Many are unexposed to local systems, norms and mores which they need to be familiar with. And then one more level of training may be required when they come from a completely different social milieu because of which they are sometimes unable to relate to the products they sell, or the kind of customers they meet.
In my experience, we faced this problem with people selling high-end home furniture and appliances. We had to include as part of the training programme visits to houses and villas in the upmarket areas of Dubai to expose them to the living styles of customers and see how the products they sold would eventually end up looking and being used in real homes.
The challenge continues. Keeping retail teams alive and productive is like constantly being on a treadmill. The moment you slacken you are going to sprain an ankle or slide off.
Staff need to be constantly motivated and charged, they need to feel pride in their work and their workplace, they need to be recognised for accomplishments and believe that what they are doing is part of their journey to a better future.
How you empower them, give them the knowledge and skills to do their jobs and help them to progress as a close-knit team will be the key to the growth and success of the store. At the end of the day, a sales persons’ job can be thankless, uninteresting, tiring and monotonous.
But the expectation of each customer who walks into the door is that the person in front will be cheerful, interested, proactive and quick to serve.
So, the retail manager’s task is to find ways to keep the sales team engaged, excited and engrossed. Once he cracks this code, the journey begins towards making the company not just good, but great.
— The writer is CEO of retail consultancy, Tridayle Consult FZE.
