Retail Sales and Outperforming the Competition

There have been a number of recessions over the last 30 years and it appears that the retailers that fare the best and come out ahead of the competition have a number of things in common. So, what do the best do that the rest don’t? The first thing the best do is that they set out a strategy for retail sales training that seeks to achieve exactly this. Their strategic statement looks like this: We will take customers from our competition and increase our market share, by giving the customer a singular experience that is not duplicated by others. We will maintain both revenue and margin in the downturn and enjoy greater revenues in the long term. Now, we all know that a downturn means a focus on both costs and price for most retailers. What this should not mean is a compromise in quality of customer experience. Do you recognize this type of strategic statement, which seems to be the standard for a lot or retailers: Stop expenditure on people and keep discounting until the customer comes back. Keep reducing cost and headcount as the margins slip away and hope we survive. Sounds familiar? As well as having a strategy that people can align behind, the best in retail sales training did the following things (and these are not survival tactics for the recession, these are tactics for future profitability) • Understood the difference between a market share strategy and a growth strategy. A growth strategy means you will grow adequately because there are more customers and more money and you will get some. A market Share strategy means doing specific things to outperform the competition and take business away from them. • They examined and knew their competition’s strengths and weaknesses and from this created a different customer experience. • Understanding that the customer experience is more than just the merchandise and the price. • If you do need to lose people, take the opportunity to cut out the dead wood. • Make sure those you keep get trained and can give the customer experience you want • Devote time to the motivation of staff (research tells us that in retail sales staff, 60% of effort is discretionary). • In retail sales there is a skill will balance. If we accept the skills are not overly complex, then we must also accept that the customer experience is about the will of the staff. Are you happy that all your staff wants the customer to have a unique experience? This final point is really the key. The best organizations do things that cost them no money, are implemented by management consistently and let staff know that they are; • Criticalrn• Valuedrn• Recognizedrn• Consultedrn• Developed Summary Have a strategy that seeks to take business from the competition. Identify your tactics for doing this. Get everyone involved in defining the ‘unique’ customer experience. Have a passion for people, both staff and customers. Make managers the focus to drive these standards into the business and involve and galvanize their people.