When Will We Finally Get It?

The second biggest line on our financials is usually cost of labor.  All these years of pouring over schedules, checking percent to sales, sales per hour, sales per transaction etc.  What has that done for the business?  We focus on our people, providing tools to make sure the finish operational tasks, are honest, clean and dependable.  We spend hours on “training” to make sure they follow operational policies and procedures.  There are varied names for these employees.  Cashier, clerk, customer service attendant and on and on.  Where we seem to miss the boat is; what business are we in and how does this asset contribute to the bottom line?  Other retailers have made the change and when will convenience stores follow?  The primary goal of any retail box is sales.  Yes, we spend hours on marketing, merchandising and store standards to insure that the box is ready for our customers but we all know the most important asset we have is the person who is there for the moment of truth.  The actual transaction of money for goods.  So why don’t we spend time screening or teaching our team how to sell?  Why is there so much focus on operational tasks and so little on sales?  It is a rare chain that talks sales every day.  And when they do talk sales it’s usually number of units per day instead of sales by employee.  When we do look at sales per employee, it is usually from a lost prevention standpoint.  When you walk into a store and ask the person behind the counter what their mission is, what is the reply?  To sell more?  Highly doubtful.  What I propose is a shift in our model to the business plan that many clothing retailers have adopted.  Instead of screening and training our employees how to make coffee, why aren’t we focused on selling the customer more stuff?  Here are some ideas from the initial interview process through the training and operational execution. 

Screening

• Instead of asking yourself when you interview a candidate if they seem honest, ask yourself “Would I buy merchandise from this person?”
• Ask the candidate what they think retailing is about?  We need to look for answers that are sales related.  They should include helping the customer find merchandise, suggesting tie ins or bundles, items on promotion and other add on sales.
• How would they increase the sales in the store?  What ideas or former experience do they have?
• If they have prior experience, where did they rank in the store for sales?  A candidate should know.  It is no different than knowing what your EBITDA is for the month and year.  Each of us has a metric to measure our performance.

Training

• Do we really have to teach someone to clean glass and wipe down counters?  Yes there are operational tasks that are critical such as safety and risk procedures, food service etc. but these are operational tasks.  Is it time to separate the duties into sales and operations? 
• What are the sales hooks and scripts that will work in your location?  New items, promotional items and revolving programs should all be covered.  A day part team member has different sales targets than evening part.  How are we addressing this?
• Value added?  What is the customer getting for their money?  What makes this location different than the box down the street?  How is the customer’s day and life improved by shopping with us?

A Day in the Life

• Is our team member focused on sales or on making sure they take out the trash? 
• Have we provided incentives?  Rankings, sales contests and daily focus help motivate those that we need to retain.  If one of our team members is not focused, then we need to consider re-assigning or possibly even upgrading.
• Have we reviewed division of labor?  Do we have our best sales people filling coolers and other repetitive tasks when they should be interacting with customers? 

This article could go on and on and will be expanded in the future.  When I started in the business one of the most common phrases I heard was that sales cover a multitude of sins.  Many companies are trying to reinvent the wheel by designing new stores with all the bells and whistles.  Retailers are still neighborhood stores.  They do not differ greatly from the day when a customer would walk down Main Street and visit all the specialty shops.  Yes, many of the mom and pop stores are gone thanks to large box retailers but our customers still want the experience of interacting with someone who knows the business, is friendly and can make suggestions to improve their life.  Product knowledge, the ability to provide solutions and a true interest in the customer’s well being are the best merchandise we have to sell.  So when do we get it?