Recommend a good Retail sales coursee

oldsmokey

Hi all, as per title really - we've a small retail outlet in North Cork, have a terrific part-time assistant who I'd like to have some sales training- we need to sell to everyone that crosses the threshold! - could anyone recommend a suitable course, preferably in Munster?
Theres loads of cold-calling courses there, but thats not really suitable
Cheers
Oldsmokey

pedronomix

The basics of selling are all the same, it is a learned skill, much easier to execute for those not cold knocking the doors, but the basics of the pitch/presentation, overcoming objections and effective closing methods are common to all sales scenarios.

StupidLikeAFox

Would also be interested in this, in the Leinster area, if anybody has any recommendations?

VincePP

Join Retail Excellence Ireland. They give invaluable advice, operate courses and have many seminars.

For small single unit retailers they have a reduced annual fee.

www.retailexcellence.ie

Generally on selling at retail the staff need to know more than the consumer about the products and offer more than an online store in terms of service.

So product knowledge is paramount and then understanding the customer's needs is equally important and never make assumptions.


My mother (80's) went into a store looking for a phone. They assumed that as she was in her 80's she just wanted a basic phone and only showed her those. She asked to look at a iPhone and they said it wouldn't suit her!! She left and went elsewhere (now has her iPhone!).

The store didn't ask her questions - just assumed. She is on facebook, she is on facetime, she knows what apps are, she shops online, has an iPad (and has had it for years) most of the rest of family have iphones, so the iPhone was suitable for her.

If the store had good retail staff who were interested in the customer, they would have found this out and had an easy sale.

jimmii

+1 for REI you can learn a lot from them. It's worth entering their store of the year competition we learnt a ton from that the reports are pretty in depth.

oldsmokey

Thats fantastic, will contact REI then..thanks all
Oldsmokey

oldsmokey

Meh, just phoned REI, all lovely / helpful, but don't have anything suitable in the sales training thing til Oct - too far away! - a lot of what they do seem oriented towards the 'bigger guys' too , unfortunately.

Would really welcome any other suggestions..

pedronomix

oldsmokey wrote: »

Meh, just phoned REI, all lovely / helpful, but don't have anything suitable in the sales training thing til Oct - too far away! - a lot of what they do seem oriented towards the 'bigger guys' too , unfortunately.

Would really welcome any other suggestions..

http://www.professionaldevelopment.ie/sales-training-courses-cork Decent solid sales training courses

VincePP

oldsmokey wrote: »

Meh, just phoned REI, all lovely / helpful, but don't have anything suitable in the sales training thing til Oct - too far away! - a lot of what they do seem oriented towards the 'bigger guys' too , unfortunately.

Would really welcome any other suggestions..

I'd disagree.

The big guys are certainly big members, but the big guys spread out their knowledge to the smaller guys.

They may not have anything specific to training, but plenty of resources to get you to train the staff.

As Jimii says, store of year awards can be good as a target for staff to achieve. REI give you a handbook for this and shows what they are looking for. This is as good as "on the job" training as the staff won't know when the mystery shopper will call.

Staff will respond to positive reactions, so better service will see more turnover = more hours.

Also talk to staff and ask for them to come up with three ideas each - even hairbrained ideas (you'd be surprised how a hairbrained idea can actaully morph into a really good idea!)


Another thing to look at is a bonus scheme - we have one that operates on a quarterly and annual basis.

Each quarter has a target and there's an anual target. If the store reaches the quarterly target all staff get a bonus of 60c per hour worked in that quarter paid the week after quarter ends.

If the annual target is met (set about 5% above combination of all quarters) an additional 60c per hour is paid 1st week of January.

If the store hits the targets, I'm happy and staff are happy. Last year 4 stores hit all quarterly targets, 3 of them also hit annual targets and 2 stores hit 3 quarterly targets but not annual. - The 3 stores that did not hit annual targets are determined to hit them this year But all staff in all stores got some form of bonus during the year.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Work in Currys for a week. Will turn you off retail for life.

oldsmokey

VincePP wrote: »

I'd disagree.

The big guys are certainly big members, but the big guys spread out their knowledge to the smaller guys.

They may not have anything specific to training, but plenty of resources to get you to train the staff.

As Jimii says, store of year awards can be good as a target for staff to achieve. REI give you a handbook for this and shows what they are looking for. This is as good as "on the job" training as the staff won't know when the mystery shopper will call.

Staff will respond to positive reactions, so better service will see more turnover = more hours.

Also talk to staff and ask for them to come up with three ideas each - even hairbrained ideas (you'd be surprised how a hairbrained idea can actaully morph into a really good idea!)


Another thing to look at is a bonus scheme - we have one that operates on a quarterly and annual basis.

Each quarter has a target and there's an anual target. If the store reaches the quarterly target all staff get a bonus of 60c per hour worked in that quarter paid the week after quarter ends.

If the annual target is met (set about 5% above combination of all quarters) an additional 60c per hour is paid 1st week of January.

If the store hits the targets, I'm happy and staff are happy. Last year 4 stores hit all quarterly targets, 3 of them also hit annual targets and 2 stores hit 3 quarterly targets but not annual. - The 3 stores that did not hit annual targets are determined to hit them this year But all staff in all stores got some form of bonus during the year.

Hi, thanks for that, theres merit in what you say - however, it's selling stuff that pays the bills, and thats the most important thing to us at the moment - we probably have bad habits, old ideas, and need some'bucking up' in the sales area, particularly the new member , who is great, but has never 'sold' before - I'm a firm believer in training, it's all too easy to lose a customer over some small detail that training would have picked up. unfortunately the lady at REI made no mention of any resources they might have in the sales training area - I'd certainly be interesed if they had a package of some sort. Cheers anyhow.

oldsmokey

pedronomix wrote: »

http://www.professionaldevelopment.ie/sales-training-courses-cork Decent solid sales training courses

They were just in touch - in Dublin, but seem good, thanks for that

oldsmokey

Anybody got experience of 'Really Uselful training and development' in Cork?
Ta