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Category: Staff Training

Cultivating Ideas

One of my staff came up to me… “Phil, I have an idea…”

Great!  Run with it!

Don’t you want to hear it, first?

No.  I trust you.  Just tell me when you’re ready to launch.

I could have taken a number of different approaches to this.

I could have…
Patiently listened to the idea, giving my input, tweaking it to my tastes, and telling the employee what to do.  But that would take ownership of the idea away from her.  It would now be our idea and everything would need my approval, input and effort.

If I have not done my job hiring the right people and training them fully about our Character Diamond and how everything must fit, then I might need this approach.

I could have said…  
Do you have it written down?  Get it all on paper first.  Write down everything including costs to the business, benefits expected, time frame to complete, how it fits into the Character Diamond of the store, etc. then bring me the finished idea.  Some of my staff would do that.  Some might lose interest.  Doesn’t sound nearly as fun as actually doing the idea.

I could have said… 
Not right now, I’m busy… (I have enough to do… you have another job to do… I didn’t hire you to have ideas… we’re tight on cash… we don’t need any new ideas right now… make up your own excuse here).  And I would never have to worry about her having an idea again.

But what I really said was… 
I am confident that I have trained you well enough for you to know what I want for the business.  I trust that you are capable of doing great things for the business.  I want to empower you to keep coming up with ideas for the business.  I want you to take ownership of your ideas, thus taking ownership of their results.  

If you want your staff to have ideas, first hire idea people.  Then let them run with their ideas.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  The hardest part is not putting your own stamp on the idea.  When I let my staff run with an idea, I save all my tweaking for the end and only as suggestions.  The second hardest part is that my wife comes up with some great ideas and she doesn’t work at the store so I have to relay her ideas to the staff by planting seeds so they might take ownership.  The third hardest part is the ideas I have on my own.  I have a lot of them and those are the ideas about which I am the most impatient. Fortunately the staff often takes ownership of those, too.  Especially when I allow them to make their own tweaks and alterations.

How Good are Your Sales Reps?

Maybe I am biased.  My sales reps are for the most part pretty good.  Maybe it is because I am a big account in this territory.  Maybe it is because we just have good reps in our area.  Maybe I am just lucky.  But I get frustrated when I hear other retailers complaining about their reps.

Sure, there are some bad reps in my industry, probably in your industry, too.  But I believe they are only bad because you have not trained them well.

What?

Yes, it is your job to train your sales reps to do exactly what you want them to do.  Do you want them to straighten the department?  Do an inventory for you?  Make suggestions of best sellers?  Steer you away from duds?  Communicate quickly and efficiently?  Accurately place orders and follow up on them?  Handle problems with shipments, problems with defects, problems with billing errors?

Let me ask you.  Do you…

Explain in detail your expectations of your reps?  Reply to every one of their emails even if just to say, “Thanks, I got it.”?  Show them how you want inventory or merchandising to be done?  Explain your product philosophy in detail so that they know what products will and won’t pass your scrutiny?  Keep them informed of how their products are (or are not) selling?  Give them details of what you expect once an order is placed (confirmation of order? confirmation of shipping?)?  Keep them in the loop when there are problems by cc’ing them all emails to the company?  Make sure they get commissions on your show order when they stop in but you would rather drop off the order at the booth to get the special?

I work with rep groups, independent reps, and in-house reps.  For the most part I know our reps well.  We talk about family and life sometimes more than we talk about business.  And even though they may get paid by the vendors, I consider them to be employees of my store.  And since I am responsible for training my sales staff to do their job the way I want it done, I am also responsible for training my sales reps to do their job the way I want it done.

If you are not getting the kind of sales representation you want, you have every right responsibility to train your reps to do it the right way, your way.  After all, you are the customer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I challenge you to re-read this blog, only replace “sales reps” with your sales staff and consider “you” to be your customers.  Food for thought…  Are you doing things the way your customers want it done?

A Teachable Moment

Two employees.  One a veteran of 24 years.  The other a relative newcomer starting her third year of employment.  Both thinkers.  Passionate to a fault.  Loyal beyond expectation.  Hard workers who more than earn their pay.

A manager’s dream, right?

Except when they butt heads.

The newcomer came to me because she was having run-ins with the veteran.  They didn’t see eye-to-eye on how to merchandise certain product lines.  The vet was strong in her opinions and not necessarily pleasant in the exchange.  One would assume that the newcomer should just do what the veteran says and accept that seniority rules.  Except the newcomer was the person I put in charge of merchandising those lines.

How should I respond?

For me, moments like these are precious.  They are the teachable moments where I have a chance to accomplish two things at once – turn a negative into a positive and help an employee grow.

My ultimate goal for this new employee is that I am grooming her to be a key person.  I need her to be able to make critical decisions and trust her own judgment.  I need her to make rational decisions and not allow emotions to dictate.

First we talked about her passion and her smarts and her training and her desire to do what I have taught her to do.  Then we talked about the similarities between her and the veteran.  This caught her a little off guard.  Then we talked about how to find the kernel of truth in what the veteran was saying.  No matter how confrontational the delivery, the veteran brings some amazing skills and wisdom to the table.  Finally, we came to the conclusion that once she found the nugget inside what the veteran was saying, she was then free to use her own judgment to make the final decision.

All at once she realized the veteran was her ally, not her adversary, and they really were far more alike than different.

Will they butt heads again?  Probably.  But now she is better equipped to handle those situations.  And she is better prepared for those head-butting moments from other parts of retail – a skill my key people need to have.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

We’re Here to Make You Smile

Every month at our staff meetings we have time carved out for “Smile Stories” – moments when you made the customer smile in a memorable way.  The staff keep notes throughout the month of their favorite stories just so they have something to share.  Some even take notes of the smile stories someone else on the staff created to make sure those do not get missed.

Most say it is one of their favorite parts of working here.

Can you guess how often Creating a Smile is on the top of my staff’s mind?

Always.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Want some tips for how you can get your customers to smile more?  Download the free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to Wow.

What I Learned in an Exit Interview

You know what an Exit Interview is.

I hire a large group of seasonal employees each year. At the end of the season I sit down with each one to discuss their experience. What did they like? What was a challenge? How well did they feel prepared? Did the veterans on the staff help them? What did they learn about us? What did they learn about themselves? What will they take away from the experience?

At the end of this past Christmas season I sat down with eight seasonal employees near the end of their experience and received some incredible insight into the store, the training program, and the current staff. (It is amazing how much more they are willing to share when they are leaving than when they are still employed.)

The common thread through all the interviews was the same.
The regular staff was extremely helpful in wanting the new people to succeed.
They wanted to help. They wanted to teach. They wanted the newbies to succeed, to feel like they were part of the team.

That was the watershed moment when I knew we were doing something right.

Just as I teach in my book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art,
I hire purely for character traits and then teach those people how to work in my store.

The traits I hire? Helpful, Friendly, Team Player, Problem Solver, Success Oriented.

Looks like I found them.

Would you like to find the right people for your team, too? Buy the book. It works.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Hiring is seventy-five percent of the battle. If you do not get the right people to start, it won’t matter how well you train them. But if you have the right people, you still need to get them to the next level. Before you plan your next staff meeting, download this free eBook – Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend. It will take your staff trainings to a whole new level.

This Will Be a Succesful Year If…

I don’t like making New Year’s resolutions.

I resolve to lose weight, pay off debt, exercise more, eat healthy, save money, go to sleep earlier…

The moment you stop, you fail. I prefer success.

So instead of resolutions destined to fail, I like to take a moment to define what success will look like.

Finish the following statement:

This will be a successful year if…

…if I get to be in business next year
…if I book 6 new speaking engagements
…if I publish a new book
…if I average 100 readers per blog post

The difference between doing it this way and resolutions is that you are focusing on the goal, the end result, instead of just the method. If the method you are using does not help you reach your goal or is unsustainable then you can try new methods.

You get to keep working on that goal from any angle you choose.

Like everyone else, I encourage you to write it down. Go get a blank piece of paper and write across the top “This will be a successful year if…” and start filling in the rest.

You can make categories – Personal, Professional, Individual, Family, Financial, Social – if you want. Just be sure to jot something down for each.

Once you have done that, start strategizing the How. Start brainstorming the What. Start piecing together the Who and the Where.

The When is right now. Define your success and you have a better chance of reaching it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For those of you who have already downloaded my free eBook Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend, you recognize that this is the same statement I use when planning those meetings. In fact, it is written right across the top of my Staff Meeting Planner Worksheet. And my clients know I ask the same question of them. How will we define success? How will you?

Do You Want Fries With That?

McDonald’s gave us the best punchline for the upsell.

“Do you want fries with that?”

But that one little phrase made them a lot of money because it increased the average ticket, the average dollars per transaction.

It makes intuitive sense that if every customer spends just a little bit more your store will be more profitable. That is why you want to track your Average Ticket.

In the last post we counted the number of transactions you had for the year. Simply divide your gross sales by this number and you have the Average Ticket. Now compare that number to last year’s number. Did it go up or go down?

Simple knowledge of the world tells you that it should go up just to keep pace with inflation. Your prices went up a little so even if you sold the same amount of items to the same amount of people, that number should go up.

But what if it went down?

There are three big reasons why your average ticket might go down.

  1. You do not have the right merchandise.

  2. Your staff is not selling the merchandise you have.

  3. Your customers are in a hurry to leave.

Let’s explore those.


THE RIGHT MERCHANDISE

If you do not have the merchandise customers want to buy, then they are not going to buy from you. That is simple enough. But one easily fixed mistake some retailers make is not having the necessary accessories to complete each sale.

This is something I preach to my staff constantly. Make sure that a customer making a purchase has everything she needs to use that product the moment she gets home. Is it an electronic toy that needs batteries? How about a model that needs paints… and glue… and paintbrushes… and thinner… and a display case?

If you do not sell all those accessories then you are leaving money on the table by not having the right merchandise.

YOUR STAFF IS NOT SELLING

At least the McDonald’s clerks are offering more products with their fries statement. Are your sales staff doing the same? There are plenty of less offensive ways to do that. The first is to do what we just discussed – complete the sale. Make sure the customer does not have to make a separate trip to get everything she needs because if she does, it won’t be to your store (and neither will the next trip she makes to shop).

You also want to keep asking the customer if there is more you can do. Keep asking until the customer says no. Here are some simple questions any sales person should be comfortable using:

  • Who else is on your list today? (thanks, Bob)

  • Is there anything else I can show you?

  • What else can I do for you today?

If you are not asking, you are not selling. Anyone can point a customer to the product for which they asked. The better sales people lead them to the product, asking questions as they walk. The best sales people then offer two or three best options to fit the needs of the customer. And then those sales people show them matching, coordinating and accessory products. And then they ask for more.

It costs way too much to acquire a customer to let them walk out without being given every opportunity to buy. They will let you know when they are done shopping. Always let the customer end the shopping, never you.

YOUR CUSTOMERS JUST WANT TO LEAVE

It is a simple axiom of retail. The more time a customer spends in the store, the more money she will spend, too. So you need to encourage your customers to stay longer. You do that by making them feel more comfortable. Offer to take her coat. Offer her a beverage. Engage her in conversation. Get her to talk about herself. if she has kids with her, make sure their needs are met.

The right music, the right lighting, the right temperature are also important. If it is too cold your customers will not stay. Sure, you might save a penny or two in heating costs, but you’ll lose all those pennies in customers who did not stay. Likewise, too hot makes customers just as anxious to leave. They may not even know why they want to leave. But they will leave. If you made a change in your thermostat to save some money and your Average Ticket went down, you might want to change it back.

Odors are also powerful drivers. Heavily perfumed areas can be as much a turnoff as bad odors. Don’t mask the bad smells with perfumes, find the source and eliminate those odors. If you must use a scent, food scents are better than florals. They tend to be more comforting.

The layout of your store also affects the length of stay. Walk in your front door and see what captures your attention. Where does your eye go? Is there anything to attract a customer deeper into the store? The deeper they go the longer they stay.

Also look at your traffic patterns. Are the aisles wide enough to handle the flow? Do the aisles make sense? Is it obvious where to go? Confused people will not shop long. Do not confuse your customers.

Number of Transactions is something over which you only have partial control. Average Ticket is completely up to you. Whether it is going up, down or staying flat is a quick indicator of how well you are performing in the store. Raise the performance and you’ll be punching a higher ticket.

-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS For more on merchandising, download my free eBook Merchandising Made Easy. To raise the bar of Customer Service so high your customers are singing your praises to everyone they know, download my free eBook Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! The books are free, but the information in them is priceless. (Why would I give away such information for free? I want you to succeed. When one independent retailer improves, we all improve.)

How Much You Care

Just to finish up the subject of motivating your employees…

We have all heard the phrase… The customer doesn’t care how much you know until she knows how much you care.

Same can be said of your staff.

You should care how they are doing. You should ask what you can do to make their job better. You should know what is going on in their lives.

I was talking to someone whose boss did not acknowledge her when her father-in-law died. Do you think she’s going to the mat for him? Would you?

Care for them and they will take care of your business.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS At the very least you better celebrate their birthdays. Think about it like this. They are going to celebrate it with or without you. Better the former than the latter.

Almost As Hard As You

So your employees won’t work as hard as you. But you can get them to collectively come pretty close.

We have all seen the sign that says “The floggings will continue until morale improves.” Apparently Amazon still works under that philosophy (Read this article about the shocking conditions at an Amazon warehouse).

And Amazon also has extremely high staff turnover. As do most companies that treat their employees like cogs in a machine instead of like people.

Yet employee turnover is one of the most costly mistakes you can make. It takes time and money to train an employee. It takes experience for them to become great. You cannot afford to be training someone new every few months.

So the first step is to make great decisions on who you hire. I’ve clearly outlined how to do that in my book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art.

The second step involves motivation.

Daniel H. Pink, in his book Drive, talks about how people are motivated. The old carrot and stick method – do this and you’ll get a reward – doesn’t work any more. People want more than that.

The two most important things that motivate workers is to know that the work they are doing is valued and that it is making a difference.

You can show that to your staff easily by doing these simple things.

  • Constantly praise them for what they do right. We love to hear what we did right more than hearing what we did wrong. Sure, you need to correct the mistakes, but heap the praise for what they do right and they will do more of that.

  • Invest in their training. You show them they are valued when you constantly help them to grow and improve.

  • Teach them why. With every step of the training, with every task you ask them to do, if they can see the bigger picture of how this project fits into everything else, they will be more motivated to do the project well.

  • Have goals bigger than yourself. Align your store values with something that helps your community, whether a charitable cause or a general improvement of the quality of life and your staff will be motivated to work harder.

We want to know our contributions make a difference. Help your staff see the difference your company makes, and they will make a difference for your company.

I have 15 year-round employees. They have an average of over 10 years employment with me. They know the difference we make in the community. They know the importance of even the simplest tasks. They know when they have done a good job. And they know the next Staff Meeting will be fun, informative, and worth their while.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One more thing… If you make your employees get up at 3am Black Friday or the day after Christmas to work for you, you get what you deserve. They are people. They have families and lives. Let them enjoy as much of the holidays as they can.

As Hard As You

“If only I can get my staff to work as hard as me, it will be a great season.”

Have you said this? Heard it? Thought it?

You are not alone. Every small business owner has the dream of hiring hard working employees that do the work so you don’t have to. They do the heavy lifting, you count the money.

Here is the reality check. Your staff will never work as hard as you do. Why?

They aren’t the owner. They don’t have a stake in the business other than a job. And they can get another one of those.

Oh, some might work that hard. You might get one or two workaholics so dedicated to your success that they work their tails off for you. But they will be the exception to the rule. Collectively your staff will probably work at about 60-70% of the level of dedication and efficiency you put forth. That is just human nature. Plus, if they were any better they would be running their own store.

The first most important point to take away is this. The more you slack off, the more your staff will do the same. If you are only giving 90%, their efforts will go down, too.

Yeah, sucks to be you.

But then again, it really doesn’t. You get to control the level of effort your staff puts out. It starts with the model you put forth. Raise your own bar. Show how you are striving to get better and improve. Model the kind of behavior and effort you want through your own actions and your staff will fall in line.

Monkey see, monkey do.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are some other ways to get your staff to perform almost as hard as you. Most importantly, treat them as human beings. I’ll tell you more in the next post.