Five Sales Training Tips For Your Retail Staff

Running a retail store involves overseeing the selling activities of your sales staff.  When you have properly trained and motivated sales associates, you ensure your customers are receiving the best product and service information possible – and that leads t bigger and better results

In addition, highly trained sales associates make your job as a store owner or manager easier.  You can have full confidence that your employees are representing your business well when you’re not there.  And when you are in the store, you can concentrate on other essential tasks knowing your sales team is performing optimally.

So let’s look at some important retail sales training topics we cover in our sales training courses and that you can focus on in your business.

 Five Tips For Retail Sales Reps

Start From a Customer-Centric Viewpoint – Many sales reps have a tendency to think that it is all about them when in reality it is not.  Teach your sales associates to have the customer’s wants and needs as the starting point of any sales conversation.   When they know exactly what the customer wants, and why, they can fine-tune their sales message to satisfy the customer’s needs.

Product Knowledge Inspires Confidence – Once your retail staff knows and understands their product thoroughly they can then convey that knowledge in an effective manner.  Customers hate it when they get inaccurate answers to their questions and they can almost always tell when a retail associate is making it up as they go along.

Focus on Benefits…Not Just Features – To often retail sales reps will begin a presentation by rattling off a list of features or specifications.  In our retail sales training seminars we call it “being a sign.”  Instead, relate what the features of a product actually do for the customer!  Then give advice and tips on how to care for or use the product.

Be Prepared for Objections to the Sale – Your customers want to feel like they are making a good investment in a product and they often do this by either shopping around or asking questions so they can gain reassurance.  So whether the customer has a concern about price, value, features or product reviews you need to remember that the “selling begins when the customer says ‘No.’”

Great Retail Reps Listen and Observe – It is important to understand what your customer’s want in a product.  And that usually means that they are seeking to improve their lifestyle in one form or another.  It could be the pleasure of giving a gift or the pleasure they derive from using the product personally.  Listen for these cues and then relate them back to your presentation.

 

These five tips are just a sampling of the many topics our team covers during our retail sales training seminars and they are topics you should consider as well.