October 28

Does Your Retail Sales Team Need Some Training?

Yesterday I had a gap in my schedule so I went for a wander through Castletown Shopping Centre in Townsville.  I  enjoy doing this – and often get insights as to what is “working”, where the people are shopping/not shopping, seeing what is ‘hot’ at local level.

Sometimes there are lessons based on what shops have ‘gorn’ from a high rent precinct.

While it is true that being located in a high traffic place like Castletown does mean higher rents – it is also true that if retailers don’t create systems in their team to “harvest” the traffic – they are doomed or are simply leaving money on the table.

So – as I wandered around looking at trends – I remembered that I needed a new belt.  (Because our new puppy ‘Albert’ had a wonderful time chewing my favourite one.  )  I wander into a menswear shop – past the ‘salesman’ who did not look up from whatever ‘admin?’ he was doing at the “sales” counter.

Oh well – I head over to a rack of belts and start looking through them.  After a minute or so I note they are ‘budget’ looking and move to the next rack.  They all appear to be too long for me.  I look hopefully over to the “salesman” who refuses to look up.  Oh well.  I don’t really need a new belt now, not really.  And I walk out past the “salesman” who still has not in any way communicated with  – apart from the feeling of disinterest.

Chances are that with even a little service I would have spent about $200, right then.  I may even have come back again if I were invited.  I would have freely given my name and details so that they could contact me with ‘special offers’, and I would have accepted a ‘frequent purchaser’ card.   But no – I missed out on some great service.

Even the awful “Kin I help you?” script would have produced some revenue for this business from me.  Now I will do my shopping elsewhere.

What are your retail sales team doing to your ‘potential’ customers?  I only hope that the “salesman” in this case was not the owner.

Cheers

James


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