By Angel Cicerone, Tenant Mentorship
www.tenantmentorship.com

You are in the retail sales business, not the wait-for-someone-to-walk-in-the-door-and-hope-they-buy-something business. Success in brick-and-mortar retail, especially in today’s competitive environment, requires a staff trained to provide the finest customer experience with carefully honed sales skills to maximize the revenue potential of every person that walks through the door. Training isn’t just about onboarding or orientation. Training, to be effective, needs to be an ongoing and important part of your corporate culture. And by the way, training applies to everyone! The benefits are powerful. Not only will sales training help elevate your store’s income, it also will also increase employee satisfaction and help reduce turnover, leading to additional savings and a more pleasant work environment.

Step 1: Start with the Basics

• Schedule days/times for training that are nonnegotiable, minimum twice per month and maximum session 45 minutes; a well-organized 30 minutes should be sufficient.
• Create a written agenda for each session.

Step 2: Select and Schedule the Topics

Break up the training into two parallel modules: sales and product/policies. If you are training twice per month, the first session of the month would cover a sales-related topic and the second would cover something related to product or operations. Focus on only one topic per session.

Sales Training Topics

• what sales and selling mean — address misconceptions
• greeting
• building rapport
• finding the pain
• the independent versus the needy customer
• conveying benefits to the customer
• asking for the sale
• overcoming objections
• upselling
• asking probing questions
• when to push
• diffusing difficult customers Understanding the ideal customer Elevator speech
• sales floor positioning
• store brand, culture and messaging

Product and Policy Topics

• product benefits
• returns
• discounts
• sexual harassment
• calling out
• cellphone usage on the sales floor
• safety
• compliance
• legal
• point-of-sale system training
• checkout process
• customer service standards
• asking for social media followers/reviews
• the last impression/seamless checkout

Step 3: Create Goals and Measurements for Effectiveness

Your sales training will be a lot more effective, fun and engaging if there are goals — and rewards — attached to specific training topics. For example, if you are teaching upselling or how to speed up checkout time, hold a contest that month to reward the person who had the biggest increase in average sale or the biggest reduction in checkout time.

Excellent Sales Metrics to Teach and Measure

• average sales
• sales by employee
• conversion rate

Step 4: Use Multiple Training Methods

Everyone learns a bit differently, and the same holds true for your staff. Vary your training methods to include role-playing; hands-on, interactive exercises; shadowing; and lecture. You can also utilize email and online platforms for quizzes. Switch things up to keep interest high.

Step 5: Get the Help You Need

You’re thinking: “I don’t have time. This is just one more thing to do.” Don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be hard, just consistent. The internet is full of ideas, training games and tips for more effective selling. Take advantage of these free resources. Do you have an employee that’s great at upselling? Assign that training to them. Bring in vendors to train in product knowledge. Do you know some great salespeople? Ask them to come for a training. It doesn’t matter what industry they’re from. It’s always good to get a new perspective.

The Bottom Line

Yes, your staff will complain about training, and yes, they’ll be uncomfortable. Over time, however, defenses will wear down and your sessions will become very productive. Training is the touchstone of sales and customer service. You can make it effective and simple with just a little planning.