Most people would agree
that it is much more pleasant and rewarding to occupy one’s time with
activities that we find enjoyable or have a natural talent for than it is to
engage in activities that we dislike or have no talent for at all. When
faced with a choice of which activity to engage in it stands to reason that
an individual will choose the former.
Many people choose
careers that they find appealing and, even though they may still be faced
with some undesirable tasks, for the most part they enjoy their work and
probably strive to be successful. Unfortunately, for some the situation is
not so clear cut. They find themselves in careers, or jobs, that they do not
find appealing and may not be driven to succeed. A large percentage of
retail store employees fit into this group.
With the exception of
self-serve retailers – those who have designed their business model around
the self-serve concept which does not require sales associates to drive the
business - store employees are required to actively promote and sell
merchandise to their customers. The ability of store associates to perform
the ‘selling’ activity will often make the difference between success and
failure.
As stated above, if it
is reasonable to expect people to do well in activities they enjoy, or at
least, do not find difficult and unappealing, then it would be reasonable
for sales associates who enjoy selling to be more successful, and to make a
bigger contribution than those who do not.
For the individual who
does not enjoy selling-either because s/he does not have the skills or
simply does not want to do it – a position in a retail store may still
attract them due to ease of entry. Store Managers should be very wary of
this individual.
There are so many tasks
to be performed in a retail store that individuals, like the one just
described, can easily make themselves quite useful. However, the task
oriented associate will not help you succeed unless, of course, you have
hired them strictly for the purpose of performing tasks that will allow
selling associates more time, freedom and energy to pursue the real goal –
sales and revenue generation. The luxury of having sales associates and
service/maintenance associates is something few retailers can afford. With
wage costs being such a large portion of their expense base, most retailers
require associates to generate revenue.
Some retail Store
Managers have lost sight of the real business goal. In many cases, they have
lost sight because they are consumed by the realities of managing the store.
This is to say that the overwhelming number of tasks to be completed seem to
leave no time or energy for selling to the customer. Of course, a Manager
who allows him/herself to become task driven cannot be allowed to continue
in the position and probably does not really want to, truth be told. Again,
with the exception of the self-serve retail outlet, Store Managers must make
every effort to ensure that the selling activity is going on in their store.
This requires a consistent, unrelenting focus on sales and other key
productivity indicators.
There are things that
can be done, or practiced, by Store Managers in order to keep that focus.
The first, and most
important, is to be a sales oriented individual yourself. You must role
model excellent selling behaviors at all times. Talk about sales at every
opportunity. Approach every conversation with sales top of mind. If you do
not see yourself this way, you need to do whatever is necessary to become
this way very quickly.
The second is to hire
only real ‘sales people’ - people who enjoy selling and who know how to do
it. This may mean that you have to work with them to make sure they perform
their share of non-selling duties but this is definitely preferable to
hiring task oriented individuals and then attempting to work with them to
get them to sell which, by the way, is the sad state many, many Store
Managers find themselves in. Hiring task oriented individuals is the least
effective way to help the store reach its goals and will, almost certainly,
prevent the Store Manager from becoming successful. Hiring sales oriented
individuals, on the other hand, will naturally enable the consistent,
unrelenting focus on sales to be maintained.
Next, make sure your
expectations are crystal clear. If you tell an associate to clean, dust or
otherwise maintain a particular space or thing, make it clear that task is
to be stopped immediately upon the arrival of a customer. If you don’t make
it clear, the individual may think that your instruction to perform the task
trumps the need to attend to the customer.
It is natural for some
people to view everything in terms of the hierarchy they are in. To this
type of person the Store Manager is the most important individual and any
instruction or direction received from the Manager will be seen to be more
important than anything they, themselves, might come up with – serving the
customer, for instance. After all, the Store Manager is the person who hired
and trained the associate; s/he is the one that reviews performance; s/he is
the one making it possible for the associate to earn a living. This is why
you need to make it clear that any task or direction coming from you is
always secondary to serving a customer. Say it as often as you must just to
get that expectation across. The level of success the store achieves depends
on it.
When you visit retail
stores you will find that most Managers have not been successful at making
the expectation clear. Worse still, the Managers may not even have that
expectation themselves. That is another story.
Let’s assume that a
store is staffed by individuals who believe they are sales people who want
to sell but who are, in fact, task oriented. It is easy to determine if this
is the case simply by observing the activities taking place. If a customer
enters a retail store and associates immediately leave the task they were
performing to provide their undivided attention – and this does not mean
that they crowd the customers, refusing to let them wander around
comfortably, only that they are clearly available to assist should they be
needed – then they are sales focused. They will find ways to start building
rapport with the customer and will likely progress to other ‘selling steps’.
If, on the other hand, they say hello and continue with their task while the
customer wanders around their store, they are not sales focused. These
employees are expected to sell and they say they understand that but, as
evidenced by their behavior, clearly they prefer to do tasks. They will even
seek out more and more tasks rather than have to sell to customers. This is
why so many retail stores are not able to provide quality shopping
experiences for their customers – the task oriented individuals who may,
indeed, be pleasant are not looking after customers…they are avoiding them.
It’s very difficult to be a productive sales person if you avoid customers
or have as little to do with them as possible. These individuals always have
something else to do that absolutely must be done because serving customers
leads, or should lead, to selling to customers. If a person does not want to
sell then they will try avoidance. In the event they cannot avoid the
customer they will likely assist cheerfully and do their ‘job’. But not
sell.
A good sales person
understands that appearing available to the customer is an absolute minimum.
It is not good enough to say “let me know if you need anything” and then
continue with a task. That would require the customer to ‘bother’ or
‘interrupt’ the associate and many people are not comfortable with that.
Customers who may not be sure that they are ready to buy may feel that they
should not occupy the associates time. I can’t begin to cover all of the
possible reasons why a customer would not approach a ‘task consumed’
individual and it is not necessary to do so. Just suffice it to say that
they may not. And, of course, some customers would interrupt the ‘task
consumed’ individual just because. The point is successful sales people do
not allow room for misunderstandings. They are perceived to be available and
focused on the customer. Period.
Tasks have to be managed
very carefully in retail stores. The work has to be done. The store must be
cleaned and well merchandised. Paperwork has to be kept up to date. Stock
must be received in a timely manner. The list goes on. All of these tasks
are certainly important to the business and contribute a great deal to the
success of the store. The Store Manager is responsible for managing in such
a way as to allow associates to sell and to perform required tasks. There is
no task that can be a top priority during open hours of operation.
Building
relationships with customers, selling to them, and treating them with the
respect they deserve are top priorities during open hours of operation.
Nothing else makes sense.
