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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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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Point of sale can have enormous benefits when designed correctly. If the design is poor and the thought process for designing it minimal it becomes confusing for the customer and can in fact, have the opposite effect.

Here are two examples of how it can differ. Both are designed to advise the customer on an electrical appliance but one is far superior and will inform the customer of the product more effectively.

First of all I want to raise the guidance given to staff by companies, quite rightly they ask them to talk to the customer about how a product will benefit. The benefit tells them what the feature will do for them; a feature may be limited in its ability to educate the customer by revealing its use. Despite this, some retail outlets persist in creating customer information in the form of point of sale which refers only to the feature, totally contradicting the sales training they give to staff.

Consider the picture below, POS for a camera. Unless they have previously completed their own research about the product or have a technical background, would the customer know why they should select a camera with 72 mega pixels as opposed to one with more or less?

Is ‘compatible with PRO Duo’ an important feature? Only the customers that know what ‘PRO Duo’ is would know the answer to that. What about 3x optifocal zoom and 6x digital zoom, will every prospective customer know if they need it? It leads me to ask the question ‘What’s the point’ of point of sale that doesn’t tell the customer anything. Perhaps the thought process is to encourage the customer to ask a member or staff. Easy for the confident customer to do if they can find a member of staff, but what about the unconfident customer who may feel foolish if they admit to having little knowledge about the product.

In my mind the presence of the feature indicates that the author is concluding that the reader should already know the benefit. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news – some don’t and any store displaying such POS could potentially alienate customers and lose sales.

If we compare the POS on the picture below a key feature with its benefits is displayed clearly and boldly. Straight away the customer is informed how the large 1.8” screen and easy to use interface on the MP3 video player will benefit them.
Following on key features are displayed as icons with a simple clear associated benefit.

Reading this information has given me a much greater knowledge of the product. As a customer I can make a more informed decision to buy or decide if the product is suitable or insufficient for my needs without the help of a sales person.

This is a great example of simple and effective point of sale with ‘a point’.

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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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Does the channel or business model make any difference to the level of acceptable customer service?

Jeremy writes that online stores should not bother with an extensive customer support service and offer a simple return service only. I.e. if you don’t like it, send it back.

In my opinion, it depends on a number of factors…

• How competitive is the market?
• Is your business model cut price self service or luxury?
• Is the item a low value commodity or a high value purchase?
• What channel are you using for the sale?
• Are you hoping for an ongoing customer relationship?

In the case of an online store - the majority of the work involved in achieving the sale and completing the order is automated. The customer can browse the store without a member of staff checking whether they need help or if they are shoplifting. Detailed product information and even reviews or customer feedback is available to help the customer with the decision. The purchase processing is automated, confirmation emails and estimated delivery dates or tracking can be automated. And depending on the nature and set-up, much of the logistics can be automated.

So when customer has a query - I would be inclined to agree with Jeremy - it may be simpler to continue the theme. With an automatically generated returns slip and refund procedure.

On the other hand - a retail store would need to staff a store with a number of people to complete a sale, so whereas a customer services team would need to be specifically employed if you wanted to offer support for an online sale, the existing retail staff needed for the original sale could help with queries - as long as they were trained correctly.

The customer expects different service levels based on the positioning of your brand - in his podcast, Steve Humphrey describes the decision making process and different levels of service required depending on the nature of the purchase. He uses the comparison of buying at Primark compared to Prada.

Customers also expect different service levels if buying a high value product - for example a car. Even in the case of online ordering, you would expect a certain amount of aftersales service.

Marks and Spencer offered a no quibble exchange policy regardless of how long ago the purchase was made, this was promoted as a selling point in the past.

This has now changed to a 90 day return policy for unwanted goods - presumably to reduce exploitation and cut costs.

Jason from good customer services blog suggests that the level of service you provide in retail stores depends also on your behaviour. I would agree that sales staff are likely to be happier to go the extra mile for polite customers.

Let me know your experiences -

• Have you been surprised by exceptionally good or bad service?
• Do you think companies should be able to get away with low customer service if they offer a lower priced product?
• Would a return only policy please you or is it not enough?
  
• What customer service do you offer?
• Have you seen examples of customers exploiting good customer service?

Listen to Steve’s Marketing podcast using this link - I would recommend episode 13 The decision making process, and 7 The Marketing Mix and the scope of Marketing.

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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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