We had some great news last week, Beyond The Box has been shortlisted in this years Field Marketing Awards to be held at the Marriot Hotel, Mayfair in London on 1 October!  Beyond The Box is one of five companies competing the ‘Most Effective Retail Training/Mystery Shopping’ category and we are all very excited about it! The nomination is for the work completed with the electrical brand Hoover. We are looking forward to a lovely evening at the awards ceremony in October and will keep you posted on on the outcome!  

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Avoid introducing technical jargon as much as possible. You want to get support for the product, not provide excuses for not selling it. Also, all questions should be welcomed and not ridiculed. Some questions may appear trivial and foolish at times but our intention is to overcome all hurdles.  

Provide “Hands On” Training - it is important to give an explanation of how the product works, but it is also important for users to actually “touch and feel” the product. They may not come away from the training class as experts, but at least you will have overcome their fears.

Get Management Support - If staff sense the slightest lack of support for a product, they will use it as an excuse not to sell it.

Create excitement to sell the new product - this can be achieved by incentives and bonus schemes. Another option is to train the staff in stages, e.g., taking key “features and benefits” and making them proficient in them. Let the trained staff spread the word to the rest of the employees. This allows the other staff to get an unbiased opinion as it were.

Some general tips you should be aware of as a trainer:

Be organised - prepare a well thought out agenda and stick to it. I used to be a big believer of the tell, tell, tell approach. This is great for presentations but I found that when I was being trained using this approach; it used to go over my head. As my knowledge of being a trainer increased so did my training style. I know use the ask, ask, ask approach. This gets the trainee involvement and helps me identify their learning styles.

Know your audience - understand their intelligence level and interests, and design a training program around them. By working within their limitations you will be able to accomplish more.

Dress and speak appropriately - your appearance and how you present yourself says a lot to the trainees about your product. If you dress and act like a geek, the staff may look at this as another harebrained scheme by the Manufacturer. The appearance and presentation of the trainer reflects the credibility of not only the speaker, but of the brand and product as well.

Stimulate the trainees - keep the training positive and upbeat; inject humor where necessary.  Allow periodic breaks, but keep them short and sweet. Make use of other aids like metaphors and games to embed messages and get the mind working.

Provide training aids - such as handouts, brochures or perhaps a CD/DVD with a copy of the presentation.

Get feedback from the training program - allow the trainees to evaluate the training course. Their feedback will hint as to your success and may point out problem areas that need to be addressed.

In conclusion the trainer’s mission, therefore, is to explain, demonstrate, and convince the trainees how the new products will not only benefit the company, but the customers as well; and communicate it in a way that the trainees will understand. Remember; keep it simple as lots of technical jargon impresses no one.

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I asked Christine how she would describe tactical marketing, and here’s what she said:

“My interpretation of tactical marketing is the planned marketing activity that companies execute.

An example was Hoover setting up the Training and merchandising team and choosing to outsource it.

Companies attending exhibitions demonstrates tactical marketing along with the provision of promotional staff in place to support achieving objectives.

Leaflet drops, advertising, merchandising, direct mail, and other marketing activities are included in tactical marketing.”

James Bell makes a nice comparison between Strategic versus tactical marketing here, and makes an important point:

“Just putting a marketing message in an appropriate medium for John Smith to hear or read is not good enough. The strategy must derive from an understanding of what’s important to John Smith. Otherwise, this tactical part of the marketing process will be much less effective, resulting in ads that under-perform.”

The Times 100 has an article that compares the two, and comes to a slightly different conclusion - that strategic marketing is the overall long term plan of where an organisation wants to be, and tactical marketing involves using the elements of the Marketing Mix to get there.

They also have a great summary of marketing techniques that should give you a better understanding of how you should plan your marketing activity to include research, strategy & tactics.

You can read more about what Christine did with the Hoover team to improve their tactical marketing activities here.

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Sue’s put together some tips on getting more information out of people when you’re marketing products in store.

Here’s the video:

And as ever, here are the notes in case you can’t view the video:

Hi, I’m Sue Abbiss from Beyond The Box, I’m a Field Marketing Manager. I’ve spoken about top tips for sales, and we mentioned open questions, so I’m going to talk a little bit about that.

Open questions require an answer, not just yes or no, so who, what, where, why, when.

If you were to ask a closed question for example “did you go to the pictures last night?” you would get a short yes/no answer. If you were to say “where did you go last night?”, they might give you more information.

So just remember, a good sales tip - use open questions - who, what, where, why, when - to gain information.

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Sue’s got some tips to help selling in retail stores:

Here are the notes, in case you can’t view the video:

Hi I’m Sue Abbiss from Beyond The Box, I’m the field marketing manager.

Today I’d just like to go through top tips on selling.

1. Make sure you that you approach every customer in store, say good morning, etc.
2. Build rapport, it’s important to ask friendly questions, be open with them.
3. Identify a customers’ needs by asking who, what, where, why, when.
4. You can then match those needs to a product that you think is right for them.
5. Once you’ve done that, overcome any objections and answer any questions that they have.
6. Then ask for the sale. don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.
7. Once you’ve asked for the sale, close the sale.

It’s as simple as that!

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Field merchandising can take on many forms, but predominantly merchandisers make sure stock is available and well placed on the shop floor for the consumer to see. Merchandisers can check stock levels by checking the store systems, make sure all products are placed out on the shop floor, or by going into the warehouse and unboxing products if necessary. Once the product is on the shop floor, a merchandiser will make sure that the product is placed in the best possible vantage point, make sure all POS is correctly placed and that the product is clean and tidy. So it will be the first product the customer will see when entering the store, and if the product looks good, customers are more likely to buy that product.

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Sean describes how to increase sales at point of purchase:

Here are the notes to go with the video:

5 tips on how to produce successful point of purchase solutions

1. The first thing you need to do is check the compliance issues of the stores that you’re citing your displays within, check the criteria because they vary form one outlet to the next. Secondly, undertand the target audience. Understand and research them thoroughly.
2. Secondly, understand the target audience. Understand and research them thoroughly.
3. Thirdly, make sure you that you portray a clear brand message with the display that you design. Make sure you put over the essence of the brand correctly and that it’s clear and to the point.
4. Forth, simplicity of design. Make sure the design of the unit or point of sale display is simple, they are by far the most successful units in store. Don’t make it too complicated because it won’t work. Keep the wording to the point. Make it simple and clear. Use pictures because people won’t always read it.
5. Finally, allow time for mishaps. Because when you’re developing something bespoke, even though you may have prototypes signed off, there’ will always be something that could crop up during manufacture.

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Christine gives some tips to help improve your confidence when selling:

Here are the notes to go with this video in case you are unable to watch it:

How can ensure a sales person is confident to sell your brand instore

1. The first thing you need to do, is make sure they fully understand your brand values - This might be
   • key selling points
   • target market
   • ethical values
2. Next, make sure they fully understand your product. In order to do that, demonstrate it to them, let them use it so they understand good demonstration techniques that they can pass on to the customer.
3. Next, make sure they fully understand your key selling points. Whatever these selling points are, you’ve got to link them to benefits. There’s no point in talking to a customer about a feature - they need to know what will it do for me.
4. Finally - show them how easy it is to sell. Demonstrate how you would sell it, and go through a sales process so they feel totally comfortable, and can sell the product with confidence.

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I read an excellent example of how good customer service training can change the outcome of a bad customer experience. The example was written on the Marketing Beyond Blog, under ‘retail training’.

He describes situation 1 where the customer service assistant goes through the motions of returning a phone and cancelling his contract with limited conversation; and situation 2 where the assistant delves deeper, to understand the reasons behind the return and suggest possible solutions.

The good service described is hypothetical, but if you were faced with the second situation, I’m sure you would agree that he’s right in saying you would give the network another try.

It is becoming more common, particularly in telecoms to be transferred to the ‘retention department’ when you call to cancel a service. It demonstrates how important it is to train staff well, and ensure they are aware of service improvements, and product benefits.

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Here Christine explains what is involved in Field Marketing and Merchandising:

As ever, here are the notes to go with this video in case you are unable to watch the video:

What Does Field Marketing And Merchandising Entail?

It’s all about increasing sales. A field training and merchandising team will do that by encouraging the store to increase the number of units sold, or raising the average selling price.

To do this effectively, you have to make sure that the stock is

• out on display
• positioned in an eyecatching location
• merchandised correctly with point of sale materials

This is so the customer can see any offers, see the price correctly, and gain information about the product.

If the product needs some involvement from a sales person - i.e. it’s not as simple as the customer selecting an item off the shelf - you would ensure that the sales person is up-to-speed on the product. Meaning they understand the product and have confidence to sell it.

To build this confidence, we would train the staff, show them how to use the product and introduce some key selling skills.

This leads to more sales for the retailer and in turn the manufacturer… so overall everybody wins!

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