A question that we often ask the many people who approach us about our services is ‘Are you actually serious about wanting to grow your business?’
Now I know that it seems pretty obvious that if you’re in business you will want to grow, but the second question - because you can't have a goal without knowing how to get there - is the one that baffles many of them:
‘What are you doing to achieve this?’
After a few minutes of a long list of activities and investments – often headed by ‘advertising more’ – it’s the third question that stops them in their tracks.
‘How are you training your team so they can help you achieve your goal?’
Silence.
Beyond the usual functional and operational training that you need just to be able to open a store for customers, the attitude towards training for their teams seems to be that it is a cost that they can’t afford – but they’ll do some when they hit some milestones, whether that’s double digit growth or simply breakeven.
The bad news is that without training in the essential retail soft skills that can deliver service excellence and increase repeat customers, your business will simply not reach its goal.
Customers will not return because the service and experience was simply not good enough - and they'll also tell their friends and family not to bother going to your store.
Suppliers and Partners will walk away because they don’t want to be associated with a failing brand.
Investors will put more pressure on you as sales drop, and maybe even walk away.
Think of it this way…If you have a car you have to put petrol in the tank to keep it going. The same applies to training of your team.
Here are 5 strategies that have been proven to grow business revenues faster:
Train your retail teams in more than simple operational tasks.
They are your main revenue generators and the face of your business to your customers. If they are untrained – or poorly trained - your business will not reach your goals. Customer experience and service excellence is your only long term way to achieve growth. Without customers you have no business.
Measure success against a wider range of metrics
The true health of your business is not just in the sales line but in how many repeat customers and referrals you achieve. Poorly trained staff might achieve a short term sales improvement by 'push' selling, but that will be short-lived if the customer experience is poor.
Make sure your training is relevant to your sector
Off-the-shelf training is a waste of time (and money) unless your are studying for a technical qualification. If you are aiming to establish your own brand identity and culture as a retailer, to gain an advantage over your competitors, bespoke high quality training that is tailored to your needs and challenges is the only effective solution.
Focus on retaining your staff for longer
Training your retail teams in effective soft skills can achieve staff retention levels 2-3x the industry norm, because it makes them feel valued by you.
There are two reasons why this is an important part of your growth strategy:
a) recruiting new team members is a distraction that is costly and time-consuming; b) customers form relationships with their preferred staff member. When they leave there's a risk that you lose the customer too. The longer your team stays, the better the ROI on their training.
Provide mentoring and support to embed training long term
In many cases, once a training session is finished, the staff return to their day-to-day duties and never really have the time to practice their new skills. This is a huge mistake made by many businesses who see the time out for training as being 'lost sales' time. All that will happen is that the impact of their training is significantly reduced. Planning for ongoing support and mentoring for your retail teams, providing a 'safe forum' to ask questions and share tips for success, is essential.
Smart businesses understand how to implement these 5 strategies and avoid the doom loop of poor customer experience and declining sales. We know because we’ve trained their teams.
We have results to prove that what we do works. That's because we don’t just talk about training, we deliver highly effective and bespoke training plans, and provide ongoing support for attendees that gets faster results that keep growing!
Training is an investment in your growth, not a cost.
If you want to boost your revenue contact us to have an exploratory, no obligation call. Connect on LinkedIn with Helen or Neena and start your journey to faster, higher sales today.
Photo by Elizaveta Dushechkina on Unsplash
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