Use Incentives to Reinforce Retail Training Priorities and Control Payroll

Posted on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 at 8:24am

I was speaking with a retail owner a few days ago when they mentioned that they just can’t seem to get their team members excited about participating in any form of retail sales training or product certifications. Interestingly enough the conversation had started with the retailer asking me for tips on getting his payroll under control.

As a retail training consultant I am clearly a proponent of training store employees on sales, customer service, product knowledge and more. I am not, however a fan of training for training’s sake. I am a big fan of keeping store-level payroll under control though. So the real question is why don’t more retailers combine training and expense control into an integrated program?

Control Payroll Costs By Using Incentives

For example, you could give your retail employees an incentive to complete their training certifications through giving them the right to earn commissions only after they have completed their retail sales training and customer service programs.

Additionally, certain products should require the completion of a 15 minute computer-based retail training course. Once the product training program or certification has been completed the team member will earn the right to earn spiffs on that product line.

Finally, you might tie increases in hourly rates or base wages to not only tenure, but the completion of advanced training levels. This includes the requirement to complete retail management training courses for any employee seeking a promotion to store manager or district manager.

Training incentives are a simple way to drive desired behaviour with regard to getting you employees certified in key areas of the business and they ensure that you will save valuable payroll dollars until they attain those goals.

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has directed the activities of hundreds of retail locations and thousands of retail sales representatives and store managers. RAG offers consulting services, retail sales training and management training programs. You can learn more at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Management: When, Why and How to Hold a Meeting with Your Team

Posted on Thursday, June 13th, 2013 at 10:33am

Whether it is to discuss a new promotion, train on new products, to review new operations practices or to pump-up the team for a big selling day, often the best way to get retail employees on the same page is by holding a store meeting.

Now we have all been in bad meetings that seem to go on and on while providing little value to the business. So here are some tips that will help you to improve the quality of your meetings.

When to Have a Store Meeting

As retail training consultants, we often advocate that our clients should have regularly scheduled meetings with their store-level team members. These fall into the following categories:

Monthly planning and training meeting – A one-hour meeting that focuses on how the store will attain its sales target for the upcoming month.
Weekly sales and training meetings – The other 3 or 4 weeks of the month you should conduct a 30-minute meeting focused on helping the store in attaining its targets
Daily sales huddles – these are 5-10 minute meetings held at the beginning of each shift that are focused on recognition, the day’s selling activities and work assignments.

The key is to make your retail store meetings productive and fun. Every team member should want to attend them – either because they will be recognized for an accomplishment, learn something new or help their team to achieve target – and that leads us to our next topic…

Why You Should Have a Meeting

Having a meeting for the meeting’s sake is a waste of everyone’s time and your money. Therefore you should make sure that you have planned your meeting ahead of time to accomplish some specific goals. Your agenda should always include:

Recognizing contributors and leaders
Setting team goals and priorities
Communicating policy or operational changes
Training on products or skills

Of course one of the things that we hear in our retail sales management training seminars is that store owners and managers do not always have time for holding meetings. This is usually a result of poor planning, attending poor meetings in the past, or trying to do it all yourself.

How to Execute a Retail Store Meeting

Every good meeting begins with a great agenda and even better planning. But to make these happen, you need to know what your desired outcome is. Do you want to improve selling or customer service behaviour on the floor? Do you want to make sure that team members are operationally compliant? Or maybe you want to improve product knowledge.

Once you have set your goals, you can write your agenda and then assign meeting topics to your team members. To make sure it is a productive meeting you should:

Communicate your agenda in advance
Assign meeting segments to team members
Have retail employees review their information with you ahead of time
Prepare your hand outs or job aids

Having your team members conduct the meeting is a great way to encourage them to become product experts, operations experts or experts on other topics. This saves you time now and down the road as your team members will now view that employee as a resource.

Upon opening your meeting make sure you recognize your individual contributors. You should close your meeting with a recap of what was learned and with a quick goal setting session. Once the meeting is over, take time to follow up on any concerns or questions brought up by the staff.

Are you looking for ways tom improve the productivity of your retail team? The experts at Retail Training Services can help you with on-site consultation and on-site and computer-based training programs. Contact us to start the process rolling!

Closing the Gap in Retail Employee Performance

Posted on Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 at 9:21am

Managing and leading retail team members has its challenges - especially when your employees aren’t meeting expectations or performance targets. Whether it is due to a lack of experience, personal relationships, or a fear of failure, many retail managers struggle with performance management.

But the bottom line is that poor performance ultimately impacts the employee, the store and the company. Therefore it makes sense to address these issues as quickly as possible. You can make a good beginning by focusing on the core reasons for the performance issue. In most cases, the problem can be traced to one of core areas. Once you know the issue you can make a plan for remediation.

Knowledge Gap

Whether it is a sales problem or operational deficiency, many times a performance issue can be attributed to a lack of knowledge. If the retail employee is experiencing a knowledge gap because they are new to the company, have recently started in a new role or they do not have the experience or education to do the work, then you should focus on providing training so that you can provide the employee with the tools they need to win. This could include teaming the employee with an experienced co-worker, utilizing on-line retail training courses, manufacturer’s rep. or manuals to bridge the knowledge gap.

Skills Gap

Sometimes team members have the knowledge to do the job, but lack the practical skills to be successful. This could include retail selling skills, time management skills, or operational skills. The key to solving a skill problem is providing feedback, coaching and mentoring. Show your team member how to complete the activity, provide a positive example, inspect what you expect and then coach them as needed. If you have several employees – particularly retail managers - who are struggling with their skills, another opportunity for improvement and practice is enrolling them in a retail management training seminar.

Gap in Ability

If you have provided the training and coaching that your employee needs and they are still struggling to perform, you may have a team member who simply is incapable of doing the job successfully. You likely have two options in this situation – either find a suitable position within the company or encourage the team member to leave. The employee probably knows that they are not a good fit for their job and they are very likely to be unhappy. Often a simple and honest conversation is all it takes to help the employee move on to a different career.

Gap in Motivation

If the employee has the knowledge, skill, and ability to be successful then their motivation is likely the issue. Motivation gaps are the most difficult issues to handle because while you can create a motivational environment, you can’t make someone do what they don’t want to do. Most people are motivated by rewards, reasons, responsibility and their relationships with others. Find their motivating factors and then address them. But if the employee does not make the decision to perform, then you will need to make the hard decision to terminate them.

Analyze the problem and Take Action

You can count on thing when dealing with a retail employee’s performance gap…It will not improve unless you and the team member take action. Do yourself and the team member a favor by identifying the issues, providing solutions and having honest conversations.

10 Ways to Encourage Your Best Retail Employees To Quit

Posted on Tuesday, May 21st, 2013 at 9:26am

Employee turnover is one of the true Achilles heels of the retail industry. According to the US Bureau of Labor Standards, the seasonally adjusted turnover rate for retail is in excess of 70% per year – and if you include seasonal employees, that number can exceed 100%!

In retail - as in any other business – everyone has a right to be treated fairly. But that does not mean that every employee is equal. The truth is that some retail employees are better at customer service and selling than others and for your business to have a competitive edge you need to retain these employees. So if you want to retail your best performers it is helpful to know what creates dissatisfaction among them.

With that in mind, here are 10 poor business practices that may encourage top performers to seek employment elsewhere:

1 – Pay Everyone Equally: While in principle this may make sense, the fact it that not all of your employees are equal – and they know it. You need to make sure that you are rewarding superior performance with superior compensation.

2 – Accept Mediocre Results: The only thing your best employees dislike more than working with people who will not pull their own weight is working for a retail manager who accepts mediocre results without taking action.

3 – Enforcing Bad Rules: The best retail sales representative appreciate your company’s guidelines and values, but they don't want to have those rules that get in the way of doing their jobs.

4 – Not Recognizing Achievement: Most top performers are motivated by more than money. They also want to be recognized for their leadership and results. Practice what we call “managing in the moment” by thanking them for a job well done as quickly as possible.

5 – Having A Dull Workplace: The concept of “work is work and should not be fun” is counterproductive. The best retail employees feed off of the energy of their coworkers and that translates into higher sales and better service.

6 – Keeping Them In The Dark: Whether it is a change in company policy, information about new products or the details of an upcoming promotion, your retail sales reps know that information (or the lack of it) impacts their paycheck. So communicate daily.

7 – Tolerating Rumors And Gossip: It is natural for your team members to have casual conversation in the workplace. But when that conversation turns negative it impacts performance and encourages team members to seek work in a more comfortable environment.

8 – Manage Every Detail Of Their Work: Unlike new team members who may need a lot of direction, your top performers likely only need to be told what you need and to be asked for their opinion on the best way to accomplish the goal. As long as their activity does not conflict with the company’s values, let them run!

9 – Ignoring Them: With top performers it is easy to take an “if they do not cause a problem, I will leave them alone” approach. The truth is that your top performers do need a lot of attention. Just make sure it is not heavy handed.

10 – Playing Favorites: It is natural for any leader to have a personal affinity for one team member vs. another, but you cannot allow that to interfere with your management practices. If a top performer feels that they are being treated unfavorably in relation to an underperformer you are in jeopardy of losing a winner.

What do you think? Leave a comment on our Facebook page.

Are you looking to improve your retail results? If so, RTS’ Top Check Selling System and Top Check Performance management System may be the tools you have been looking for. Contact us for more information!

Retail Leadership - Five Tips for Encouraging Great Customer Service

Posted on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 at 8:37am

As retail training consultants we are often asked by our clients and others about how to improve their customer’s experience and loyalty. Often, the key lies in how you build relationships with your team members – after all, your employees are your customers!

Here are five tips for building a culture that focuses on customers.

1. Play Fair– Happy team members treat their customers better than those who are unhappy. So make sure that you are treating your employees with the same level of respect that you want them to treat your customers. Greet them with a smile, encourage laughter, and give compliments when it makes sense.

2. Build Trust- Share information about the Company and ask your team members for input. Work alongside of your team members to better understand what they do. Show them the right way to work with customers and then empower them to make great decisions.

3. Develop People– You can lay the groundwork by providing retail customer service training, product training and sales training, but just as important is working side-by-side with your team members on the floor. That allows you to provide timely feedback and coaching while learning about their daily challenges.

4. Lead by Example– Many retail employees feel that their managers are disconnected from their day-to-day challenges – and in many cases they are right. Even if you are a senior leader you should work the floor on occasion. It creates a bond with your team members, lets you learn from them and lets them see you doing it right!

5. Stay Focused on Customer– All too often we find that retailers have gotten lots in the weeds. They develop policies that are designed to protect the Company in every contingency. This includes refund/exchanges, bringing strollers in the store, bag checks and more. It is important to protect the assets, but you cannot forget your most important asset…the customer.

Are you looking for ways to improve your retail business? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and let us develop a retail training plan for you!

7 Tips for Taking an Accurate Retail Inventory

Posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at 8:47am

Over the course of my career I have worked with and supervised thousands of retail employees and with a few notable exceptions, I have rarely come across a person who really enjoyed taking a physical inventory of their store’s merchandise. And I don’t think there is anyone in the retail industry that would tell you that taking inventory is their favorite activity.

Even though taking inventory is labor intensive and time consuming, it is a critical activity for your business. So if you have to count…do it right!

Once upon a time I worked for a specialty retailer that stocked over 3,000 individual skus and required that each store conduct a full physical count every thirty days. Needless to say, I got very good at counting my store. Here are some tips that you can use to make your count more accurate while taking less time.

1. Prepare in advance– Prior to the count you should touch every shelf, bin and peg hook. Ensure that the right items are in the right places. Front all items on the shelves and consolidate your products so that you do not have multiples the same item spread around the store unnecessarily. Organize each product by size, style or stock number and don’t forget to get any shipments processed and put away prior to the count!

2. Check your shelf tags– Hopefully each of you has kept the store organized and there are no issues with having the wrong item in the wrong place. But mistakes happen and while we know that your team members are supposed to count the merchandise and not the tags, I guarantee that human nature will take over. So make sure the item matches the style, color, size, description listed on the tag.

3. Create a map- Make a map of your store and all the fixtures in it. The map will be used to document that each area of the store has been counted and by whom. Once an employee has counted the fixture, they will cross it off on the map and initial.

4. Touch Every Item– When counting you and your team members should physically touch every item as they count it. This means physically shaking the boxes (you do not want to count empties), touching hangers and hanging merchandise. Do not make any estimates as to quantity.

5. Use “counting tags”– Every item that is counted should have a tag placed on it. I always liked using bright yellow pieces of paper that were placed on the end of a peg hook, the top of a stack or the front of a display. Once the count is “done” you can now quickly scan the store for any missed areas – and I guarantee you will find one or two!

6. Stay focused– I have seen where retailers turn their inventories into a party. Almost inevitably when there is a big problem with that count. Instead, keep the music turned off and the chatter to a minimum. You will find that your count goes much faster and is more accurate.

7. Inspect what you expect- During the count, the responsible party (owner or manager) needs to double check that everything is going smoothly. That starts with creating accountability by having each team member initial the map and any physical counting sheets. Then do spot checks on the every other counting sheet. If you are reconciling against a perpetual inventory kept by your POS system, verify every item. Do not take the accuracy of the counter or the POS inventory for granted.

Taking an accurate physical inventory is a critical activity. It ensures you are accounting for the financial value of your assets, assures that you are re-ordering the correct products so you do not get out of balance and it helps you to keep your business organized.

Want to learn more about how you can improve the retail management skills for you and your team? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

25 Time Management Tips for Retail Managers

Posted on Tuesday, April 30th, 2013 at 1:03pm

Sometimes effective time management means getting organized and other times it means just saying “no.” Here are 25 tips to keep you focused and save you time.

1. Know your priorities – Every day you need to touch your customers, your people, your store and your money. Everything else is a secondary priority.

2. Use the 4-1-1-1-1 rule – Dedicate one hour to training your team, one hour to your paperwork, one hour to improving store appearance, and one-hour to planning each day. The remaining four hours should be spent managing from the floor and contacting customers!

3. One important question - Ask yourself if what you are doing is either urgent or important. If it’s neither, move on to something else.

4. Delegate - Good time management means using your time for activities that require your specific skills and then letting your people grow by doing new things.

5. Use a planning tool – Make plans on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

6. Use a quick reference tool - Create a page in your planner or organizer for frequently called numbers and maintain an e-mail address book. These will save you the time of looking up each individually.

7. Use a calendar for advance planning – You and your team members should note when you will be away from the store or office. Plan your schedule around those times.

8. Color code your files – This includes your physical files and your emails. You will locate files up to 50 percent faster.

9. Eliminate clutter – Make sure your desk is free of excess paper, gadgets or other distractions.

10. Turn off the Internet – The Internet and email are two huge distractions. Make a plan to check email twice a day. In between, turn it off.

11. Turn off the phone too – The average person spends over two hours a day texting or on social media….turn off the cell phone to eliminate this distraction!

12. Bookend your day - Consolidate appointments so that they are scheduled in the morning or late the afternoon. This will free up the rest of your time for productive work. The same goes for meetings.

13. Use the “Swiss Cheese” method – For overwhelming tasks (taking inventory, etc.) break them up into smaller tasks and spread them over several days.

14. Use drive time wisely - Listen to educational and motivational audiotapes or CDs while driving to appointments or waiting in traffic. It’s a great way to use this down time effectively.

15. Make tomorrow’s “to-do” list today - Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to prepare a “To Do” list for tomorrow. Know your top three priorities for tomorrow before going home.

16. Eat the frog – If you have a task that you hate to do…do it first and get it out of the way to avoid procrastination.

17. Use the “One-Touch” rule – Whether it is a document or an email, you should only touch it once. Either read it and throw it away/delete; read it and take action; or read it and file it for reference.

18. Just say “no” - If something you’ve been asked to do is not important to get you where you want to go, it’s not worth your time.

19. Work at peak times - Identify the time of day when you work at peak performance. Schedule at least one hour during that time to tackle your most challenging work.

20. Use a timer – a simple kitchen timer is a great tool for keeping you focused. Give yourself an hour to complete a task and the timer will reinforce your deadline!

21. Focus - Do one task at a time and give it your undivided attention until completed before going on to the next.

22. Use a Routine - Set a specific time to do recurring, routine paperwork, whether weekly or monthly, and block out the time on your calendar. Allocating this time assures these tasks will be remembered and completed.

23. Block your day - Schedule blocks of time in the morning and the afternoon to make phone calls, do email or other tasks. This cuts down on constant interruptions.

24. Manage others’ time - When leaving a phone message, advise the best time to call you. On your voice mail, ask callers to let you know the best time to call them.

25. Use templates - Make computer templates of all documents you create regularly - letters, fax cover sheets, contracts, expense reports and proposals. Why start from scratch every time?

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other retail training programs at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Management: Leading by Example

Posted on Monday, April 29th, 2013 at 11:42am

There are few business that are as "people intensive" as the retail industry. There is constant interaction between the store manager, store employees and the customers. As retail consultants one of the things that we often advocate is the importance of field leaders and store managers setting a great pace and an even better example.

Many of our retail clients use reams of paper for printing memos and store operating manuals. They post signs and hang motivating posters in the break areas. And they send email after email telling their team members what they should and should not do. Yet many of they still struggle with achieving great sales results and building a base of dedicated repeat customers.

Practicing What You Preach

You probably don't allow your employees to take excessive breaks and you likely have attendance policies that speak to store scheduling. Likewise, you likely don't want employees taking products home to “try” (otherwise called stealing). On the other hand, you do want your people engaging customers and selling them related products and upselling customers to better products.

But managing retail employees involves more than a "do as I say" mandate. Successful retail management requires setting a positive example. The way you interact with employees and customers sets the example for what is expected and permissible. So if you want your employees to be friendly and service oriented, you and your managers need to be the same.

Becoming a Role Model

Becoming a living example requires managers to be conscious of their activities at all times. Our consulting team encourages retail leaders to make an honest self-assessment and to grade themselves on a scale of 1-5 in the following areas:

· Customer Service

· Selling Behavior

· Completing Tasks

· Time Spent on the Floor

· Attendance

· Work Ethic

· Policy Compliance

Making Changes in Your Leadership Style

After completing the self-assessment the real work begins. Now, you as the leader, need to take action to ensure that you are providing a great example to your team members. By being a good role model, your high expectations are more likely to be rewarded with soaring results.

If you would like the Retail Training Services team to help you become a great leader contact us for a free one-hour consultation where we will help you to analyze your business opportunities and challenges.

Retail Leadership and Motivation Or 9 Ways to Keep Great Retail Employees

Posted on Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 9:42am

As a leader you do everything you can to ensure that you are hiring great team members. This includes following great retail hiring practices, utilizing proven interviewing techniques and following up on reference checks. Now that you have hired that great team member, how do you make sure that your time and effort have paid off?

Leading through proper motivation is one of the most important things any retail manager can do to ensure the success of their business. With that in mind, here are 9 best practices for retail leaders.

1. Implement more than competitive pay plans – Highly skilled employees know that they are in-demand. If they think they can earn more for doing the same work at a competitor they will consider leaving and you will lose your investment. Therefore you need to make sure your compensation plans reward high performers. This serves to help retain your leaders and motivate the laggards.

2. Effective scheduling – For many people, the hardest part of a retail career is the long hours. Help your team members deal with this stress by writing schedules at least 2 weeks in advance, giving them regular days off and – since no one wants to be working alone during high traffic periods - schedule to meet the demands of the foot traffic.

3. Provide ongoing learning opportunities – You best employees usually want to improve on their past results. So when you provide them with ongoing retail training programs they will respond by giving you increased loyalty and increased results.

4. Promote a positive work environment – We know that employees like to gossip and it is natural to develop deeper relationships with some coworkers rather than others. But when a manager acts on these tendencies it is the employees who suffer and ultimately they will quit because of the bad work environment.

5. Constantly focus on improvement – Nothing is more frustrating than working with a customer only to find that the point-of-sale system is broken or that inventory is out of stock. Great workers are attracted to companies that focus on efficiency while listening to employees input on how to improve the business.

6. Create a career path – Your best employees do not want to be stuck in a rut. Show them how they can grow with your company through earning pay increases, increases in responsibility and increased training opportunities

7. Know what motivates your people – Some team members are money motivated, others are motivated by responsibility or by the feeling working on a team provides them. As a leader, you need to be able to execute on many strategies for motivating your team members and you do that by getting to know your employees well.

8. Provide additional rewards – besides providing your team members with a competitive pay plan, you should provide additional rewards that are tied to performance. In many cases the cost of these rewards is nominal and it can include thing like a preferred parking spot, free lunch once a month, a monthly gym membership or flexible hours.

9. Create a recognition program – Whether it is a simple “thank-you,” an award plaque or a bonus for a job well done, one of the most effective tools you have is your recognition program. Every great employee wants to know that their efforts are appreciated. So make sure you reinforce great behavior so you can expect even better results down the road.

3 Key Retail Selling Skills to Help Your Business Grow

Posted on Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013 at 8:43am

Retail Selling Skills Get good at these activities and you will be able to close more sales and drive more revenue no matter how the economy is doing.

Retail Sales Skill #1: Qualifying Quickly and Effectively

Have you ever completed a presentation and closed the sale only to find that you spent the last ten minutes demonstrating a product your customer was not interested in? What a waste of time and effort!

There are many things in selling that may be out of your control, but understanding your customer’s needs is not one of them. To understand your customer’s needs you must be able to ask lifestyle questions that help to discover their specific requirements, explore additional needs based on their lifestyle, and then narrow down their choices. You will use open and closed questions to accomplish this.

QUICK TIP: If you are struggling to determine which product to recommend, tell your customer you have two models in mind but that the deference is a specific feature. Then ask them which one they would prefer to hear about!

Retail Sales Skill #2: Motivating Customers to Build “Yes” Momentum

You likely have dozens of customers entering your store or department every day and you get into conversations with most of them. If more than half of them do not buy, the problem may be one of motivation.

Through your qualifying conversation you should have learned about your customer’s lifestyle and how your product may fit into it. So after presenting a feature of your product, make sure you mention the benefit – of how the feature will improve their lifestyle by making them look more fashionable, saving them time, or saving them money.

QUICK TIP: After you explain the benefit, confirm that the customer agrees with your point by asking a “tie-down” question like: “I am sure that you would agree that a better product saves money in the long term, don’t you?”

Retail Sales Skill #3: Don’t forget to Close the Sale - Twice

When you ask for the order It is not unusual to hear customers say things like “I want to think about it” or “Maybe I will come back later.” Don’t fall into the habit of accepting this first “no,” Usually it simply means they really do need to think about it…so ask them “What do you need to think about?” to handle the real objection.

QUICK TIP: If you qualified your customer effectively AND presented a product that would meet their needs, a great technique for handling an objection is called the “Boomerang.” Simply turn the objection around on the customer by saying “I understand…but didn’t you say that you wanted a product with ________ features and benefits?”

Bonus Retail Selling Skill: Approach Your Customer More Than Once

A study by a major national retailer found that when a customer was not greeted upon entering their stores the customer only made a purchase 32% of the time. But if they were greeted the conversion rate went up to 53%. But it gets even better, because if a customer said “just looking” but was then re-approached after a few minutes, the success rate for closing a sale went up to over 70%!

QUICK TIP: Greet your customer and build rapport by making small talk. If your customer is wearing a sports jersey, talk about that team; if it is raining outside, talk about the weather; or if they have children with them, ask about their ages. Casual chit-chat shows your customer that you are not threatening and that you care about them as people!

Would you like to learn more ways to improve your retail selling skills? Contact us to inquire about our retail sales training seminarsand on-line retail courses.

- Retail Advocacy Groupoffers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Services subsidiary. You can also learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Cash Flow is the Lifeblood of Every Retailer

Posted on Monday, March 18th, 2013 at 11:23am

Having enough cash on hand to keep the doors open, fund payroll and buy inventory. In our retail consulting practice we have found that maintaining free cash flow is the number one thing that keeps retail owners and operations executives awake at night.

We have found that when many retailers get into a cash crunch they start getting aggressive in cutting costs. Payroll and employee development are usually the first things to go and are closely followed by eliminating or postponing inventory purchases. Those may be good responses, but they are reactionary and if not done smartly can have a significant negative impact on revenue…which just makes the cash flow issues worse.

Where has all the cash gone?

There are a number of ways that a retailer can lose or tie up cash unnecessarily. These include:

Excess inventory: Unlike other industries, that invest heavily in equipment and long-term capitalized assets, up to 80% or more of a retailer’s investment is tied up in inventory which is an asset that needs to be turned over and sold in order to recover and reinvest the cash. Carrying too much inventory and/or the wrong inventory ties up valuable cash that can be spent on products that could be selling, funding marketing programs or going into the bank.

Inefficient Use of Payroll: Most retailers try to keep an eye on their expenses. But payroll, as measured as a percentage of revenue, has a funny way of creeping up over time. When sales decline it is easy to fail to react quickly on the payroll side of the business. This may include cutting staff, but more often simply needs to be a reallocation of hours. The same can be said on the other side of the business…Many retailers fail to staff adequately to take advantage of customer traffic. The key is to write the schedule based on the store’s needs vs. the needs of the employees.

Poor Expense Control: Whether it is spending money on large items like fixtures or services or on small items like Windex and paper towels, failing to monitor and evaluate expense items can quickly deplete cash. A great example is when a retail client spent over $500 per month per door on an automated cash security system car service when their business had shifted to over 90% credit card transactions. That is a lot of money when you take that cost across 50 locations!

Excessive markdowns: When a retailer has invested in too much inventory or the wrong inventory they need to move it out in order to recover at least part of their investment. Reactionary, mark downs are necessary, but they do not recover the lost cash. In fact, after paying for marketing cost and associated payroll, you can be in worse shape than you were before you sold it! The best retailers make a plan in advance of purchasing their product for building in end-of-life markdowns. In addition, many vendors will assist you with end-of-life issues.

Erosion of Gross Margin: Margin erosion is the slow but steady decline in overall margin percentage over time. It results from failing to react to cost increases from vendors; failing to account for increased fixed or variable expenses; and competitive pressures.

Lack of Forecasting and Planning: Every retailer should be forecasting their sales, inventory, payroll and expense items on a monthly basis. Once you have a template set up, it is easy to account for seasonal shifts and current sales trends. One of the results of the planning process should include your planned cash position at the beginning and end of every month. If you are hitting your revenue targets but cash is lower than planned you know to look at inventory, payroll or expenses. If your margin is declining you know to look at pricing and sales practices.

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Marketing Your Training increases Return on Investment

Posted on Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 10:52am

Like all companies, retailers want to feel confident that their investments will pay off in higher revenue and bigger profits and as retail training consultants we are regularly asked “What type of ROI can we achieve if we implement a new sales or retail management training program?”

The core issue around some retailers’ fear of not achieving ROI usually stems from having had training companies over-sell them on the impact of those training companies’ short-term training classes or presentations in the past. The fact is that a top quality retail sales seminar will give your company a boost in revenue. Our experience – both as a retailer and as a training provider – is that a short-term increase of productivity of the most engaged team members is in the 15-25% range.

In case you missed it…the key phrases in the previous statement were “short-term” and “most engaged.” Single sales seminars or short-term management training classes really only impact behavior for a short time (30-60 days is our experience). Additionally, the team members that are most likely to be impacted will be the ones who are least in need of the training…because they are already motivated to win.

Think of Your Training Program like a Marketer

Having been in charge of multi-million dollar marketing programs for products that were sold through retail and direct-to-consumer channels, one of the things that I quickly learned was that if I wanted to get potential customers to purchase my product I needed to reach out and touch them multiple times. In fact, the axiom among marketers is that it takes three “touches” or impressions to get potential consumers interested in your product and it takes a total of seven to eleven “touches” to get them to buy from you.

The same goes for retail training programs. The retailers that execute best understand the importance of having an on-going training rhythm. Why? Because repetition is a critical part of learning – especially adult learning. Studies have shown the following with regard to training retention and behavior modification with regard to sales training:

· If one session is conducted: Only 22% of the training is remembered after 30 days

· If three sessions are conducted over three months: 64% of the information is retained

· If six sessions are conducted over 6 months: 95% of the information is retained

Training Retention is Only Half of the Battle!

It makes sense that most companies spend a great deal of time on acquiring customers, but they also understand that once they have acquired a customer they need to retain them – after all, it costs less to keep an existing customer than it does to go out and find a new one. They want those existing customers to take action and buy again!

The same goes for your training program. Top retailers understand the need to have retention and follow-up programs that will encourage and reinforce the activities that have been trained. This means that you not only need to continue to drive on your training rhythm, but also need to have a plan in place that monitors, coaches and measures the activities you have trained on. Remember the old axiom: “Inspect What You Expect”

What is Your Training and Coaching Rhythm?

As retail training consultants we often assist retailers with getting their rhythm planned and started. This can include program development; content licensing; presenting and training the retailer’s leadership and internal personnel on how to ensure that there is an ROI on the training investment.

If you are looking for a one-time training program firms like Retail Training Services can and will help you with fulfilling that need. But the best trainers and training consultants will help you to understand the importance of building a training rhythm that helps you to win in the long term.

Are you interested in learning about ways to improve your retail productivity? Our retail training consultants are ready to assist. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Taking Responsibility vs. Action – A Lesson From JC Penney

Posted on Sunday, March 3rd, 2013 at 6:56pm

JC Penney just announced that its Q4 sales were down 32 percent – a number that is staggering in its scope. The result is that the Company has been burning through cash and has had to refinance its credit terms. These are often the signs of a downward spiral for any retailer, but when you add-on the fact that there is no end in sight it just makes it look worse.

Ron Johnson, the CEO of JCP, as they like to refer to themselves now, has said that he takes full responsibility for the actions of his team and says that he knows the Company’s fortunes will turn around once they have implemented their new merchandising strategy in full. The problem with that is that it may very well be too late.

Ignoring What Works

Like many retailers that have hit hard times in the past, JCP has cut staff, cut pay and cut training and invested in an advertising gimmick “everyday square pricing” that puts them in direct competition with much healthier and bigger retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Amazon.

Coming from Apple, it is understandable that Ron Johnson might think that you can advertise or market your way to success – That type of thinking is not anything new. What he forgot is that at Apple he had unique products that did something new and did something his customers wanted.

What do Your Customer’s Want

James Cash Penny, the founder of Penney’s, said that he did not think he needed to aggressively advertise his products and he did not need to discount steeply to build his business. He know that the best advertising was the word of mouth referrals that his Company would receive from satisfied customers.

Retailers need to give customers what they want. And in a world where many products – from clothing to car parts are commodities that can be purchased almost anywhere, specialty retailers have to understand what they can provide that is different – and that is personalized service, product knowledge, customer-focused selling practices and pleasant shopping environments.

In our modern culture, “Taking Responsibility” has become a way of saying “I screwed up but don’t deserve to pay a price for failure.” Unfortunately, for most specialty retailers that simply leads to a downward spiral and a bankruptcy sale.

JCPenney and Ron Johnson’s only hope is to quit focusing on advertising gimmicks and to take action. This includes hiring people who care about building customer relationships and investing in a retail training program that will build a customer-oriented selling culture.

If your business is struggling I hope you take responsibility for it, but more importantly, I hope you take action on rebuilding relationships with your customers.

Are you interested in learning about ways to improve your retail business results? Our retail training programs can help you save money by selling more! Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

5 Activities to Make Your Retail Training Fun and Engaging!

Posted on Monday, February 25th, 2013 at 10:35am

We have all sat through a training meeting with a talking head and a PowerPoint deck. No one wants to take part in a long-winded and boring training meeting and traditional role playing while effective can get old. So, spice up your retail sales training and product training classes with these fun activities

Game Show Activities – Whether it is a take-off on Jeopardy, Who wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune game show themes are a great way to get your team members excited, engaged and competing to show off their knowledge!

Relay Races and Scavenger Hunts – Do you need to teach your people how to find information or solve problems quickly? Divide your room into teams that can compete against each other to complete an activity

What is in my Pocket – A great way to help people hone their qualifying skills. Give people 10 questions to determine what you have in your pocket. Then teach them about how using open questions yields more information and have them try again.

Write a Commercial – Give each team member a product and then have them write a 15 second radio commercial for it. Once they have drafted the commercial, have them read it to the group. The best commercial wins a prize!

Get the Monkey off My Back – Present a product to your trainees. Then toss a stuffed animal (the monkey) to one of them. They have to present a feature and benefit of the product. When they have done so they get to toss the monkey to another person. Whoever is stuck with the monkey and can’t think of a feature has the monkey on their back!

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing your profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Employee Engagement is Key to Rebuilding a Retail Business

Posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2013 at 6:00pm

Building Retail Success It Started with a Bad Meeting

A few years ago I walked into a meeting with a Fortune 500 retailer. I was there to present a new product line and close the sale. Like many companies, this retailer had been struggling in recent months. In fact, they had just gone through a round of lay-offs at their home office.

The good news is that I had a long-standing relationship with this retailer and knew that my product line met all of their requirements for retail price, gross margin, packaging and more. My primary contact was a VP of merchandising, but I would be meeting with one of his subordinates and then meeting him for lunch afterward.

It was, without a doubt, one of the worst meetings I had ever been to. The merchant was down in the mouth, would not make eye contact and barely looked at our products or presentation. He told me numerous times that his company was in the middle of reorganization and that he could not make any decisions about bringing in new products. In fact, he said that they were putting their entire line under review because they needed to eliminate further costs. In effect, any new initiatives were on hold. He then asked me if I knew of any openings at his competitors!

At lunch I told my friend – his supervisor – about my meeting and he confirmed that the Company was seeking new ways to cut expenses beyond the recent lay-offs. I asked him why he did not want to consider new products and new opportunities for revenue and his response was that the Company was solely focused on cutting expenses. After lunch, he also asked me if I knew of any opportunities that would be suitable for him. The bottom line was that the team members of this retailer had quit. Quit on the company, quit on themselves and quit on their partners.

Three years down the road, this retailer is no longer in the Fortune 500. They have closed 20% of their stores. Their gross margin is down by 10% and they have turned over their home office staff at least twice…including my friend and his subordinate and…the only main players who are still there are the CEO and the CFO!

Every Business Runs Into Challenges

That is right. Every company and every retailer has a difficult month, quarter or even year. The key is to fight your way out of it and a key to that is to keep your team members engaged. If your business is struggling, here are some quick ideas on how to fight your way out:

1. Get input from your people – They are often closer to the problem than you are and you will need their buy-in to execute your plan.

2. Don’t blame anyone but yourself – You need to address the causes of the problem and that may involve changing your headcount, but make sure that your remaining team members feel like they are part of the plan.

3. Don't get hung up on planning – In this case, the retailer took over a year to come up with and then begin implementing their plan. In the meanwhile, everyone’s morale tanked and the best people left for greener pastures.

4. Get involved at every level – All business owners need to handle the back-office activities – finance, planning and more. But the people that execute your plan are on the front lines with your customers. That is where you belong too!

Rebuilding a business is always a challenge, but it is one that you and other retailers can overcome by getting your team members bought-in and involved in executing your plan.

Are you looking for new ways to get your team members engaged and productive? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and learn how our retail training programs can helpyou to get your business back on track!

Customers Love it When Retail Team Members are Certified

Posted on Monday, February 11th, 2013 at 9:27am

I was taking my car in for service the other day for its 50,000 mile check- up when I noticed that behind the service desk the dealer had hung the certificates that proved that their various mechanics had completed the training for repairs ranging from brake jobs to transmission rebuilds to body work. It got me thinking about the importance of having certified employees and how everyone benefits from it.

Retail employees like yours are motivated to learn new things and to improve their skill sets. They know that it will help them to satisfy more customers, earn more money and improve their confidence on the sales floor.

Customers love it when they know they are dealing with well trained and certified sales representatives. It gives them confidence in the employee’s recommendation and in the information that they are communicating.

And retail managers know that when a sales representative has completed on-line retail training courses and pass the tests associated with them their customers will be more satisfied; their return rates will go down; and their revenue and gross margins will go up!

A great way to communicate that your team members are certifies sales, customer service and product experts is to note it on your employee’s name tag. Use a phrase like “Certified Customer Service Team Member” and don’t forget to include the employee’s tenure!

Let the teams from Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services help you build your business. Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

10 Activities to Drive Retail Revenue

Posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 at 9:40am

Here are 10 quick activities that you can implement to increase sales in your retail store!

1. Give fast feedback – When you see someone doing something right (closing a sale, adding-on, solving problems) let them know you appreciate it immediately. If you see someone doing something wrong, let them know right away in a respectful manner while showing them the right way.

2. Conduct weekly sales meetings – Conduct the meetings on your biggest sales days. Start off by praising your sales leaders and then move into 20-minutes of product training. Finish up by having team members make commitments for that day’s sales!

3. Conduct remedial sales training every month – Spend 30 minutes a month helping your team members hone their skills. This could include closing techniques, how to handle sales objections or how to add-on related products. And, since even your tenured sales reps can get stuck in a rut you can energize them by having them conduct the training!

4. Remerchandise and rotate your displays - Your store likely has repeat customers. Give them something to look forward to my resetting end caps, window displays, and impulse displays with new and exciting merchandise!

5. Invest in developing your team members – No one wants to get stuck in a dead-end job. Help your people grow into better and more productive team members by investing in retail training programs that will help them grow personally while growing your company!

5. Make selling fun – Selling the same products to the same customers each and every day can get mundane. Get your people energized by giving them short term goals, contests, or playing selling games!

6. Hire the right people – Retail consultants talk a lot about establishing hiring profiles and writing job descriptions. Those are important and should be used, but the simplest way to ensure you are hiring well is to simply hire people who look and act like your top performers.

8. Measure and react – Many retailer look at this as an activity to mitigate risk when they should be thinking about measuring results to identify new opportunities. Forecast your business’ revenue, inventory, payroll and other key areas each month – or even better…each week. Then make adjustments to your plan based on actual results!

9. Manage by walking around – Virtually every important asset is on the sales floor of your stores. This includes your customers, your people, and your inventory…So where should you be? On the floor interacting with all of your assets and learning about what is working and not working!

10. Promote your business daily – Marketing does not have to cost a lot of money, but it does have to be done, and the best programs are viral. Make some follow-up and referral calls, set up a twitter campaign to announce new merchandise, send out a monthly newsletter, send out thank you cards, or develop a birthday club loyalty program.

Let the teams from Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services help you build your business. Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Sales Training for Specialty Retailers – Should You Do It Yourself?

Posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2013 at 9:26am

We recently moved into a new home and my wife has had me busy working on her “Honey Do” list. This last weekend it was painting the family room. Now if there is one thing I truly hate it is painting. The taping…the ladders…the scaffolding…the drop cloths…the paint in my hair. Plus…the NFL playoffs were on this week and I didn’t want to miss a minute of the festivities.

Distraction equals a less than effective job

Guess what happened – you got it – I blew it. I took short cuts, rushed the job and made a mess. Now I have an angry wife and have to do the job over again next week.

The same is true of retail sales training. Many independent retailers try to do their own sales training. They have good intentions, but whether it is tracking cash flow, dealing with vendors or marketing activity, it is all too easy to get distracted by other things. The result…poorly trained retail associates who fail to meet your expectations for customer service and revenue generation. And that poor training means lost sale and higher payroll costs when you dig in and retrain them (and hopefully break their bad habits).

This is why many independent retailers are turning to on-line retail training courses as a way to provide their team members with high quality retail sales training. Your new team members can receive over 5 hours of training on how to engage customers, uncover hidden needs, close the sale, overcome objections, build customer referrals and more for less than $100. With groups of five or more the cost can drop to under $50 per employee!

Avoiding the DIY sales training nightmare

With the included selling scenarios, skill practice, accompanying workbooks and more retail owners can stay focused on their core activities while being assured that their team members will attain the foundational knowledge they need to be successful.

Your sales associates need to get up to speed quickly and Internet-based retail courses ensure that they get everything they need to start off on the right foot. And you won’t be stuck in a DIY nightmare like I will be this weekend!

Do you need assistance with designing your retail training program? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

Case Study: Hiring and Training for Retail - Don’t Settle for Less Than Doing it Right

Posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013 at 11:30am

Retails Must Hire Right!It is the new year and many retail field managers are taking over new markets and many owners are thinking of expanding their operations. If that is the case, this article is for you!

Taking over a Problem Market

I remember when I made the jump from running one retail store to running my first district. It was back in the late 80’s and I was working for a national retailer. I was a hotshot that was consistently ranked in the top 50 out of over 5,000 locations and I thought that I knew what I was doing…Unfortunately, like many young store managers who are promoted to district manager I found out how wrong I was.

I had just been promoted to run a 33 store market that was struggling with declining sales, bad inventory management, bad real estate and more. In fact, if you were to name the problem I probably was facing it. One of those issues was that the market was significantly understaffed. The headcount was about 25% below where is should have been. In my mind I knew that I would not be able to attack most of these issues until I hired enough people to staff the stores, so I went on a hiring blitz and got those locations staffed at 100% within 6 weeks.

It is a People Problem, Stupid!

My thinking was that if we staffed the locations so that we could handle customer foot traffic we would then have the time to handle the other issues by getting the store managers managing vs. solely focused on selling. Sounds like a good idea doesn’t it?

Well, it was a good idea. We staffed the stores quickly and began to see a nice double-digit increase in sales. The problem was that they were not profitable sales. Our gross margin began dropping and our customers began complaining. Then sales began to tank. What was the problem?

I had the right idea about hiring more people, but I executed it poorly. I had placed so much pressure on my store managers to hire new team members that they began hiring anyone with a pulse. In addition, we had given ourselves a huge retail sales training problem. In a sentence, my team and I had bitten off more than we could chew.

The Solution…Slow Down to Speed Up

The good news is that I quickly began to realize the issue at hand and implemented a plan to rectify the issues and to solve the staffing problem for good. It started with focusing on the top 20% of our locations where we:

Loaded them with our best people – result sales in those locations went up by 30% or more and carried the market as a whole.
Hired people that looked like our top performers – Instead of hiring a lot of new employees we slowed down and hired people that looked and acted like our best people.
Mentored and trained the new hires correctly – We put the new people in the same stores as our top performers so that they could not only see how to do the job correctly and brought them in for intensive sales training and retail product training so that they had the tools they needed to succeed.
Fixed the business one store at a time – Once we had a team of great employees we would move them to a new location and fix it by replacing a bad crew with a great team who knew how to run the business correctly

A Legacy of Strong Performing Stores

The result of this disciplined approach was that was that we were able to completely fix the business – sales, expenses, customer experience, inventory management and more - within a year. I am also pleased to say that over 25-years later that market is still one of the best performing in the Company. But I am most proud that many of those team members continue to stay in touch with me. Many have moved on to owning successful businesses of their own, but their legacy of achievement lives on in the people that they have hired and trained by doing it right.

The moral of the story is that if you are going to attack a business problem it is not just about putting in effort, but putting in a smart and disciplined effort.

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Retail Employee Training: Your Easiest Competitive Advantage

Posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 at 10:20am

Retail Training TipsSurvey after survey shows that retail sales representatives are notorious for being poorly trained and unable to handle customers’ needs. After all, who hasn’t encountered a retail employee who did not understand the basics of customer service, failed to ask questions to understand the customers’ needs, did not know about his products or simply did not care.

That means that virtually any retailer can create an advantage that will allow them to stand apart – and above – their competition simply by investing in training their team members. The investment in time and treasure is minimal, but the payoff in extra revenue and improved profits can be huge!

Independent and regional retail chains can take advantage of the difference maker that leading retailers like Apple and The Container Store have by investing in cost effective and impactful computer-based retail training courses.

Topics that any retailer should consider Delivering Crowning Customer Service; Handling Difficult Customers; Basic Retail Selling Skills; Deterring External Theft; and product features and benefits. Other courses may be beneficial for management personnel or store owners. This includes How to Recruit Quality Employees; Interviewing Techniques; Retail Sales Management; and Time Management.

On-Demand Computer-Based Retail Training Courses

Studies show that store employees who receive as little as 3-4 hours of computer based training to supplement their informal on-the-job training can be as much as 55% more productive than those who do not take advantage of these opportunities. So take action and create a competitive advantage for your business today!

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? If so, contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Gift Yourself the Gift of Knowledge

Posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2012 at 3:31pm

the gift of knowledgeOver the past few weeks you have helped hundreds of people get the gifts they need to make their friends and relatives have a great holiday. And you have done the same for your friends and relatives as well. Now is the time to invest in yourself!

Give yourself the gift of knowledge by investing in one of Retail Training Services Internet-based training programs. Whether you are looking to improve your retail selling skills, sales management skills or want to make better hiring decisions in the New Year, these e-learning courses can help you become more successful. Retail courses include:

· Top Check Selling Skills – 3.5 hours of sales training for you or your team members!

· Top Check Performance Management – 1.5 hours of training that helps your team achieve more!

· Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring for Retailers – 1.5 hours that will help you hire better!

· Time Management for Retailers – Invest 1 hour in helping you to work more efficiently!

· Customer Service Bundle – How to improve your customers’ experience and deal effectively with difficult customers

· Reducing External Theft – Uncover and learn how to protect your assets!

· Principles of Visual Imaging – Improve your Customers’ experience and increase sales

Retailers can purchase retail courses at the Retail Training Services Web Store and don’t forget to contact us for bulk discounts for teams of 5 or more people!

Overcoming Post-Holiday Headaches – The 13th month

Posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2012 at 10:36am

Congratulations! You have made it through the Christmas selling season and hopefully you and your team have done a great job of assisting customers with meeting their needs and have reaped the rewards of your effort!

But guess what! The holiday selling – and serving – season is not over. In fact, the week after Christmas can generate as much traffic for your location as the week prior to the holiday! Whether it is customers seeking great mark-downs, redeeming gift cards or wanting to exchange or return a gifts you need to be prepared for an influx of customers.

Set Yourself a Goal

One of the retailers I used to work for used to call the week after Christmas the “13^th month” and our goal was to create as much revenue in that seven-day period as we would in one of our off-peak months. That is a tall order, but here are some ideas to help you!

Move That Merchandise Out Front –Take advantage of the foot traffic to show your customers your great deals! Whether you are trying to move out overstocks or sell your everyday products, take advantage of the extra foot traffic by making sure your customers can see your products – avoid the temptation to do a “clean sweep” of the sales floor for a few days

Accessories, Accessories, Accessories –whether you are in the electronics business , the clothing sector or another retail segment, it is likely your customers received products that they need to accessorize! Have accessory items….batteries, socks, jewelry cases, car accessories, scarves or whatever makes sense near your checkout counter and suggestive sell them at every opportunity!

Turn Those Returns Around –While dealing with refunds and exchanges can be frustrating, the truth is that your store will be bringing in a lot more revenue than will be going out. Instead of anticipating problems or irate customers… focus on treating every customer with respect and focus on solving problems for your customers. When you do so, it is highly likely that they will actually spend more money in your store and you will earn a raving fan!

Collect Customer Contact Information – Many customers only shop in your location during the holiday season, so this may be your last chance to get them on your preferred customer list. At the checkout, ask them if they would like to join your free preferred customer program. If they say “yes,” you can collect their email information and then reach out to them throughout the year to encourage repeat business!

If you are looking for more tools to help you and your team perform better in this next year, contact us for a free one-hour phone consultation and Happy New Year from the Retail Training Services team!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has operated hundreds of retail locations and has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

3 Tips to Improve Retail Inventory Turnover

Posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 at 10:56am

Maintaining a high inventory turnover is one of the key measurements that retail consultants use to determine the overall health of a retail business. Defined as the number of times a store’s inventory is sold within a given period of time, some retailers are able to turnover their inventory as much as 12 times a year!

Why is this metric so important? Having the ability to sell your inventory quickly helps cash flow thereby allowing you to invest in new items, marketing programs, employee development and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. That is because you are now able to buy the latest and best products, advertise them and train your people to sell them…all at full price!

So what can you do to drive your inventory turnover? Here are 6 ideas that you can apply to your business:

Buy your inventory more frequently: When you purchase just a few times a year – at the beginning of key drive periods like back to school or holiday, you have to buy more product. This increases your exposure to making big (vs. little) mistakes and extends the amount of time you have to sell out of a particular sku. It also means that you are unable to drive foot traffic by teaching and marketing “new” products to your customers on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Finally, it forces you to discount old inventory in order to move it out. This reduces the value of your brand in your customer’s eyes.

Buy inventory in smaller quantities: Ask yourself, what happens when you “Stack it high to let it Fly,” but the product does not sell? Now you are stuck with large quantities of old merchandise that you have to discount in order to move it out. Plus you are tying up money that could be used to buy the latest and best products that your customers want.

Don’t buy too broadly: Many years ago I ran consumer electronics store and my parent company offered walkie-talkies in 8 different models. I restricted the selection in my store to three “good, better and best” models and guess what happened? Sales went up! That is because customers prefer simpler choices and my customers know that I had selected only the best products for them!

There you go! Buy less, buy more frequently, and buy right. A simple three step formula that will help you to increase inventory turnover and increase cash flow!

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

6 Last Minute Retail Tips For the Holiday Season (plus bonus selling tip)

Posted on Thursday, December 6th, 2012 at 10:52am

We are in the sprint to the finish for this holiday season and just like your customers are rushing to get everything checked off of their list, you are probably rushing to ensure that they do so! With all of that rushing around it is easy to forget some of the things that will help you to have a more prosperous holiday season.

With that in mind, here are some quick tips to help you maximize sales and profits.

1. Keep your advertising and promotional rhythm on-track. Many retailers begin running out of key products and your customers are looking for alternatives. Let them know you have great and unique gift items by contacting them via email, Facebook, blog articles or even old fashioned snail mail. You could even send a Holiday card with a coupon to your best customers!

2. Build your customer base for the next year. You likely have people entering your store that you have never seen before! Wouldn’t it be great if they returned to buy a few times next year? Start off by giving them crowning customer service and follow-up by asking them to join your special customer list or loyalty program!

3. Keep that store looking sharp! One way you can help to invite those customers to return and to buy more on their current visit is to ensure your retail store is acting like a silent salesperson. Make sure all of the lights are lit, the impule products are at the counters and related products and accessories are displayed with each other.

4. Keep the sales floor full! Live by one of the old adages of the retail selling business – “You can’t sell it if it is in the stockroom.” The sales floor is where the action is so make sure your products (and your people) are on it and engaging customers.

5. Train and communicate. Retail sales training and product training needs to continue during the holidays. Focus on giving quick advice based on the sales representative activities you observe from the floor. You could even have a sales rep take a quick retail elearning course while on break in order to hone their retail selling skills!

6. Set daily goals and use to-do lists. Goal setting is more important this time of year than any other! Give your people a daily target and, if they are commissioned, an earnings target to go with it. The same goes with operational tasks. Your store needs to be a well-oiled machine and a written task list for accountability will keep it that way.

Bonus Sales Tip – When your customer enters your store, offer to take their coat and parcels off of their hands. Store them behind the counter so that they can shop unencumbered. This is not only great customer service, but it encourages them to browse the entire store and gives your team members one additional opportunity to suggestive sell when the customer asks for their items back!

Do you like these retail hints and tips? You can find more on our Facebook page and don’t forget to like us while you are there!

- David Goodwin is the principal owner of Retail Advocacy Group. RAG offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Services subsidiary. You can also learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

The Key to Retail Franchise Compliance is Getting Buy-in to Your Program

Posted on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 at 8:53am

Often our retail training team is approached by franchise companies seeking advice on how to improve compliance around customer experience and merchandising. Many times these questions are phrased in terms of how to get their franchisees to use all of the tools that the franchisor provides – often free of charge. These may include free classroom based training, scheduled webinars, and conference calls. It also includes sending franchise personnel to visit local markets for compliance checks.

The message that the franchisor wants to send is that while they support the independence of their retail owners, they have a proven system for operating a business and an established brand that, if supported, will help their franchisees succeed and earn a healthy living. But they are frustrated by a lack of participation. Here are some thoughts on working through these issues.

Do Your Due Diligence

When we are engaged by a franchisor, one of the first things we do is to visit with the retail franchise owners in their stores and shops. This includes spending time with franchisees that the franchisor views as “team players” and others that are “underperforming.”

Many times, franchisees are independent business owners who own one or two locations and personally work in their retail locations. They are heavily engaged in their businesses including covering shifts, writing orders, and handling customer issues.

We have found that almost universally – whether due to staffing issues, travel expenses, time management problems, or simply being busy many of these franchisees feel that they are unable to take advantage of the resources that their franchisors provide to them. In fact, they often view the top-down store visits, classes and calls with skepticism because the “home office” people do not understand their local market conditions.

Improving Buy-In Among Retail Owners

Based on our findings as retail consultants, here are our top tips for improving franchisee buy-in to your franchising philosophy, systems and tools:

Manage by Walking Around– Having regional compliance manager is an important part of franchising. After all, you have likely spend (and spend) huge sums of money on building your brand, but don’t rely on these compliance personnel to deliver your message about why and how to use your systems. Instead, though our retail consulting practice, we have found that the best franchise leaders spend significant amounts of time on the road and in their franchisees’ locations educating their owners and showing them how to put their systems to use for their benefit.

Prove Your Value…Daily – we have heard the old saying “actions speak louder than words.” This is never more true than when you are leading a team of independent business owners. Instead of trying to force your system down the throats of your owners, show them how it can benefit them. This includes making sure you internally advertise success stories and showing owners how your systems can save them time and money through your helpline calls.

Manage Sideways– Everyone likes a success story and that includes your franchisees. Whether it is through having top performing owners present at your annual franchise meetings or by creating a mentoring program where you compensate top performers for going on the road and visiting underperforming dealers you will find that a message delivered indirectly may work better than a traditional top-down approach.

Make Training Accessible- Remember when we talked about how franchisees are busy running their stores and, therefore, cannot attend classroom trainings and web meetings? We have found that franchisors who make their retail training available 24x7 through tools like e-learning, learning management systems, internal social networks and intranets are able to get their training implemented faster and better – often for less cost.

Listen and Take Action – Your franchise organization has built a great brand and has developed excellent systems to help your independent retail owners succeed, but the marketplace is always evolving and changing. The first people to feel new competitive pressures are your retail store personnel. One of the advantages of their being independent business people is that they have the flexibility to react quickly! When you hear of a success story learn everything you can about it. Then provide public recognition of that retail owner and adapt your systems based on their initiatives.

Would you like to learn more ways to improve your retail franchising operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs analysis. And don’t forget to tell us what you think by joining our Google+ circle or liking us on Facebook!

Retail Advocacy Groupoffers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Services subsidiary. You can also learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

How is Success Defined in Your Retail Company?

Posted on Monday, November 26th, 2012 at 11:18am

Through our retail sales training programs and consulting practice our firm helps dozens of retailers improve their results every year. Many times they contact us about presenting to a group of their leaders about how they can improve the sales management practices in their retail stores.

As part of our preparation for these events we like to spend some time on the phone or even in their stores learning about their sales and management processes. That begins with learning more about how they measure success at each level of the business.

Does Everyone Know the Definition of Success?

While it is counter intuitive, it is not unusual for us to find that people at the various levels of the retail organization have different views of what success is and how it is measured. At the top level they might be looking at metrics such as cash flow, gross margin, revenue to budget, net promoter score or operating profit. Yet at the store level we often hear much more nebulous things like “making customers happy” and “earning commissions.”

When we run into this situation we almost always skew our talks and our advice toward improving measurement and consistency throughout the company. That is because studies show that organizations and people who set specific goals are able to outperform those without measured goals by 20%, 30% or even 50%!

What Should Retailers Measure?

During the first half of our retail sales management training cloasses we often focus on metrics of KPI’s in order to gain a universal definition of success. In many cases, the specific metrics do not matter. The key is that everyone in the organization…Owners, Home Office Management, Field Management, Store Leaders and Sales Representatives are focused on the same things and moving in the right direction. That being said, we recommend that retailers focus their KPIs in the following areas:

Revenue Generation – Typically measured in year-over-year sales, sales to budget or sales to forecast .

Gross Profit – Can be measured as gross margin percent, gross margin dollars to budget or through the attainment of sales targets on key products or services

Expense Control – Can be measured as expenses to budget/forecast, payroll as a percentage of sales, and attainment of sales goals or commission for sales reps

Inventory Management – Can be measured as inventory shrink, inventory turns or percentage of discounted sales

Customer Service – Can be measures as net promoter score, through customer surveys, percentage of repeat customers or mystery shopping stores.

Goals without Measurement Don’t Matter

Once we have defined success we can then spend the second half of the retail sales management seminar on how to attain them. This involves everything from goal setting to coaching to retail training activities. But a recurring theme through all of these segments is the importance of measurement and communication of results.

It is almost a universal human trait to want to achieve and compete. The truth is that there are very few people who want to do poorly – and if they do it is likely that they won’t last long in your organization. This key to long-term success is to make sure that the people who want to succeed have the tools necessary to do so.

That begins with keeping score and communicating results on a regular basis. This can be as simple as a handmade poster in the stockroom or as advanced as a computerized sales dashboard but it usually take less than 10 minutes a day to recognize your achievers and, as a result, motivate the rest of your team to achieve.

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Retail Is Detail. Two quick holiday selling tips for retailers

Posted on Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 9:34pm

1. Ask who else is on their shopping list – During the holidays, most customers use a list of people they’re going to buy for vs. a list of items they need to purchase. Use this as an opportunity to suggest additional products. Increasing the number of products sold per ticket during the holidays isn’t just smart business, it is great customer service. Remember, your customers want and need help with their list, so all you have to do is ask the question to help them

2. Suggest a gift for them – Up to 15% of all “gift” purchases during the holiday season are for the buyer. This is because they want to take advantage of the great deals you are offering. How many extra sales dollars can you create by suggesting something for your customers too? Teach your team members to ask every shopper “How about one for you?”

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led and e-learning training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingsolutions.com.

Driving Sales by Directing Traffic – a Retail Sales Management Story

Posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2012 at 12:48pm

A friend of mine was looking for a new washer and dryer this past week and invited me to go shopping with him so that I could render my opinion. We visited two competing big box specialty retail stores in our town. As always, since I make my living training retail sales managers and acting as a consultant to the retail industry, I took the opportunity to observe the activity in the locations. Here is a summary of our shopping experience:

Waiting for Service Means Sales Reps are Waiting for the Sale

We visited store number one which is generally considered a market leader in this segment and as expected, they had a great selection of brands and products. My friend had done his research in advance and had his mind set on a Samsung and this store carried the exact product he was looking for. All he wanted to do was see it in person and ask a few clarifying questions.

We walked into the appliance department (past three sales associates in the aisle who were talking to each other) and located the washer/dryer he was interested in. We started reading the price tags; playing with the knobs; and opening and closing the doors while we waited for a sales person to assist us.

After a few minutes we were getting impatient so I walked up to the group of sales reps and asked if they could locate someone to assist us. I was told that someone would be over in a few minutes, so we went back to looking at washing machines including other models that were more expensive.

It took at least another five minutes for the sales rep to come over and when my friend asked him about the difference between the Samsung model and a Maytag the sales rep told us that the information was all on the price tags. At that point we told the sales rep that we appreciated his help and then left the store while the sales rep went back to chatting with his friends.

A Friendly Greeting Makes All the Difference

We then went across the parking lot to a competitor’s store. Upon entering we noticed that the store was very busy and my friend commented that we should think about going somewhere else, but I told him that since we were there we might at least look.

We walked into the appliance department that was staffed by four sales representatives all of whom were engaged with customers. Despite that, one of them gave us a cheery wave and said she would be with us in a few moments.

We started looking at the washers and dryers like we did in the previous location and within 30 seconds another sales rep came up to us. He introduced himself as the store sales manager and asked if we were being served. We said no but that we did have a few questions.

The sales manager immediately realized that questions about the product are a buying signal and so told us that he would be happy to serve us, but that we would be better served if he got us one of his product experts.

He promptly pulled a sales representative from the department across the aisle (hooray for cross training!) who came over and not only answered our questions, but convinced my friend to invest in a premium machine that was over his original budget!

Are You Putting Sales Reps in Contact With Customers?

While my friend was completing his paperwork and arranging for delivery I spent my time observing the sales manager. For the next 20 minutes he made sure to walk a complete circuit of his store no fewer than 3 times.

In each case he made sure to greet customers and put them in contact with sales representatives. When he was not doing that, he was talking sales with his team members making sure that they had goals and knew where they stood with achieving them.

Which store - and which chain – is experiencing sales and profit gains? It is a no brainer. AND making sure that you are managing your sales floor by directing activities and traffic like a traffic cop is a no brainer too!

Would you like assistance with improving your retail sales management and other activities that can increase revenue, reduce costs and optimize profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Embracing customers instead of “fighting” Showrooming

Posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 9:18am

The use of smartphones and other mobile devices by customers to find the best deal is a recurring theme in our meetings with clients and is one of the hottest industry news trends. Related to this, our retail consulting firm has just been engaged by a leading retailer to develop a new sales training curriculum. One of their specific requests was to ensure the training had elements that were focused on “How to combat showrooming.”

But recent studies by firms such as IDC and Delloitte have confirmed what we have been telling our retail training clients for a long time and especially for the past year or so. Namely, that the key to retaining a loyal customer base and to closing the sale is having well trained sales associates who respect and build relationships with their customers.

The Brick and Mortar Advantage

IDC’s most recent study indicates that 64% of customers say that what they learn in-store is as impactful on their purchase decision as is what they might learn on a smartphone. The question is, what are they learning? Are they learning exciting facts about your products and your store’s unique value proposition or are they learning that there is no reason why they should not buy from the Internet?

The IDC study goes on to say “The merchandising and customer services strategies that differentiate a retailer and define its value bear on showrooming shoppers’ propensity to rely on their smartphones in stores,”. In other words, if your retail sales associates are trained and managed to provide high levels of service your customers will be more likely to buy from you than not. The IDC study confirms this by saying “60% of shoppers with their smartphones in-hand say that they will be “more likely” or “much more likely” to buy what they find in the store…when assisted by trustworthy knowledgeable store associates.”

Showrooming…The Next Evolutionary Step of Comparison Shopping

Traditionally, retail sales training courses have taught that when a customer tells you that they are going to “check out the competition” that means that they want to buy and all you need to do is ask them “what about the competition interests you?” and then handle the objection. As soon as a one of your sales associates sees a customer pull out a smartphone and start searching in your store, they need to realize that they have a motivated buyer and need to begin selling!

While I am not discounting the fact that Internet retailers have distinct advantages with regard to lower SG&A costs, they do not have the advantages that brick and mortar retailers have with regard to providing information, service and the immediate gratification that comes with taking your purchase home today.

Join the Mobile Revolution!

Once you have completed the sale, you and your team members can now take advantage of the smartphone. Foster your top-of-mind awareness and relationship with the customer by reaching out to them via new media like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well as through text campaigns, email and even old-fashioned, but often more impactful methods like thank-you notes and personal phone calls.

So make sure your pricing is competitive, then get out of the backroom and make sure you are training your retail associates to build relationships with your customers and prove to them why your business is special!

Retail Training Services can help you to improve customer service and increase your sales through our retail sales and management programs. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and don’t forget to place us in your circle at Google+!

Six Fast and Proven Retail Selling Techniques for the Holidays

Posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2012 at 1:08pm

With the holiday season fast approaching, you and your team members will want to make sure you are maximizing your earnings opportunities while helping your customers complete their shopping more quickly and with less stress. Here are six retail sales techniques you can use to help you accomplish these goals:

Tip # 1: Ask the Question “Who Else is On Your List?” – Everyone needs to shop for multiple people and they hate the hassle of running from store-to-store or searching the web. If you can suggest an item that saves them time and hassle they will reward you!

Tip # 2: Have Impulse Items Near the Counter – Many customers have to purchase low-cost items for their postal worker, paper carrier, or other service provider. In many cases they also want to be “fair” by spending the same amount of money on their children. Low cost impulse items of $5, $10, and $20 solve these needs!

Tip # 3: Offer Complete Solutions – Nothing is worse than receiving a toy that needs batteries and - you’ve got it – not having the batteries. The same goes with other products as well (shoes/socks, printers/paper, beds/pillows). Solve this problem by adding on things that make the product work, make the product work better, or protect the product in the long term. You might even want to consider creating product bundles!

Tip # 4: Use the “Pretty Picture” Technique – Your customers like to give gifts because it makes them feel good about themselves and helping others. Reinforce this feeling by saying something like “Can’t you just imagine the look on your daughter’s face when she opens this gift?”

Tip # 5: Use the “S.W.A.T.” method – You are guaranteed to sell out of some items. Instead of worrying about what you don’t have, just “Sell What’s Available Today.” All of your products are great and desireable…afterall you wouldn’t stock them if they weren’t!

Tip #6: Sell to the Shopper – Did you know that 15% of all “gift” purchases are actually purchased by the shopper for themselves? Give your top-line a boost by asking your customer if they wouldn’t like to get involved with something for themselves as well!

Do you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail store operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and don’t forget to place us in your circle at Google+!

10 Last Minute Tips for Preparing for the Holiday Selling Season

Posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2012 at 10:14am

Just like customers, many retailers leave their holiday preparation to the last minute. Therefore, with only a week to go before the holiday selling season begins in earnest, here are some last minute tips or ideas that can help you drive better results heading into Black Friday and beyond.

1. Invest a day or two this week in getting your office and paperwork in perfect condition. Making a clean sweep will allow you to focus on the front-of-house, your customers and directing the activities of your sales representatives.

2. Just like you need to organize and clean sweep your office, you should do the same you’re your stockroom. Get as much merchandise on the floor as possible and make sure what is left in the back is organized and easy to find!

3. If you have not done so already, start letting your customers know about your store hours, special offers and loyalty offers through in-store signage, newsletters, email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or other social networking sites. Don’t forget to plan on ways to contact them throughout the holiday season and make sure you are adding new customers to your list!

4. Write and post your work schedules through the end of December. By now, most people know when their big holiday obligations are, and if they do not, they will be able to schedule around them because they know their schedule in advance. When writing schedules remember that the first two weeks of December are not particularly busy, so do not over-schedule. Instead, bank those hours for the few days before and after the Holiday when customers are most active.

5. If you have not done so already, spend 30 minutes with each employee in a one-on-one meeting to review the schedule, their sales goals and key priorities for the season. You may also want to use some of this time to role play or train them on key selling activities or products.

6. When writing your schedule and working one-on-one with your employees, it is also a great time to communicate your expectations and assignments around daily operational tasks and store maintenance. Getting everyone involved in these tasks saves time and knowing assignments in advance saves on stress.

7. Make sure you strategically place accessory, add-on and impulse products throughout the store. Everyone has to purchase last minute gifts for friends, relatives and co-workers. Consider setting up some “gifts under $10” and “gifts under $25” displays. You could even pre-wrap some of these items for your customers to make it easy.

8. Focus on the first 10 feet of your store. Start by walking outside the store and make sure that it is inviting and sends a “this is the place to be” message! Are your windows clean? Does your sign work? One inside the store is the first 10 feet or so uncluttered so that the customer can see the rest of the displays easily? Are your focus displays signed so that they are easy to read?

9. Have you considered how you are going to feed your people on the business days? Many of our team members like to go out for lunch, but on Black Friday and the other busiest days what would normally be a 15 minute run to McDonalds becomes a 45 minute ordeal. Keep your people in the store and boost morale by ordering a deli tray!

10. Get your shopping done! If you haven’t done so already, take a day off to complete your holiday shopping. That way you can avoid the stress that your customers experience in performing last minute tasks and can instead spend your time focusing on serving their needs!

Do you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail store operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and don’t forget to place us in your circle at Google+!

Retail Management Case Study: 3 Keys to Improving Your Payroll Efficiency

Posted on Monday, November 12th, 2012 at 3:45pm

Controlling Retail Payroll Surveys show that the retail industry consistently ranks below the national average for compensation and benefits. We know that some of what drives this is that retailers are at the end of the supply chain and as such have to absorb the entire cost of the product plus cover their own business costs.

But in our retail consulting practice we have also found that many retail management teams try to use payroll as the first and best lever to save money on the expense line. The result is that wages are kept low, incentives are unattainable and store coverage is thin. Instead, we often encourage our clients to consider changing their outlook from payroll as an expense to one of investment.

Such was the case with a 50-store specialty retailer that we were working with not too long ago. Let’s take a look at how we helped them improve their return on investment from payroll.

Step # 1 - Pay More: Surveys and studies have shown that the top 20% of sales representatives are responsible for up to 80% of a retailer’s sales and profits. Yet, many retailers choose to attract and hire low performing or inexperienced sales representatives instead of hiring the best.

Contrary to what you may think, it does not take a lot to attract top talent. Your base compensation plan and commission plan only needs to be marginally better than your competition. You also can provide additional compensation through low cost online retail training courses, contest incentives and the ability to earn time off through attaining sales goals.

In this case we found that the retailer had failed to increase base hourly rates in over three years. In fact, they had reduced the base rate to the mandated minimum resulting in an increase in annual employee turnover to over 150%!! Once we laid out the business case for the owners the decision to modify compensation was simple.

Step #2 - Expect More:

Now that you have hired experienced and goal oriented retail sales representatives you have the opportunity to expect them to achieve at a higher rate. In this case, the newly hired team members had already proven their ability to achieve at a high level at their previous jobs so during the hiring and new employee orientation process we worked with them on establishing aggressive sales targets.

Additionally we were able to refocus the retail store managers’ activities from putting out fires and training new sales representatives on how to do the basics of their job to sales management. Their daily activities now focused on goal setting, product training, monitoring results and helping their team members hit stretch goals.

Step #3 – Get More: Through making some simple changes to their recruiting, hiring, training, and payroll practices we were able to help this retailer to drive revenues by over 20% and operating margin by over 25%! Additionally, employee turnover has decreased by 40% on an annualized basis and payroll as a percentage of sales dropped by almost 20% as well.

Do you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail store operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation.

Don’t forget to place us in your circle at Google+ or to follow us on Twitter

Use Coupon Marketing to build your base of loyal customers

Posted on Saturday, November 10th, 2012 at 10:31am

Coupons and similar marketing tools can be an effective way to build your business. According to Advertising Age, 87 percent of all shoppers use coupons and according to the A.C. Nielson Co., 60 percent of consumers actively look for coupons.

Benefits of Coupon Marketing

1) Increases Your Marketing Area – Coupons, if used properly, have the effect of expanding or increasing your market area as many customers will even travel significant distances to redeem a valuable coupon.

2) Entices New Customers to Try Your Business – According to a recent study33% of customers say that the will wait for a product to go on sale before they purchase. Coupons provide you a tool for putting items on sale!

3) Reactivates Old Customers -The same study showed that over 15% of retailers’ sales are from “loyal” customers…but where did the other 85% go? Use coupons to lure them back into your store!

4) Drives the Sales of Related Products– Many of your products have accessory or “add-on” products that can make your transaction and your business more profitable. Tie coupon campaigns to the purchase of two items in order to drive margin!

Avoid the Risks of Using Coupons

Using coupons to drive incremental business is an old trick, and many retailers are using it to build revenue. But pursuing revenue without profit does not make sense. You will need to avoid the dangers that can be associated with a poorly planned campaign. These include:

1) Using Coupons or Discounts as Your Only Marketing Strategy– retailers need to focus on building their brand through the value of their service and the customers experience in the store first. Otherwise you will only be competing on price and that is a losing strategy with Amazon and Wal-Mart dominating that space.

2) Teaching Customers That Coupons/Discounts Are Always Available – If you use coupons on a regular basis, you may be teaching your customers that they should hold off on the purchase of items until the next coupon arrives in the mail. All you need to do is watch the TV programs about extreme couponing to know that this behavior really exits.

3) Selling Discounted Merchandise Only– If you are only selling the discounted merchandise, you are failing to take advantage of the core reason for providing the discount…to drive profitable foot traffic into your store!

Simple Rules for Retailers

Coupons and other discount retail marketing programs have their place and they can drive incremental revenue and profits when used properly. So follow these simple rules for maximizing your return on investment:

1) Bundle Your Offer to Build Margin– Coupons must be used to generate profitable foot traffic. Therefore give the customer a discount when they purchase a product PLUS a profitable accessory at full price (and margin). Another example could be a buy two – get one 30% off offer.

2) Capture Customer Information– If you use coupons to build your trade-area or to get new customers to try your business then make sure that your investment pays off by capturing the customer’s information so you can encourage them to return to buy items at full price. Email and text messaging campaigns are great and can effective tools for marketing, but you need the customer’s information first.

3) Use Coupons to Drive Loyalty– Success in retailing is often a matter of winning loyal customers and keeping them away from your competitors. Therefore if you can use coupons with your existing customers in order to maintain and grow your base at the expense of your competitors, you will be more likely to grow.

Do you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail store operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and don’t forget to place us in your circle at Google+!

More Shopping Days Means More Opportunity - Are Retailers Ready?

Posted on Monday, November 5th, 2012 at 10:54am

Great news for retailers! The calendar for 2012 is the most advantageous that we have had in years. With Christmas day falling on a Tuesday there are two extra shopping weekends (one before Christmas and one between Christmas and New Year’s Day) and with Hanukkah falling early this year (Dec. 8 – 16) retailers have the opportunity for their best Holiday selling season in years.

The key will be making sure that you are ready to take advantage of calendar by driving foot traffic into your stores and then closing sales when the customers arrive. Here are some quick thoughts:

- Recruiting and Hiring: Often retailers really only need extra help for the weekend after Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas. This year you will need people who can stay longer and have more flexibility in their schedules.

- Ordering Merchandise: The best retailers don’t try to have everything in stock at all times. Instead they make sure they have the right products in the right depth that will allow them to suggestive sell and build their sales basket. With only a few weeks to go, you need to pick your winners now and then merchandise them prominently in your business!

- Marketing: Have you embraced mobile and Internet marketing yet? Studies have shown that customers who search the web are actually more likely to buy that day and that they still prefer to do so at retail! Have you optimized your website for local search? Have you trained your employees to sell aggressively to shoppers who use a smartphone in your store? And don’t forget to reach out through Pinterest, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks as a way to build your customer base year-round!

- Sales and Product Training: Is critical. Do your team members know how to recognize buying signals? Do they know what items they should be suggestive selling in order to increase the value of your average transaction? And most of all, do they know how to engage customers in a way that makes them want to return after the holiday?

- Advance Planning: Make sure you write your work schedules in advance. We recommend doing this for the entire Holiday selling period. As your team members what days or nights they need off and then schedule as needed while taking into account that you need extra coverage for the busiest days. In fact, for many store, you will only really need heavy coverage for the days that are listed here.

- Leadership: Are you ready to lead the way from the floor? After all, your most important assets are there – your customers, your employees and your inventory. There is nothing more important than getting out front and showing your customers and your employees that customer service and selling is fun and profitable!

If you are looking for a great way to bone-up on your retail selling skills, visual imaging, or retail management skills, a great way is to log-in to our on-line training portal. Our retail training courses are quick, easy to use, and cost effective and you can access them by clicking here.

Have a great Holiday selling season!

30 Cases of Windex Please: Retail Consulting Case Study

Posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2012 at 7:43pm

For retailers – or any business for that matter - cash flow is a key metric. Having free cash at the end of the month is often the difference between keeping the doors open or closing for good. Additionally, having free cash on hand gives you the ability to quickly react to market trends by purchasing inventory, hiring new team members, or marketing your business.

While it is true that most retailers’ cash is tied up in inventory, payroll and fixed expenses such as rent and utilities, I am often amazed at the cash that is hiding in the nooks and crannies. While our Company’s core business is assisting companies with their retail sales and management training needs, we also try to lend assistance with help our clients improve their overall operations. This was the case when we were recently visiting some store locations on behalf of a client.

An Unproductive Use of Cash

They are a regional chain of specialty store located across the Midwest with about 65 locations. We always like to visit our clients’ locations so we can get a feel for their business and customize our retail training programs on their behalf. In this case we spent two days visiting stores with two district managers and then had a wrap-up meeting at the client’s home office.

While visiting the stores we spent time in the stockroom/office looking around and we found on average: 1.25 cases of glass cleaner, 2 cases of paper towels and 6 boxes of paperclips. That does not count the other excess office supplies excess inventory and other wasted resources that we found. Just on these items we did some quick math and got this result:

· 1.25 cases of glass cleaner ($40 ea.) x 65 locations = $3,250

· 2 cases of paper towels ($55 ea.) x 65 locations = $7,150

· 6 boxes of paperclips ( $1.29 ea.) x 65 locations = $503

· Total monies spent: $10,903

Now I am not one to skimp on keeping a store clean or on organizing paperwork, but a case of window cleaner is 4 gallons (probably a two year supply) and 6 boxes of paper clips yields a total of 600 (the stores use an average of one clip per day for another two year supply)! It seemed to me that this was $10,903 that could have been better spent in other ways such as inventory, hiring a new sales associate, creating a sales contest, running an ad or even paying our fees.

Digging in to Find Hidden Gold

When I brought this observation up to the client’s Director of Operations he was shocked. After some investigation he found that one of his team members bought these store supplies in bulk because it saved about 20% on the total cost. Not a bad motivation, but that still means that the company tied up a significant amount of cash unnecessarily.

After digging deeper, our client found that they had probably had almost $100,000 – more than $1,500 per store – tied up unnecessarily. Now I ask you…what would $1,500 per location in free cash flow do for you?

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

And don’t forget to follow us on Google + by clicking here!

Time to Refocus on the Fundamentals of Retailing!

Posted on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 8:48am

Not too long ago I was speaking to an old friend of mine who works for one of the top retailers in the country. This company has over 1,500 locations and is a member of the Fortune 500. This company has recently come under significant fire over the past few months for offering a poor customer experience that has been reflected in the company’s sales and profits.

I mention this because this friend of mine was leading a special task force focused on developing new lines of business. Now this is a hard goods retailer that sells consumer electronics, appliances, furniture, hardware products, wireless phones and other similar items. Guess what type of product the task force was looking at???

Electric Cars…That’s right, electric cars…

Now I am not against looking at new lines of business. In fact, I have been involved with numerous start-ups in the tech sector, but this idea seemed a little out of the box even to me – especially when you consider that this retailer has been getting killed in its current business.

With that in mind it make sense for all of us to be reminded about the importance of focusing on the fundamental parts of running a retail operation.

The Five P’s…Plus One

People – Are you hiring quality individuals? Are your providing them with the retail sales training, incentives and product knowledge that they need to serve customers well? What are you doing to ensure that you are scheduling appropriately so that you maximize your payroll efficiency?

Product – Are you buying inventory that people want and are you maintaining good discipline with your forecasts so that you are not left holding the bag with either too much or too little inventory? Are you disciplined in your approach to buying or do you buy on the spur of the moment?

Pricing – Are you maximizing your gross margin by shopping your competitors? Are you encouraging your sales reps to sell (and your customers to buy) product bundles that help improve customer satisfaction through getting them involved with complete solutions?

Promotion – What is your plan to communicate with your customers via both traditional and new media channels? Do you have a good plan to take advantage of (vs. complain about) web-based, mobile, and social media channels?

Placement – What are you doing to ensure you have great real estate for your locations? Within the store are you maintaining displays, keeping products priced, and promoting key products and related add-ons?

Measurement – Are you measuring everything? Like the old adage says…”inspect what you expect.” This includes inventory ratios, gross margin, payroll costs, sales conversion rates, cash flow and all of the other key metrics that will determine your success.

Another old friend of mine said is best…”The only hard thing about retail is the hard work.” So let’s all commit to eliminating distractions and focus on getting to work!

You can learn more about the 5 P’s of retailing by clicking on this link and please consider putting the Retail Advocacy Group to work for you! Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Make retail selling fun:10 ways to keep your sales reps engaged on the floor

Posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at 7:40pm

Selling the same products to the same customers within the same four walls can be mundane and boring. The same can be said about retail sales managers who see the same people each and every day. Get your retail sales associates reenergized and excited about customer service and selling with these fun activities:

1. Add-on Tag – One sales representative has to carry an impulse item n item that many customers need - think batteries, socks, jewellery cleaner, etc. That sales rep must carry until he or she sells it by suggesting it to their customers. Once they are successful they can hand the product off to another sales rep. Spice it up by getting all reps involved…if another rep sells it first, the original rep must now carry two!

2. Penalty Flag / Red Card – Pick an item that all sales associates should be suggestive selling. If a sales rep forgets to suggest the item of the day people throw a flag or issue a red card. As an alternative the sales reps could ring a bell when they are successful!

3. Conversion Rate Poker Chips – Instead of tracking conversion rate through a boring spread sheet, buy a set of poker chips. Every time a sales rep is successful at converting a sale they get a black chip. If they are unsuccessful they get a red chip. The sales rep with the highest percentage of conversions wins!

4. Sales Bingo- (or tic-tac-toe) – each box represents an item that can be sold suggestively. When it the card is completed they win a prize

5. Horse Race – Use a large poster in the back room to represent a race track. Every time a sales rep attains their daily goal their horse get to advance on the racetrack. The person whose horse makes it around first wins. Spice it up by having daily trifectas where sales reps can make up ground by hitting a three-way goal on a single day.

6. Pass The Buck – Every time a chosen item is sold someone gets a dollar, the next time it is sold the dollar passes to the person who sold it. Whoever is left holding the dollar at the end of the day wins!

7. Yellow Shirt – Just like in the Tour de France the sales rep who is doing the best job at attaining their monthly quota gets to wear the “Yellow Shirt.” That way everyone knows who the leader is!

8. Traveling Trophy – Every week or month the sales rep with the best combined ranking wins a loving cup filled with candy. At the end of the next month they have to hand the trophy off to the next winner so they are encouraged to excel month after month.

9. Junk Food Jamboree – Everyone loves chocolate, chips, and soda…Set a team goal for the store. If they attain it you get them a month’s work of junk food! Or…switch it up by offering a spa day or gym membership!

10. Steak or Beans – A great way to juice up a head-to-head contest. Pick your category and then let your people run. The winners get to eat steak and the losers get to eat beans at a group lunch

Retail Training Services can help you with increasing retail sales, profits and team member productivity. Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

The Benefits and Risks of a Coupon Marketing Strategy

Posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 8:52am

Benefits of Coupon Marketing

2) Entices New Customers to Try Your Business – According to a recent study 33% of customers say that the will wait for a product to go on sale before they purchase. Coupons provide you a tool for putting items on sale!

Avoid the Risks of Using Coupons

Simple Rules for Retailers

Do you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail store operations? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

If You’re Fully Staffed - Should You Hire a Qualified Applicant?

Posted on Monday, October 8th, 2012 at 9:38am

As retail consultants we are often engaged to assist retailers who want to take their business to the next level. In some cases this is through improving their marketing activity, in other cases it is by focusing them on improving their operational or financial discipline. But more times than not, the quickest route to improving results is through improving their team.

That is where the question about hiring when you are fully staffed comes in. While the retail industry as a whole gets knocked for having a high level of employee turnover, the truth is that many retailers – maybe even you – have a core group of employees who have been with them year after year. These are employees who can best be described as “reliable.”

Reliable team members open the store on-time. They do not steal. They maintain good customer relationships and they can best be described as “they do not cause problems.” The truth is that while there is nothing wrong with having “reliable” employees – in fact we need them – they tend to support the status quo versus helping our businesses to grow.

Top quality people will almost always find a way to become useful to an organization. They not only have excellent skills, but they have the desire, energy, enthusiasm and passion that will help to improve all of the “reliable” people that surround them.

So, the next time you have a great quality applicant walk into your retail shop seeking employment, find a way to bring them into your company, give them a quality retail training experience and then let them run. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your “reliable” business sprouts some wings!

Would you like to improve your hiring practices through training your retail managers proven techniques for recruiting, interviewing and on-boarding? If so, contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Use Incentives to Reinforce Retail Training Priorities and Control Payroll

Posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 at 5:40pm

Training incentives are a simple way to drive desired behavior with regard to getting you employees certified in key areas of the business and they ensure that you will save valuable payroll dollars until they attain those goals.

Retail Sales Management Tip: 5 Perks to Offer in Exchange for Extra Performance

Posted on Monday, October 1st, 2012 at 8:13am

You pay your sales representatives a solid weekly wage and may even offer them a commission on their sales, but you can create a higher level of commitment and an incentive to produce at an even higher level by offering some extra incentives.

The best news is that the employee incentives listed below offer a small outlay compared to what you can receive back in terms of driving sales behavior. The key is not to provide these perks on general principle, but in exchange for attaining specific retail sales goals

Time off for Performance: Reward your top retail sales associates by letting them get first choice for picking their day’s off for the upcoming month. Or allow them to get an extra weekend off in exchange for attaining a goal!

Extra Employee Discount Programs: Many retailers their employees a small discount. But you can go one better by giving your top performers an extra discount for attaining top sales results! In fact, many vendors will help you with subsidizing this cost.

Offer Food and Entertainment Discounts: Everyone likes to have a good dinner and with the discount opportunities that are available through companies like restaurants.com you can provide your sales leaders with a night out including a free meal and a movie at a low cost to you!

Enhanced Retail Training: Your best people always want to improve their skills and you can take advantage of their motivation by offering them low cost on-line retail courses that will improve their skills and your bottom line.

Awards and Recognition: Invest in a “Sales Rep of the Month” award plaque and allow your team members to display it publicly. You can also provide a premium parking space for your sales leaders!

Would you like assistance with increasing revenue, reducing costs and optimizing you profits? Contact us today for a free one-hour consultation!

Retail Training Tip: Use E-learning for Affordable and Effective Retail Training

Posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 8:43am

Whether big or small, virtually every retailer understands the importance of training their retail sales representatives and other store personnel. In fact, studies by leading universities and the American Society for Training and Development have found that there is a direct relationship between making an investment in training and in increasing sales and profits. These studies show that trained sales reps are able to improve top-line sales in by 10-20% and net profits by 6-24%!

But given tight budgets and busy calendars, how can the average company manage a retail training program that is both affordable and effective?

Internet-based Retail Courses Are The Answer

We know that gaining a competitive edge in today‘s retail industry requires an ongoing investment in training, but the success of your retail training program depends upon your ability to carve out a reasonable budget while ensuring high quality results. That is why many retailers are utilizing Internet-based retail training courses. The advantage of Internet-based or Computer-based e-learning courses include:

Convenience – Retail training courses are available 24/7 - anywhere, anytime
Accessibility – The only requirement is Internet access or a CD-Rom drive
Affordability - Eliminates the need for dedicated trainers, classrooms and travel expenses. Annual training costs can be less than $200 per year
Accountability – All employees results are tracked and can be directly tied to their results
Remediation – If a retail team member is struggling they can retake the training over and over again
Variety – Training courses on sales, management, and products are readily available
Professional – Retail training courses are designed and delivered by subject matter experts who have trained thousands of retail sales representatives

Retail Training When, Where, and How Your Need It

Employees need to increase skills, knowledge and competencies in many areas including customer service, retail selling skills, product knowledge, loss prevention, and retail management skills. They also need to keep sales representatives on the sales floor as much as possible.

Retail e-learning is a cost-effective retail training solution that transcends time and distance. Your store employees can log on from any location at any time, and since the courses are broken-up into short segments they can complete them between customers or on their lunch breaks. And since most online retail training course include learning interactions, voice-over, quizzes, and real-life scenarios they keep your team members engaged and learning.

If you would like to learn more about the retail e-learning, instructor-led retail sales training seminars or see a catalog of retail courses, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other retail training programs at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Ten Ways to Improve Retail Store Displays

Posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2012 at 6:13pm

Your ability to have your store become a silent sales person can be a significant contributor to your retail store’s overall sales revenue. Studies have shown that customers entering a store make a decision whether or not to browse and shop (vs. get in an out quickly) within as little as 10 seconds. So your ability to create high impact store displays is a critical skill.

With this in mind, here are 10 retail tips to help you build better displays:

1. Display related products together in a themed way. When building a product display look for products that are natural add-ons to the main product featured.

2. Use lighting to feature products. Accent lighting creates visual interest for shoppers, and helps to make featured products “pop.”

3. Change displays in high traffic areas on a weekly basis. Customers want a reason to return to your store, so get them excited by displaying new and different products.

4. Use blocks of color to attract attention. Bright colors can focus your customer’s attention on key products and services. Combined with good lighting it helps you to create focal points for your customers.

5. Keep messaging simple. Use the “blink test” to ensure that your customer can understand your offer. You only have a few seconds to garner their attention, so do not distract them with too much verbiage.

6. Don’t forget the pricing. If a customer fails to see a price on an otherwise well-dressed display, they could very well assume that the item is out of their price range, and forcing them to ask for assistance on the item takes the “impulse” out of impulse buying!

7. Pay attention to the store exterior. This includes the sign, the windows, and the sidewalk. If your business looks dirty or closed from the outside, then customer perception would be exactly that, and they will walk right by.

8. Maintain your fixtures and store. You may have the best merchandise that is competitively priced, but if the gondola fixtures, sales counters, or sign holders are broken, damaged, or dirty it reflects negatively on your business…and the sales report.

9. Make merchandise easy to see and buy. Learn from the grocery retailers…keep your key products at between wait and eye-level so that customers do not have to work to see them or pick them up.

10. Clean, spaced, and organized. Have you ever been in a store that had dirty merchandise? Unorganized and dirty stores tell your customer that you don’t care and as a result…neither will they!

Would you like to learn about other ways that you can improve your retail business results? Let the Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services assist you with implementing a great retail business plan. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training programs through its Retail Training Services subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Tips and Tricks: Leadership Pitfalls of New Store Managers

Posted on Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 at 12:35pm

Often, as part of our retail consulting practice, one of the things that we see time and time again is that the quickest route to being promoted to store management is to be a great sales person. In fact, we recently had this confirmed again when we were engaged by a national specialty retailer of luxury goods to assist them with the development of their retail management training program

Now, for many retailers – including this one – selling is a major responsibility for store managers. But it is certainly not the only part of their job description. They also need to grow sales and profits by managing through others.

With that in mind, here is my interpretation of nine key pitfalls for managers and leaders of retail stores (original list is courtesy of American Express’ Small Business Open Forum):

Not accepting responsibility for mistakes – If a team member makes an error, some of the blame falls on the store leader. So instead of playing the blame game, help team members learn from errors.

Reprimanding employees out in public – Make sure you follow the old adage of “praise in public and reprimand in private.”

Failing to be truthful – One of the key values that we preach in our retail management training seminars is “to tell the truth – both good and bad.” Even if you need to deliver bad news or enforce standards you will always get better results if you are candid, respectful and truthful.

Setting unrealistic goals – If you were promoted to management because of your sales ability it is likely that you were ranked in the top 5 or 10% of performers in your company. It may be unreasonable to expect your employees to perform like you did. Instead give them reasonable targets that allow them to improve on their results month-after-month.

Threatening team member's jobs – Obviously if someone is violating policy or failing to achieve to minimum standard you should give them coaching and counseling. But never threaten their livelihood unless you are prepared for them to leave immediately. Otherwise you are only asking for trouble.

Providing vague or incomplete instructions - It's frustrating not knowing exactly what you are supposed to do our how to do it because you know you could be reprimanded for failure. Instead give your team members clear goals and the retail training that they need to achieve them.

Micromanaging retail sales associates – Now that you have given your team members reasonable targets and provided the tools and retail training they need to succeed, let them run! Check in on their work periodically, but do not hover. It is distracting and demoralizing!

Failing to offer enough praise – While you may think that an employee’s salary and/or commission should be enough of a reward and motivation, studies by major research universities have shown time and again that most people are motivated by recognition and praise just as much as by money.

Holding workers back when they are ready for promotion – I bet you knew when you were due for a promotion or a raise…Well your team members do as well.

Would you like to learn more about ways you can improve your retail managers’ results? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs analysis or to inquire about our retail sales training seminars and on-line retail courses.

- Retail Advocacy Group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Services subsidiary. You can also learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Sales Management Tip: Is it Time to Rethink Sales Quotas?

Posted on Friday, August 31st, 2012 at 9:54am

Stop using sales quotas? Can you be reading this correctly? After all, quotas have been part of the retail selling landscape since time immemorial. But if your retail sales organization is struggling to achieve desired results or to grow year-over-year, it may be time for you to re-evaluate your sales management program while considering a new way to achieve your goals.

Eliminating a “tried and true” method may seem like radical surgery, but through our retail consulting practice, we have found that a new approach is just what is called for when a business is failing to grow.

Why Quotas May Not Make Sense

Often, the use of top-down sales quotas can actually limit retail sales productivity. It may even produce a backlash effect. Quotas are dangerous when any of the following circumstances may be present:

If the quota is perceived to be unrealistic or unattainable by the sales team, it can become a non-factor in their daily thinking and thus rendered useless.

When the sales quota is lower than what the retail sales rep is capable of achieving. If they have exceeded that level of sales in prior months, or weeks then the quota become irrelevant. In fact, it may actually serve as non-motivating factor!
When the sales quota is simply delivered on a piece of paper, spreadsheet, scorecard, or whiteboard. Quotas – or even better, goals – should be established mutually through a coaching and sales management process.
When the quota doesn’t account for the potential of the individual, store, locations, ore territory. Whether it is due to location, nearby competition, foot traffic or other factors, we know that some stores are more equal than others. The same goes for new vs. tenured sales representatives.

The truth is that retail sales quotas often encourage mediocre results. Since they tend to define the minimum standards of productivity, they fail to encourage retail sales associates to grow and improve on their past performance. The result is that retail sales managers who rely on top-down quota management often find themselves actually congratulating sales reps for underachievement.

This happens because once a sales representative attains quota their natural tendency is to slow down. Meanwhile the retail sales manager finds themselves recognizing a team member for achieving quota when they may actually have been able to sell (and have sold) 10, 20, 30, or even 50% more!

A Better Approach to Sales Management

In our retail management training programs we focus on helping sales leaders learn how to coach their team members to grow their results (and their pay) month-over-month and year-over-year. We call our retail sales management program the “Top Check” process. It involves focusing on:

Building coaching and communications skills for the retail manager
Understanding what motivates individual retail sales representatives
Getting retail sales representatives involved in developing their sales forecasts and goals
Building a daily, weekly, and monthly retail sales management rhythm focused on helping retail sales representatives build on their personal best results in key results areas

If you would like to learn more about the Top Check Sales Management System or our retail sales training courses, feel free to contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

Retailing Tip: Get Closer to the People Who Matter Most

Posted on Monday, August 27th, 2012 at 10:47am

Over the past year, I have been addicted to the CBS TV show “Undercover Boss.” This is a reality show where a company CEO, or other senior leader goes undercover as a new employee in order to see what is really happening in their company. In almost every case this is a real moment of truth – and surprise - as regards what is really happening in the company. It is always interesting to see when smart people realize that they really do not know it all.

Not too long ago, our retail consulting firm was engaged by an owner of 50 retail specialty locations. We were engaged to help him improve the productivity of his sales associates and store managers.

As part of almost every engagement we like to spend a few days in our clients’ stores and on the road with their field managers. Our customer observations and conversations with team members let us get a deeper understanding of what areas can and should be improved.

As often happens in these cases we found a number of things that could be addressed to improve productivity. These including simplifying compensation programs, optimizing store schedules, implementing retail sales training and improving performance management practices. But the biggest take away for us was that the top management of the company was unaware of and surprised by the root causes of many of their productivity issues.

They thought that their problems were with poor policies and procedures. Instead, the biggest challenge was that they had not visited a store in over a year and were unaware of the issues that front-line sales representatives and their customers were facing on a daily basis.

Hiring retail consultants is a great way to get an impartial and unvarnished view of your business and the opportunities you have for improving it. Mystery shopping and point-of-sale data are also great tools for getting feedback about your business. Many retailers are also utilizing social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with customers, but in the end, you cannot forget the human element. That is getting into your stores, working alongside your retail sales representatives and speaking directly with your customers.

The moral of the story…If you do not want to be surprised about your business, get closer to the people that matter most – customers and the people who serve them.

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led and e-learning training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingsolutions.com.

Retail Training Tip: 10 Training Methods for Improving Employee Skills

Posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 at 8:30am

Retailers have long relied on the old standby of on-the-job training to get their new team members up to speed on everything from product knowledge to retail selling skills to policies and procedures.

They utilize this method of training because it is perceived as being cost effective – after all, there are no costs associated with hiring a trainer and the employee is able to hit the sales floor immediately.

But there are real costs associated with only utilizing this mode of training. This included lost productivity for existing employees who have to correct mistakes, lost revenue due to poor retail selling skills, lost profits due to operational mistakes, as well as poor customer experience.

Additionally, the fact is that different people learn in different ways. Therefore you will want to leverage multiple training methods in order communicate retail skills and to get the best training result. With that in mind, let’s quickly explore 10 other training methods that are not only cost effective but impactful as well!

1. Checklists – A perfect tool to keep new hires and existing team members on-track for their training. A real time saver as retail leaders don’t have to worry about what is the next training activity. Allows retail reps to stay on track.

2. Reading and Workbooks – Many times your store leaders may be engaged with customers or other tasks. This is a great time to have new hires work on self-directed retail training activities. These are low cost and keep the trainee focused on their training.

3. Job Shadowing / Observation – The power of a positive example is extremely strong. Show your team members how to do things the right way by letting them observe your best retail reps in action! Just make sure that you then let them practice what they have learned.

4. Role Playing – You know the old saying…”practice makes perfect.” Nowhere is that more true than with sales training. After having your team members watch you in action, have them practice, practice, and practice some more.

5. On-line Courses – Web-based retail training courses are a perfect way to consistently communicate your standards, practices, product knowledge, and retail sales training. Team members can complete them between customers in a self-directed manner and you can track results via the web. E-learning tends to make every other training lever more efficient as well!

6. Webinars – When you need to communicate new information quickly a webinar is the perfect method. Team members can log-in from any remote location with internet access and view PowerPoint decks, video content, and listen to your training message. Just like retail e-learning you will know that your training message has been delivered the same way to all of your retail reps.

7. Classroom Training – Many retailers overlook this training lever because it can leave the stores under-covered and it can be expensive to reimbursed team members for mileage. But when you need to ensure that a message is delivered nothing beats being able to look an employee in the eye. And there are few better ways to get reps energized than an old fashioned sales rally!

8. Training Videos – Do you want to deliver product training? Whether they are delivered on-line or via DVD, videos are a great way to deliver a consistent training message about your product’s features and benefits. Just remember to tie-in retail sales training concepts at the same time!

9. Social Networks – For many retailers, the average age of an employee is less than 25 and that means that they are very comfortable with communicating via twitter, text, and facebook. Practice communicating a daily training message in 140 characters on twitter or text message!

10. On-the-Job – We have reviewed 9 other retail training methods. But that does not mean that we want to ignore our old standby. OTJ allows retail reps to practice what they have learned. The key to success is observing their behavior and then providing praise or corrective action as they work.

Do you need assistance with designing your retail training program? Could you use updated retail training content? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

Retail Training Tip: Don’t Ignore Your Field Managers

Posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2012 at 9:32am

"Companies that employed training on a regular basis posted shareholder returns 86% above firms that didn’t increase training and 45% higher than the market average." Now that is a powerful statistic that comes from a recent study by the American Society of Training and Development.

But don’t take just their word for it. Another study found that other than optimizing supply chain and inventory, the most effective investment for then was building their people through retail training programs. Some programs improved their team members’ ability to drive improvements in Key Results Areas by as much as 45%!

But many retailers spend the majority of their training efforts on front-line retail sales representatives. Given high employee turnover rates, changing product lines, and the need to drive short-term results, this often makes sense. But in our retail consulting practice we have found that focusing all of your efforts on the front-line troops may not be the best use of your retail training budget.

District and Regional Managers Are Your Key Players

Think about it. If you are like most retailers, your field managers are the most influential people in your organization. They are responsible for:

Recruiting and hiring new retail sales associates
Implementing and tracking training
Handling customer service issues
Promoting and mentoring high-potential employees
Protecting the company’s assets
Ensuring operational issues are identified and rectified
Inspecting and improving visual the image of your stores

It is also likely that they have the largest span of control in your company with 10-40 direct reports and maybe hundreds of indirect reports. They touch every one of your sales reps and exert more influence on your retail stores than anyone else in your organization. In fact, a well-trained and highly skilled field manager can impact your results by plus or minus 20%!

So don’t ignore your field management team. Instead invest in their training and development to get the biggest bang for your buck!

Invest in a Retail Field Manager Workshop

Retail Training Services offers one, two, and three-day district manager retail training workshops that are focused on improving key skills like recruiting quality team members, interviewing skills, coaching skills, time management, how to conduct store visits and other key skill areas these workshop yield tangible and real results. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs analysis today!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers while operating hundreds of retail locations on behalf of some of the largest retailers in the United States.

Retail Management Training: 7 Things to Motivate Employees as Much as Money

Posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2012 at 2:47pm

Every retail manager or business owner wants to have a team that is hard-working, motivated and focused on attaining the company’s sales and profit goals. The good news is that motivating retail sales representatives does not always require throwing money at your team members.

Rewards are only one of the ways to motivate retail employees. Remember that recognition, responsibility, and building relationships also play a key role. With this in mind, here are some of the things we speak about in our retail consulting practice:

1. Be generous with your recognition - Everyone wants to know when they are doing a great job yet it is something they often do not hear. Praise every improvement that your team members make and don’t forget that praising them in public is even better!

2. Give team members responsibility – Whether it is for completing a regular task like checking in orders or cleaning the shelves, busy hands often result in a higher level of energy and the results create pride and ownership in the business’ results.

3. Make your ideas theirs - Sometimes it is all about how you ask people to do something. Instead of telling people what you want done; ask them in a way that will make them feel like they came up with the idea. “I’d like you to do it this way” turns into “Do you think it’s a good idea if we do it this way?”

4. Help them learn – Instead of giving a direct reprimand when an employee struggles with a task, the best retail managers know that taking an indirect approach to getting people to improve often works best. Ask your team members "Do you have any ideas on how you could do this task differently?”

5. Put people in charge of their quota – Instead of giving a top-down sales quota, have your team member give you a monthly forecast for their planned results. Coach them that your expectation is that they will always be seeking to improve on past results and that they will be providing you with a plan on how to do so.

6. Give out awards along with your recognition – Whether it is giving a shout out to someone at a store meeting; awarding a retail sales rep of the month award; or buying pizza for the team as a reward for achieving a team goal your awards don’t have to break the bank.

7. Make it personal – Get to know about your team members, their families, interests, and what it important to them. Make sure that you periodically take a few minutes to check in with them to ensure that they are happy in their lifestyle…after all the reason they are working is to improve their life!

Would you like to learn more about how to motivate and improve your retail staff? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs analysis or to inquire about our retail management training programs.

Retail Recruiting Tip: Open Houses are for Recruiting AND Creating New Customers

Posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 at 7:51am

A number of years ago, I was working with the owner of a regional footwear retailer. A big part of this retail consulting engagement was helping the company to improve the quality of its retail sales associates and, ultimately, to help them drive top-line revenue.

Part of our solution was improving the recruiting effort for new retail sales associates. This included instituting a program of twice monthly open houses or hiring fairs. These events are a powerful recruiting and hiring tool because they allow you to present your retail company’s benefits and opportunities in a professional manner to a dozen or more prospective employees all at once – thereby saving several hours of time. You can learn how to execute an open house in our retail management training courses.

During these presentations we talked about the earnings potential, opportunities for advancement, and benefits. Following the presentation, we would conduct interviews. Our goal was to hire an average of two new retail sales associates per session.

But that meant that we had to say “no” to ten prospective employees. But instead of cutting off our relationship abruptly, we chose to provide these retail applicants with a “consolation prize” by providing them with a coupon for 25% off a pair of shoes with the purchase of another pair at full price. The coupon was valid at any of the chain’s locations for a period of 30-days.

We would tell the applicant that we appreciated their interest, but that we were unable to make a positive decision at the time. We did however want to thank them for their investment and interest in our company by providing them with a coupon. We would also tell them that this would be a great way to learn more about our company and our culture. In the meanwhile we would keep them in mind for future opportunities. We would typically see about a 20% redemption rate on these coupons.

The result was that we were able to drive additional footsteps into the stores, create incremental revenue, and ensure that we were able to maintain a positive relationship with a consumer that might have walked away with a bad taste in their mouth regarding the company.

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. A 30 year veteran of the retail industry, he has operated independent retail stores, directed the activities of hundreds of retail locations for Fortune 500 companies and built marketing programs for leading consumer brands.

5 Simple and Effective Retail Sales Management Tips

Posted on Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 10:24am

Every store manager’s day is busy, so today’s post is short and to the point. Add these four simple techniques to your retail management skills and you will be a more effective leader.

1 – Set Goals and Expectations

As a retail consultant, little irks me more than when I walk into a retail store only to find that sales associates are standing around doing nothing. This is almost always a sure sign that there is a core problem with a failure to set standards and reinforce goals. Goals and expectations give people a definition of success and, in my experience, most people want to be successful.

University studies, like those from Yale, have shown that people who have goals are over 50% more productive than those without them!

2 – Act as a Role Model

The old style of leading of “Do as I say, not as I do…” does not work well in today’s specialty retail environment. Your ability to role model effective retail selling skills is an important factor in motivating and training your team members. Plus, as we all know, ocaisionally a sales manager needs to get on the floor and put their department or store on their back in order to make their day.

Ultimately, you and your retail management messages are far more credible when you have personally done and accomplished the tasks that you are asking your sales associates to do day in and day out. So learn how to walk the walk, so that you can talk the talk!

3 – Give Advice Quickly by Coaching From the Floor

One of the great retail management techniques is to intervene before bad habits have a chance to take hold. When you are on the sales floor and see a sales rep make a mistake like failing to close a sale, greet quickly, or present effectively follow-up with that rep immediately following your observation.

All you need to do is casually pull the rep aside, point out how they may have let an opportunity for fully satisfying a customer slip by, and then remind them how to correct the situation the next time and that you will be watching. These quick coaching session co a long way toward improving retail selling skills and your daily sales total…By the way, don’t forget to praise and recognize the team member when they correct the behavior and do it right!

4 – Use Weekly Coaching Sessions

Whether you are a retail store manager, department manager, or a field manager, it is always a good exercise to invest 30 minutes a week working with your sales associates on techniques to improve retail selling skills and on reinforcing their goals.

If you have commissioned sales associates, a great way to do this is to do a weekly pay-check review. Once they know how much they are on track to make and how they made it, you can work together on a plan to increase their pay…and your sales revenue!

#5 – Monthly Forecasting and Retail Sales Training Rhythm

Back when I was a retail sales associate, I never felt so empowered as when my manager told me to tell him how much I was going to sell the next month and how I was going to accomplish that feat. That’s right, each month you can put your people in charge of setting their own goals…then work together on creating a retail sales training plan to attain them.

One of my favorite techniques was to give the retail sales associate a “focus product” or program for the month. Then I would give them responsibility for training the rest of the store on that product! Not only did it help to focus them, but it helped the rest of the store as well!

There you go! 5 great retail sales management techniques in under 650 words! Happy Selling!

Train Your Retail Managers to Communicate Successfully

Posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 at 9:34pm

Whether it is a one-store retailer or a multi-billion dollar national retailer, one of the common things that we find during our retail training consultation visits is that the number one way retailers train their new team members is through on-the-job activity.

While we offer, and recommend, that retailers use other training levers such as retail e-learning, work books, videos, retail training seminars and more, there is no doubt that retail store managers and other retail employees will continue to be the first line of defense when it comes to getting new associates on-boarded effectively. Therefore it makes sense to ensure that they know how to get the best results.

Five Simple Steps for the On-the-Job Training

For tenured retail managers, the basic activities of operating a store may seem simple and mundane, but for new employees – even if they worked at another retailer – these tasks are anything but. That is why you will want to ensure that all retail training personnel at the store level follow these simple steps.

1. Explain the Task: Give the new employee an overview of what you are going to be teaching them. This should not only include the specific way you want the task done and when you want it done, but the reasons why it must be done. Encourage the retail employee takes notes if necessary!

2. Demonstrate the Task: After explain the how, when, and why of the task, show the new team member how to do it. After as little as a day people typically won’t remember more than 25% of what they are told, yet if given a demonstration they will remember up to 55%. Therefore it makes sense to not only show your new employee how to do a task, but to avoid confusion by showing them how to do it the right way while answering their questions.

3. Have the Employee Feed it Back: Now that you have explained and demonstrated the task, make sure that you confirm that the retail associate understands the activity by having them explain the steps for the activity. Make sure to give them corrections if required.

4. Complete the Activity: Step four is to have the employee do the task. Remember when we stated that people remember 55% of what they hear and see? Well that number goes up to 85% when they practice a task. So make sure that you have the team member complete the activity as soon as possible.

5. Inspect What You Expect: Giving honest, thoughtful, and respectful feedback is the final step. If your team member completes the task correctly make sure that you thank them and then monitor their results on an ongoing basis. If they struggle with the task give the quick and honest feedback including showing them how to do the task correctly. Remember, even the best athletes need to practice in order to approach elite status…So make sure you act as a coach and give them encouragement along the way.

Would you like to learn about other ways that you can improve your coaching and training skills? Let the Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services assist you with implementing a great retail business plan. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

- David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retailers: Are you making it easy for retail customers to buy?

Posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 9:04am

Last week, I was traveling on behalf of a retail client and forgot to bring the car charger for my wireless phone. So shortly after landing at my destination I went in search of a local wireless store to assist me. Within 2 miles of the airport I found a wireless dealer that was affiliated with one of the top 4 wireless carriers and went into the store hoping to make a quick purchase so I could be on my way.

Now I have worked in and around the wireless and consumer electronics industry for over twenty years so not only do I know how important it is that they increase the sales of accessories, but I also knew exactly what I needed to purchase. So you would think that the retailer would have made my purchase and easy one.

Unfortunately, upon entering the store I found that there were two sales associates working and that there were 4 customers in the store. Since nobody even acknowledged my presence, I set off on trying to find my product by myself. The retail store’s accessory products were not organized in a logical fashion and it took me almost 10 minutes to locate the product I needed. Once I found it, the product was not priced, so what do you think I did?

That’s right, I left. I walked down the sidewalk to a national specialty electronics retailer and purchased the item from them. In fact, the sales associate at that store was not only pleasant, but asked me to show him my phone so he could verify that he had the right adapter. When he did this, he noticed that my screen protector was getting worn so he suggested that I invest in a new one that he promptly installed.

The moral of the story is that you need to make it easy for your customers to buy and for you to sell. Don’t let simple things like making a customer feel welcome, having logically organized displays, and priced product interfere with a quick, easy, and profitable sale that could even lead to a bigger retail sales basket!

Would you like to learn about other ways that you can improve your retail customer service and selling skills? Let the Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services assist you with implementing a great retail training plan. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail sales training, customer service training, and retail management training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. Learn more at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Improve Retail Sales With Computer-based Product Training

Posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 4:26pm

Every retailer is looking for that competitive edge. Whether it is growing revenue faster than the competitor down the street, becoming more relevant to key vendors, reducing costs, or maximizing return on investment, every business owner wants and needs that edge.

Training retail sales associates to sell more effectively is one way to gain that competitive edge and the most effective way to accomplish that is with computer-based retail e-learning programs. Whether you are a manufacturer, distributor, or a retailer, you can take advantage of your existing infrastructure to deliver high quality retail product training at an affordable cost.

What is even better is that e-learning courses help retail sales associates learn the way that works best for them. You can combine video segments, reading, narration, scenarios, skill practice, job aids, and quizzes in a short 5-15 minute product training course that communicates your message effectively.

And the best part is that the training can pay for itself. Because you do not need to hire an instructor, lease a classroom, and take sales representatives out of the store, you can deliver retail product training courses for as little as $5 per associate! Just think…if you were able to generate just one or two additional product sales as a result of this style of training, it would pay for itself immediately.

Just to prove the point of how you can leverage retail product training programs to your benefit, a recent Wall Street Journal Article noted that the sales of products can increase by 2% or more just by initiating these low cost training initiatives. And when product training segments are combined with retail sales training programs the results can be increases of 5%, 10% or even 20% on those products.

So if you are looking for a way to boost your sales and get a return on your investment for your training budget, consider creating a combined product training and retail sales training program that is delivered through your store’s computer systems and the Internet.

David Goodwin is the Principal of Retail Training Services (RTS). A 30-year veteran of the retail industry, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies and operated hundreds of independent specialty retail locations. RTS offers a free one-hour consultation program for retailers who are seeking to improve the quality of their results through training initiatives

Three Retail Selling Tips that can Generate Thousands of Dollars

Posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 4:39pm

I was shopping for some new family room furniture recently and visited two different stores. I had two wildly different experiences (one good and one bad). The result of my evening was that I spent over $3,000 at one store and zero at another. On my way home, I my shopping experience prompted me to think about some simple retail sales techniques that any store owner of manager should be reinforcing with his or her sales team.

RETAIL SALES TIP #1

Spend a few moments building rapport with your customers: In today’s market place the competition is too heavy for you to risk losing a customer over seeming “pushy”. Building rapport starts with a friendly greeting and then spending a few moments in casual conversation with the customer so that they can feel comfortable enough to begin telling you about what they are interested in.

For example, in my experience this weekend, the first sales associate said “Hi” and then immediately started explaining about the store’s financing offers and special sales on mattresses. Frankly, I did not care about financing as I was paying cash and was not in the market for bedding. If she had only spent a few minutes

RETAIL SALES TIP #2

Sell solutions first and products second: Think about your customers. When they come into your store, are they looking for a product or a solution to a problem? When you talk about solutions, you are adding value that the customer cannot get via the Internet or from other sales channels. When you take time to uncover lifestyle needs and solve your customer’s problems they not only will be more likely to buy, but to buy more

In my case, I was looking to purchase a new sofa, but in the end invested in a sofa, chair, and the extra fabric protection!

RETAIL SALES TIP #3

Be observant and don’t forget to follow-up: When your customers are in your store, they may be on a mission for a specific item but will also be looking at other products as well. So whether it is as you are wrapping up the sale at the counter, or with a follow-up phone call, you can - and should – suggestive sell those additional products.

In my case, our sales representative noticed that we were looking at a wall-clock in her store. When she called to confirm our delivery a few days later, she mentioned that she could include the clock with the shipment. The result was an extra $400 add-on so that I could surprise my wife with a gift.

Do the math… Let’s say that your sales associates were able to close $150 in extra sales each day as a result of following these retail sales techniques. Let’s say that you have 3 sales associates working in your stores each day. And let’s say that you have 10 retail store locations… That amounts to over $4,500 in extra revenue per day, $135,000 in extra retail sales per month, and over $1.6 Million in extra retail sales per year!

If you want to train your retail sales associates on you to grow revenue and improve customer loyalty by implementing effective retail sales techniques, contact Retail Training Services for a free one-hour consultation.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. A 30-year veteran of the retail industry, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies and operated hundreds of independent specialty retail locations. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Make Your Retail Compensation Plans Work for You and Your Employees

Posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 at 5:27pm

When it comes to creating loyal and productive employee relationships, retail and human resources consultants - including myself – often speak of the “4 R’s of Motivation.” These are:

Responsibilities: Knowing that you are being given responsibilities that are commensurate with and grow your skills
Relationships: Working with and for team members who appreciate and value your contributions
Reasons: Knowing why your work is important and how it contributes to the bigger picture
Rewards: Being fairly compensated for your effort and accomplishments

Each of these components plays a big part of ensuring your retail sales representatives and other team members are motivated, loyal, and productive. But it is undeniable that without a properly designed compensation program, the other factors are that much harder to implement.

Let's be honest, getting a “thank you” from your supervisor, understanding that selling accessories and attachments is important to the business’ health, or winning a big screen TV are great, but the bottom-line is that people need money to survive and they want to be rewarded for helping you to achieve your retail business’ goals. So, here are 4 things to consider when developing a retail compensation plan for your team members.

1) Share the wealth and reward achievement: At its worst, the retail industry has a reputation for being a dead-end job for many workers or as a stopping point for people who are on their way to a better opportunity in another industry. This is because most workers are paid at low hourly rates with no opportunity for growth. But that does not have to be the case. Retail can be a highly rewarding – and lucrative – profession. That does not mean that you need to pay your retail sales associates on a pure commission basis or that your compensation plans need to be complicated. It does mean that if your business is doing well you should reward the retail associates who helped you to get there. This reinforces desirable behavior and encourages employee loyalty.

2) Ensure your retail compensation plans support company objectives: Every successful retailer has a set of objectives and a clear-cut mission statement. Objectives could include increasing revenue, improving gross margin, reducing inventory shrink, controlling payroll costs, increasing customer loyalty, or any number of other factors. Make sure that your retail pay plans motivate your team members to achieve these objectives and do not hesitate to make adjustments based on position (sales rep vs. manager vs. cashier) or changing business needs.

3) Make your retail compensation plans easy to understand: I once worked with a retailer who had a compensation plan for store managers that had them earning bonuses based on 8 different factors with partial monthly and quarterly payouts plus an annual payout. That meant that they had to be able to do 24 different calculations to determine their compensation. Based on real company objectives we changed this to a monthly bonus based on gross profit and an annual basis based on net profit. We then invested in a retail management training program to teach them how to attain the objectives. The result was an 8% increase in revenue and a 13% increase in net profit!

4.) Provide easy-to-follow compensation reviews or bonus forecasts: Periodically you should sit down with your retail team members to review their paychecks or monthly bonus statements. Once you do, you can make a mutual plan to achieve better results. After all, one of the ways to understand where you want to go is to know where you are. Over 60% of the Fortune 1000 execute this as a best practice and you can too!

Compensation is a key part of your overall program to ensure that you have a motivated team of retail sales associates. You will still need to ensure that you have appropriate recruiting, retail sales training and product training programs, marketing plans, and retail operations processes in place to ensure success. But when an effective compensation plan is in place you have laid a strong foundation for future success.

Would you like to improve the quality of your retail store operations? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry throughout his career he has directed the activities for hundreds of retail locations for Fortune 500 companies and independent retailers.

Retail Selling Skills Step Two: Greeting and Building Rapport

Posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2012 at 11:00am

We have all heard the old saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” But do you know why it is repeated over and over again? The short answer is that this saying has staying power because it is true! And it applies to your retail store operations as much as anywhere.

Enticing customers in your door is hard enough, but what happens if they are turned off by how they are greeted, or worse yet, by being ignored? It only takes a few seconds to make an impression, so why should a bad one make all that work and effort, down the drain.

Every day you have customers entering your store and studies show that they form an impression – either good or bad – about your business in as little as 20 seconds. Therefore, in our retail sales training courses one of the areas we focus on is implementing the “Stop and Drop in 15” Rule.

This simple rule defines how your retail associates should act in those first few crucial seconds. Let’s take a closer look:

Step One: Take action within 15 feet or 15 seconds. That is whenever you see a customer enter your store or department, complete steps two and three within 15 seconds. The same goes whenever a customer comes within 15 feet of you while browsing.

Step Two: Break the ice and let the customer know that you know they are in the store by STOPPING what you are doing, making eye contact, and giving them a big smile. These simple acts will go a long way to making the customer fee at ease and help them be open to your approach.

Step Three: Now that you proven your attentiveness and broken the ice with eye contact, DROP whatever you are working on and approach the customer by taking a few steps in their direction and giving them a friendly “Hi!” Make sure to open you posture by giving them a casual wave as well.

By enacting the “Stop and Drop in 15” rule you will be well down the road to creating the positive first impression that is so important to getting your customers in a buying mood.

If you would like more information on retail sales training courses, contact Retail Training Services at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Dr. Suess Understood Retail Sales!

Posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 4:48pm

"I am Sam. Sam I am. Do you like green eggs and ham? Would you like them here or there? Would you like them in a box, would you like them with a fox?"

One of my favorite books as a child was the Dr. Seuss tale Green Eggs and Ham. After all, who doesn’t admire the persistence of the main character “Sam I Am”! However, it was only after reading the book to my children as an adult that it dawned on me that this story has tremendous relevance to the selling profession. Ever since then I have made a point to read the story to my retail reps periodically. Let’s review Dr. Seuss’ secrets to selling success.

Ask For the Order Early and Often:

Sam understands that as soon as you get a buying signal from your customer you need to ask for the order. In this case the customer say’s that he is not interested, but the fact that he keeps talking about the product (green eggs!) actually shows that he has interest. Sam knows this and keeps moving forward!

The Selling Begins When the Customer Says “No”

Sam understands that in order to be a true sales professional he needs to uncover and handle the customer’s objection. If selling was easy we would not need sales people. Sam continues to seek new ways to show the customer the benefits of his product and comes up with new answers to the objections.

Persistence is Critical to Winning

Take a lesson from Sam and learn the importance of polite persistence. The most successful sales people ask for the sale seven or eight times and don't give up at the first sign of resistance. Research has shown that these individuals consistently earn more than their coworkers and peers.

Use the Alternate Choice Close

Sam consistently offers the prospect a choice when trying to close the sale. In fact Sam offered this customer fourteen different options before finally closing the sale. Sam understands that he has a responsibility to help his customer make the right decision….the decision to buy his product.

You have to be Aggressive in Order to Sell Your Slow Movers

Sam understands that he HAS to sell his green eggs and ham. If he doesn’t move that product it will spoil and he will be out the money he spent on it. We all buy a dog of a product from time to time. If you do not push hard on those slow movers you will ultimately have to take an inventory write down, so sell them now!

Sam is not the Perfect Salesperson

In reviewing this story with my retail reps I loved talking about Sam’s persistence and his “killer” sales attitude. But I also make sure to talk about Sam’s challenges. Specifically, he needed to ask a few questions of the customer. Perhaps if he had asked three or four questions earlier in the process he might have saved a lot of time. Sam also failed to accessorize his sale….where was the “Green” orange juice? Once he got the customer to say “yes” he needed to keep going. In our business that means when you sell the handset you need to make sure to sell the CLA, case, and extra travel charger.

The Moral of the Story

Winners find a way to win. Sam was able to find a way to move his product. He presented it aggressively and effectively. He asked for the order and was not intimidated by the customer’s objections. If Sam can do it so can you!

Now it is Your Turn

Coach your team members on the value of persistence in the selling process. Every day is rife with opportunities for improving your top-line, driving gross margin, and building profits. Many companies offer Retail Sales Training and engaging and relevant courseware that can help you get a jump on the new year!

Make Your Retail Sales Training Memorable

Posted on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 9:14am

Everyone has been through a dull and dreary retail training meeting. You sit there counting down the minutes until it ends and the information – even if it is important to your success is likely to go in one ear and out of the other.

Keeping this in mind, here are 5 activities that can make your retail sales training and other meetings more impactful.

1. Make retail sales training fun. Your trainees won’t be enthusiastic or involved if your retail sales training sessions are dry and dull. Even with proven techniques like our Seven Steps of Retail Sales, few team members will respond to or remember complicated concepts. Instead, they want to learn practical techniques that will help them to sell more today. Keep them involved by using scenarios, role-playing, games, and other activities while alternating the pace of the training session so that they stay interested.

2. Focus on real world problems. Have your trainees bring examples of times that they have dealt with hidden objections, rude customers, out-of-stocks or other issues that impede their ability to make the sale. Then use a brainstorming activity to get everyone involved in solving the problems!

3. Use humor to make your point. Instead of drowning your retail associates in statistics or theories, use an amusing anecdote or exaggerated example to prove your point. Humor can help you to bring a room back from the brink of boredom. Just remember to avoid telling jokes or stories that could in anyway be perceived as offensive. Personal, self-deprecating humor is the safest way to go.

4. Use high quality materials and facilities. No one wants to be stuck in a dirty, hot, or crowded space, so make sure you spend some time sprucing up your facility. Additionally you will want to ensure that your retail sales training sticks by providing quality workbooks and pens so that your team members can take notes, jot down questions, and participate in group activities.

5. Prepare in advance and follow-up. As a retail sales trainer you are supposed to be the expert in your field. That means not only being a subject matter expert, but also an expert at communication and follow-up. A good rule of thumb is that you will need 3 hours of preparation for every hour of training time. This could include visiting stores to understand current issues or products, reviewing the materials, creating extra material, practicing your presentation, and developing you plan for tracking results.

If you would like assistance with implementing a professional and proven retail sales training program for your company please contact us for a free one-hour consultation.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry throughout his career working with Fortune 500 companies and operating independent retail locations he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

How to Conduct an Effective Retail Sales Training Session

Posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2012 at 6:49pm

You have planned your agenda and you have secured your meeting space. You have informed your retail associates about your goals for the training so that they are motivated to learn and you have ensured that their shifts are covered so that you will have great attendance. You have double checked you materials for accuracy and set your plan for follow-up. Most importantly, you have secured a commitment from your retail managers to get behind the training. Now that training day is here, let’s review some specific tips and techniques that will ensure that your retail training session achieves your objectives.

Here are 10 proven techniques to help you conduct a successful retail sales training or other retail training session:

1. Use the 3 “T’s” of training. That is, Tell them what you're going to cover; Tell them the information they need to know; and Tell them what you told them as a review. Repetition is a key to retention, so this is a great rule to follow!

2. Double check your content. When using multimedia like video or audio, make sure the player or TV is working. If you are utilizing a retail eLearning course verify that the computer has good connectivity. Then make sure to explain what trainees are going to see before you play the media. This help the learners know what to look for and helps them to get involved with the presentation.

3. Get people involved in the training. The best trainers know how to get all 5 senses involved with their learners. That means using role-plays, small group activities, and demonstrations wherever possible – after all, when your team members practice their retail selling skills they will do better when they hit the floor!

4. Test for comprehension. That does not mean you need to have a formal written “test.” Instead, whenever you get to a logical stopping point, ask one of your retail associates to verbally recap what they just learned. This serves as another means of repetition and keeps everyone on their toes.

5. Involve your trainees. In addition to what we mentioned above, during your retail sales training meetings you could have experienced sales associates make short presentations or to lend their advice and reinforcement to your message. Hearing different voices also keeps sessions varied and interesting.

6. When asked a question, repeat it before answering. This will ensure that all of the participants in your retail sales training know what the question is so they can make handle the same situation when they are in front of a customer.

7. Make adjustments to your presentation. The best trainers never stop learning and it is likely that someone in your class will have a new way of handling an objection or presenting a benefit that you have not heard before. Developing retail selling skills is an ongoing process and you should pick up new techniques whenever possible.

9. Keep to the schedule. That means starting on-time and finishing on-time. Don't hold up the class waiting for people who are late – this includes when you are taking breaks. This also means that you should allocate enough time in your retail sales training classes for group discussion, questions, and role-playing. And, don’t forget to allot for enough breaks so that your team members stay alert!

10. Have a reason for the training and follow-up to measure results. Having a retail sales training class without a purpose is really just a waste of everyone’s time. Is your company seeking to increase sales per hour, average items per transaction, or some other metric? Focus your attention on the key performance metrics, set goals around them, receive commitments from your trainees, and track their results. You could even implement a spiff or contest to keep their attention focused on the right outcomes.

These 10 activities are a good foundation for any retail sales training class – or any other training class. If you work on them you will be on the way to ensuring that the retail training session not only runs efficiently, but that it achieves to eh outcomes you and your company desire.

If you would like assistance with implementing a retail sales training program for your company please contact us for a free one-hour consultation.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry throughout his career working with Fortune 500 companies and operating independent retail locations he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Making the Case for Retail Sales Training: A Tale of Two Sales Experiences

Posted on Monday, June 11th, 2012 at 5:08pm

We recently purchased a new home and as a result my wife and I were in the market for a new sofa. Now having the two of us going furniture shopping is usually a real test of wills. I like a couch with a firm back so I can work while watching the tube and my wife likes something soft and comfy for taking naps. In fact, the last time we purchased a piece of furniture it took three weeks and trips to something like 10 stores. This time – thanks to a professional retail sales representative - we were able to complete our purchase after going to just two locations. Here is a summary of our furniture shopping experiences and how retail sales training made the difference:

Poor Selling Skills Leads to Bad Moods and No Sale: Store Number One

Our first stop was at a large regional furniture retailer. They had advertised that they were having a large sale, so we decided to pop in to see if we could make a quick score on a sofa. Upon entering, we were greeted (or should I say run over) by an overly enthusiastic sales representative. She told us her name and welcomed us to the store where “they had unbeatable prices and quality”. We told her that we were in the market for a new couch. She then proceeded to tell us that her company had the best selection and that none of the competitors in the region offered the quality or pricing that they had. She then waved her arm and told us to sit in as many couches as we wanted to.

We proceeded to work our way through the showroom sitting on couch after couch with her asking us if we liked them after each try. We told her that we needed a compromise between firm and soft. She then told us again about how her store would never be beat in price or quality. After 45 minutes of couch sitting and the sales rep continually telling us about how her firm was better than the competitors, I was at the end of my rope so we decided to leave. Realizing that she was not making a sale that night the sales rep gave us a card and a pile of brochures and told us that if we purchased within 24 hours she would get us a discount.

Professional Retail Selling Skills Creates a Bigger Basket: Store Number Two:

I was ready to call it quits for the night, but my wife convinced me to stop by one more store before heading home. Upon entering the store I noticed that there were not any big promotions, but we took a quick look around and headed for one of the couches.

Within 30 seconds our retail sales representative, Kate, walked over and said “Hi! My name is Kate. Are you are in the market for a new couch?” We said yes and told her about the whole firm/soft thing. She reassured us that she dealt with this type of thing all the time. Then she sat down in a chair next to us and asked us a few other questions. These included asking about the size of the room, what other type of furniture we had, the color of our décor, why we were replacing our old sofa, and what types of activities we did in the room.

After answering her questions she told us that she thought she had a perfect solution and subtly walked us over to a setting of furniture that included a sofa and two chairs. She asked my wife to lie down on the couch like she was taking a nap and invited me to sit in the chair. My wife loved the couch and said so. That is when I said something about needing to test it for firmness. Kate then said “Well, let me ask you, don’t you like that chair? It has the firm cushions you like, it plenty roomy, and even matches the couch. Plus, it sounds like you have enough room for both!”

Needless to say, we are expecting a delivery of both a new couch and a new chair – both purchased for full price and including a special fabric treatment to reduce fading from the sun. We went over our planned budget, but now my wife and I will both be happy. As we were wrapping up the sale, I asked Kate how long she had been selling furniture. To my surprise she said she had just started with this company 2 months ago. I told her she did a great job and that is when she told me about her company’s retail sales training program AND then told me she had worked for the other furniture retailer for a few months prior to that but had left because she felt like she was thrown to the wolves.

Making the Investment in Training

For companies, like the first retailer we visited, every day that passes means more missed opportunities for increasing sales. They have to ask themselves “What is the cost of not committing to retail sales competence?” Retailers like these invest in promotions, marketing, and advertising. They tweek their commission plans and create contests. They and terminate under performers and hire new employees who also fail.

They should be asking themselves is what would a closing rate of 75% instead of 50% do for the company’s top-line? What would a 15% increase in your average ticket do for their gross margin? And how much money and effort could they save on their marketing, promotional, and management efforts if they made an investment in an ongoing retail sales training program?

A Blended Approach to Retail Sales Training

Kate said that her training consisted of several retail eLearning courses that she was required to complete within the first two weeks of employment. That was accompanied by working side-by-side with her manager and other sales representatives. After that there were weekly in-store meetings and that there would be regular refresher training on the computer as well. Additionally, her retail chain holds quarterly classroom training for their team members on product and retail sales training.

The bottom line is that unlike the sales rep in the first furniture store, Kate was able to do all of the things that a professional retail sales representative is supposed to do. She greeted us and put us at ease. She learned about our needs and our lifestyle. She recommended a specific product and encouraged us to use it. She encouraged us to think about purchasing additional products, and she closed the sale. She has even taken the next step by sending us a thank you card with her contact information!

Take Action Now

Investing in a retail sales training program not only helps your sales team to close more sales, but to close better sales while improving the customer experience and loyalty. If you are interested in improving your retail sales training program or in creating one, contact us for a free one-hour consultation.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry throughout his career working with Fortune 500 companies and operating independent retail locations he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Seven Best Practices to Improve Your Retail Sales Training Program

Posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 at 5:56pm

Retailers have tight payroll budgets and typically staff their stores based on the projected customer foot traffic their stores will experience. As a result, retail sales representatives are often pressed for time and find it difficult to get involved with retail sales training programs. When you add-in thin budgets, employee turnover, and some leader’s skepticism around the importance of delivery quality training for retail employees, ensuring a quality customer experience through delivering training can be a challenge. But in today’s competitive retail marketplace, your company’s survival may depend on doing just that.

Virtually everyone agrees that the retail sales and customer service environment has changed dramatically over the past few years. Our customers have less time to spend in our stores, have less money to spend, and more choices on where to spend it. Retail sales associates – and the retailers that employ them - have typically relied on their ability to “learn while doing.” - in other words, learning the craft of retail sales, customer service, and retail management by trial and error instead of executing planned sales and management processes that have been communicated to them ahead of time. But when you may only have one shot at getting a customer involved with your product and enticing them to return to your store for another purchase is that really the right method?

“Many retailers are so focused on the operational aspects of running their business – things like handling cash flow, meeting payroll, and regulatory issues – that they ignore their most important assets,” said David Goodwin, principle owner of Retail Training Services. “Without customers and the retail sales associates who interact with them every hour of every day, none of the other stuff matters! The results of your retail sales training program are out there for everyone to see and studies show that many customers think retailers can be doing a better job of delivering on the customer experience.”

Unfortunately, even when they have much to gain from a implementing an ongoing retail sales training program, many retailers shy away because of a fear that the time away from the sales floor will hinder income generating activities. Instead, they rely on periodic classroom programs (usually when sales are already suffering), product training from vendors, and the motivation of retail sales associates to seek out information on their own.

“A better retail training method is to have an ongoing program,” says Goodwin. “This should include providing a company-wide framework for success including definitions of what success looks-like, methods for tracking those results, a blended retail training program that includes regular updates, and training for leaders on performance management.”

The following seven practices can help ensure your retail sales trainingdirectly affects a sales team’s performance both today and tomorrow:

1. Start by Communicating Customer Expectations: Your customers have distinct thing that they expect from your company in terms of service and selection. This includes what sets you apart from your competitors both on-line and down the street.

2. Explain the Buying Process: “Help retail sales associates to understand and uncover the buying process of your customers,” says Goodwin. When sales representatives understand the things that the customer needs they will be motivated to dig-in and get the most out of your retail sales.

3. Make the Training Relevant: Focus your retail sales training on topics that solve common issues that your sales associates encounter. This could include how to handle common sales objections, how to deal with difficult customers, or properly preparing the store for selling. And don’t forget to explain the bigger picture of how improving their retail selling skills will result in more income, better career prospects, and more profits for the company!

4, Communicate Specific Tactics: Now that you know what issues you plan to train on make sure that you make the retail sales training worthwhile by providing specific tools and tactics that your team members can put into practice. Combine video or role-playing examples so that they can see these techniques in action!

5. Use Efficient Training Methods: Taking retail sales associates out of the store for training should be part of your training mix – especially for major product launches or seasonal sales rallies – but key sales training messages can be delivered via retail e-learning courses in 15-20 minute increments direct to the store. This keeps retail associates in the stores where they can train between customer interactions or other activities. It also saves money in times of shrinking budgets.

6. Measure Your Team Members’ Results: “Many of our clients track whether or not an associate has completed their retail sales training,” says Goodwin. “But we advise them that they need to take the next step by tracking the key result areas that the training is designed to impact. Usually this is done by measuring things like average transaction amount, items per ticket, sales per hour or other KPIs through the POS system.” Once you begin measuring results you can begin to have your leaders begin the performance management activities needed to drive sales and profits.

7. Make Training an Ongoing Activity: It is unfortunate that many retail sales training programs and retail management training programs are looked at as a “one-and-done” activity. In these situations it is not unusual to get a short-term spike in sales only to have results return to the original base line. But retail organizations as diverse as The Container Store, Wegman’s, and Pep Boys have proven that by conducting regular refresher trainings via the classroom or e-learning they can maintain higher levels of productivity while reducing employee turnover.

Crafting a retail sales training program that engages employees and drives long-term results requires, planning, commitment, and perseverance from the retailer, but the payoff is higher productivity, lower employee turnover, better engagement from team members, and stronger customer loyalty.

If you would like assistance with developing an impactful retail sales training program then contact us for a free one-hour consultation.

Retail Advocacy Group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Five Simple Steps for the On-the-Job Retail Training

Posted on Monday, June 4th, 2012 at 11:25am

Train Your Retail Trainers to Communicate Successfully

While we offer, and recommend, that retailers use other training levers such as retail e-learning, instructor-led training, work books, and more, there is no doubt that retail store managers and other retail employees will continue to be the first line of defense when it comes to getting new associates on-boarded effectively. Therefore it makes sense to ensure that they know how to get the best results.

Five Simple Steps for the On-the-Job Training

Explain the Task: Give the new employee an overview of what you are going to be teaching them. This should not only include the specific way you want the task done and when you want it done, but the reasons why it must be done. Encourage the retail employee takes notes if necessary!
Demonstrate the Task: After explain the how, when, and why of the task, show the new team member how to do it. After as little as a day people typically won’t remember more than 25% of what they are told, yet if given a demonstration they will remember up to 55%. Therefore it makes sense to not only show your new employee how to do a task, but to avoid confusion by showing them how to do it the right way while answering their questions.
Have the Employee Feed it Back: Now that you have explained and demonstrated the task, make sure that you confirm that the retail associate understands the activity by having them explain the steps for the activity. Make sure to give them corrections if required.
Complete the Activity: Step four is to have the employee do the task. Remember when we stated that people remember 55% of what they hear and see? Well that number goes up to 85% when they practice a task. So make sure that you have the team member complete the activity as soon as possible.
Inspect What You Expect: Giving honest, thoughtful, and respectful feedback is the final step. If your team member completes the task correctly make sure that you thank them and then monitor their results on an ongoing basis. If they struggle with the task give the quick and honest feedback including showing them how to do the task correctly. Remember, even the best athletes need to practice in order to approach elite status…So make sure you act as a coach and give them encouragement along the way.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Selling Skills Step 6 - Bypassing Stalls So You Can Handle the Real Objection

Posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 5:39pm

Your customer took time out of their busy day to come to your retail store. They asked about your products. You have asked qualifying questions to uncover their needs, and made a strong recommendation of a product that will meet them. Then you gave them a demonstration and/or presentation. So what do you do when they say something like “Maybe I will come back later.”

Every retail sales associate runs into objections to the sale and they can be frustrating. But it is important to remember that usually your customer will not give you the true objection right away. You need to be able to gracefully identify and bypass stalling phrases to get to the real objection.

Is it an Objection or a Stall?

How often have you invested time with trying to get your customer involved with a product only to hear them say something like:

“I want to think about it.”
“I am not sure.”
“I need to talk to my spouse.”

When you hear a stalling statement like the ones above you need to remember is that the customer is actually using the statement as a way to obscure the real objection. Rather than potentially offending you by telling you that the product is too expensive, they do not have the money. You recommended the wrong product, or that they want to check out the competition, they are trying to be polite.

Bypass the Stall with a Polite Question

It is important to remember that your customer would not have come to your store and invested their time if they were not interested in your product and you do want to get a return on your investment of time and effort. So bypass the stall by using a softening phrase like “I understand” or “I appreciate that” and then asking a simple question like:

“Do you mind if I ask you what you need to think about?”
“What is it that you are unsure about?
“What would you want to speak to your spouse about?

Now You Can Move Forward.

Once you find out what the real objection is you can decide whether you want to use a conceding or directed technique to handle the objection. This includes method like the “feel, felt, found” technique, the “recap the facts” technique, and the “boomerang” technique. Conversely you can start the sales process over by asking some clarifying questions. No matter how you handle it, you now have an opportunity to save the sale and to satisfy your customer.

Stalls and objections are expressions of the customer's interest in your products. The key is ensuring that you use proven techniques to ensure that your customer leaves your store with a product that they will be more than satisfied with!

Would you like to improve the quality of your retail selling skills? If so, contact us to learn more about our retail sales training and retail customer service training programs!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry thrpughout his career working with Fortune 500 companies and operating independent retail locations he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Training Topics: The Five Core Areas for Improving Retail Skills

Posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 11:04am

Many retailers seek our firm’s guidance with regard to designing retail training programs. And virtually every retailer that we speak with – whether big or small – tells us that they believe in the importance of training their team. Yet, when we dig in we often find that their training programs are solely focused on product training. They know that product training is not enough and that they need to improve the retail skills of their team members, but they struggle with getting their retail training programs off of the ground.

In many cases the issue is that they may not have access to high quality content for retail skills training. At other times it simply is a matter of prioritizing and creating a list of core retail training topics that their trainers can focus on. With that in mind, here is a list of the five key topics on which you should focus your retail skills training:

1. New Company Orientation Training

Company history, mission, and values
Customer service standards
Basic retail selling skills
Handling difficult customers
Your role in the company
Goals /Expectations and understanding key performance metrics
Using the point-of-sale system

2. Retail Selling Skills Training

Preparing for selling
Greeting and building rapport
Understanding customer needs / Qualification
Motivating your customer to buy / Presentation
Closing the sale and overcoming objections to the sale
Building the basket / Suggestive selling
Follow-up and building referrals

3. Retail Management Training

Time management / Getting things done
Setting goals and coaching team members
Recruiting, interviewing, on-boarding new team members
Understanding the P&L
How to run a store meeting

4. Retail Operations Training

Inventory management / Product lifecycle
Visual imaging / Retail merchandising standards
Payroll management and scheduling

5. Product Training

Key features and benefits
Competitive landscape
Product-specific objections
Accessories and attachments

Good retail skills training is essential to increasing your business’ sales and profits. It is a great way to boost the morale and confidence of your team members and it helps you to hold your retail associates accountable for their results.

Would you like to learn more about how you can increase your retail results through affordable retail training programs? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com

Improving Retail Skills Through On-Line Training: Case Study

Posted on Monday, May 28th, 2012 at 5:34pm

As part of our retail operations practice we frequently are focused on helping our clients by getting our retail training consultants working alongside of the client’s training and development team. The following is an example of how we were able to assist a retailer to maintain growth, reduce expense, and improve profits through implementing an on-line training solution.

The Problem: Managing Retail Growth and Acquisition

One of our ongoing clients is a regional retailer of sporting goods and supplies. With 85 store locations in 13 states, over 800 retail sales reps and store managers, and a plan for rapid expansion through the acquisition of smaller retailers they were encountering a number of challenges which had a negative impact on both their sales revenue and their bottom line. They know that they would not be able to sustain their retail growth plan without addressing the following problems:

Inconsistent practices across established and new retail locations
High costs associated with travel for trainers
Inability to monitor training and other activities remotely
Inconsistent sales results across territories
Lost opportunities due to lack of operational knowledge/compliance

The Solution: Improving Consistency and Results by Improving Retail Skills

Whether you have 2 retail stores of 500 locations the issues our client was encountering are not unique. In fact, every multi-unit retailer has issues with cost containment, inconsistent results, and lost opportunities. The key is developing a methodology that allows you to overcome them.

In this case we were able to recommend that the retailer implement a web-based learning portal – commonly referred to as an LMS – that would help them to overcome these challenges. Coupled with on-line retail courses, this system allowed the retailer to ensure that all team members were trained on the basic retail skills they needed to succeed and drive the business quickly.

All Company employees were required to complete training on the Company’s values and history; retail customer service standards, retail selling skills, point-of sale systems, and store merchandising standards. Store Managers were also brought up to speed with retail management courses such as time management, recruiting, interviewing, and goal setting.

These retail courses averaged 15-20 minutes in length so that they could be completed between customers and all retail training could successfully implemented within 30 days of the start.

Additional benefits of implementing the LMS were that the company was able to leverage it for store surveys and automated checklists. That allowed them to track and improve compliance on key activities such as changing out store displays, store maintenance, and even district manager store visits!

The Result: Retail Skills Training Improves Results

As a result of creating a standardized system for retail skills training and reporting the client was able to achieve a higher degree of operational and sales efficiency while reducing training costs.

Over 700 Retail Reps became “certified” in customer service, retail selling skills, and visual imaging within 30 days
All Store Managers completed retail skills training in goal setting, time management and visual imaging within 30 days
Training costs are projected to be reduced by up to 20% per employee on an annualized basis
Personnel at new locations are integrated into the Company significantly faster than in the past mean fewer calls to IT, merchandising, and the store help-line
Store compliance for basic merchandising practices has improved by over 15% through using the real-time reporting capabilities of the LMS

Would you like to learn more about how you can improve your profits through implementing affordable retail skills training programs? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

The Top 10 Concerns of Retail Employees

Posted on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 11:21am

Our retail consultants frequently conduct training workshops designed to help retailers improve the quality of their employees. Retail store owners, store managers, and field managers spend a lot of time and money recruiting new retail employees to staff their locations, so when they find the right sales associate or customer service representative they want to make sure that investment pays off.

Therefore it makes sense to ensure that you are focusing on the things that are important to keeping your retail employees engaged with your business and your customers. According to the American Society of Employers, here are the ten most important things for your retail associates:

Recognition– Make sure that you spend a few minutes each day thanking employees for their hard work and let them know when they have met or exceeded your expectations!
Clear and Fair Policies – Communicating how you want things done in your retail store is important…just as important is communicating why you want things done. Then remember that you must always apply the rules equitably.
Strength of the Team – Does everyone in your retail store know what your goals are for the business? This includes daily, weekly, and monthly sales targets. Even more importantly, is everyone working together to achieve them?
Autonomy – As a retail store owner you have a right to expect that your team members execute effectively in return for their weekly pay check. Conversely, shouldn’t your team members expect that you give them the room and time to execute those tasks?
Fair Benefits – There is no doubt that providing some benefits can be an expensive proposition. On the other hand, it is estimated that each time a retailer loses an employee it costs $10,000 or more in lost sales, overtime, recruiting and training costs. Additionally many benefits such as merchandise discounts, monthly pizza parties, and flexible hours cost very little and go to great lengths toward driving employee satisfaction.
Positive Management – Positive management does not mean no or lax management. It means that retail leaders are focused on giving retail employees clear goals, the tools they need to achieve them, constructive feedback, and a genuine thank you when they are successful. Then when they achieve the goal, don’t forget to set a new one!
Manageable Workload – Everyone in the retail business recognizes that it demands working evenings and weekends. The key is to set expectations about the work week and the work requirements ahead of time. Then balance the hours and tasks between all employees.
Job security – If you are establishing reasonable expectations and SMART goals for your team members and then they achieve them they should have a reasonable expectation for job security. On the other hand, you do need to make sure that their goals are in line with your business requirements.
Fair Pay – It is amazing how far down the list compensation is. Retail sales associates – especially those who work in a commission environment – can make very good money. But the truth is that no one stays in this business over the long term unless they like working with and serving customers. As long as your compensation plans are fair and they reward productivity compensation usually is not a major factor in job dissatisfaction.
Opportunity for Promotion and Evaluation – Former New York Mayor Ed Koch was famous for always asking “How am I doing?” Well, the truth is that virtually everyone who is working for a supervisor wants to know the same thing. Conduct formal reviews twice a year and make sure to have informal one-on-one status updates at least once a week!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he operated hundreds of retail locations, launched his own retail businesses, and managed retail channels on behalf of Fortune 50 companies. Retail Advocacy group offers consulting services for retailers and also offers retail training solutions through its Retail Training Service subsidiary. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Retail Selling Skills-Bypass Stalls So You Can Handle the Real Objection

Posted on Monday, May 7th, 2012 at 5:33pm

Is it an Objection or a Stall?

How often have you invested time with trying to get your customer involved with a product only to hear them say something like:

“I want to think about it.”
“I am not sure.”
“I need to talk to my spouse.”

Bypass the Stall with a Polite Question

“Do you mind if I ask you what you need to think about?”
“What is it that you are unsure about?
“What would you want to speak to your spouse about?

Would you like to improve the quality of your retail sales representatives selling skills? If so, contact us to learn more about our retail sales training and retail customer service training programs!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry. Throughout his career working with Fortune 500 companies and operating independent retail locations he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Is Your Store Manager Costing You Money?

Posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 12:42pm

What would your reaction be if I asked you to invest your hard earned money in a $500,000, $750,000 or even $1,000,000 business with great growth potential and a base of loyal customers? It would probably be favorable, wouldn’t it?

But what would your reaction be if I told you that the person in charge of this business was a 20-year old who has no experience in managing people, inventory, or a P&L? I bet your level of confidence that investment would be a little different wouldn’t it?

Sales Representatives or Store Managers?

All too often this is exactly what we find when we visit retail locations on behalf of many of our clients. Often, when discussing their retail operations, our clients say things like: “I promoted our top sales associate to store manager, but I don’t understand why can’t get their arms around the business” or “My manager was a great sales associate, and I wanted to promote based on proven results, but the store is doing worse than ever.”

The truth is that the skills sets that make for a top performing retail sales representative, do not necessarily align with those that are required to be an effective store manager and an unprepared store manager in a good store location can cost your business anywhere from $50,000-$150,000 per year in lost profits. Therefore promoting a sales associate – even a top performing one - to store manager without investing in a retail management training program for them can seriously hinder your results.

Retail Management Skills for Success

The truth is that many new retail store managers see themselves as “Super Sales Reps” – mainly because that is what they know best and they don’t know what else to do. “There is a huge gap between the skills sets necessary to run a profitable store in today’s complex retail environment and what many newly promoted store managers have” says David Goodwin, principal of Retail Advocacy Group and Retail Training Services. These include essential retail management skills like:

Recruiting and hiring high quality team members
Performance management including goal setting, motivating, and counseling sales reps
Training and developing personnel on new products and services
Managing and ordering inventory
Preventing external and internal theft and inventory shrink
Cash Management and Deposits
Merchandising the store for impulse and add-on sales
Implementing local and Company marketing programs
Handling customer service issues and escalations

Stop Hoping and Start Training

Retail owners need to ask themselves “how much more money could their business be making if their store managers understood how to execute effectively on these skills. “The amount of lost profits is real and significant” says Goodwin. The problem is that in many cases it can’t be measured on a P&L or cash flow statement…It is money that simply never accrues to the business." Accepting the status quo for retail store manager training is not good enough any longer.

Retail Management Training is the Solution

There are numerous retail management training courses available for store owners and retail chains. These include highly cost effective elearning programs for retailers and instructor-led classes. Companies like Retail Training Service specialize in delivering these programs and can even assist retailers with implementing their own in-house training plans that include follow-up programs to ensure long-term success.

Would you like to learn more about how you can increase your retail results through affordable retail training programs? If so, contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

Step One to Building Your Bench - Always be Recruiting. 10 Ideas to Help You Find Your Next Retail

Posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2012 at 11:22am

In our consulting practice one of the things that we are consistently reminded of is the importance of all retailers – both big and small – to be building their talent pool. Store employees can leave for multiple reasons and you never know when retail employee turnover can strike. Therefore having a strong bench of trained retail employees is a critical function for any store owner, district manager, or retail chain.

Step one is to have a consistent and ongoing retail recruiting program. This will ensure that you always have a pipeline of applicants that will allow you to quickly fill vacancies and move people up in the organization. With that in mind, here are ten ideas to help you recruit retail employees.

1.Professional Social Media Sites. Social sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and others are great opportunities to network with other people who can refer potential employees. In many cases, you can post low cost ads or free postings in specific forums around your business sector.

2.High School, Tech School and College work programs. This is a great source for entry level positions. Tech schools in particular are highly rated on their ability to place students in employment. You might even build a relationship with a teacher or professor and give a guest lecture!

3.Employee Referrals. Reward your retail employees for generating applications. No one knows better about the type of individual who will succeed in your business than your current team members. Give them a reward for finding a great employee after the new team member has fulfilled a 90-day probationary period.

4.Your Customers. If you have regular customers, they are shopping at your store because they like you and your products! They are already excited about your business, so put them to work so that they can earn your employee discount!

5.Temporary Employment Agencies. Many people do not know that you can actually hire people from a temp agency. The fees to do this are relatively small and the benefit to you is that this employee is the responsibility of the agency until you decide to permanently hire.

6. Network with Fellow Retailers. It is likely that your shopping center has many different retailers. Grocery stores, shoe stores, health food retailers, electronics stores, and gift retailers all have different needs for employees. You might need a sales rep while the store next door needs a cashier. Begin sharing applicants and making referrals!

7. Leverage Your Website.Make it easy for potential applicants to apply with you. Always have your “help wanted” sign prominently posted on your company’s website. If you do email marketing to your base of customers you can even provide create a link to you website for interested applicants.

8.Take Part in Job Fairs. Community colleges, tech schools, 4-year colleges and other agencies want retailers to participate in their job fairs. Not only is this a great way to meet potential applicants, but you can also create referral networks with other employers in your market!

9. On Line Job Sites.Leveragethe multitude of free and paid job posting sites that are available on the internet. Many of these focus on the retail industry and/or your local market area.

10. Don’t Forget Free Messaging.Whether it is a sign in your store window, having a stack of applications on your counter, or having a recruiting message on your register tape, make sure that you are always taking advantage of every opportunity to get your recruiting message out there!

Do you want to improve the quality of your retail employees? Would you like to train retail managers on how to recruit, hire, and train new team members? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Improve Retail Employee Training Using Customizable Outsourced Programs

Posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 8:18pm

Ask almost any retailer and they will agree that they have a need for training their team members on retail management skills, product knowledge, retail customer service, and retail selling skills. They know that employees who are well trained are more productive, make fewer mistakes, and have lower turnover.

Budget and Resources are the Issue

Understanding that retail training programs yield a solid return on investment is not enough though. Even for retailers with dozens or hundreds of locations and millions of dollars in revenue the issue has always been how do you, allocate the requisite time, money, and people to build a retail training program?

Outsourcing is a Great Answer

Retailers have been investing in customizable point-of-sale systems, payroll systems, and inventory management systems for decades because they know that it makes sense to utilize the expertise that outside vendors provide. Outsourcing results in quicker implementation, reduction in cost, and gives a retailer the ability to leverage the expertise of experts in these respective fields.

The same is true for implementing retail skills training programs. Companies like Retail Training Services now provide retailers of virtually any size with the ability to implement high-quality training programs quickly and efficiently. Through the use on computer-based and mobile training platforms everybody in the organization can be trained on retail customer service skills, company standards, retail selling tactics, product knowledge, retail operations, and retail management skills.

Because these retail e-learning programs can be purchased off-the-shelf or be customized based on the retailer’s particular industry and internal practices now every retailer can take advantage of the highest quality training available from training companies with decades of experience owning and operating retail locations.

Measure the Results of Your Retail Training Program

Computer-based training programs allow retailers to effectively measure the return on investment from their e-learning investment. This is because every user’s activity is tracked in real time with reporting dashboards and delivery through a Learning Management System (LMS). The LMS can even be branded for your company and has many other uses including the ability to deliver and track compliance surveys and more.

Now retailers of any type can deliver training on retail store management, recruiting and hiring retail employees, dealing with difficult customers and more!

Want to learn more about how you can implement an outsourced retail training program in your retail stores? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

10 Important Customer Service Statistics for Retailers

Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 at 7:06pm

Whether you are operating a single retail location or a hundreds of locations it is important to remember that your biggest asset is not your inventory, your real estate, or even your team members. It is your customers. You have likely spent hundreds of dollars to acquire them and they will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars with you over the course of their lifetime. Make them happy and your business will flourish, disappoint them and you will certainly struggle.

Here are some statistics that help to reinforce the importance of implementing a retail customer service training program along with associated customer service management activities:

1 - Even in a negative economy, customer experience is a high priority for consumers, with 60% often or always paying more for a better experience.
Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report

2 - 81% of companies with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition
Source: Peppers & Rogers Group, 2009 Customer Experience Maturity Monitor

3 - The top three drivers for investing in customer experience management are: 1. Improve customer retention – (42 %); 2. Improve customer satisfaction – (33 %); 3. Increase cross-selling and up-selling (32 %)
Source: Aberdeen report – Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand

4 - A dissatisfied consumer will tell between 9 and 15 people about their experience. About 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC

5 - For every customer complaint, there are 26 other customers who have remained silent
Source: Lee Resource Inc

6 - Customer churn is caused by customer feelings of poor treatment 68% of the time
Source: TARP

7 - It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience
Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner

8 - 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with your organization again
Source: Lee Resource Inc.

9 - Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4 to 6 people about their experience.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC

10 - Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one
Source: Lee Resource Inc.

Do you want to improve the quality of your retail customer’s experience? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Build Your Retail Sales Basket by Using Exploring Questions to Uncover Hidden Needs

Posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2012 at 7:29pm

Retail Sales Trainers the world over speak volumes about the importance of asking open-ended “discovery” questions to help determine customer’s needs. These include questions such as:

“Who is this product for?”
“Why are you investing in a new product”
“What do you like/dislike about your current product”
Where and how will you be using your product?”

There is no doubt that these, and other open-ended questions, are critical to understanding your customer’s needs and determining what products you will be recommending to them. But there are other questions that you should be asking as part of your retail sales process. We call these “Exploring” questions and they are designed to help uncover hidden product needs with your customer. Unlike the questions noted above, exploring questions are closed questions that are part of a planned sales process that is designed to increase your ability to sell multiple items and add-ons to your customers. Let’s look at some examples by retail segment:

Wireless Retailers – Do you want to sell more home and car chargers? Then have retail associates ask your customers:

“Have you ever been in your office or car and found that your battery was running low?”

Footwear Retailers – Do you want to sell more polish or sundries? Then have your team members ask:

“Have you ever noticed that you can’t find a can of polish when you are getting ready for a big night on the town?”

Pool retailers – Would you like to sell more algaecide? Get your retail sales representatives asking:

“Have you ever found that you have algae in your pool?”

Auto Parts Retailers – You can increase the sales of jumper cables or emergency kits by asking your customers:

“Have you ever been worried that you might get stuck on the side of the road and not be prepared?”

These questions are designed to encourage your customer to say “yes” and then allow you to present a quick solution to the problem. So teach your team members to use exploring questions such as the ones above to create opportunities for new sales in your stores.

Are you seeking new ways to help energize your retail sales team? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation or let us design a retail sales training program for you and your team!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Improve Retail Employee Training Using Customizable Outsourced Programs

Posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 7:38pm

Budget and Resources are the Issue

Outsourcing is a Great Answer

Measure the Results of Your Retail Training Program

Now retailers of any type can deliver training on retail store management, recruiting and hiring retail employees, dealing with difficult customers and more!

Want to learn more about how you can implement an outsourced retail training program in your retail stores? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Make Your Retail Training Pay Off

Posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at 10:31am

Throughout my 30-plus years in the retail industry, I have heard plenty of reasons from retail executives and store operations leaders with regard to why they fail to invest in training their store-level employees. Frequently, their reasoning revolves around high levels of employee turnover in the stores and the fear that they will not receive a return on their investment. It is no wonder that most retailers invest less than $200 per year on training retail sales representatives and retail customer service associates.

But instead of worrying about spending money on retail training programs on employees who leave prematurely, retail store owners and operations executives should be asking asking themselves “What does it cost me if I do not train my employees?" Let's look at some of the answers to this question..

The Cost of Not Training Retail Employees…Lost Revenue and Profit

All you have to do is walk into a local specialty store, retail chain store, or big box retailer to see the results of failing to provide adequate retail training tools. Today’s retail store employees often lack the basic retail sales and customer-service skills that they need to be successful and that the retailer needs in order to retain customers. In fact, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites are rife with complaints about poor retail service.

Additionally, recent studies by companies like Truaxis have shown that fewer than 15% of retail consumers are loyal to any one retail brand. That means that most customers are going to provide you and your team members with a very shoort leash. If retail sales representatives do no get it right the first time, the customer is highly likely to take their money somewhere else. Often that is a price-oriented competitor like Amazon or Wal-Mart.

The Benefits of Investing in Retail Training Programs

According to retail training experts, retailers can increase sales revenue by double digits while maintaining gross margin through properly implementing training programs at the store level. The truth is that there are few, if any, other investments that can pay off at this level without using excessive discounting or spending huge money on broad marketing. A recent case study from Retail Training Services bears this out.

Retail Training Services developed and executed a sales and customer service training program for a client with 200 locations and 750 store employees. While the total investment in the training program was significant, when broken down it amounted to only $35 per employee. The result has been an increase in average revenue of almost $100 per location per day in many locations. When you do the math, the client achieved a positive ROI in as little as two days! Even better, part of the program included a train-the-trainer program for the store managers so that they can execute the program on a go forward basis with new employees.

Building the Right Training Program For Your Company

There are many ways to develop and deliver training to your retail associates. These include on-the-job training, e-learning, training manuals, video training, and instructor-led retail training classes. The best training programs involve multiple training methods and retail training consultants such as Retail Training Services can assist you in developing and deploying your training program. .

Do you want to learn more about how you can implement cost effective training programs for your retail stores? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and needs assessment!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Gaining a competitive edge in specialty retail

Posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2012 at 4:31pm

I hear it almost every day…”Wal-Mart is killing my business.” But the truth is that specialty retailers – whether large or small – can complete and can compete effectively. The key is differentiating your business so that you do not compete on price alone.

The best place to do this is by providing a quality retail customer experience and Wal-Mart is making it easier….A recent news item from Reuters tells us that Wal-Mart is adding more self-checkout lanes in an effort to reduce costs. Of course that means that what many customers already view as a poor checkout experience may, in fact, get worse. Because of Wal-Mart’s “price-first” business model they have to deemphasize the one thing that can help specialty retailers thrive…People!

The moral of the story is that by investing in your team members whether it is by providing customer service training, better schedules, stronger feedback, or competitive wages you can and will compete with the big box retailers.

Do you want to learn more about how to make your retail business more effective and competitive? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

5 Interview Questions Every Retailer Should Ask Prospective New Hires

Posted on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 at 9:17am

Your retail business is only as good as the quality of the customer service and retail selling skills of your team members. Therefore, hiring is one of the most important and critical tasks for any store owner, store manager, or field manager.

But how do you know who is most qualified for the job and how do you determine which candidates will be able to meet or even exceed your performance expectations? The truth is that many job candidates are able to make a good impression for the hour our two you invest in the retail interview process. The key is ensuring that they are able to impress for the months and years to come. The key is asking questions that will draw out the specific answers that will give you the confidence that you need to make a great hiring decision.

Nothing is certain, of course, but the five questions below will help you see deeper into the candidate's mind and make the decision that is best for your business.

1. Give an example of a time when you had to solve a problem for a customer?

Whether it is locating a hard to find item, resolving a customer complaint, or matching a solution to a customer’s needs, the best retail employees are able to solve problems for customers. You need employees who can take initiative when necessary and make a decision when it needs to be made. This question forces candidates to demonstrate that they have had to deal with these circumstances.

2. Give an example of a time when you had a goal and were able to attain it?

This question gives the candidate a chance to brag about their accomplishments. But the real value of this question can be found in learning about the challenges they encountered and how they overcame them.

3. Tell me about a time that you had to deal with a difficult person and how you resolved the situation?

Whether it is a coworker or a customer, retail employees will need to work with a wide range of people and personalities. Their ability to adapt to and work productively with different personalities is critical to their ability to drive sales and improve profits.

4. What have you done to demonstrate initiative and willingness to do more than the minimum that was expected of you?

Running a successful retail business is all about trust. You need employees that you can depend on and believe in, even when you aren't around. If you hire retail employees that are self-motivated and action-oriented, you can be sure that your business will be in good hand when you are focused on back-office activities.

5. Why should we hire you?

In a retail business setting your team members will need to be able to persuade customers to invest in your products and services. Therefore this is a good opportunity for the candidate to persuade you about why you should hire them. This question is the perfect way to open things up and allow the candidate to show you what they bring to the table.

Sometimes the best information can be gleaned from the detailed stories that your candidates can tell you about their past employment and life experiences. A great hiring manager can pull those stories out and uncover the details that will help them to determine who the best candidates for employment are.

You can learn more about how to recruit, interview, and hire qualified retail employees by taking our retail training courses on this topic. You can also learn more about our retail training programs by contacting us for a free one-hour consultation!

Glossary of key retail and retail marketing terms.

Posted on Sunday, February 12th, 2012 at 9:38pm

Many people who are entering the retail industry – either as a store manager, owner, or vendor - need help learning retail terminology. With that in mind we have compiled this list of key retail terms. If you want to learn more about these and other concepts that can help you to build a top-notch retail operation, contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Action Alley - The sales area of a store located immediately after entering.

Ad-to-Sales Percentage - The amount of advertising dollars that you spend expressed as a percentage of your sales.

Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) - The ASN is a file that contains all of the SKU information of the shipment, as well as the shipping container serial number. The SKU is the smallest divisible unit for keeping track of inventory. For example, in a shoe store the SKU might be defined by manufacturer, style, color and size. For this reason it is important for retailers to have the ASN so that they do not have to count or receive every piece of inventory individually.

Art - Also called artwork. The illustration for print ads. Could be photography if the store uses photos. Smaller stores use manufacturer’s mats or photos or artwork. Larger stores create their own art.

Average Inventory Cost - Average inventory cost is found by adding the beginning cost of inventory for each month plus the ending cost inventory of the last month in the period. If calculating for a season, divide by seven. If calculating for a year, divide by thirteen.

Audit -The formal process of examining how your store performed in relation to plan. All too often, management completes programs but does not review how things went and where improvements can be made for the future.

Bar Code - The bar code is a machine readable code made up of alternating dark and light bars. The spacing between these bars signals the reader what the numerical code is. Bar codes can be Universal Product Code - UPC or any number of other formats and almost limitless in length. (The longest currently is 128)

Benefit(s) - The basic customer benefit is ‘what is in it for the consumer’ – does your store deliver saving, service or convenience.

Breadth of Assortments - The range or number of different items offered for sale – i.e. wide = many different items, narrow = a limited range of items for sale.

Budget - Detailed outline of a store’s plan of spending for merchandise, operation, expenses, and sales promotion.

Campaign - Planned advertising schedule of specific length – usually up to 13 weeks in length.

Card File - Usually refers to a list of store customers arranged in a card index file.

Card Reader - A magnetic code reading device that is usually built into a register keyboard. When a credit card is passed/swiped through the wedge, the data is read into the machine.

Classification (Sub Classification) / Category (Sub Category) - further breakdown of a classification into a more specific group of items, e.g., men’s short sleeve dress shirts is a sub classification of the main classification of men’s dress shirts.

Circular Classification - Special printed advertising supplement inserted and delivered with the newspaper or mailed directly to the consumer. Can be printed in tabloid or full newspaper size as desired, using color and paper better than regular newsprint to call attention to a special event or store wide sale. Occupant or resident mailing lists can be purchased for distribution of circulars.

Classification / Category - A group of merchandise items that are non-substitutable with another group of items, e.g. tennis racquets would not be substitutable with badminton racquets.

Classification or Category Dominance - The situation where a retailer offers a range of merchandise (brands, models, SKUs) that is superior/ greater/broader than competitors. The result is that shoppers will have this store in a top-of-mind position and travel further to shop there first.

Comp Sales - Comparable-store sales are a measurement of productivity in revenue used to compare sales of retail stores that have been open for a year or more. Historical sales data allows retailers to compare this year's sales in their store to the same period last year.

Computer-based training – The delivery of retail training programs to store, field, and operations personnel via the Internet or corporate Intranet.

Contribution Margin - Contribution margin is the difference between total sales revenue and total variable costs. The term is applied to a product line and is generally expressed as a percentage.

Conversion Rate - The number of people who enter a store divided into the number who made a purchase. Measures the “close” rate that a store achieves on specific foot traffic into the store.

CO-OP: An advertising allowance offered by a vendor, payable upon proof of an ad having been run.

Cost of Goods Sold: The price paid for the product, plus any additional costs necessary to get the merchandise into inventory and ready for sale, including shipping and handling.

Core - The base component of a particular aspect of your business, e.g., ‘core customers’ are the 20% who shop regularly and account for 80% of sales. Can also define merchandise that is central to a retailers success, core is product that is never out of stock.

CRM - Customer Relationship Management: Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by strengthening customer loyalty.

EAN - The European Article Number which is replacing the North American UPC code. The EAN has thirteen numbers, with one being placed the leading left outside the bar code. The next six numbers are assigned to the manufacturer and the remaining six are for product identification.

Elearning – A method of delivering retail training to store and field personnel. Effective for delivering sales training, product training, and operations/systems training.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - The transfer of data between two companies in a format that can be read and understood by both parties. EDI today uses common language/protocols so that messages, purchase orders, invoices, advanced shipping notices and other business data can be send and received by any company no matter what computer they are using. EDI messages are sent through a Value Added Network (VAN) which is a third party mailbox that both vendors and retailers use to store the messages in transit. EDI is roughly 100 times faster than fax to send data and maintains an audit trail.

Environment/Décor - The surrounding objects and space with which a shopper comes in contact. It involves all the senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Event - A happening. A special promotion, off-price sale, fashion show, store wide sale or merchandise import fair.

Facing - The number of identical products (or same SKU) facing out toward the customer. Facings are used in plan-o-grams and when zoning a retail store.

Fixed Position - A guaranteed specific time slot or place for a commercial announcement.

Flighting - Scheduling a heavy advertising schedule for a period of time, then stopping advertising altogether only to come back later with another heavy schedule. Used to build strong impact to support sales goals, seasonal selling, new product introduction.

Frequency - Average number of times an individual is exposed to a given advertiser’s message over aspecified length of time.

FSA(Forward Sortation Area) - The first three digits of a postal code in Canada, FSAs have specific boundaries and can be used as a location system for customer analysis and direct mail. The similar area in the US is called ZIP + 4 which can more accurately locate boundaries within a ZIP code area.

Gift with Purchase - A promotional technique that includes giving a gift with the purchase of a specific item. Used extensively in the cosmetics area.

Gondola - Primary merchandising fixture consisting of a base, free-standing vertical wall, and a number of four of sections of shelving.

Gross Margin - Gross margin is the difference between what an item costs and what it sells for.

Gross Margin Percent - The Gross Margin Percent is calculated as follows: Sales - Cost / Sales = Gross Margin Percent.

Gross Margin Return on Investment (GMROII) - Gross Margin Return On Inventory Investment measures the impact of both stock turnover and gross profit. Often calculated to compare vendors or categories of merchandise. The formula is gross profit dollars for the year divided by average inventory at cost. The result is always expressed as a dollar, it answers the question “For every dollar invested in inventory, how many dollars were returned?”

GRP or Gross Rating Points - The sum of all average quarter-hour ratings in a schedule; also the total reach multiplied by frequency. Represents the total audience reached, including duplications. A rating point is a number based on the audience compared to all the potential listeners in that demographic region.

Items Per Transaction – Often referred to as “lines per ticket.” A measure of how many items are contained in the average transaction with each customer. The formula is total items sold for the day, week or month, divided by the number of transactions in the day, week or month.

Inventory - Inventory is the merchandise a retail store has on hand. The term also refers to the act of counting, itemizing and recording in-stock merchandise or supplies.

Inventory Turnover - The number of times during a given period that the average inventory on hand is sold and replaced.

Keystone - Keystone pricing is a method of marking merchandise for resale to a price that is double the wholesale price.Layout - The design or plan of a print ad, done in pencil, ink or by computer print-out. The layout indicates the position and sizes of the various elements of the ad – the headline, art, copy, signature, and floor line. Layouts are distributed to copywriters, artist typesetters, buyers and merchandise managers.

Loss Leader - Merchandise sold below cost by a retailer in an effort to attract new customers or stimulate other profitable sales.

Loss Prevention - Loss prevention is the act of reducing the amount of theft and shrinkage within a business.

Margin: The amount of gross profit t made when an item is sold.

Markup: A percentage added to the cost to get the retail selling price.

Markdown: A planned reduction in the selling price of an item, usually to take effect either within a certain number of days after seasonal merchandise is received or on a specific date.

Marketing Calendar: A marketing calendar is a tool used by retailers to show where and when marketing events, media campaigns and merchandising efforts are happening, as well as the results.Marketing - The art and science of gathering facts on consumers; determining which of their needs and wants offer you opportunity; deciding which segment can be best served within the scope of your resources; and then formulating a strategy to capture profitably a reasonable share of market through highly focused merchandising, ser Merchandise Mix: A merchandise mix is the breadth and depth of the products carried by retailers. Also known as product.

Merchandise Presentation - The methods and techniques involved in fixturing, stocking, displaying, signing, ticketing products so that sales are increased.

Merchandising - The embellishments which a retailer adds to a basic product, such as price, packaging, special offers, ticketing/labeling, couponing, product-with-purchase, etc.

Merchandise Mix - A merchandise mix is the breadth and depth of the products carried by retailers. Also known as product.

Minimum Advertised Price - A vendor's pricing policy that does not permit its resellers to advertise prices below some specified amount. It can include the resellers' retail price as well.Minute - 60-second commercial; 140-160 word script.

Net/Gross Advertising - Gross advertising includes your co-op dollars. Net is your own dollars only.

Objective - The end goal that you want to achieve, usually expressed in a measurable number. In advertising, the effect you want advertising to have on the consumer.

Off Price Advertising - Advertising whose basic appeal is outstanding savings.

Open-to-buy - Merchandise budgeted for purchase during a certain time period that has not yet been ordered.

Operating Expenses - The sum of all expenses associated with the normal course of running a business.Outpost Display - A secondary display – placed outside the department. e.g., at doorways or high traffic areas.

Planning - The processes of choosing a course or direction after reviewing alternatives.

Plan-O-Gram - A detailed plan of floor, wall and fixture layout. It requires a mapping of what items go where for each square foot or product frontage of shelf pace, wall, or hanging rack. Particular emphasis is put on placing the most profitable products in an advantageous purchasing position.

PLU - Price Look Up. A system with the PLU feature will display the description and price of an item when the item number is entered or scanned at point of sale. It is also printed on the customer’s receipt and this is helpful for the customer to remember what he/she bought. It is also a good deterrent to price ticket switching in some cases.

Point-of-purchase Display - Point-of-purchase displays, or POP displays, are marketing materials or advertising placed next to the merchandise it is promoting. These items are generally located at the checkout area or other location where the purchase decision is made. For example, the checkout counters of many convenience stores are cluttered with cigarette and candy POP displays.POS - Point Of Sale, used in reference to POS visual merchandising. Also used to refer to a cash register that has capability of price look ups (PLU’s) and storing customer data.

Quick Response - Quick response is the name given to the system that immediately replenishes goods based on consumer demand. It is also sometimes referred to as JIT II (Just in Time level two) or in retailing as ECR (Efficient Consumer Response). The use of current technology links the manufacturer, supplier, retailer and retail outlet together to speed up communications, reduce paperwork, reduce inventory carrying costs, and have what the customer wants when they want it. Primarily involves Electronic Data Interchange - EDI and Universal Product Code - UPC.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - Method for embedded tag to communicate SKU and other information from a product to a receiver. Currently being used at the pallet level for receiving, slow adoption at the Point of Sale due to both cost and some technical issues.

Receipt Printer - A specially built narrow carriage printer that used to print customer receipts.

Segment (Consumer or Market) - A single part of the market, separable from the rest of the market. It can be clearly identified as being different by a set of distinct and common characteristics such as demographics, lifestyle, geographic location, or buying habits.

Services - Extras offered by stores to make shopping more pleasant. Includes free parking credit, snack and restaurant facilities, gift wrap, post office, night openings, delivery, and other ‘fringe’ benefits that discount retailers do not always offer.

Shrinkage – (inventor Shrink) Retail shrinkage is a reduction or loss in inventory due to shoplifting, employee theft, paperwork errors and supplier fraud.

SKU - Stock-keeping unit. The finest identification of a specific item either by itself or in a range.i.e., one basic shoe style requires approximately 30 different SKUs which are the combination of the range of sizes multiplied by the range of widths stocked. This is increased by 100% each time a color is added in the full size and width range.

Spot - Commercial on radio or television. Spot announcements are anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds long and highlight a single item, or at most two items. Spot illustration in a print ad is a detailed sketch showing a special feature not obvious in the main illustration

Store Positioning - The position a store takes in respect to price, fashionability, service, assortments vs. competition.

Strategy - Your basic ‘idea’ – the essential thrust of your business concept. An aggressive plan of action, usually with a singular focus, that is formulated to out-maneuver competitors by serving target market customers to their highest expectations.

Suggestive Selling - Suggesting the purchase of related items in addition to the original purchases, like a tie with a shirt, blouse with skirt, hats with jackets and so on.

Target Market - The group of consumers to whom you are directing your business concept.

Tearsheet - An ad torn from the publication in which it ran. This is considered proof that the ad ran on the day it was supposed to and represents proof of performance for collecting co-op money.

Tie-In - An ad sponsored by more than one advertiser; e.g., a magazine ad in which a store, an airline, and a luggage manufacturer participate, with costs shared. A tie-in might feature an airline in a store’s advertising in exchange for the airline offering a free trip in a draw held for store customers.

Top of Mind - Refers to the store, brand or product that first comes into a consumer’s mind when he/she thinks of a category of merchandise.

Trading Area - The area from which your store draws the majority of its customers.

Trading Up - In a “good, better, best” offering of merchandise or services the action of selling the customer the better or best solution for their needs. Leads to better solutions as the customer gets more utility and benefits from the better or best item or service.

Universal Product Code (UPC) - The Universal Product Code is a twelve digit code that is made up of a single leading number, five numbers uniquely assigned to a manufacturer or seller, five more numbers assigned by the manufacturer or seller to a specific product and the last number which is assigned as a check digit. It is being replaced with the EAN which is defined above.

USP - Unique Selling Proposition - What is special about your store and how your store stands out from your competition.

Value Offer - A strategic option or alternative to emphasize value (value = price x quality x shopping environment or service, rather than just ‘price’ or ‘discount price’).

Visual Merchandising: Visual merchandising is the art of implementing effective design ideas to increase in-store traffic and sales volume.

Volume - The gross amount of business a store does in a period of time. The difference between volume and the cost of doing business is profit.

Wholesale: Wholesale is the sale of goods, generally in large quantity, to a retailer for resale purposes.

If you want to learn more about these and other concepts that can help you to build a top-notch retail operation, contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Six Activities to Improve Your Retail Store Management

Posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 11:52pm

“The mission of a retail manager is to increase the sales and profits for their store.” That is the simplest and best job description that I have ever encountered for a retail store manager. It was given to me by one of my first mentors in the retail business and I have used this as a focal point for every retail position I have ever held.

Of course, there is more to being a retail manager than knowing your mission. You have to know how to accomplish the mission. That starts with understanding your goals and key activities you need to execute in order to win. Great goals for retail managers include:

· Hiring better team members

· Training retail associates to execute more effectively

· Managing time to improve productivity

· Improving inventory turns and limiting shrink

· Controlling expenditures and improving cash flow

These are goals that go to the heart of any successful retail operation and if achieved will create an operation which has the ability to survive and grow in the long term. Here are six tips which help you to achieve improved retail management:

1. Measure and Scorecard Everything. This includes sales, lines per transaction, employee productivity, attendance, theft, store foot traffic, and customer conversion rates. Good data results in great business decisions.

2. Establish Strong Processes. When you build effective operational processes and establish expectations about key rules you make it easy for retail associates to protect your company’s assets while improving retail customer service. That begins with using a retail operations manual and then training team members to execute on those rules.

3. Train and Teach Team Members. Give retail associates the tools that they need to succeed. When you focus on retail training programs your people not only will execute better today, but will help you to take advantage of future opportunities for growth, expansion, and profits.

4. Promote and Manage Activity. Keep everybody and everything moving. It is no coincidence that you have your best result when your retail team members are busy. Move merchandise around on the sales floor, move your people from department to department, and move suppliers if they are unresponsive.

5. Embrace change. Whether it is changing your marketing message, your displays, your pricing strategy, or your merchandise mix you can make a difference in your business’ ability to attract new customers and to gain traction with existing retail customers.

6. Respect Your Cash. You have heard the phrase “cash is king”. Great retail owners teach this concept to their management teams and you can too. Keep your costs in control by managing payroll, maximizing inventory turns, and eliminating unnecessary expenses.

If you want to learn more about these and other concepts that can help you to build a top-nothch retail operation, contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

5 More Common Retail Management Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them!

Posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 8:59am

It does not matter if you are a veteran of the retail industry with decades of tenure or a newly promoted retail store manager, or district manager; you are likely to encounter some of these common obstacles to your management success. Here is some simple guidance to help you steer clear!

1. Spending too much time working with underperforming team members is a common problem that can eat up your time and alienate your sales leaders.

Solution: Instead divide your team into thirds - top performers, emerging contributors, and underperformers. You will find that if you spend 80% of your time focusing on the forst two groups you will achieve a better ROI and have less frustration.

2. Failing to manage time is a critical problem for retail managers. Without great time management skills tasks start piling up, customer experience suffers, and inventory gets lost…all of which ends up costing you and your company money.

Solution: Invest in developing the retail management skills you need to be successful. This include blocking out time for administrative tasks, building flex time into your day, and utilizing proven management planning tools.

3. Senior retail associates an often get stuck in a rut and when that happens they become a source of “demotivation” for the rest of the team…afterall, they set the example!

Solution: Get your tenured team members re-energized by giving them new challenges and responsibilities or even a change of scenery. Studies have show that people are more motivated by recognition and responsibility than anything else.

4. Inconsistency in recruiting and hiring practices can cause a “crisis” mentality and result in bad hires that cost money and wasted time.

Solution: Develop a disciplined approach to these activities. This includes training retail team members to recruit and hire, running weekly open houses, requiring retail employees to attain recruiting quotas, and defining the minimum skills and competencies that your business requires in its new team members.

5. Avoid the assumption that providing training programs can cure all of your retail performance problems. Instead, apply a balanced approach.

Solution: Retail training consultants often infer that if you complete their seminar or take their retail courses your problems will be solved. The truth is that the best training programs involve on-the-job training, computer based training, one-on-one communication, and instructor-led training. The key is making sure that you follow-up with setting expectations and coaching for your team members

Want to learn more about how you can improve the retail management skills for you and your team? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

How to Overcome 5 Common Retail Management Mistakes

Posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 9:51am

Whether you are a newly promoted retail store manager, a district manager, or own a chain of retail locations you may encounter some of these common management challenges. Here is some simple guidance to help you get on the right track!

1. In the retail industry it is not unusual to promote your top sales retail sales representatives into management positions and they often fail to make the transition from “salesperson” to manager.

Solution: Understand what it takes to be a great manager and train your team members on those skills and competencies.

2. Many new store and retail field managers continually “fight fires” but never seem to get them put out. If your retail managers are always in “firefighting mode” they will be unable to plan for future events and create plans to address them.

Solution: Communicate key priorities and spend time on diagnosing the root causes of recurring issues…then make a plan to address them.

3. Many retail managers were promoted because of their ability to be self-starters and learn on the job. As a result, they leave staff to sink or swim on their own…after all, that is how they did it!

Solution: While on-the-job training is important, you can achieve better results and reduce costly employee turnover by investing in retail training programs and coaching team members as they work through them.

4. Ignoring the importance of performance standards is an easy thing for new managers to do. In fact, it is likely that they earned their promotion through exceeding them and assume that everyone is motivated to succeed.

Solution: Define and communicate your standards early on. Then reward your high achievers, coach your struggling team members, and replace retail sales representatives who do not take action to improve results.

5. It is not uncommon for new retail management personnel to get taken by surprise when their team members fail to achieve desired results – even when you have communicated expectations.

Solution: Understand that communicating your standards is not enough. You will need to become a hands-on coach who lives by the old axiom – “inspect what you expect”

Want to learn more about how you can improve the retail management skills for your team? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Attention Retailers! How to Start Your Year Off on the Right Foot

Posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 8:27am

Did you know that the month of January is named for the Roman god Janus? He was the god of beginnings and transitions and he had two faces - one that looked back and another that looked forward.

Just like Janus, you should be looking back at last year’s results in order to determine what worked and what initiatives did not drive an ROI. At the same time you need to be establishing your goals and your plan for improving results for the year ahead.

Conduct a Retail Business Review to Discover Opportunities

This past year your business may have grown, remained flat, or taken a step backwards. No matter what your results, conducting a business review will help you to uncover new opportunities. Here are some ways to get started:

1. Review each line of the P&L looking for opportunities. This includes looking at revenue producing products and services along with expense categories and inventory management.

2. Examine your product position. Including asking your retail sales associates what new products they feel could have resulted in additional revenue opportunities as well as identifying out-of-stocks, overstocks and slow movers

3. Conduct personnel reviews by score-carding and ranking your team members in 5-10 key results categories. Then divide your team into thirds (top performers, up-and-comers, and under performers) and make a plan to take action to help them achieve more in the new year.

4. Review your recruiting, hiring, and retail training programs for their effectiveness. This includes looking at things like employee turnover and your ability to get new retail employees off to a faster start or to improve their product knowledge.

5. Evaluate your marketing programs. Did you invest in new signage, direct mail, social marketing, or viral marketing programs? What was the ROI on these programs? How did they impact foot traffic or conversion rate?

Do not Procrastinate in Making and Executing Your Plan

Virtually every week we receive calls from retailers who know what they need to do, but are struggling with getting their plans off the ground. Here are some tips to help you get off to a fast start and to stay on track:

1. Start now. Every week, month or quarter that you fail to execute results in less revenue, higher costs, or wasted cash flow.

2. Track results. Measure the impact of your marketing spending, new products, expense control programs, and recruiting practices. If you see positive results, keep going…if not, reevaluate your plan

3. Invest more than you cut. Whether it is investing in new products, marketing programs, incentive programs, or in retail sales training opportunities, you will get more results in the long term from investment than from cutting cost.

4. Consider outsourcing. Everyone cannot be good at everything. Whether it is moving to a vendor-managed inventory program or an outsourced retail training course, allowing expert vendors to help you lets you stay focused on what you do best.

Here’s to a great and productive new year! If you want to learn more about how you can improve your results, contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

A Key to Retail Survival is Learning From Others Mistakes

Posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 6:59pm

Are You Investing in Differentiating Your Business through Customer Service and Building Loyalty?

The headline in a Motley Fool article said it all “The big-box graveyard is expanding.” Thus far, 2011 has been tough for many of the country’s most prestigious retail brands. Sears has announced the closure of over 120 locations (and more are sure to come), Best Buy has gotten hammered in the press for poor earnings and an even worse customer experience, and Barnes and Noble is rapidly losing its base of customers because it has been unable to adapt to the world of digital media.

When the leaders of these companies speak to the press, one of the first things you hear is them complaining about how Amazon and other on-line retailers are undercutting them and stealing their customers. And while the on-line retailers are growing at extraordinary rates, my view is that this is largely the symptom and not the underlying cause for much of their woes. The truth is that these and many other retailers are making it easy for customers to shop online because of two fundamental mistakes.

1.) They became complacent and took their customers for granted

2.) They began thinking like finance companies versus retailers

Hindsight gives us the benefit of having 20/20 vision, and it also allows us to learn from the mistakes of others, so let’s look at these core issues in more detail.

All three of these retail giants have been suffering from the malaise that occurs as a result of being one of the top dogs in their respective channels. While they may pay lip service to providing great retail customer care it is easy to find where they have made significant mistakes. It may seem like restocking fees, limiting the availability of web specials in the store, and bag searches make sense from a financial perspective, they are highly offensive to customers. And while it may seem like you can cut staff because your retail associates are not engaged with customers every minute, the fact is that it results in underserving customers when the store gets busy. The same goes for reducing spending on retail sales training and product training programs. The bottom-line is that when you cut back on the things that make your store special to your customers you are encouraging customers to try out a competitor – whether it be on-line or down the street.

The Solution to Remaining a Healthy Retailer…Invest in Your People, Invest in Your Customer, and Adapt!

While the retailers mentioned above are examples of how to do it wrong, there are plenty of examples of retailers that truly understand what it takes to succeed. Whether it is the Container Store, Apple, Whole Foods, REI, or a local independent. Most successful retailers have a few things in common:

1.) They always remember it is about the Customer first

2.) They invest in their retail representatives through quality compensation and retail training programs

3.) They adapt and change their practices to meet their competition

4.) They do not make excuses.

The people who run Sears, Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble are smart folks and I earnestly hope that they are able to turn their fortunes around, but in the meanwhile the rest of the retail community can learn from their errors and take action to avoid them!

Have Retail Customer Service Problems? Look to Your Staffing and Training Investment!

Posted on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 12:26pm

Today I am facilitating two training sessions on “Improving the Retail Customer Experience” in support of a 200-plus store retailer. When I deliver retail training for these types of sessions, I usually begin by asking the students: "Who's had a bad experience in a store?" The response is typically that every hand goes up. When I ask “What action did you take?” most respond that instead of complaining or getting angry, they simply move on and start shopping in other locations or competitors.

Participants in these trainings almost always share stories about how they walked into a retail store with the intention of making a purchase but did not. The reasons vary but often include simple things like

They could not find the product
They could not find a store associate to help them
Sales associates with indifferent attitudes or poor product knowledge
Long check-out lines
Poorly trained retail representatives who could not operate POS systems

The surprising thing that often is not on the list is that the retail sales representatives are rude or display aggressive behavior. The moral of the story is that, your retail customers are no different than you are. More often than not, it is the little things that get customers angry and encourage them to shop elsewhere…They vote with their feet.

The Problem…Being Overly Focused on Cost Containment

There is no doubt that poor customer experience is endemic to the retail industry. It is perennially rated low amongst surveys by leading companies and the Federal Consumer Protection Agency. The question is why is this happening and how can retailers fix it?

According to Marshall Fisher, a professor at the Wharton School, the issue may lie with the fact that retailers focus too much on manage the wrong numbers and not enough on the right ones. In effect, it is easy to see a direct correlation between cutting payroll spending and the overall cost of doing business; but it is not as easy to see the correlation between investing in additional staffing and top-line revenue.

Retail managers may periodically see some sales associates “standing around” and not serving customers. So they can convince themselves that if they cut payroll by 5% it really won't impact customer service. But over time, it leads to the problems listed above.

The Remedy is Retail Staffing and Training

According to Fisher, the cure is not to give up managing by the numbers, but to manage by the right numbers. He studied store-level data for monthly sales, staffing levels, and customer-satisfaction-survey responses to measure the impact of store-staffing levels on sales and customer satisfaction. He found that the impact on revenue of increased store staffing was incredibly high.

On average, revenue increased by $10 for every additional dollar of payroll added to a store, and for some stores that were particularly understaffed, the revenue lift was as high as $28. At the 40% gross margins this retailer was earning on revenue, adding payroll was highly profitable, and fully supported by the numbers.

Of course, simply putting staff on the floor is an incomplete solution. Retailers need to make an investment in training retail sales associatesto become effective at handling customer issues and in selling their products.

David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

How much to budget for retail training

Posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2011 at 4:03pm

The average retailer spends approximately 3% of its annual payroll on training activities each year. For store-level personnel that equates to: $840 for a typical store manager, $560 for a full-time sales representative, and less than $200 for a typical part-timer. Compare these numbers to the national average of $1,263 across all industries and you can see that retailers need to be more efficient in developing and delivering their sales training and management training programs. But the truth is that store owners can implement high quality training and employee development programs as long as they make sure to stay focused on what they need to deliver. And that means that retailers should consult with retail training companies about the type of content and delivery systems that they have available. The good news is that there are more training alternatives available to retailers than ever before. This includes traditional classroom training, webinars, computer-based training, mobile training programs and more. Most reputable training companies can offer any number of these types of training and can assist retailers with finding a cost effective solution that will meet your training requirements. The key is understanding and communicating your priorities. Do you need product training, sales training, management training or a blended training program? Ask your training consultant for detailed descriptions of their courseware and the desired outcome that you can expect after its delivery. Like anything else. The key to implementing a great training program is understanding your needs and then partnering with a training provider that can assist you with presenting a top-notch product. - David Goodwin is the Principal of the Retail Advocacy Group. As a 30 year veteran of the retail industry he has hired, trained, and performance managed thousands of retail sales representatives and retail managers. You can learn more about instructor-led, e-learning, and other training solutions for retailers at www.retailertrainingservices.com.

Improving Learning and Management by Working the Retail Floor

Posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 6:01pm

I was so excited last week when one of my clients was unable to speak with me! I know that sounds strange, especially since we had been playing phone tag for several days in regard to fleshing out the next steps of the retail management training project that we are working on for her company. But when I finally reached her she told me that she was unable to speak in any detail because she was working in one of her company’s stores for a few days I was strangely gratified!

As a Director of Sales Operations and Store Communications you would not expect her to be excited about checking in shipments and stocking shelves, but that is what she was doing…and she was glad to be doing so! We are working on implementing new retail time management training for her locations and there is no better way for her to understand the challenges her stores face than to experience them first hand.

Since I had just come off of the road doing store visits for another client where I was focused on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of that client’s retail sales training program I have to agree that there is no better way for a retail operator to learn about what really goes on in their business than to spend time on the floor with their front-line team members.

Mystery shopping programs, scorecards, and reports from field managers all contribute to the picture, but nothing takes the place of what is commonly called MBWA or “managing by walking around.” It is good for you, good for your retail sales representatives, and good for your business!

Want to learn how you can improve productivity on your retail sales floor? Retail Training Services can assist your company with designing and implementing retail training and e-learning programs that can improve your associates retail skills and product knowledge. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Advice for Retailers-Fight off Stiff Competition by Investing in Training and Customer Service

Posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 7:29pm

We often hear about how big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy are able to walk into a market and flex their muscle to drive out their competitors. There should be no doubt that they are formidable retail competitors with big marketing budgets, huge buying power, and strong management teams, but any retailer can compete if they are able to focus on the basics necessary to win.

A recent example of this Dixon’s. The British retailer was targeted by Best Buy who claimed that they were going to go into Great Britain and open over 100 locations. Dixon’s was specifically called out because of their poor customer experience and dated looking stores.

But Dixon’s has not only won the battle, but has been able to deliver victory after Best Buy recently announced that they would be closing their stores and exiting the market after only opening 11 locations.

In a recent article, Dixon’s CEO revealed their secret to success – specifically a renewed focus on improving their customer’s experience by investing in new retail sale training programs, product training, and retail management training programs for their team members.

By implementing a focused approach to retail training, Dixon’s was able to hold off Best Buy long enough for them to begin remodeling stores and sharpen their marketing message. In fact, they are now touting their retail sales representative’s knowledge and helpfulness in their recent marketing campaigns.

Learn how Retail Training Services can assist your company with designing and implementing retail e-learning programs that can improve your associates retail skills and product knowledge. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

Respond Faster to Business Challenges with E-Learning

Posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2011 at 1:23pm

With a hyper competitive marketplace and a relatively inexperienced workforce that is spread out across potentially large geographic areas Retailers have some of the biggest challenges with regard to training their team members. Companies need to regularly update and train retail store personnel on

New products and services
Last minute promotions
Updated processes or systems
Company policies and procedures

Bringing personnel into classrooms or meeting rooms is expensive, time consuming, and impractical. Webinars or conference calls can be set up quickly, but the retailer can’t ensure that the retail sales representatives are paying attention and cannot measure who has/has not absorbed the material.

The good news is that more and more companies are using e-learning, computer-based training and even mobile-learning technology to help them communicate their retail training and development messaged. A recent survey of 600 companies has indicated that 77% of surveyed companies believe that learning technologies such as these will help them to respond faster to quickly changing business conditions. That is an 11% year-over-year increase.

These learning technologies, particularly e-learning that is delivered via learning management systems as well as internal social networks and mobile phones have helped these companies to

Reduce time to get team members competent on new products by 35%,
Roll-out new IT systems faster by 33%
Improve knowledge retention on products and processes by 33%

Additionally, the study found that 80% of businesses are using e-learning courses and 66% per cent are using video-based content to improve skills in workshops and training sessions. This is because while classroom training is important for instilling deep knowledge and motivation it does not allow them to react fast enough in a fast changing environment.

Retail Training Services can assist your company with designing and implementing e-learning programs that can improve your associates retail skills and product knowledge. Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

What is the cost of not delivering on customer service promises? $38 Billion.

Posted on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 9:09am

$38 Billion Dollars

That is impact on lost wages for customers who have to take time off from work in order to wait for service technicians. According to a 2011 study the average customer loses $250 each time a customer has to wait for the cable guy, the plumber, or the appliance repair technician. That is the equivalent to two days wages for the average American worker!

Virtually everyone has either lived-through or has hear a horror story about a company making promises that their delivery person or repair technician will be at your home between “9am and 11am” and then not delivering . Over half of the people who responded to the survey said that their average wait time was 4.5 hours and that is cost them a sick day or a vacation day because their wait time was 2.5 hours longer than anticipated.

The Problem is Bigger than We Think

But the problem is actually bigger that this study indicates because customers encounter bad service and excessive wait times in many situations - namely in retail stores – each and every day. This not only costs the customers lost time and money, but ultimately create customer loyalty problems for the retailer.

And when this happens in your stores, who do the customer’s blame? It is not the sales rep or the service rep, but your company. In fact, 71% blame the company instead of the retail sales person! To make matters worse, up to 27% of customers who encounter issues with long wait times and poor customer service will subsequently go to a competitor to meet their needs giving them an opportunity to win a your customer.

Social Networking Makes the Issues Even More Challenging

Additionally, with the continued growth of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, it is easy for your customers to broadcast their discontent with your business. In this survey 49% of disappointed customers said they would have posted their complaint on a social media site. And since the average person has 120 Facebook friends who love to re-post their friend’s updates you customer service problems quickly become bigger than you can even imagine.

Take Action Now

So the next time you are walking your retail floor take the time to observe whether or not your retail sales representatives are acknowledging and greeting customers within thirty seconds. If not, take action by 1.) greeting the customer yourself, 2.) directing traffic on the sales floor as needed, and 3.) training and counseling your team members on the reasons for and the techniques of how to get customers engaged quickly.

Want to learn more about how you can positively impact the customer experience in your retail store? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation and to learn about our retail customer service training programs!

Are Retention Bonuses Effective for Retailers and Sales Organizations?

Posted on Friday, November 11th, 2011 at 10:09am

A recent article by CNN Money profiled a business owner who has made a commitment to give any employee who stays with his business for five years a retention bonus of $50,000. While he is not a retailer, obviously, this is a business owner who has recognized the importance of retaining qualified talent and the costs associated with employee turnover and he intends to do something about it.

But do retention bonuses of this sort make sense, or is there a better way to invest that money? Let take a quick look at this question as it relates to retail and other sales-oriented business.

The problem is high employee turnover

Even when you adjust for seasonality, the retail industry typically experiences an employee turnover rate well in excess of 100% per year. And virtually everyone agrees that this is a big problem.

However when you dig in to the issue you begin to see that the turnover rate for high performing retail associates is much lower – often in the range of 10-20%. It tends to be the unproductive team members who turnover frequently. That could mean that investing in a retention bonus simply provides an “unearned” incentive to your productive team members while encouraging the unproductive retail employees to stay with your Company.

A Better Approach to Employee Retention

While the concept of a retention bonus may work for some industries, for retail and other sales and customer service oriented businesses I would suggest that a better approach is to focus on activities that incent your retail employees to achieve their own reward while improving your business’ results. Top performing retail companies all understand that the best way to create high quality results – and coincidentally to reduce employee turnover - is through the use of incentives, training, and performance management.

Use the “Rule of Thirds”

To be fair and equitable, you should provide incentives, retail training programs, and implement performance management practices across your entire organization. But, in practice you may find that it is helpful to mentally divide your retail team into three parts and focus on one core activity with each part. This is what is referred to as the “Rule of Thirds”.

Top Third – High Performers Want Incentives

If you are a believer in the Pareto Principle then you know that your top performers are responsible for 80% of your Company’s results. These are the sales leaders that you cannot afford to lose. But instead of trying to retain them using a time-based retention bonus, stretch them to accomplish even more by focusing on the sales incentives, bonuses, or commissions that they could earn by helping your business to grow. The incentives could be based on individual results or on having the Company achieve a new performance benchmark.

The Middle Third – Average Performers Need Management

There is an old saying that goes something like “If you are not getting better, you are getting worse”. And that is particularly true in the retail and sales sectors. Assuming you have provided the training and support that your average sales representatives need then you need to be working diligently on helping them to move into the echelon of your top performers. Use retail performance management techniques including SMART goal setting, scorecards, weekly one-on-ones, and written evaluations to make sure that they know where they stand at all times.

The Bottom Third – Provide the Tools They Need to Succeed

If your retail company is like most, your bottom performing employees are likely your newest retail team members. Being in the bottom third – unless you are tenured - is not something to be ashamed of as long as you and your employees are focusing on the activities that will quickly get them off of the bottom. This typically revolves around new employee orientation, product training, customer service training, and sales training. Use all of your techniques including classroom, e-learning, training manual, and role playing to invest in your new team members. They should respond quickly and move up the productivity chart. If not, find a replacement quickly!

Want to learn more about how you can use the “Rule of Thirds” to improve your results and improve your employee turnover rate? Contact us for a free one-hour consultation!

A Great Example of How to Create Retailing Success Through Differentiation and Investment

Posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2011 at 6:28pm

I recently received a call from a survey company that was asking questions about my habits with regard to buying groceries. I have six large grocery stores located within a couple miles of my home and by the end of the call it was clear which one the survey company was working for…and it was not my favorite grocery retailer, which is Wegmans.

In fact, I actually drive several miles and past all six of those other grocery retailers to visit my closest Wegmans store. Wegmans doesn’t have the lowest prices, and while the quality of their products is good, the truth is that I have the same brands available at the other locations…so why do I shop there? The answer is because Wegmans provides me with the best customer experience.

The privately owned, Rochester, NY based grocery retailer is a classic example of how you can build and grow a successful retail business by doing the right things consistently year-in and year-out. They currently have over 70 locations and over $5 Billion in annual revenue and have achieved this by creating a unique experience for their customers. They have done this by keeping their stores current; introducing new products and services; and by investing in their retail employees. Here are some examples and accomplishments:

Unlike most grocery retailers, Wegmans has bucked the trend toward “self-serve” check-out . Instead, they offer personalized service and short check-out lines with friendly staff.
They have some of the lowest employee turnover in their industry because they provide excellent benefits, robust retail training programs, and fair pay.
They have been ranked in the top 10 of Fortune magazines “Top 100 Companies to Work for in America” for eight consecutive years
They have been named the best food retailer by both the Food Network and Consumer Reports.
They have made a conscious decision not to offer tobacco products in their stores, yet their foot traffic continues to grow
Their locations offer a wide variety of prepared foods, name brands, “club packs”, and private label products that allow them to compete with retailers in all segments of the grocery industry
They are consistently honored for their stores’ involvement in their local communities

It just goes to show, that when you are committed to investing in your stores, your people, new products, and your community, you can provide a better customer experience and reap the rewards of long-term and consistent growth.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your retail customer experience and your team member’s retail skills contact us today!

How can independent retailers compete effectively with national big box chains - a case study

Posted on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 at 9:37am

Forbes has a great article today about ABT electronics. They are a 75 year old electronics retailer based in Chicago that is not only surviving, but growing. There are many lessons to be learned from ABT and other successful independents including:

Reducing employee turnover by recruiting good people and then paying them based on their results
The importance of investing in your people through retail training programs
Reacting quickly to market challenges
Investing in customer loyalty programs and on improving the retail customer experience

You can find the article here. It is a great read. enjoy!

Making Your Training Count - 5 Tips for Following Up on Retail Training

Posted on Sunday, October 30th, 2011 at 6:31pm

If you are like many retailers, you periodically pull your retail representatives off of the sales floor to help them improve their product knowledge, customer service skills, or selling capabilities. Whether the retail sales associates are spending their time at an instructor-led training session, reading product manuals, or working on internet training courses, retail owners are spending real money on their training investments.

Like all investments, you and other retailers need to ensure that you are getting a pay-off from your retail training programs. The good news is that with a little diligence and consistency you can do so. Here are five tips to help you do so:

1.) Use Email to Gain Commitment and Give Feedback - Ask each person who took part in a training session to email you a brief summary of what they learned in the training along with a commitment for how they are going to turn the training into results tangible results (increased sales, margin improvement, etc.). The use your Outlook calendar to remind you to review their results after two or three weeks so you can reward, reinforce, or counsel the employee as needed.

2.) Inform Team Members About Results – Did you train your retail team members on how to sell a particular product? Did you give them tips on how to improve customer service? If so, post relevant statistics so that the training is kept top-of mind.

3.) Challenge team members with a quiz – Once of the best retail tips that I can provide is the importance of using quizzes and tests to challenge sales representative. While these quizzes can be used to measure the retention of information, they also serve as a way to keep the training relevant or updated. In fact you will likely uncover situations where you got off message so you can improve your training program the next time you deliver it.

4.) Look for and publish success stories – A few days after the training, ask your retail representatives to share examples of how they have put their new knowledge or skills to work. Then email or post those success stories to give other team members something to strive for.

5.) Use surveys to gain feedback – There are many low-cost or no-cost tools available through the Internet that allow you to gain feedback about the quality of your training programs. This not only lets you learn about areas for your improvement and development, but also forces your team members to review and think about their training and development.

The key making your retail training program stick is to be actively involved on an ongoing basis. Contact us for more retail training tips and to learn more about how you canimprove your retail training and development plan.

Weather the Hard Times by Investing in Building Your Retail Business for Long-Term Success

Posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 at 9:34am

I just read a great article by Henry Blodget of Business Insider and it just helped to reinforce my belief that the key to winning long term in the retail business - or any business for that matter - is investing in your business.

As Henry suggests in his article about Amazon that investment can take the form of money and capital, but it also can take the form of time and effort. Here are some examples of ways that you can invest for the long term without expending excess capital.

Spend a little extra time in hiring retail sales associates who will serve and sell to your customers in a caring way that builds customer loyalty and repeat business
Invest your effort to on-board and train retail employees to win from day one by giving them the skills they need to succeed
Plan on executing customer loyalty incentives, bounceback offers, and low cost/no cost marketing programs
Incentivize your team members with positive feedback and retail performance management activities that prove your committment to their development and happiness
Network with the local community and social organizations to build foot traffic
Constantly review your assortment so that you maximize stock turns and gross margin dollars
Conduct a weekly financial review of the business by using a retail scorecard

While this may seem like an over simplification, the broad truth is that successful retailing is not hard and does not always require huge outlays to drive growth...it just requires hard work, focused thinking, and an investment in time and effort!

The Web and Mobile Marketing Challenge – Use the GREAT Method to Close More Sales In Store

Posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 8:48am

According to recently published results on an ongoing study by Retrevo Pulse, retailers are becoming a “showroom for Amazon."

The study found nearly two-thirds (66%) of respondents have looked at a product in a store and then made the purchase online from somewhere else. The number of people who make purchases through the web increases to more than 78% for customers who own smartphones!

While the electronics category is impacted most by this trend with 58% of customers telling surveyors that they have made purchases in this fashion, other retailers are not immune. This includes shoe retailers (41%) and apparel retailers (39%) and the trend is growing.

This growing trend means that retailers have to respond in a number of ways. Retrovo advocates having a strong web and mobile sales strategy, but that is not enough. Retailers need to make sure that they are training retail sales associates to close sales when the customer is in the store. This includes customer service training that motivates the customer to be loyal to the store and retail sales training that is focused on presentation and selling skills. One simple way to begin is by training your retail sales representatives to be GREAT.

GREAT is an acronym that is designed to remind you and your retail customer service team of the core activities needed to create a positive shopping experience that encourages a customer to buy you’re your store…today. Let’s look at it in more detail:

GREET – Your customers within 15-30 seconds of entering your store or department. It is a proven fact that people feel like they are being ignored if they are not acknowledged within that time frame. And if you felt you were not valued as a customer, why wouldn’t you buy from an on-line competitor? All it takes is a quick “Hi” or “Thanks for coming in today” to get a retail customer engaged with your people and not just your products.

RESPECT and RESPOND– One of the things the web does better than traditional retail is to give everyone a consistently good experience. There are never any lows…but then again there are never any truly great experiences either. Teach your retail associates that they need to show their customers respect at every turn and to be responsive to their specific needs. All it takes is a serving attitude and a few questions to allow you to provide a one-of-a-kind retail customer experience.

EDUCATE – The other day I encountered what seemed like a minor issue with my new home theater system (which I purchased on-line after looking at it in a retail store). I Googled my questions and spent what seemed like hours trying to find the right answer. Wouldn’t it have been better if the retail sales representative had spent a few minutes with me showing me how to use the product? I would have been a happier customer and probably would have rewarded him with a sale in the store. In fact I likely would have invested in an installation service which I clearly could have used!

ADVOCATE – I was working with 100-plus store a retail client a couple of weeks ago and while visiting some of their locations was shocked to find out that their retail store managers and sales representatives are hesitant to upsell and add-on for fear of offending their customers. This company is in a competitive business and the majority of their foot traffic comes from a commoditized item where they have a low-price guarantee. Their team members are highly educated with regard to their products, but fail to capitalize on that knowledge and the low-price guarantee in order to earn more sales. If they were to make sure that their customers knew that they will always match a price and that they add-value through their education programs they would earn the right to suggestive sell!

THANK – In the retail business, the only thing more important than a good first impression is making a positive and lasting final impression. It is often the little things that make a difference in terms of creating retail customer loyalty and repeat business. That begins with an honest and heartfelt “Thank You” to them for coming into your stores and continues through simple things like carry out service, thank you cards, and follow-up phone calls or emails.

The GREAT method is a simple way to get your retail team members focused on providing a top-notch retail customer experience so that you can win more customers when they are in your stores and prevent them from running to the web.

If you would like to learn more about the GREAT service concept or are interested in retail management training courses, feel free to Contact usfor a free one hour consultation so we can help you improve your retail customer experience.

Calculating the Cost of Retail Employee Turnover – Time to Stop Accepting the Status Quo

Posted on Monday, October 10th, 2011 at 8:56pm

The retail industry has experienced with high employee turnover rates of 80%, 100%, or even 150% for decades and many retail managers have come to expect that they will be spending an inordinate amount of their time recruiting, selecting, and hiring talent. Without a doubt this is a frustrating course of events, but it does seem to be one that retailers have resigned themselves to living with the problem.

Many retail store owners and managers have paid lip service to the problem by saying that they understand that by practicing better recruiting practices, investing in stronger retail training programs, and implementing enhanced compensation plans they will be able to reduce employee turnover. But…when it comes to allocating the budget and spending the money they often hesitate. This may feel like the right decision when you look at retail cash flow and the immediate needs of the business, but in reality it just creates more employee turnover and even in the short term can be costly.

There are many on-line tools that will assist you with calculating the actual monetary costs of employee turnover, but a good average after calculating the costs associated with lost sales, overtime, unemployment insurance, recruiting, and training costs can often exceed $5-$10,000. But let’s look this from a different perspective….

If you are a casual clothing retailer and your business net’s $10 when you sell a pair of jeans. That means you will need to sell 500 to 1,000 EXTRA pairs of jeans to cover the cost of losing and replacing that team member!
If you are a wireless retailer and you earn $200 on a new wireless activation, you will need to sell up to 50 EXTRA handsets to cover the cost!
Or maybe you run an office supply store and earn $2 on a ream of paper. That adds up to having to sell up to an EXTRA 5,000 reams of paper!

How much extra work does it take to hit these milestones? How much extra in marketing will you need to spend to find those extra customers? How will you find all of those extra customers? And, in reality, if you can achieve these milestones, how many months will it take?

If you are a retailer that is experiencing a challenge with employee turnover looking at the cost of turnover in this new way may make you rethink your investments in retail training and development, compensation programs, and performance management practices.

Would you like to learn more about how you can improve your company’s recruiting, hiring, and training and development practices? Enroll in one of our retail management training courses or Contact us for a free one hour consultation so we can help you overhaul your retail customer experience.

Differentiate Your Retail Business By Giving Yourself A Customer Service Overhaul

Posted on Monday, October 10th, 2011 at 7:44am

Everyone knows that in order to succeed in a competitive retail marketplace it is important to provide great customer service. Yet many segments of the retail industry continue to struggle with reaching consistently good services standards. Why do so many retailers struggle with this issue?

Ultimately it comes down to three key factors: First, retail management may not be recruiting and hiring team members who fit the behavioral profile necessary to provide crowning customer care. Second, once they have been hired, the retail store staff may not know what is expected of them. Third, management may only give lip service to the importance of maintaining high levels of customer service.

As with most business challenges, the key is ensuring that management - from the top levels of the company through the retail field managers to the store managers - is aligned and is executing. With that in mind here are the 5 core activities that you can focus on to take decisive action and get your retail business on track for becoming a truly customer driven organization:

1. Recruit and hire people who demonstrate that they have a history of caring about other people:By developing your retail hiring profile and then using behavioral interviewing techniques you can ensure that you are screening out potential employees who may not be represent your retail stores effectively.

2. Ensure that your standards are clearly defined and communicated: Beginning with your employee handbook and retail operations manual, and then continuing through your new employee orientation and ongoing retail training programs you want to communicate your rules for and standards. This should include the basics of customer care and how to handle difficult customer situations.

3. Measure performance, report on your results and celebrate victories: What you do not measure, you cannot manage, so you will need to develop a performance scorecard for your stores. Additionally, you will want to make sure your retail store managers have detailed discussions with your their team members about their individual performance during your weekly or monthly one-on-ones.

4. Promote team members who demonstrate your company’s customer centric values: Clearly you will always want to promote retail employees who exceed your company’s sales and profit targets, but you should also ensure that your future leaders are true believers in your company’s customer service strategy.

5. Solve service issues immediately and at the initial point of contact:Customer service surveys have long shown that that as long as a problem is resolved quickly and to the customer's benefit, they will likely become a customer for life. The key is to empower your retail employees to make decisions without having to escalate issues to management and give them the customer service training they need to execute your program.

Would you like to learn more about how you can improve the service levels in your stores? Enroll in one of our customer service training courses or Contact us for a free one hour consultation so we can help you overhaul your retail customer experience.

Using a SMARTER Method for Setting Goals and Attaining Desired Retail Outcomes

Posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 11:22am

Retailers are now entering the Golden Quarter. That is the biggest and best selling period of the year and as such it is worth taking a moment to consider how you – as a retail leader – will be ensuring that your retail store managers and team leaders will be staying on track for attaining the results your retail company needs to succeed. And that often starts with communicating expectations and setting goals.

Over the next few weeks, take time out with your key leaders to take stock of where your business is in terms of attaining its targets and then reset your objectives – and the plans for attaining them - for the Golden Quarter.

Setting objectives helps retail leaders and sales representatives get focused by defining what success looks like. For many years you have probably heard about using the “SMART” process for setting goals, but since you only have a few weeks left to finish out the year, shouldn’t your goals be even “SMARTER?” Let’s look at the “SMARTER” method of goal setting:

Specific –When speaking with retail managers we often hear that their retail leaders will tell them that they need to “make more money” or “sell more than last year”. These are non-specific goals that program them to fail and to disappoint. After all isn’t doing one dollar more in revenue a sales gain? Then again, that probably is not the result you are looking for is it? Be specific in terms of your financial targets.

Measurable – Recently I was working with a client who was getting less than desirable results from their chain of wireless retail stores. When we did the analysis we found that the store managers never saw the financial results (either P&L or scorecards) for their locations. They wanted to do a good job and thought they were! When we gave them a scorecard and then trained them on how to use it the business’ results did a 360!

Attainable and Aggressive –Working with your retail team leaders, and field managers you will want to define success in such a way that they know they can attain the goal with hard work and diligence. Make them stretch just a little to get there as well.

Relevant –Goals and targets must be relevant to your team members and their personal needs. Going back to the wireless retail client I mentioned above, they could not understand why their stores were not increasing in revenue year-over-year. The answer was quite simple. Their retail store managers were paid based on personal sales, not on store sales. When we created a bonus plan that paid them on reaching store-level sales and profit targets results quickly began turning around!

Time bound –This part of goal setting is so simple that it is often forgotten. You will want to work with your retail store managers and top sales representatives to great interim goals and targets. Tracking results against timed goals creates a level of urgency for everyone and helps to eliminate procrastination.

Exciting – Excitement, like relevancy is critical to success. Do you know what gets your retail team excited? Do you know what they want? Here is an example from my own experience as a young retail store manager. I wanted to buy my first home and my District Manager was smart enough to know that. He helped me develop a SMARTER plan that would help me earn the down payment through attaining the Company’s stretch goals for my store. Needless to say, I was successful. And my District Manager even came for a personal visit to congratulate me on the day of my closing!

Recorded – Finally, you will want to make sure that you record and document your SMARTER goals with your team members. That allows you to hold them accountable as they work to attain them AND it helps you to give them written recognition when they do.

If you want to learn more about SMARTER goal setting, consider investing in our Motivation and Goal Setting e-learning program. It is part of a suite of retail e-learning training courses that we offer to the retail community at large.

What Type of Retail Training Program Should You Implement?

Posted on Monday, October 3rd, 2011 at 10:02am

While most retailers understand the need to utilize training and learning resources in order to improve sales productivity and to improve retail management practices, they are often challenged when it comes to making the decision with regard to what is the best format to use when developing a training program. Should they utilize traditional classroom training methods or is computer based training better? And what about using the new mobile learning tools? Should they outsource their training program and try to develop it in house? Let’s explore some of these topics:

When Should I Use E-learning or Computer-Based Training?

While there is no standard answer for using online training over instructor-led training a retailer or retail vendor might want to implement an e-learning or computer-based solution when…

· Employees and Locations are Spread Across a Large Geographical Area. When a retailer has multiple locations a significant amount of time (and money) can be wasted when either the trainer or the retail store personnel have to travel from location to location. Beyond the costs associated with travel, there are issues with time spent off of the sales floor and the attendant issues with lost revenue and gross profit margin.

· You are Launching a New Product, Program or Process on a Deadline. Computer-based training can reach a vast number of people at the same time to meet difficult deadlines. Computer-based training is also not limited to space (facilities) or geographical boundaries (world-wide access).

· To Simulate Systems or Applications That a Classroom Cannot Replicate. Are you launching a new POS system or new product that requires special handling through your POS? E-Learning allows you to demonstrate these processes in an interactive environment that gives the learner “hands-on” experience and feedback as they practice the new skills

· When Training Consistency is Critical.The disadvantage of classroom training is that each class is different based on the instructor's and/or students' personalities, energy and attitudes. However, online training courses provide perfect consistency in the delivery of the materials to provide everyone the same learning experience. This makes it perfect for product training, operations training, and new employee orientations!

· To Reduce Training Expense. Expenses of instructors, facilities, workbooks, and other supportive materials can take its toll on an education or training budget. When the budget is small, online learning can be a great alternative as it leverages the cost of existing assets like the computers and real estate that you are already paying for.

· You Want to Reinforce Classroom Training. Do you want to make your classroom training more impactful? Then using computer-based training for retail is a perfect tool for distributing basic information prior to a training seminar as it gets everyone on the same page. It also works as a great tool to reinforce retail concepts after an instructor-led training experience.

When Should I use Classroom Based Retail Training Programs?

While online learning is a great method to deliver training, it is not always the best option to achieve your training objectives. Instructor-led training is still an important tool for retailers to consider. Classroom training is particularly impactful under the following circumstances:

· When Retail Skills Training Content Focuses on Topics That Have Grey Areas. If the topic requires justification for an answer which does not have a right or wrong answer, e-learning is not always the best alternative as if cannot contemplate for every variable. If you anticipate having to handle questions and answers then the classroom would be a better choice to deliver the training.

· When the Training Objectives Focus on Practicing Retail Skills.While computer-based retail training is highly effective at presenting and communicating soft skill techniques it is not always an effective tool for providing feedback. The truth is that role-playing works best in a live setting.

· When You are Looking to Create “Hype”. Are you launching a contest or making significant changes to the way you are going to do business going forward? Whether it is a retail sales rally or special roll-out a classroom experience lets you get the music rocking and everyone involved.

· When hands-on training is required.Computer-based training can simulate a lot of environments in the real world. However, certain situations that require touching or using something may require face-to-face training environments. This could include site visits, facility tours, and more.

Mobile Learning…The next Big Thing?

We are hearing a lot about how mobile learning – commonly referred to as mlearning – is going to change the way retail companies train their team members. Retailers can now deliver fast and engaging content directly to their employee’s smartphones or tablets! But it is important to look at what mlearning can really deliver for retailers. In many cases we are recommending that retailers keep mlearning on their horizon but not go actively into this space at this time.

· Mobile Learning for Retail is Excellent for Short Video-Based Content. Have you ever tried to really surf the web or view a PowerPoint on a smartphone? It can be done, but after a few minutes it is a real challenge. Mlearning is not a replacement for computer-based training, but it is a perfect vehicle for delivering short video content (think you tube) that speaks to a new product or to delivering retail training tips!

· Use Mlearning for Assessments and Testing. Did you just deliver a classroom or webinar style training? Use mlearning tools to deliver quizzes, surveys, and assessments to help you reinforce the training or to find out if it is sticking with team members.

· How and When is Retail Mlearning Delivered? The advantage of the mlearning concept is that you can reach out and touch your team members wherever they are. But the obstacle is that many retail employees may not have a smartphone or tablet computer. Additionally there is the problem of tracking their work hours and payroll if they use the mlearning when they are “off the clock”.

· Make sure your systems can deliver content to all devices. Not all mobile are compatible with traditional video content. Apple devices and other mobile devices are not always able to use the same style of content. Make sure that you engage with a knowledgeable retail training consultant to assist you with implementing any mobile solution.

What About Webinar-style Virtual Classrooms?

Webinars have been around for a long time and can provide a great adjunct to your training programs. They have some advantages and dome distinct challenges.

· Advantage: Cost Savings. If you are looking to roll-out a training program for retail that requires some give and take or Q&A but do not have the time of budget to handle a traditional classroom setting a Webinar is a good compromise as it allows you to present factual information in a visual manner while answering questions via the audio channel.

· Disadvantage:Control and Measurement. The biggest challenge with most webinar formats – especially in a retail environment – is that you have little to no control over what the trainees are doing. Are they serving customers instead of training? Or maybe they are surfing the web. Additionally, unlike e-learning, there is no way to ensure that everyone is really participating…they may just have set the phone down.

Take a Blended Approach to Retail Training and Development / Consider Outsourcing

In addition to these types of training methods there are numerous other opportunities for training retail team members. Whether it is through the use of workbooks, CD-ROM training, or one-on-one mentoring the most effective training programs use a blend of all of these training methodologies to improve reach and efficiency.

There are many companies that can help you implement these solutions. Outsourcing your retail training may make sense. This is especially true if you are just dipping your toe into the waters of creating an integrated retail training program or if some of these techniques are new to your company. Many of these retail training companies will also custom develop or license their training content to you for less cost than you can develop the training solutions in-house

Become a Better Retail Store Manager - 10 Actions You Can Take Today

Posted on Monday, September 26th, 2011 at 5:55pm

1. Take one of your employees out for a cup of coffee and spend some quality one-on-one time. Be sure and ask what you can do to improve the store and make it a more enjoyable place to work. Also ask what type of retail training and development activities they would like to experience.

2. Watch and listen to your staff interact with customers. Then give them feedback that includes three things they did well and one thing that they could improve upon. Remember…People need to hear praise right alongside of constructive criticism. Always end a feedback session by expressing your confidence and your appreciation for their efforts.

3. Create a fun one-day contest that involves the whole retail staff. Make sure that is focuses on encouraging the behavior you are looking for. Right behavior when coupled with right motivation and the right talent almost always yields the desired results. One idea is to hand out “recognition dollars” every time you see a desired behavior. If the store can achieve a minimu number of “dollars” you will buy pizza for the team tomorrow!

4. Just say “THANK YOU”! Remember that your team members have a choice about where they work and retail employee turnover is very costly. So show your sincere appreciation each and every day.

5. Spend 15 minutes working on your own personal retail training and development. Whether by it's reading a book, checking out a trade journal, or completing an online retail course you should always be looking to improve your retail skills. Expand your knowledge in leadership, recruiting and hiring, time management and more!

6. Clean up your office and then clean up another area of the retail store. Your team members will follow your example and ramp up their level of activity if they see you rolling up your sleeves and pitching in. Plus, you can't expect your employees to have spotless work spaces if you don't!

7. Be the first one on line to do the dirty work! It is amazing how much your retail staff will respect and look up to you when you lead by example! Clean the bathroom, unload a truck, or mop the floor on occasion.

8. Get on the retail sales floor and interact with customers and your team! After all, your products are sold and your profits are earned (and often lost) on the sales floor. Endeavor to spend less than 10% of your time in the office or stockroom! Assist customers and ask your retail team how you can help. In between customers focus on retail customer service training and retail sales training by role playing and giving feedback.

9. Always look for small areas of improvement! You can avoid most crises and major course corrections by making little changes each and every day. Whether it is improving you visual imaging, fixing a broken process, improving your retail training, or changing a dead light bulb, it is the sum total of the little things that successful retailers do that separates them from the pack.

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