Reserved, modest, prone to embarrassment – the British hardly have a reputation for being cutting-edge salespeople. But rather than accept an inherent weakness, can it be overcome by training and fostering the right in-store culture? Instead of focusing on standard sales techniques, many retailers are finding it more effective to help staff shape their attitudes and behaviours.
A lack of confidence among shop staff is often identified as the root cause of underperforming staff and disappointing sales. Paul Stalker, chief executive of life coaching and personal development company Paul Stalker Consulting, says: “Forget the sales, the problem is even approaching people in the first place. They fear rejection, embarrassment and humiliation and feel that they are not good enough.”
Stalker believes the key is shifting people’s focus – making them realise they have an option to approach customer interactions from a positive point of view. “Don’t start telling them they have to sell more. Selling is a by-product of how they feel. If they are focusing on the last time they had a knock-back, they’re going to be thinking, ‘He’s not going to want it, why am I bothering?’ But if they focus on the positive, they can change this. For example: ‘I may have the knowledge to solve their problem’ or ‘I may be able to make their day’, ” he says.
Russell Ward, sales director at sales performance consultancy Silent Edge, agrees that selling is more a state of mind than a God-given talent. “There is a misconception that people are born salespeople – you can train everybody to sell; everybody sells in some way,” he says.
Carphone Warehouse HR director Richard Smelt believes there is perhaps such a thing as the “natural British reserve”, but he says that the retailer successfully trains its staff in the same way across Europe. “The important aspect is to get people to feel good about themselves and what they are doing,” he says.
DSGi found that confidence is key to boosting sales performance. And a good grounding in product knowledge provides the backbone for a confident workforce. Since ditching commission for shopfloor staff last year, training at both its Currys and PC World chains has centred on improving product knowledge in order to better meet the customer’s needs and bolster the confidence of the workforce.
DSGi head of learning and development for retail Tim Gallimore acknowledges that maintaining standards when there are increasing numbers of part-time staff is a challenge. At PC World, as many as 60 per cent of staff are part time and many of those only work 16 hours a week. “The challenge for us is how we develop a level of competency and confidence,” says Gallimore. Technology is continually changing, there is a relatively high turnover of staff and customers are becoming better informed all the time. “The demands on frontline staff are great. They have to be continuously trained,” he adds.
Knowledge is power
However, product knowledge is only one part of the equation. It is also essential to train people to recognise and react to customer behaviour.
Ward says: “It’s all about what the customer’s pains are. It’s about intelligent probing and finding out what’s going on with that organisation or individual. That way, you can offer them a solution.”
PC World has developed the Milestones programme – a 10-stage programme designed to train staff to help customers make the right decisions. Gallimore says the success of the programme is demonstrated by the fact that conversion rates are up 50 per cent when a fully competent Milestones conversation is had. “When it’s got right, it does improve basic business metrics and even out-of-stock situations. Using Milestones, the number of customers choosing to buy something else rises from 35 per cent to 61 per cent. The task for us is to be able to recognise what their buying strategy is – that’s what Milestones does,” he says.
However, Ward believes that the one-size-fits-all approach to sales training is misguided. “I was a sales director for 11 years. I spent a lot of money on sales training and put the whole team through courses, but found the sheep-dip approach doesn’t work,” he says.
Instead, he believes it is essential to accurately measure competencies and work out where the individual needs lie. Through his consultancy, he has developed a system of score cards, which are used to evaluate people in live situations, using objective criteria.
Ward says that this sort of individual approach can be motivating. “They may not like the results, but it provides programmes that match their needs. It’s a great motivation because you don’t waste time. It’s very precise and you get what you need,” he says.
Whatever the approach, there is a consensus that, when implementing any training programme, training the managers in how to sustain the results is a critical element. Stalker says: “It is important to send managers on a separate course as well, because they need to first understand the principles and then understand how to manage them.”
Smelt agrees. “The best way to get it ingrained into the organisation is to train the trainers and the managers,” he says.
It has long been accepted that the use of high-pressure sales techniques on customers will hardly ever be the right approach. Increasingly, retailers are spending more time considering how to create a confident, supportive culture where staff can thrive and the sales go up correspondingly. The equation seems simple: ensure staff have the right tools to confidently deliver customers what they want and watch the money roll in.
Carphone Warehouse
Paul Stalker Consulting was asked by Carphone Warehouse to work with its 100 worst-performing stores on Talk Talk sales.
The staff took part in a two-day training event called Raise Your Game Now, which revolves around teaching people about the downside of fear and the potential benefits of confronting their fear of rejection.
Stalker explains that it is human nature to not be proud of ourselves if we have avoided doing something. And, if people are not proud of themselves, it has a negative effect on their lives in general. “If you get people to associate overcoming their personal fear with them feeling better, they will be more likely to engage with someone in a fearful situation,” says Stalker.
Smelt adds: “It’s about people having the right attitude and feeling good about themselves, feeling positive about the business and feeling it’s an important thing to do.”
DSGi
At DSGi, good product knowledge is essential to ensure staff approach customers confidently. Gallimore says: “The biggest challenge is technical and product knowledge – that’s critical in our business.”
PC World has developed the Power of Knowledge programme, which consists of eight e-learning modules, in order to deliver a basic level of confidence in technological know-how. Gallimore says: “It helps to explain technology in a fun and engaging way and is linked to assessment, so we can measure people’s capability.” The programme has been running for three months and, so far, 70 per cent of colleagues have passed, with many stores 100 per cent competent.
At Currys, there is a slightly different approach – its Product Roadshow has been running for two years and Gallimore says they have seen significant improvement in engagement surrounding product knowledge.
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