| We focused on goal setting to have a target to attain – whether that’s hitting quota, being a Rockstar or making a certain amount for the month/year (knowing what to hit to make a certain amount is very powerful stuff to know), this time I want our focus to be on making sure we help our sellers get to that goal. We’ll continue by focusing on coaching so we need to define what coaching is and what it isn’t. I have worked with many different managers and leaders in the past who thought coaching was a negative thing and would use it more as write ups – this is not what coaching is. Coach UP your team and challenge them to get better. Think of pro-athletes, they train and train and train – that’s the focus we want our teams to have. Downtime is coaching time, but let’s be real, it doesn’t happen often and when it does it’s not very effective. Treat your teams like pro-athletes and expect that same level of commitment from them and yourself! Your store leaders should be facilitating this after you have trained them on it to build up this habit. |
Always push to bring your people to the level of performance you expect of them rather than lower your expectations – this means that we must take the time to:
Goal set
Reflect on interactions
Role play scenarios
Scripts
What’s the style you have used and currently use? What about your store leaders? Are they leading or trying to get documentation to move people out? As I’m sure you know, the hiring process IS a process and if we can keep employees from leaving and help them truly tap into their inner seller.
Scripts
Whatever your feelings are towards scripts, I want you to set them aside and consider the following: if you have a method of getting your customer from point A to point B to close them, then you ARE using a script. It is easier to know where the interaction is going and what to do when not going your way and for sellers this is integral to leveling up their selling skills! It is also key to building up their confidence much faster and getting them to feel 90% confident in their offerings within the first 30 days rather then 90 days!These scripts are not 30 pages long and do not encompass every little scenario, rather they are a starting point, a transitioning point and a closing point – leaving your reps room to make it their own in the process.
I’ll give you an intro to my scripting process. I could spend days on this subject because I am passionate about the sales process and ensuring that my team knows how to connect and build relationships with our guests. I am a true believer that reputation goes a long way and want to make sure that my team isn’t telling any fibs or making things up on the fly just to close the sale today – I’m wanting them to come back and bring their family.
Be sure to break down your scripts into the basics, we don’t need to go into an elaborate script process, we want to be purposeful with our communication.
Example script:
You: Hi welcome to XYZ, my name is [name] (extend hand to shake theirs, most people will give you their name at this point)
- Be sure to get their name and shake their handYour guest will likely tell you why they are going in – people don’t walk into a wireless store ‘just to browse or look around’
Guest: Yeah I came in because I want to upgrade my phone/add a line/etc.
You: I can help with that, let’s take a look to see what we qualify for
- Even if your client knows they are eligible for an upgrade, using the word qualify makes them feel special and opens the door for any promotions you have to offer
- If they say they have an issue/question with their account let them know we can see what we can do to help
- You don’t have to have the answer to their question but let them know we can try to help by seeing what we can do
- Even if you aren’t able to help, the fact that you took time to try goes a long way into building a better relationship with that client
You: [Client’s name] it looks like you qualify for a couple different promotions!
- Go over promos with client, start top down with prebuild promo bundles
- If client doesn’t qualify because of past due balance, etc, give an option of what can be done rather than saying no flat out – if you show you are being helpful, it goes a long way into building a relationship with that client
This gives you insight into the conversation I am having with my seller.
This simple approach gave even my non-sellers (yes you know we have areas where it is difficult to get the best people hired) a great approach to greet guests and set themselves up for success by being able to get into the account to offer promotions rather than give them a sales presentation and loose the client’s interest along the way.The enthusiasm your seller will have for having a roadmap to success – because that is exactly what a script is – may take you aback at first. Sure you may get some resistance at first, but all it takes is a bit of practice and soon it flows easily. It’s not like we’re needing to rehearse and remember a movie script! Cause the most I’ll ever remember in a rehearsed screen play is a single line (true story too)!
This script helps in role playing too – the reason people don’t like to role play is because they don’t know what to say or what the expectations are. Lead by example and be the first to do the role play as the seller. I would not have my team do something I personally wouldn’t do and I always took the first step to show how it was done and set my expectations.
Be sure your team knows it is OK to make mistakes when starting out (even your tenured team members when doing something new).
Why do your best “people” persons also need scripts? Just cause they can talk to a person doesn’t mean they know how to control the interaction or take it to the points we want to cover. I have too many examples of my sellers (both as a RSM and DM) that always “forgot” to bring something up – a script is a path they follow and helps organize their thoughts into an easy process. Will they pick it up after 1 go at it? Hell no, realistically it takes practice just like any pro athlete. The good news is that we get more game time on our sales floor so we can see real time results instead of only a few times a month.
We have a target/goal we want to get to and we know what action items our sellers intend to take to get there, now we are fine tuning the words and body language they use to get our guests closer to saying yes and them closer to their goals – this means you get much closer to being a top leader and more importantly you are transforming your team members from average to Superstar status!
There’s more I wish I could cover but it’s too much to go over in this format. Next email we’ll focus on words to use and words to avoid – you know the ones that kill the sale without even knowing it. Before you know it, you’re going to have a rock solid team that will be making you look like an even stronger leader!
Omar
PS – Be sure to share your thoughts and let me know how this worked out for you!
