getting your sales teams to actually sell€¦ · staff clerking through one item sales with no...

Getting Your Sales Teams To Actually Sell

Using The 5 Foundations To Drive Sales In Your Stores

© Graff Retail Inc, 2013 www.graffretail.tv 1-905-842-1275

The Sales We Lose

“How much more can you sell?”

That’s the essential question you must answer before moving forward. If you don’t think you could sell

any more than you are currently selling in your stores, stop reading right now! That’s right, if you think

you’ve maxed out your opportunities for sales, that you sell to every customer possible and get the most

money out of each transaction, then quickly delete this file, go to the fridge, grab a beer and hit the

couch. Then, call a doctor because you’re likely delusional. Don’t make any important decisions or

operate any heavy equipment until you see a doctor.

OK, if you’re still reading, let’s look at this question of’ lost sales’ a little closer. How much more do you

think you could have sold in your stores over the past 3 months if you had to do it all over again? Let’s

make a few assumptions to help you formulate your answer:

Assume the state of the economy, however good or bad, was the same

Assume the inventory on hand, both over and short, was the same

Assume pricing, marketing and promotions were the same

Finally, assume the level of competition was the same

So, now with these assumptions in place, how much more do you think you could have sold? What was

the % of lost business that walked out your door? How much money did you leave on the table every

day?

5%? 10%? 15%? 25%? 30%? More????

Here’s what I know, and you should too. You’re losing at least 10% in sales every day in your stores.

Probably more, quite frankly. How do I know, and why should you know too?

Go sit on a bench outside of one of your stores with an invisibility cloak (ask Harry Potter is you can

borrow his) and just watch what goes on in your store. You’ll probably want to take an Advil or two

before doing this (it’s not going to be pleasant).

What will you see? Certainly, and hopefully, you’ll see lots and lots of great things going on in your

store. Customers being waited on, staff moving quickly, and friendly service. But wait. Let’s be

perfectly honest for a moment. What you would also see is a barrage of lost sales, poor service and

frustrated customers. Customers not being waited on. Staff talking amongst themselves. A lack of

urgency to make a sale. Staff clerking through one item sales with no attempt to add on an obvious

item. Cashiers being cold, aloof and almost the equivalent of the walking dead. Product knowledge not

being known on key items. Staff pointing a customer to where something is instead of walking them

over to it and making a sale. Store Managers ignoring their teams. The list goes on and on and on and

on. (You can see why you’ll need the Advil if you’re going to do this).


Here’s the problem: This seems to have become the norm, the accepted level of incompetence, in most

retail stores. We somehow have been sucked into believing that it can’t be any better than it is. We

think it’s inconceivable for staff to actually perform at a higher level.

But why? Retail seems to have mastered the back end of the business. Logistics, supply chain,

inventory management, CRM and marketing have become brilliantly sophisticated. I constantly brag to

anyone who will listen that retail today is just as sophisticated, if not more, than any other sector of the

economy. We rock … almost.

But, what about the front line staff? It’s like the Wild West in most organizations when it comes to the

store level staff. Hire them, throw them on the floor, ignore them, hope they don’t steal too much and

then either wait for them to quit or fire them some time down the road. I’m shocked how many times I

work with a large retail chains only to discover that the ‘cupboards are bare’ when it comes to programs

and systems to support, develop and drive staff performance (I guess they used all that money on a

shiny new POS system).

Look around though and you’ll see thousands of outstanding individuals working in retail who care, who

are bright and are hard working. You’ll see them do amazing things every day. But, all too often these

individuals are stars of their own making. What is it that makes these people so successful? What are

they doing that not everybody on your team is doing? What drives them to be successful? If you can

figure this out (and we have) you can get better productivity and higher sales out of everybody inside

your stores. It’s true!

So let's go back and think about how much more you could actually sell inside your stores. Think about

it. If more customers were waited on, if everybody was better skilled, if everybody knew their product

knowledge, if everybody operated with a greater sense of urgency and wanted to taste the sweet

success of the sale, then you know what we know. You could and you should be selling more of what

you sell. And a lot more of it too. Most of you reading this are losing 15 to 20% in sales every day.

Ridiculous!

I don’t know about you, but I would be losing my mind right about now if I realized I was losing that

many sales each day. I get cranky when we lose just one sale. You’re losing hundreds! You should be a

nut case right about now. How could this have happened? More important, what are you going to do

about it? (If this were a movie, this is not the time to go to the bathroom!)

It took a long time for us to understand why some people were far more productive than others and

why some training programs worked far better than others did. We would constantly watch two stores

in the same chain, equal in every way, get completely different results out of the staff. Let me take you

back to 1988 when I started my company. Well, in fact, the entire period from 1988 through to 1998.

We designed training programs for retail chains all across North America. We thought they were

brilliant programs. We used nice paper for the handouts and had the best clipart (read: cheesy) on our

visuals (sometimes the handout and the visuals are the best part of so many training programs). The


problem was that we were designing typical, old-fashioned training programs. We put them into place

for our clients only to see that results were short lived, if at all (umm … sorry to all of those early clients,

but my lawyer assures me the refund period has passed).

It took us a long time to really understand what was at the heart of driving success in a sustainable

manner. We began to do more research to really look at what was driving human performance. We

kept stumbling across these five ‘things’ that were consistent in every success story. We began to

understand what we needed to do to get each individual working in a store to perform better, what we

needed to do to make action plans executable, and what we needed to do to make training programs

stick for the long term inside a retail organization. We learned how to actually drive up sales.

The 5 Foundations were born.

Sometimes the things that take the longest to learn are the most important things of all.

(the above is an excerpt from Kevin Graff’s soon to be released book titled, “The 5 Foundations: Your

Guide To Getting Better Staff Performance”)

On the next pages, we’ll share with you important steps you can take right now to start selling more in

your stores. No fluff. No theory. Just proven, actionable steps you need to take to sell more.


Focus on Goals

If you don't have goals set in place you need to kick yourself in the butt, because you are foolishly

leaving thousands of dollars in sales on the table. There is no excuse for not taking the time to set

meaningful goals for your stores and staff.

The first foundation, focus on goals, when executed properly in your stores, will significantly drive effort

levels and ultimately more sales. Just get it done.

Your Hot List

1. Set your goals on the shortest timeframe possible. Make them daily.

2. If it fits your store, track individual performance.

3. Get your staff involved in setting the goals for their own store.

4. Talk about goals all day long. When you call a store the first question you should ask is what's

your sales goal today?

5. Challenge staff with goals that are achievable, but that will make them stretch higher than ever

before. Apply the 70% rule to your goals: Goals should be achieved at least 70% of the time. If

not, they’re too high and risk de-motivating your staff. By the same token, if goals are achieved

90% or more of the time they’re too low and aren’t pushing your staff.

6. Set goals not just for total sales, but for each of your key selling metrics.

7. Make sure everyone knows the targets they are chasing every shift.


Share Results Constantly

Your staff has to be constantly aware of how they, and the store, are performing. They need to know if

they’re winning or losing. A beautiful thing happens when you constantly share and talk about

performance results: First, you succeed at reinforcing the Goals you set in Foundation #1. Second, your

staff instinctively begins to feel more responsible and accountable for their performance (that’s the next

Foundation).

Your Hot List:

1. Do mid-day readings throughout the day and share current results with everyone.

2. Begin every shift by reviewing the previous day’s performance.

3. Post a BIG board in the back room that gets updated every day with your most important

metrics and results.

4. Don’t have the Manager being the only one to track and post results. Make it the responsibility

of everyone on the team.

5. Get everyone, including the part timers, involved with discussions about total store

performance, and how they can help improve it.


Accountability for Success

Accountability creates ownership inside your stores of the problems, successes, goals, initiatives, and

most important of all results. Things get done right. When your staff owns their results and achieves

success they feel rewarded. People start to care, they work harder, they aspire to grow, they want to

win… And they do!

In a nutshell, achieving success must matter. Otherwise, complacency takes hold.

Your Hot List

1. Clearly established goals must always be in place and be reinforced.

2. Constant measures of performance must take place continuously.

(Did you notice that these first two items are in fact the first two of the five foundations?)

3. Implement weekly coaching sessions with your team to review performance so that nothing is

allowed to slip between the cracks.

4. As Managers and Leaders, you must hold yourself accountable for your own performance,

actions and words.

5. Assign ownership of various tasks in the stores to select individuals as a means of assigning

accountability throughout the store.

6. Create a culture that values open and honest communication about performance. More

feedback is required at all levels on a daily basis.

7. Clearly define minimum performance standards and measure everyone against them constantly.

8. Never tolerate poor performance.


Ongoing Training and Coaching

If you're going to raise the bar on performance, you have a responsibility to give your team the skills and

information they need to succeed. That's Foundation #4, Ongoing Training and Coaching.

The most important thing to understand about this foundation is the very first word of it: Ongoing.

Training and coaching must be a daily occurrence inside your stores. Training is not an event and it's not

a program that you go to just one time. Coaching must happen throughout every shift with every

employee. If you don't get the ongoing part right, you'll never make progress.

Your Hot List

1. Get serious about training your staff how to sell properly.

2. Get serious about giving your Store Managers the skills they need to succeed at managing their

stores and staff.

3. Get serious about training your District Managers on how to actually manage a territory of

stores.

4. Get serious about doing more Product Knowledge training.

5. Be certain you have daily ‘shift starter’ meetings in your store up and running.

6. Implement short, 5-minute one-on-one or small group coaching sessions between the Manager

and staff at least every other week.

7. Recognize that you’re store staff today are more important than ever before … give them the

skills and tools they need to succeed at selling more.


Make It Worthwhile

Consider this question: If there were no difference in your total pay package* whether you sold

$10,000 or $1000 this week, why would you bother trying to sell more?

(*Total pay package refers to everything the employee gets from their job which includes money,

rewards and recognition.)

You must make it fundamentally worthwhile for your staff to try harder and to achieve success, and

that's the basis for Foundation # 5, Make It Worthwhile.

By now, you certainly must be getting the point that you’re going to be raising the bar on performance

for everybody that works for you. It’s up to you to make it worthwhile for them to try harder.

Your Hot List

1. Run more contests and incentives throughout every month.

2. Have Senior Executives start calling stores and speaking to top performers.

3. Never lose a top performer over money … pay them more!

4. Learn to say ‘thank you’ much more often.

5. Lighten up and allow everyone to have more fun at work.


By now, you likely get the picture that you could, and should, be selling much more in your stores.

Part of your solution may involve providing your sales teams with better selling skills, and your Store

Management teams with better management skills and tools to run your stores better.

There is nothing more effective, both performance and cost-wise, on the market today for retailers than

Graff Retail TV. Our online sales and management training solutions provide you with the most

comprehensive and effective training solutions possible. And all for about $2/day!

To arrange for a complimentary web tour of these amazing online training programs, call or email us

today:

[email protected]

1.905.842.1275

www.graffretail.tv

Discover what thousands of retailers have learned with Graff Retail TV … and start performing

better today!

Increase Sales Improve Customer Loyalty Increase Staff Retention Improve Store Performance

www.graffretail.tv

The #1 Online TrainingSystem For Retailers

Sustainable Retail Training with Proven Results

Graff Retail TV is the industry leader in online retail training solutions.

Graff Retail has been helping retailers drive performance in store since 1988. With the push towards online training, we took all of our sales and store management systems and philosophies and built an online training system that is the most effective, efficient and affordable, retail-specific system available in the industry.

Kevin Graff:Improving Retail Staff Performance Globally

Recognized internationally as an authority on retail and one of the top speakers in this sector, Kevin Graff has spent most of his career working with retailers to drive revenue ‘over the top’. Focusing on improved staff performance, he is an expert on squeezing more sales out of each and every store.

As a retail trainer, retail consultant, keynote speaker, author and the host of Graff Retail TV’s online sales and management training (GET SELLING & GET MANAGING), Kevin’s approach to store operations and focus on real, bottom-line store issues get results!

Online Retail Training Systems Made To Order!

As the industry leader in online retail training solutions, we work with many larger, national retailers who already have their own Learning Management System (LMS). Our training content can easily be moved over to any LMS and even customized so you can offer a consistent, branded learning experience for your staff.

Forget spending time and internal resources trying to reinvent your existing training programs. Our production team and training designers can give you a quality production and a results-driven training system that’s sustainable over the long haul.

Book a demo of our online training systems today!905-842-1275 [email protected] www.graffretail.tv

Why are thousands of retail stores using our online sales & management training?

Easy to Use - Store staff can access the online training system anytime, anywhere. Our systems are completely mobile friendly!

No Limitations – Watch our retail-specific videos as many times as you like, there’s no cap or limits. Put as many staff as you like through the training. It doesn’t matter if you have 1 or 1000 employees!

Turn-Key Training – Our online systems give you everything you need including videos, workbooks, coaching tools, assessments, back-end performance reporting, reinforcement tools, personalized certificates of completion, and on-going support from the team of Graff experts.

Sustainable Results – Graff Retail TV isn’t an ordinary training program. Typical sales and management training programs are ‘one and done’ types, resulting in limited and short term results. Graff Retail TV is a sustainable training system that literally works in your stores every week and every day. Finally, training that works the way it’s supposed to.

Subscribe to Get Selling or Get Managingfor about $2 per day!

Bundle both training systems for a fully training staff and management team for

less than $4 per day!

Subscribe today!905-842-1275 [email protected] www.graffretail.tv

All SubscriptionsInclude:

Video Based Learning

12 core sales training video episodes

Plus, new 2 minute support videos every 2 weeks. Bonus intro videos and 30 minute Fast Track video

Downloadable Workbooks

12 Learner’s Workbooks with bonus exercise pages

12 Manager’s Guides to turn your store managers into better sales coaches

Easy Roll-Out

Weekly Training Focus provided by Graff TV

Daily E-Selling Tips

Online Assessments

Test learner’s retention with mid-term and final online assessments

On-going Support

Free Q & A Webinars

Graff experts offer ongoing store support throughout your entire subscription

Performance Reports

Back-end reporting offers real-time performance tracking and assessment scoring

Unlimited Access

Learn what you want, when you want from the entire Get Selling episode list

Watch from your computer, tablet or mobile device

Learn from Industry Expert

Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail TV is your host and expert trainer

Kevin is one of North America’s leading retail experts, author and keynote speaker


Episode Title Preview1 Establishing Rapport The first, and most important, part of every sale. How important? As much

as 70% of your success on the sales floor rests in your ability to establish rapport. Learn how.

2 “Question” your way to the top of the sales chart

Discover how the depth of your questioning leads to more and bigger sales. You’ll learn the best questions to ask for every scenario.

3 Presentations that sell You know your product knowledge. But do you really know how to make it come alive? Watch and learn how the best in the business do it.

4 Selling More Items to Every Customer

Multiple item sales are the lifeblood of every store, and every sales person. In this episode, we’ll look at proven ways to sell more items to each of your customers.

5 How to close the sale You’ll learn how you can effectively and easily ask for the sale. No pressure. No tricks. Just proven strategies for getting your customer to say ‘yes’.

6 Overcoming customer objections

You’ll learn how to overcome the most common and challenging of objections. When you learn how to get past these ‘deal breakers’, you’ll quickly ring up more sales.

7 Building Customer Loyalty How you ‘end’ the sale will often determine if you’ll see your customer again. All too often though customers are left with a hollow feeling at the end of the sale. Discover simple ways you can leave your customer with a great impression of you and your store.

8 Driving Average Sale Learn how you can increase the average amount each customer spends by 5, 10 and maybe even 20%! Effective and practical strategies that work.

9 Improving your Conversion Rate

Selling to more customers. That’s what we all try to do. But, what works best? Come along and learn powerful ways that actually get more of your customers to buy from you.

10 Attitude is Everything Before the skill, before the knowledge, comes your attitude. Listen in as we talk about how attitude makes the biggest difference between winning and losing, and how you can change your own mindset.Who’s really in charge of your performance? You are. It’s up to you to make a difference on the sales floor. So, what are you waiting for? This episode will shake you up, and leave you ready to go make a sale.

11 Ten Ways to Be A Sales Pro on the Floor

Being viewed as a professional is something everyone wants. The good news is that you’re about to learn what you can do, starting today, to act and become a true sale pro of the sales floor.

12 Dealing with Common Selling Challenges

It’s not always easy on the sales floor. This episode will look at some of the more common challenges you face on the sales floor every day, and how you can work around them.

EpisodeGuide


All SubscriptionsInclude:

Downloadable Workbooks

10 Manager’s Workbooks packed with samples, templates, activities and more!

Manager’s Tool Box Resources included with every topic

Video Based Learning

10 core management training video episodes

The most sought-after management training topics are included!

Easy Roll-Out

Weekly Training Pocket provided by Graff TV

Easy implementation process with action items for practical application right away

On-going Support

Free quarterly Q & A Webinars

Graff experts offer ongoing store support throughout your entire subscription

Learn from Industry Expert

Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail TV is your host and expert trainer

Kevin is one of North America’s leading retail experts, author and keynote speaker

Online Assessments

Test learner’s retention with online assessments after every management video episode

Unlimited Access

Learn what you want, when you want from the entire Get Managing episode list

Watch from your computer, tablet or mobile device

Performance Reports

Back-end reporting offers real-time performance tracking and assessment scoring


Episode Title Preview1 Hiring the Right Staff, and

Reducing TurnoverTry running a store without a great team and you’ve got nothing but trouble in front of you. It all starts with learning how to hire the people. Stop getting ‘tricked’ in interviews, and start spotting and hiring the stars.

2 Priority Management Let’s face it. You have a lot to get done every day. The challenge is being able to get the right things done consistently. Proper priority management will allow you to focus on the most important things, while at the same time achieving results (and having a life too!)

3 Getting Your Sales Team To Actually Sell

For the past 20 years we’ve proven that you can sell more through your front line staff. Learn the secrets of the 5 Foundations, and how you can use them to drive effort and results.

4 Retail Leadership Someone has to be in charge ... and it has to be you. The question is, “would you follow you?” Learn how you can become the type of leader that earns respect, gets things done through others, and achieves results.

5 Performance Coaching No one wants to have to deal with poor performance or behaviour issues. But, when you don’t they just get worse. Learn how you can deliver effective feedback that won’t make anyone cry, but rather, perform better immediately.

6 Achieving Compliance onStore Standards

There’s only one way to run a store ... the right way! Unfortunately, the failure to achieve compliance on standards sabotages your efforts to build a brand, grow customer loyalty, and grow sales. Learn how you can achieve perfect compliance, every day.

7 Motivating and Engaging Your Teams

Everyone wants a high morale team, and a group of staff members who care as much about the success of the store as you do. It’s not a pipe dream. Discover how you can build and implement a actical plan that will both motivate and engage your team

8 Understanding, and Driving, Your Store Metrics

First, you need to know your numbers and what’s behind them. Then, you need to know how to build and implement practical strategies to improve them. Learn how you can build your key stats.

9 Retail Math: The business of your business

It’s not exciting or sexy for everyone. But, if you’re in management, you need to know how the ‘numbers’ work. We’ll look at retail’s most important numbers, ratios and formulas. Why? Well, you need to know if you’re going to be able to make the difference needed.

10 The Manager’s Troubleshooting Guide

Have you got staff problems? We’ve got answers. For years managers have asked us how we would handle certain staff related problems. You know, things like staff switching shifts without notice, team members not getting along, and the ‘joys’ of seeing productivity drop off when you’re not in the store. Discover practical solutions to your most common sources of headaches.

EpisodeGuide


Start to create a selling and service culture that puts you ahead of the competition and drives your sales revenue and

store performance with Graff ’s leading training systems.

At the core of our training solutions is GraffRetail.TV, our online sales and management training used by retail clients world-wide. Get Selling and Get Managing have changed the way retailers train their frontline staff. Forget spending time reinventing your training programs every year; our systematic approach to training gets you immediately plugged-in to training results and keeps you current.

What’s your biggest selling or management challenge at the store level? Book a demo of our online training systems and by the time we’re done, we’ll show you a

solution that speaks directly to your challenges.

Training That Creates a Selling & Service Culture

Increase Sales Improve Customer Loyalty Increase Staff Retention Improve Store Performance

905-842-1275 [email protected] www.graffretail.tv

getting your sales teams to actually sell€¦ · staff clerking through one item sales with no...

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