staff management tips for success, nmp09 [compatibility mode]

7/15/2009

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Staff Management: Tips for Success

Bill Crawford, MS

� Product Selection

� Prices

� Value

What Makes Your Store Stand Out?

� What is “value”?

� What You Get for What You Paid

� Tangible AND Intangible

� The Shopping Experience – Both While You Are In the Store and After You Get Home

Value is what customer service adds to the products that you sell

Value

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Who Provides Value to Your Customers?

Natural Foods Merchandiser’s Annual

Market Overview

A Look At the Marketplace

7/15/2009

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How Did Sales Do?

Be Sure to “Hire Right”

� What skills will you “hire”?

� What skills does the employee have to provide?

� What skills will you “train”?

How Fortunate Our Industry Is!

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But – We Still Have Challenges!

A recent survey of Barnes & Noble employees revealed that, while 18 percent say they read daily, 34 percent admit they hate to read.

Gainesville Health & Fitness

� Story in August’s Inc. magazine

� How do you find the right employees to maintain your standards and serve your customers?

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� Take Time to Get Some Good Questions

� Ensure That The Conversation Flows BothWays

� If You Don’t Hire Them, They are Still a Potential Customer

� If You Do Hire Them, You Have Just Created a Communication Protocol

A Little Bit On Interviewing

What About the Staff That I Already Have?

� What Are Your Hours?

� Where Do I Park?

� Where Are The Restrooms?

� What Brands Do You Recommend?

� What Is Unique About Your Private Label?

� What Is Your Procedure When the Credit Card Machine Crashes?

� When Do We Get Shipments?

� Do We Do Special Orders? Mail Orders? On-Line Orders?

� What Are Our Ingredient Standards?

� Do We Match Competitor’s Prices?

All Employees Need Training

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To Train or Not.......Dr. Rajiv Lal, Harvard Business School, Senior Professor of Retailing

The Paradox of Training:� When the economy is poor and revenues are

down, a lack of resources is sited as a reason to forgo training.

� If the economy and business are good, a lack of time is cited as a reason for forgo training.

�Come to grips with the importance of training and put it on the budget; it is an asset that will return benefit, not simply a cost center.

� Insist on Two-Way Communication

Communication

Enroll In The Right School

Management Schools

� Theory X

o Theory Y

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MBWA

Career Like a Rocking Chair

� Rules/Rewards

Carrots and Sticks

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A Formula for Motivation

M = V * E

Motivation =

Valence *

Expectancy

Your Staff –

Your Representatives

Your Emissaries

Your Delegates

Delegation

First Steps� Delegate

� Where Are You Comfortable?

� Where Are They Comfortable?

� Give Them The Authority

� Hold Them Accountable

� Monitor Progress

� Review Results

� Correct in Private

� Praise in Public

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First – DelegationThen - Empowerment

� Delegation

� Trusting someone to carry out your ideas in solving a problem

� Empowerment

� Trusting someone to use their ideas to diagnose and solve a problem

At least we hope that is true with the answers…

We Can Visit Later…..

� Via E-Mail or Phone:

� bcrawford@newhope.com

� 918-451-2404

� Columns and Blog

� www.naturalfoodsmerchandiser.com

� Future Show Seminars

� Expo East

� Natural Products Northwest