Business Development Specialist

This the last in the series but by no means the least, people the talking bill boards of any and every retailer and definately one of the most important areas to get right.  Every retail manager needs to really think about what they need from any potential staff member to improve the performance of their store.  To me the only reason as a retailer you employ staff is to maximise sales, if staff can’t do that why employ them.

Over the years the biggest complaints I hear from retailer’s is “bloody staff they can’t sell for shit, my branch never hits it’s targets” or “can’t remember the last time I had a holiday, there’s no way I’d leave this lot to themselves”, well who’s to blame, the staff, I think not, the retailer more often than not is to blame for their staffing woes.

A well trained and motivated staff will do more to sell your goods and you retail company than many advertising platforms could, why, because positive word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising you can get and something every retailer should strive for.  It makes sense then to ensure you employ the right person for the job, here are some questions you should be asking yourself when you are about to recruit:

• What job specification am I trying to fulfill?
• What type of person is best suited to this role (think about the job and how they will fit in with the team)?
• Do I require someone with experience to help my store?
• Will I train this person from scratch, thus moulding them to the way I do things?
• Who will do the training if it is required and can the branch afford the time to do this?
• What can I afford to spend on a salary? (this will influence whether you try and find someone with experience or not).
• What parameters will I use to ensure the person I hire can fulfill the position (now that employers have a 3month window to try new employees this is very important).
• Longer term can I expect this employee to take the reigns when I am not there (future proof your staffing)

Money or recognition, what motivates you?

As a retailer you will never find someone that can do the job as well and consistently as you, why, because they do not get the same rewards and do not have the same motivation as you do but you can keep them motivated and not necessarily by throwing more money at them.  The trick is to find out what makes them tick, what is it that motivates your staff to get out of bed in the morning, what are there interests outside work?  If you want more out of your staff it is often easier to do this by rewarding them for good performance with something they really want whether that be a long weekend (not part of their normal holiday entitlement) or a new cell phone or an Xbox game!!

In retail I appreciate this is not that easy, especially if you have multiple branches but I urge you still to think about this, you may be able to pull off something say on the run up to Christmas!!   Rewards are a great way to motivate short term but to keep your employees longer term you should have a personal growth plan, continue to up skill your employees, whether in house or externally it really doesn’t matter as long as your employees feel they are improving.  Let them no how they are progressing, conduct regular appraisals making sure that the communication is two way (more about this in a future blog), use this process not just to highlight their strengths and talk about how to improve on their weaknesses but also use it for feed back about the store as a whole, employees have lots of great ideas to help the business they work for, they often just need an ear to listen to them.

Proper planning will lead to a well motivated team which in turn will give your business great walking and talking billboards and an effective sales team.

If this is of any interest to your business pleasefeel free to contact me or leave your comments below.