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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Be yourself, be relaxed, and break down the barriers with staff. Display the behaviours that you want your staff to demonstrate, at the same time be adaptable, and show that you can be flexible when needed 

Build trust by being sincere and open with staff. Be firm but fair, treat everyone equally and on merit; always do what you say you will do.  

Always give your people the credit for your successes and take responsibility for your people’s mistakes. 

Treat people how you expect/want to be treated; lead by example, work along side your staff, don’t expect them to do something you wouldn’t do yourself, a good leader wears his authority lightly. 

Be a good listener, really get to know and understand your staff, show that you understand them.

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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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Motivate - understand ‘what make your staff tick’, get to know the person, what drives/motivates them, understand what de-motivates staff (working conditions, unfair treatment, poor policies) so you can avoid these. 

Opportunity - give your staff opportunities for advancement and the chance to develop themselves, as well as develop their role. Set goals and challenging targets to help staff advance 

Team building - arrange regular team meetings, communicate with all staff, keep them informed of any changes, or update 

Involvement - get staff involved; seek their opinions on the ongoing development and progress of their company 

Valued - believe in your people, make sure you let staff know that they are valued; focus on recognising excellent performance, send a letter or email thanking them for a job well done. Remember to send staff a birthday card.  

Empathy - show staff that you care about them and not just the job; take their feeling into consideration, understand that some times out side influence can affect their work.

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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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• Make sure you approach every customer
• Build rapport – be open and friendly, ask questions like - ‘how are you feeling today’ or ‘what is the weather like outside’.
• Ask open questions (these are, who, what, why, where, when and how - these types of questions give you more information than a yes or no answer) to identify the customer’s needs.
• Once you identified the customer’s needs, match them to the product using both a feature and a benefit, e.g. – ‘keeping the children’s uniforms clean must be a problem for you, with this model, it as a daily wash cycle, you can put the children’s uniform in when they get home from school and they will be washed within a half hour, this will save you both time and money’
•  Know what your available stock is – use lost leaders (these are products that are low priced and well advertised products that bring the customer through the door) as a sell up tool, this gives the customer a superior product and it means more money in the till for your store.
• Ask for the sale – don’t be afraid to close the sale, ask the customer ‘when would you like this delivered’ (this option also gives you an add on sale too) – if they come up with an objection, e.g. ‘I want to take it with me’ – you say ‘great, no problem, we have one in stock, you can take it away today’.
• Customers may say ‘I want to have a look around’ – you  can reply with, ‘To save you the time having to look around, we check our prices every week to make sure we are competitive and if you do happen to see it cheaper elsewhere, we will beat the price’ If the customer still chooses to ‘look round’ you may still get the sale, the customer will more than likely come back to you to buy the product, if you have built a good rapport with them.

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We’ve put together a video running through some tips on how to differentiate your brand in retail stores. Here’s Christine with her top tips:

To ensure this is accessible to all, we’ve also written up the show notes below.

If I had to sum it up in 5 tips, the important things to make sure your brand can be differentiated are as follows:

• Make sure your product is on the shop floor. You can’t sell an empty space. Ensure you have plenty of stock in the warehouse to put on the shelves when they’re empty.

• Make sure your product is positioned well. It’s possible to purchase good store space in a retail outlet, so have a word with the buyers to find out where the best spots are.

• Make sure the product is well merchandised when it’s in position. There’s nothing worse than a scruffy dirty point of sale (POS). So make sure the point of sale is clean, relevant, eye catching and up-to-date.

• Once your product is on display, make sure staff know about it. It’s not always the case that staff are trained on all products. It’s important that staff can speak to customers about your product with confidence - that will differentiate your product from a different brand.

• What a lot of companies will do to achieve this is employ a trainer merchandising team where people will go in to a store representing that brand making sure all the above are followed through.

We would love your feedback, any positive or negative comments, or anything you would like to add.

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When we recently exhibited at the Business North West exhibition we had the good fortune to meet Val Holmes from Oldham College Business Centre. Val is the Commercial Business Manager and approached Beyond The Box to work with the Centre as a training supplier.

Last week we completed our first project with them - a bespoke training package for a dental surgery that has recently undergone a major transformation as they changed from an NHS to a private practice.

The surgery in question already displays some excellent customer service skills but felt they would benefit from gaining an understanding of how to manage the process of changing from a service environment to a sales and service environment.

The course was delivered over two days. Day one covered team building and change management, providing a clear insight into how people react to change. This was focussed on how individuals may handle the change of becoming a fee paying customer from an NHS patient. Day two covered communication skills.

The feedback from the course was fantastic with several comments relating to the intial fear some of the delegates had about attending a training programme years after their latest ‘learning experience’, which for many was school days. They were all unanimous in their conclusion that their fears were unfounded, they thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed environment and learning activities.

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Back in early 2005, Hoover approached specialist training company, Beyond The Box, to provide a field training team that would help them to increase market share and promote the Hoover brand in key retail outlets throughout the UK.

The solution suggested by Beyond The Box was to set up national training team under the guidance of a national training manager. This team of 10 regional trainer merchandisers would cover the whole of the UK and have responsibility for several key elements in the retail/purchasing environment.

“The brief from Hoover was to train retail staff on Hoover products to ensure that they had a positive response to the Hoover brand and that they demonstrated confidence and knowledge to offer Hoover products to customers,” comments Christine Knott, Managing Director of Beyond The Box. “Our trainers visit the stores on average once a month which helps the team to develop key relationships with stores staff. The training is provided either one to one or in group sessions.”

But the regional trainers don’t just offer training for the retail staff, they also act as ambassadors for the Hoover brand. Whilst in store they check that the product is displayed correctly on the shop floor, place point of sale material, ensure that all Hoover products are clean and undamaged and then action any specific area that requires attention.

“We wanted the team to provide Hoover with feedback not only on the training that the retail staff were receiving but also to provide a monthly snapshot of the stores they were visiting. This includes commercial information about competitors, price changes and product placement as well as feedback on the condition of the goods in store,” said Christine.

Feedback from Hoover has been very positive. The training support programme has been running for over two years and has been very effective. The team has received positive feedback from retail outlets around the country. At Currys in Watford training on washing machines was provided. Two weeks later the trainer returned to the store to be told that the member of staff she had trained had been selling Hoover washing machines due to the training he had received, where he’d never sold them before.

At Comet in Pontefract a member of staff now only sells Hoover products because she feels confident with them since she received the training. At Comet in Chester, the training manager helped store sales manager Tom, increase his sales for MDA by 80% that day.

Mark Barratt, Marketing Director for the Hoover Candy Group comments, “Having a field training team provides us with more direct access to the consumer at the decision making point. The team provides us with feedback from the sales staff as to how the consumers feel about our products. Another benefit of using a face to face team is that they are able to improve product knowledge in a way that written information simply cannot. The team also help to develop effective POS and merchandising with the sales staff to ensure they are comfortable with our product range. All of this means that the sales staff, after training, are able to sell our products with confidence.”

Pat Smith, recently retired Sales Director for Hoover Floorcare, comments, “Hoover sales have increased year on year as a direct result of the Beyond The Box training team being in-store.”

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