A culture of good behaviour

Training staff to sell better is an obvious goal and one jewellery chain Beaverbrooks has long invested in. But many retailers find getting staff to put what they learn into practice can be frustrating.

Eight years ago Beaverbrooks started working with behavioural specialist Advance Performance to train area managers and it has since helped the retailer format its annual managers conference.

“We decided it was time to get some outside input because [the conference] had got a little flat and dull,” says Beaverbrooks operations director Daniel Brown. “We wanted to have some training as part of the conference and make the messages ‘stickier’,” he says.

Mission statement

The two came up with The Beaverbrooks Way, a company mission statement that collects examples of behaviour staff should adhere to. “It’s what we base all our decisions upon,” says Brown.

Having valid reasons for doing something is empowering, says Advance Performance director Simon Clarkson. “We helped people understand how having The Beaverbrooks Way helped, why it was important and where it fitted into the business.”

This year the two began developing a training course designed to educate managers about behavioural and motivational methods of influencing staff to sell better.

“We have had lots of sales training and know how to do it, but we don’t do it consistently. So some of the work we have done with Simon is about getting staff to want to do it - to buy into it more,” says Brown.

“Often people are simply taught what to do differently. We teach them how to change their behaviour,” says Clarkson.

“You have to give people a reason to want to change and the tools to understand themselves and their people better. The more you understand what makes people tick, the better they will do,” says Brown.

The retailer is now rolling out a coaching programme to ensure the lessons are passed on to all staff. “We are trying to get out of the ‘sheep dip’ approach to training. It’s about driving it into the fabric of the business,” says Clarkson.

The programme is led by coaching and neurolinguistic programming expert Alex Jackson, who heads up the Advance Performance coaching division.

Beaverbrooks head of HR Phil Jepson says: “As a company, we have carried out a significant amount of training in the area of neurolinguistic programming. Although we firmly believe that we’re well on course, we felt we needed additional, external help to achieve the final commitment and establish a true coaching culture.”