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Category: Staff Training

How Much Are You Investing in Your Business?

The Jackson County Chamber and I are teaming up to offer the best segments from the Jackson Retail Success Academy for all Jackson area businesses (and anyone willing to make the drive).

Three classes. Three four-hour days. $250 investment in your business (or $99 per class if you cannot make all three or are not a retailer.)

Inventory Management and Financial Health for Retailers
Thursday, June 27 (9am to 1pm) 

Every retailer knows that Cash is King. But do you know how to get more cash in your business to grow your kingdom?

This Business Boot Camp is designed strictly to help retailers understand how to manage inventory and expenses and, most importantly, your cash. You will learn simple formulas that the smart retailers use to keep the checkbook fat and happy. You will learn the Do’s and Don’t’s for keeping your inventory fresh and moving. You will find out where your cash is hiding and how to get more of it.

We will discuss things like Open-To-Buy programs, financial statements, the proper numbers to measure, how to price your products for profit, and the simplest way to get the most out of the inventory you sell.

Yes, there will be math. The important math. The kind of math you have to do if you want to be successful. What will surprise you is how quickly and easily you will learn the math and see the results.

(Note: to get the most out of this Business Boot Camp bring your previous fiscal year’s Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statement. You will not be asked to share, but it will help you do your own math.)

Shareworthy Customer Service for Small Businesses
Thursday, July 11 (9am to 1pm)

We all know Word-of-Mouth is the best form of advertising. But do you know how to get people to talk about your company?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals behind generating Word-of-Mouth from your customer base. You will learn how to exceed customer expectations in such a way that they have to tell someone else. You will learn how to create a culture in your business that wants to delight your customers at every turn and raise the bar of Customer Service so high that you turn clients into evangelists.

Whether you are a retailer, a service provider, or any type of business, you will walk away with four ways to generate word-of-mouth, a new approach to hiring and training, at least one planned staff training, and a better understanding of what it takes to offer Customer Service that makes people want to talk.

Word-of-Mouth is still the most powerful form of advertising. This Business Boot Camp will be one you will be talking about for a long time.

Branding and Advertising: Reaching New Customers in Today’s Market
Thursday, August 8 (9am to 1pm)

The advertising that got you results yesterday isn’t working today. Today’s market just can’t be reached. Or can it?

This Business Boot Camp will teach you the fundamentals of marketing that work in any day and age and how to apply those to this day and age. You will learn what moves the needle in advertising and how to craft a message that gets your potential clients to take action. You will learn the biggest myths of advertising and how even the largest companies throw good money away every single day. You will learn how to get the most out of your advertising budget (even if it close to zero).

Advertising cannot fix your business, but if you have a good business model, you will learn techniques that will grow your business the right way and keep it growing for years, no matter what kind of business you run.

Contact the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce to sign up. It will be the best twelve hours you spend on your business this summer!

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you are struggling in any one of these areas, you should sign up for that one class Ninety-nine dollars for four hours of top-level, hands-on instruction is the kind of no-brainer investment you know you should make for your business.

PPS If you don’t think you need any of these classes then you should definitely sign up for all three. Last night as I did a presentation for the Quincy Chamber of Commerce, one of the organizers lamented that it was only the businesses who were already doing well that showed up. I reminded her that was why they were doing well. They kept showing up.

Do You Know Who You Are?

Do you know who you are? No, not you. Your business. Well, okay, and you, too.

Did you know that as much as you try to keep your business separate, your business is really simply you?

You only have so much energy to give to your business. You only have so much energy to teach your staff, merchandise the store, work with the customers, pay the bills. You can’t do it all. So you prioritize. There are the things you have to get done. Period. The necessary stuff.  Then there is everything else. With limited time and energy what part of the everything else will you do?

The stuff that is important to you.

If orderly and organized is important to you, you will spend your limited resources on straightening, organizing and getting your staff to do the same.

If having fun is important to you then you will find fun things to do or do things in a more fun way. You’ll encourage your staff to join in the fun.

If education is important to you, you will spend time reading, watching instructional videos, teaching others.

If staying active is important to you then you will find things to do that get you out of your desk chair and out on the floor. You’ll be directing traffic and assigning tasks to anyone who looks the slightest bit bored or inactive.

If punctuality is important to you then you will be standing by the time clock waiting for the staff to arrive, devising games to get them to show up on time, firing those who are chronically late, and posting clocks all around your store.

If innovative is important to you, you will be updating to the latest technologies, using the most modern design features, trying new things, encouraging your staff to follow the trends to help you stay ahead of the curve.

Whatever is important to you – your values – will be where you spend your limited resources after doing the necessary stuff. Those values will then become your store’s values, and eventually your store’s reputation.  More than your product mix, more than your services, this will be the most true differentiating factor that sets your store apart from everyone else’s.

The key is to know what those values are, and openly embrace them. Not only will it help set you apart, you will end up attracting more customers who share those values. Those are the best customers. The most loyal, the best recruiters for more business.

First, however, you have to know who you are.

Check out this worksheet I designed to help you figure out your own values and those you most closely share with your store. Here are the accompanying notes.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Once you identify your values that also fit your store, you will have a blueprint for every decision going forward. Does it fit with my values? Yes, do it! No, don’t do it. It’s that simple.

PPS Yeah, that is also the foundation of Tim Miles’ First Order of Business. (In his naming contest I was a runner-up because I called it “The Order of Business”. I won the bacon!) Do this first because everything else depends on it.

How to Handle the Crowd

I was at a trade show for the baby industry last week. One of those smaller shows with limited vendors and limited hours. My agenda was packed. One of my main vendors went out of business earlier this year and I was searching for a replacement. I had to budget most of my time for one product category while I skimmed through the others.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

One of those skimmed booths had a bunch of new introductions. I needed a new price list and catalog. I slowed down my pace to take in all the new stuff before I reached the table where the lone person was staffing the booth.

She was sitting behind a table conversing with another person, presumably a customer.

I was about to interrupt to ask for information and be on my way, but someone else stepped in front of me and asked the same question. And then I heard it. A response that stopped me dead in my tracks. I shook my head, hoping I had heard wrong.

“Can’t you see I’m talking to someone right now?!”

Yes, that is exactly what I heard. Not only did the guy who asked the question walk away, I walked away, too. Emailed my rep the next day for the information I needed.

This is a multi-million dollar subsidiary of a multi-billion dollar company and all they could send to the show was one person who did not know how to handle a crowd.

Other crowded booths got it. Either they brought in enough people or they knew how to handle a crowd.

They said, “Will you excuse me, while I go greet that other person? I will be right back.” They asked my permission to leave (which I granted), went over to the other person and said, “Hey, thanks for stopping by. I’m working with Phil right now. Will you give me a couple minutes to finish up with him?” to which they also granted him permission and promised to wait for his return.

If you’re running your business the right way you will have moments where the customers needing help outnumber the employees available to help them. How you handle those moments will go a long way towards how many more of those moments you will get.

Ask permission to leave the first customer to greet the second customer. You will always get it.
Ask permission from the second customer to finish with the first customer. You will always get it.
Always be polite and gracious.

The better you handle the crowd, the more crowds you will get.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This is an easy skill to train your staff. Make a game out of it by having them all ask each other’s permission to do crazy and goofy things. Get them in the habit of always asking customers’ permission. It puts the customer in control, gets the customer to buy-in and often will get the customer to wait for your return.

PPS If you find yourself getting too many crowds, time to hire more staff. As my grandfather always said, “Plan for Success”.

Information Gotta Be Free, A Good Salesperson is Priceless

What did we do twenty years ago when we wanted information on a certain product we were considering?

Anyone remember?

There was Consumer Reports. There were other magazines that might have done a review or two. There were your friends and family – a much smaller circle before Facebook helped us all reconnect.

And there was the salesperson. The gatekeeper. The controller of knowledge.

A Good Salesperson knew all there was to know about everything she sold and quite a lot about the stuff she didn’t sell. A Good Salesperson knew all about you, too. What you liked and didn’t like. What worked well for you. Your preferences. Your desires. A good salesperson let you through the gate, showed you what you needed to know, and found you the perfect fit.

When you found a good salesperson, you kept her. You went back to that store for the information, the suggestions and the personal touch. Oh sure, sometimes you got the information and bought elsewhere cheaper because of a deal too good to pass up. But you understood there was a price to that kind of knowledge and more often you were willing to pay for it.

The Internet changed all that.

Information is FREE. Wikipedia said so. Jeeves said so. Yahoo said so. Google said so. Information is free and plentiful. Not always accurate, but always out there.

Today we can pull up dozens of review sites, complete spec sheets and instructions, hordes of testimonials both good and bad all in a matter of seconds. Today we can walk into almost any store in America and know just as much or more about the product than the gum-chewing clerk waiting on us.

The Internet brought the level of available information up. But at the same time,the level of professionalism of the salesperson went down. I partly blame Albert Einstein who said, “Never memorize anything you can easily look up.” It is so easy to look things up now that salespeople stopped knowing.

Except what does that tell the customer when your salespeople are looking up the same information the customer looked up last night at home?

The other thing we’ve lost has nothing to do with the Internet. Our salespeople have lost the ability to connect.

Information gotta be free. And it is. The difference now between “selling” and “clerking” is the connection. Go back up and read that paragraph about the Good Salesperson. Those last six sentences are why showrooming is such a big deal. Salespeople have forgotten about connecting. Customers feel no connection so they gather up all the free information they can and shop wherever they please.

Want to combat showrooming in your store? Spend your money hiring good salespeople who want to connect. Spend your money teaching them how to connect. Spend your money, your time, your effort getting to know your customers better.

The Internet will never be able to compete with that.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS In a few days I’m going to be showing a bunch of juvenile product store owners how to connect and sell. Shortly after that I’m going to post my latest Freebie – Selling in a Showrooming World. If you can’t make it to Vegas, be sure to look for the new eBook. Just like all the information I’ve posted… It’s FREE!

Great Minds Discuss Ideas

Eleanor Roosevelt said,

Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.

I did a workshop on Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend. After the presentation, I had each table plan a training for their staff. At many of the tables the attendees were discussing ideas and getting excited about sharing those ideas with others. They were fired up, sharing even more ideas with each other and creating new ways to get those ideas to spread.

At some tables, however, they were discussing how they were afraid their staff wouldn’t listen, learn or like it.

Guess which businesses are likely to be more successful in the long run?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you have a great idea, I want to hear it! (I can talk ideas all night long)

Everything I Possibly Can

I went to Manistee, MI and did a full day workshop on Shareworthy Customer Service (thanks, Tim, for that wonderful word). Part of my contract was to visit stores the day before and the day after the event to get a feel for the town and give them some one-on-one time after the workshop.

One of the stores I visited was a shoe store called Snyder’s (you can see the co-owner “Shoe Man Dan” in the video in the link up above). Even though it was off-season for this primarily summer resort kind of town, Snyder’s was hopping. The store was busy. The staff was engaged. The displays were fresh and brightly lit.

This was a store that got it. This was a store that understood the importance of building relationships, keeping the store updated, doing retail the way it needs to be done. For a store doing this well, I was curious what they were hoping to learn in my workshop.

I asked Jill, the manager, what she hoped to learn. She said…

“Everything I possibly can.”

Here was the best retailer on River Street, the shining star of retail in Manistee, and they were sending one owner and two managers to a day-long customer service workshop. In an interview after the workshop, Dan was asked if he planned to implement any of the strategies I talked about. His answer?

“Everything I possibly can.”

Now you know why they are the shining star. They are always striving to be better.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I bought a pair of shoes from them.

Managing Expectations

Have you ever done something for a customer and been disappointed by her reaction?

I mean, something really nice, quite special and unexpected, yet she didn’t respond in kind? She didn’t say thank you or decide to buy more, or promise to bring all her friends back to shop with you?

She didn’t even acknowledge that you did something nice for her.

Now you’re pissed. Now you’re in the back room bitching and moaning about the ungrateful customer. Now you’re griping and complaining about how customers don’t care and are rude and don’t get what you have to sacrifice to be there for them and don’t understand how slanted the playing field is against you and don’t realize what it costs for you to be in business and have no idea what you have done for the community and…

Whew. Working up a sweat back there.

I would hate to be the next customer through the door.

The problem here is one of managing expectations. We need to realizes that unless we tell the customers up front how we expect them to behave, we cannot get upset when they don’t behave the way we expect.

I am not actually suggesting that you tell them how to behave. I’m suggesting you give up your expectations. I’m suggesting you continue to do nice things, special things, unexpected things for your customers every single time but without any expectations in return. I’m suggesting you continue delighting customers whether they acknowledge it, whether they tell you, whether they even seem to care.

Give up the expectation. Just do the right thing. Time and time again.

We all know that customers who have a bad time likely won’t tell you, but they will tell their friends. Why would you think that customers who have a great time might be any different? That customer you bent over backwards for might not tell you how grateful she is, but she’ll tell her friends.

It’s all about managing expectations.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, this even applies to showrooming. I’ll talk more about that in future posts.

How Well Do You Know Your Product?

My wife sent me into one of the big hardware stores to look at a product for refinishing cabinets. Rust-Oleum has a simple 4-step process that restores, changes, or simply transforms your wooden cabinets without having to strip and sand and labor for weeks.

Sounds good to me.

Our only concern was that our cabinet doors are recessed. They close inside the frame, not on top, and it’s a tight fit already. Would this product work on such a tight fit?

The guy at the hardware store said yes. Reggie said no.

My wife wasn’t convinced by the guy at the hardware store. She sent an email directly to Rust-Oleum. And in less than 24 hours she got the following reply…

Shannon,

Thank you for contacting Rust-Oleum Product Support.

Thank you for your interest in Rust-Oleum’s products.  Unfortunately, we do not recommend using this product on this type of frame.  The paint will chip or rub off.

Thanks,
Reggie

Whew! That saved me a few hundred bucks and a lost weekend… and lost cabinets, and another lost week or two fixing the problem, and another few hundred (thousand?) bucks replacing the cabinets, and a few choice words my boys don’t need to hear, and a bunch of times telling people how much that hardware store sucks, and…

You get the point.

But do you get the lesson? Your sales staff needs to know the products just as well as the company (if not better). You need to know when to say no to the sale. You need to be comfortable enough to realize when your product won’t solve the customer’s problem.

I have far more faith in Rust-Oleum now because of their honesty in saying no, their product won’t help me. I won’t forget that, either.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The only thing they could have done better is recommend a product that would help me – even if it wasn’t one of theirs. Your first goal in delighting a customer is to solve her problem. Do that and you earn the chance for another transaction.

A Full Day of Customer Service Training

In a couple of weeks I’m going to Manistee, MI, a beautiful small town on Lake Michigan with an active Main Street DDA program and some lovely shops.

They’ve hired me to spend a few days working with them on Customer Service. When I get to town, I’m going to visit a few stores and ask them about their hopes and dreams, ask them about their challenges, ask them how they define Customer Service.

The following day I’m going to present them all of this…

CORE VALUES
This session will be a workshop where each participant will be led through a process of uncovering the 3-4 Core Values that drive both them and their business.  We will use three different techniques for helping each participant create his or her own Character Diamond.  Depending on time, we will have each person share his/her diamond with the entire class.  We will at least have a few people share so that others can learn from the examples.

Purpose: To create a framework around which every element of Shareworthy Customer Service (SCS) is derived. (thanks, Tim Miles, for the word Shareworthy).

WORD OF MOUTH
This session will illustrate the different ways in which a business can generate Word of Mouth – including Over-the-Top Design, Over-the-Top Service, and Over-the-Top Generosity, Secrets and Surprise.  Participants will be given a number of examples of each, then asked to come up with one form of Generosity/Design and one method of Sharing Secrets that they can easily incorporate into their business.

Purpose: To show what it takes to get customers to actually Share their experiences.

PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST
This session will explore a variety of interactions a customer has with a typical (retail) business and talk through the various levels of Customer Service from Weak to WOW

Purpose: To show what it really means to put the customer first, how to delight her, and how to make the experience memorable and share-worthy

TEACHING YOUR STAFF
This session will teach the participants how to plan a training program for teaching their staff everything they are learning today.  The seminar will show them the basics for planning meetings and trainings that the staff will look forward to attending, how to make the information stick, how to prep the staff for meetings/trainings, and how to follow-up after the meeting/training is over.

Purpose: It is one thing to learn it yourself.  It is completely different to be able to teach it to others.  Since most participants will have a staff, this session is to show them how to create staff meetings and trainings that will help them teach this to their frontline workers.

CREATE A TRAINING WORKSHOP
This session will be a hands-on workshop where the participants will split into teams and be given different elements of Customer Service around which they will plan a meeting/training (based on the method learned in the previous session)

Purpose: To put into practice what they have learned both on creating a staff training session and on SCS.  To create camaraderie and bonding.  To have fun.

HIRING AND TRAINING A MASTERPIECE
This session will show the participants how the steps a potter uses to create a work of art can be applied to the hiring and training process, turning your staff into a masterpiece.  The session will include creating a non-teachable traits list for a variety of positions in your company, including some interview questions to help draw out those traits.

Purpose: To illustrate the point that all the training in the world won’t help if you don’t have the right people in place.  To show how to consistently find the right people.  To give the participants a blueprint they can follow for hiring and training.

SHARING YOUR PLANS
After creating their trainings, each group will share their plan with the rest.  After presentations, the plans will be copied/shared for everyone to use with their own teams.

Purpose: To help each participant have a developed plan for teaching SCS to their staff.  To make sure we have taught our points well.  To give a review of everything discussed throughout the day.

Results:  At the end of the day each participant will have…

  • Created a Character Diamond
  • Learned how to generate Word of Mouth
  • Thought up at least two ways to generate Word of Mouth with their business
  • Learned a new definition and way of looking at Customer Service
  • Learned a method for planning Staff Meetings/Trainings That Everyone Wants to Attend
  • Created a training session for one particular element of SCS
  • Received a complete portfolio of training sessions for all elements of SCS
  • Learned a method for consistently hiring and training the right people to implement higher levels of SCS

Yeah, it is going to be a fun, packed day of learning. And when we’re done, Manistee will never be the same.

Would your town be interested in a program like this?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you’re anywhere near the west side of northern, lower peninsula Michigan and want to attend, contact Travis Alden. If they have space available, he might just let you in.

Travis Alden
Director, Manistee Main Street
Downtown Development Authority
231-398-3262
www.manisteedowntown.com

Delight People, and Solve Their Interesting Problems

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. His blog is one of the first I read every day. (He posts Every. Single. Day. and it is usually something quite thought-provoking.)

I’m stealing this from Seth, via the good Doctor Rick Wilson, who writes it this way.

  1. Delight people
  2. Solve their (interesting) problems

The more interesting the problem, the better.

Reading this, however, I am stunned at the simplicity and beauty of it all. This is the core of giving WOW/Shareworthy Customer Service.

DELIGHT PEOPLE

Do the unexpected. Go above and beyond what any customer saw coming. That’s how you delight. Surprise them with an extraordinary level of kindness and professionalism. Do things they never thought possible.

SOLVE THEIR (INTERESTING) PROBLEMS

Customers choose to visit you for a reason. Most often that reason is to solve a problem. Mistakenly, we too often think they came to buy a product, but the reality is the product is simply their idea of a solution to the problem. When you know the problem, then you – the expert – can offer the best possible solution.

A person in a camera store isn’t buying a camera, he is buying a picture, a memory. Don’t sell the camera until you know the picture he really wants.

A person in a toy store isn’t buying a toy, she’s buying a tool or a gift. Don’t sell the toy until you know how the tool or gift will be used.

A person in a shoe store isn’t buying a shoe, she’s buying a lifestyle. Don’t sell a shoe until you know what lifestyle she needs.

There is a lot of fun in solving problems. When you look at sales that way, you will find your staff enjoys it far more than just “selling”. Teach them how to ask the right questions to find the true problem needing to be solved. Teach them how to look beyond the product into what the customer truly wants and needs. Teach your staff how to connect in meaningful ways to be partners in your customers’ solutions.

Do all that and everyone (you included) will be delighted.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Sometimes the solution is to send the customer to a competitor. That’s okay. Solve their problem anyway. Call the competitor and make sure they have what your customer needs. Have your competitor hold the item. Get directions if necessary. They will remember that and they will talk about you to someone who has a problem you can solve. Remember that every transaction is about one thing… earning the right for another transaction down the road.