Spring is a time of renewal. The snow has melted, kids are riding their bikes in the street and you’re getting ready to retrain your store staff. It’s the perfect time to tidy up sales strategy and do some product knowledge “spring cleaning.”
The following are four keys that will help make your spring training session a success.
1. Communicate
As a manager, one of the best things about having a training session is the simple fact that you’re taking the time to talk to them. Keep the training process more of an information exchange, rather than you telling them what you want them to do.
Treat it like a discussion. Ask your salespeople what types of questions they’ve been getting about new products and services. What are the pros and cons of a given smartphone? Encourage them to share sales strategies they’ve had success with. Stimulate the discussion by asking analytical questions like, “Why do you think strategy A worked better than strategy B?”
In wireless retail, since you’re dealing with new technology and a rapidly evolving marketplace, it’s exceedingly important to keep your salespeople sharp. Customers come to your store seeking advice, product knowledge and quality service. You might be pleasantly surprised with what your salespeople tell you about the business or what approaches they suggest.
2. Set Goals
Although you want to open the training floor to discussion, you need to make the objectives of the training session clear at the outset. Identify the outcomes and behaviors you want to see by the end of it. Use these target outcomes as points for discussion and have someone take notes.
Afterward, you can extract the key messages from the notes and print them out for everyone. By making the training process participatory, you’re helping the employees retain the information they discuss.
“Goals should be measurable, specific and tied to the company’s overall goals,” says Michelle Diener, Director of Instructional Design at Corporate Dynamics Inc. in Naperville, Illinois (see Staff Training). “This lets you know if and where the training has made any impact.”
3. Improve Morale and Motivation
Let them have fun. Bring some food into the training session. Make everyone feel comfortable with the process. “Give your employees a chance to develop relationships as people rather than just ‘co-workers,’” suggests retail consultant Sam Leder (see Employee Retention). “Allowing your employees to have fun and to be social in the workplace will help keep them satisfied with the work they do and happier doing it.”
While ensuring staff is happy to be there provides intrinsic motivation, you also have to provide some extrinsic motivation. Whether it’s money, a prize, or time off, you must attach a reward to the goals you set for your employees. “Make it clear, through your training program, that you reward superior job performance,” Leder adds.
And with the understanding that these economic times are tough, it doesn’t have to be a monetary reward (see Recession-era Incentives, Motivating Without Money, or Fringe Benefits).
4. Follow Up on Progress
Reinforcement is the key to effective training. Follow up on the goals you set with your employees. Encourage them when they exhibit desired behaviors.
“Training is not an event – it’s a process,” says Michelle Diener of Corporate Dynamics. “An event is a one-time activity that has little effect on sustained behavioral changes. It often only has a short-term impact on a person’s, attitude, behavior or skills. Change takes place over time.”
Diener says that reinforcing your training efforts will help you avoid having to retrain your staff on the same issues over and over. Instead, it becomes an ingrained and continuous set of behaviors: positive behaviors that will take your business in the right direction.
- newsletter@iQmetrix.com
* To read more Sales Training Tips, check out the following articles from iQmetrix News & Views:
How Will Sales Training Change in 2010?
Overcome Sales Team Coaching Barriers
Retraining Store Staff: Lessons from Starbucks
Four Steps to Grow Company Leaders