When the Going Gets Tough…
The Tough (or at Least the Smart!)
Put Their Effort and Their Investment Into Their People!
Strategies for Moving From Survival to Success
By guest columnist Kate Peterson, Performance Concepts, Inc.
You’ve made it this far. You’ve weathered the storm, and you’re finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. Customers are coming back, and they’re actually buying things again! Now, how do you go about moving your war-torn troops out of ‘fear and desperation’ mode and into a whole new attitude? Here are seven simple, straightforward steps to help get you pointed in the right direction.
- Practice ‘Values-Based Management’. It’s a simple, three-step process: Define, Communicate and Align. Define your standards and values in detail and communicate them clearly to everyone on your team. Then, make certain that your management practices and decisions are aligned with your values — every time — with regard to your customers AND your associates.
- Evaluate your team. Make sure you have the right people to get the job done. Be fair in your assessments, and assume responsibility for your contribution to each associate’s success or failure. If you haven’t done so within the past six months, NOW is the time to provide your associates with detailed performance reviews in which you develop action plans for the balance of the year.
- Hire right! Make sure you have the right number of people to get the job done. As a rule of thumb, if you have just enough people to handle the business you have, you are short one. If your people are totally occupied with the immediate, they have no time to help build your future. Be sure your payroll is an investment, not an expense. Use this time to fill in blanks on your team and to upgrade where necessary. Take care to hire for the skills and characteristics that are most tied to success in career retailers.
- Set realistic goals. People have to know what they’re shooting for — and the goal has to be challenging, yet achievable. You’ll need to have specific sales and/or gross profit goals for individuals and for the team — monthly, broken down to weekly, and to daily. Monitor numbers and report each day’s progress the next morning.
- Stay Positive! Don’t turn into your own self-fulfilling prophecy. Be honest with your team about business conditions and their performance, but avoid letting your own dismal mood and attitude set the tone for doom and gloom. You can’t afford to let morale slip along with your sales. Look for key motivators within each associate and make sure you’re pushing the right buttons. Use short contests and daily games to keep people focused on the task at hand.
- Don’t shut off the budget for training! When cash gets tight and income seems harder to come by, it’s very tempting to cut ‘extraneous’ expenses. That’s a good strategy, as long as you recognize that training doesn’t fall into that category! In fact, the tighter business gets, the farther training slides up the ‘essential priorities’ scale. When consumers have fewer dollars to spend, they become much more selective about where they spend them. It stands to reason that when there are fewer customers coming in, every opportunity increases in importance, and the skill level of the sales associate becomes far more significant than it is when times are good. In other words, you might get by with ‘good’ salespeople in good times — but in tough times, it’s the businesses with great salespeople that survive. Key in on listening, profiling and closing skills, which, when handled properly, all tie directly together into a successful presentation.
- Focus on ACTIVE client development. Business goes where business is invited — and it’s time to stop losing consumer dollars to other businesses that are simply better at asking for them. It’s time for the salesperson’s job description to change from ‘handling the customers that come in’ to ‘building business by actively pursuing new leads and following up with service that will surprise and delight every client every time. Make this part of your standards — and make sure people understand the concept. Provide the tools they need to capture, retain and utilize detailed client information, then see to it that they have the time and support they need to get the job done.
By Fruchtman on January 12, 2010 :: Filed under Think
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