5 More Common Retail Management Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them!

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!

–          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.