Dream Team. Sales growth factors in a shoe store

The personnel issue is one of the most acute in shoe retail. A good seller is difficult to find at first, to recognize among other candidates, and then it is difficult to keep in the company. SR expert and permanent speaker of the Euro Shoes business program Maria Gerasimenko shares her knowledge in the field of recruitment for a retail store, talks about the role of a manager in the rapid adaptation of new employees and their motivation, and also gives a recipe for a quick increase in sales and the role of sellers in this process.

Maria Gerasimenko -

CEO of Fashion Advisers and the first online school for fashion business Fashion Advisers School, expert in business management and development, business coach. Fashion business management experience - more than 12 years. Successfully defended 2 MBA dissertations (Mirbi International Higher School of Economics, Russia, Moscow, 2013) and London Metropolitan University (Great Britain, London, 2017)

Main areas of activity: strategic and anti-crisis management of the shoe business, assortment matrix management, development of motivation programs, conducting trainings in the field of management, service and sales. Clients include: Unichel, Tamaris, s'Oliver, Kotofey, Rieker, Sinta Gamma, Helly Hansen, Rusocks and others.

One of the most pressing issues in the shoe business is the issue of personnel. The selection of sellers is especially difficult: there are few responses, candidates do not come for an interview and do not even warn about it, and there is no longer any need to choose from those who nevertheless got there. Came - and thanks for that! On lack of fish and cancer - fish, take it!

But it often happens that this candidate who has come down to you came simply out of hopelessness and is in dire need of money at a particular moment in his life. Your company for him is also "not a dream job."

Such relationships “from hopelessness” to commercial happiness and high revenue cannot, by definition, lead. And everything should be between the employer and the employee "out of love"!

To do this, your company must become attractive to employees. From an attractive workplace, employees typically expect:

• opportunity to earn;
• convenient transport accessibility;
• convenient schedule;
• paid processing (or better, their absence);
• clear and achievable tasks;
• comfortable relations in the team and with the leader.

Keeping these factors in mind will strengthen your HR brand and increase your reach of potential employees. In this case, you already have to choose from a larger number of candidates who initially have an interest and desire to work in your company, they are motivated. And then no more crayfish in the absence of fish!

A Diamond in a Haystack: 5 Essential Qualities of a Strong Salesperson

The next task is to choose from a large number of candidates those who have the qualities necessary in the work of the seller. We list these valuable qualities:

Empathy

The first and most important quality. This is definitely a must have, because a professional seller feels the interlocutor, knows how to say the right phrase in time, defuse the situation with an appropriate joke or remain silent and let the client speak.

Possession of competent speech

Memorized phrases do not work, buyers love live communication and sincerity on the part of the seller. It is always more pleasant to communicate with a person who speaks in an understandable language and knows how to ask the right questions. It is they who allow you to identify needs and direct the client to the necessary actions.

Product knowledge

When the seller knows the history of the product, the brand features and the benefits of each model, he feels confident and eager to share his knowledge with the buyers. And, as you know, the buyer prefers to buy the product that he knows more about, and the values ​​​​from the acquisition of which resonate with his values.

Charisma and self-confidence

Remember: if the seller radiates self-confidence and positive emotions, customers will automatically attribute the same qualities to the product you are selling!

Flexibility

A professional salesperson knows how to quickly adjust in a conversation, change a sensitive topic, his mood and the attitude of the interlocutor, who, perhaps, "got up on the wrong foot."

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How to recognize these qualities in an interview?

Blame yourself: what a leader should do for high sales

Often, business owners think that everything ends with hiring an employee: he is interested in selling, which means he will figure it out himself! In fact, it depends only on you how quickly the employee will join the work and begin to show the expected result. A manager who wants a high result in sales must provide a new employee with:

1. Adaptation plan and training on the product, service standards and sales. With mandatory certification upon completion of training.

This is necessary so that the employee joins the rhythm of the company as soon as possible, begins to apply standards and knows the product he is working with well.

2. An interesting motivation program, which depends on the main goals of the store: fulfillment of the sales plan, conversion, average check, check complexity, quality of service. Bonuses for the implementation of the quarterly and annual plan - an additional incentive!

3. Contests and non-material rewards.

One of the most effective methods of staff motivation. Regular competitions for sellers (for the most complex check/the most sales in a certain product category/the most sales of a brand, etc.) perfectly invigorate employees, keep the team in good shape, maintaining a healthy competitive spirit, promote sales growth and speed up the routine!

4. Motivational board. An ordinary cork or magnetic board, on which store goals for the month / week / day are attached, motivating quotes, bright pictures, summing up the results of the competition, and more. Important: the board should be in a utility room, in a place visible to sellers. Information on the board should be updated at least once a month.

5. Morning planning meetings. If your stores have managers, then holding planning meetings at the beginning of the working day is one of their main tasks. If there is no manager, then this is done by the senior seller or the owner. The task of the leader at the planning meeting is to create a mood for the team for the day, give a boost of energy and outline the goals of the day. This is not a meeting or a formal event. There is also no time limit. A planning meeting should be held every day and after it, employees should be inspired to work!

6. Leadership that hears the team's ideas and applies the best of them. Often, imperfections in business processes and weaknesses of the company are visible to ordinary employees, while management does not want to notice them and flatly refuses to hear about them. It is not uncommon for employees to complain about unpaid overtime, busy schedules, lack of knowledge, competitors offering a similar product at a lower price, and so on.

7. Work schedule. Develop a comfortable work schedule. This is a schedule in which the seller will be able to fully recuperate after a work shift, combine work with part-time work, hobbies or household chores.

It is important that the seller work no more than 10 hours a day. Efficiency is declining, which means that store sales will plummet.

In addition, be sure to take into account the biological needs of employees: a lunch break and the possibility of short breaks during the day. If your store traffic is not too high, you can invite an additional seller to work part-time during peak hours. The main thing - do not allow the store to close, signs like "I'll be back in 5 minutes!" and in a panic, a chewing salesman running out of the back room.

Quick recipes: how to increase revenue by 15% in 7 days?

If you want to change the world, change yourself! I suggest you apply three changes that give the fastest result:

1. Involving product training. Ask each employee to prepare a short presentation about the brand (model) and talk about its features and benefits. Also, 15 metaphors and 3 examples of the storytelling technique can be added to the story.

2. Hold a competition between store employees, or between teams from different stores. Above in the article, possible contests are already listed. I will add one more, my favorite - "Biathlon". The goods of the store are the targets, the sellers are the arrows. You select 5-7 models in the store and assign them as targets. The seller who sells more targets in a week / month wins.

3. Compile and update a motivation board regularly. A sales plan for every day, reminders of how and why it can be done, motivational pictures and phrases can work wonders.