Overcoming common challenges for retail sales teams
If you’re a frontline retail sales manager or team member working in the retail industry, you’ll probably have noticed the lack of resources and tips which are out there to help people like you. The internet is swamped with articles for B2B sales professionals or those who are selling online. However, there is little to help those of you who sell to customers face to face on a daily basis.
We’re talking about;
Retail employees selling on the shopfloor
Sales professionals who work in the leisure industry
Employees who work in the hospitality industry
Estate agents who should be constantly selling when they meet with customers
Employees who work in the health and beauty industry
All of these employees require a unique set of skills and tactics which they need to successfully sell to customers on a daily basis.
Recognising the large knowledge gap which surrounds the B2C frontline sales industry, we made it our mission to speak with sales experts working in this field. They’ve given us their top tips for overcoming common challenges and how you and your team can succeed too.
The importance of retail and frontline sales teams
Unfortunately, the huge value which frontline sales teams can bring to a business can be massively overlooked. The amount of extra revenue these employees can make just by tweaking their behaviour can be extraordinary.
In fact, when one of our retail clients made a tweak to their observations template they saw a 300% increase in sales. They noticed that their shop floor staff weren’t offering upsells, after this they made it known that these upsells were mandatory and as a result, the business saw their sales surge.
Your frontline sales team are the face of your business so it’s crucial that you train them to maximise every selling opportunity to increase your revenue streams.
So what are the biggest obstacles for you and your sales team to overcome and how can you tackle them?
Ensuring there is no breakdown in communication
When you’ve got a large team of sales reps spread across multiple sites and locations, it can be incredibly hard to keep a good line of communication open.
When communication between management and staff breaks down, it can be disastrous for business performance. Sales teams are no longer clear on what their priorities are and management are unclear with what their frontline sales team needs in order to improve.
Liam Johnson, CEO of TheHitchStore
Liam explained how daily tasks and responsibilities can get in the way of good communication. This results in sales updates being late and managers working reactively to deal with issues rather proactively to prevent problems from occurring.
When you’re constantly focused on the day to day tasks in front of you, it can result in you missing the bigger picture. This makes it difficult to assess what you need to do to help your sales team improve and progress. Discover how Liam solves this problem below.
“One of the biggest challenges is the lack of communication between the leader and the team members. Because of being very occupied with tasks to gain sales, daily reporting from member to leader becomes a lesser priority, resulting in leaders receiving late sales updates and not overseeing areas for improvement for the team.
To overcome this challenge, a sales team must consider having an easy-to-use and easy-to-access tool that integrates all member’s reports making it easier for leaders to review progress and help track timely communication to potential customers. The tool also allows members to record, organize and update customer information and sales journey in one place.”
Liam Johnson TheHitchStore
Isobel Ryan Sales and Operations Manager for Biz Space
Biz Space provides flexible workplaces and manages over 100 sites across the UK. With such a huge variety of locations, it can be tricky to keep their team informed and connected. Isobel told us how she and her team avoid a breakdown in communication and how it helps them stay on top of their sales.
“Working in sales for an established multi-site SME can be tricky when you rely on Head Office for much of your collateral and communications. It's easy for communication to break down, causing issues and delays within the sales process. That's something we in sales ops can't allow happening as it's far too easy to drop the ball with leads and customers.
BizSpace, my employer and the number one regional provider of flexible workspace in the UK, has a solid sales-enablement marketing focus. This means me and my sales team input on what we need to make our operations more successful. In return, we receive branded marketing campaigns, templates and training to get the best out of each initiative. It's a really practical approach, and I recommend all businesses give it a go-to nurture a successful and aligned sales function.”
Isobel Ryan Biz Space
Trying to incorporate learning into your sales team’s busy schedules
Your frontline sales team aren’t just tasked with making sales, they’ve also to carry out their daily responsibilities on the shop floor. Juggling multiple demands throughout the day can mean they have little if any time left for learning.
This poses a big problem as team training is one of the best ways to outperform your competitors. In fact, for every dollar a company invests in training, it makes approximately $4.53 in return. That is equivalent to a huge 353% ROI.
Maisie Phillips, Sales Manager at Jurys Inn Hotel Group
The Jurys Inn hotel group have 49 hotels located throughout the UK and Ireland and over 4000 employees. Their front of house teams are exceptionally busy which means there is little time left for learning. Maisie explains how she overcomes this issue for her frontline sales team.
“The busy role of the front of house team serving customers and delivering an exceptional customer experience can mean that it is a challenge to find the time to implement the sales skills. That is why it is necessary to focus on bite size learning opportunities that can easily fit around the working day. Regular training sessions both online and in person with the sales team can be beneficial and it is important to make it fun! It is essential that the team know how important they are in the sales process and the difference they can make. Positive performances will always be shared so we can learn from each other and celebrate the good results!”
Maisie Phillips Jurys Inn Hotel Group
Building relationships with customers and giving extra value
61% of salespeople say that selling is harder or much harder today than it was 5 years ago. Many sales professionals would put this down to the fact that customers are savvier and there is an increasing amount of competition. When you’ve got multiple companies offering the same product or service you need to look for other factors which make your business stand out. This usually falls into two categories. Delivering exceptional customer service and making your customers feel valued and appreciated.
Vaida, CEO of the Panda Online and previous owner of Le SLAP fashion brand
The Panda Online is a branding and consultancy agency that helps brick and mortar businesses take their sales online. Vaida works with tonnes of clients who do face to face selling on a daily basis. She knows all too well the struggles they have to overcome to achieve their sales targets. Prior to this, she successfully ran and sold a B2C fashion brand called Le SLAP.
Vaida explains how the customer’s mindset is changing so your frontline sales team needs to start offering more value to make the sale.
“The biggest challenge with the B2C sales was to actually make sales. People love to look at fashion but not buy it. So, my greatest tip is to understand that customers mindset is changing and competition is increasing, so companies need to give value to the consumers outside their offering. For example, if you’re a fashion brand that believes in mindfulness, you could get your frontline sales team to offer your customers a free yoga class once a month.”
Vaida The Panda Online
Maisie Phillips, Sales Manager at Jurys Inn Hotel Group
Maisie also expanded on her point above, mentioning how crucial it is to build long-lasting relationships with their guests in order to stand out from the competition.
“In a competitive marketplace like the hotel industry, it can be a difficult task to stand out from your competition. The following strategies ensure we remain successful at this: Creating long-lasting personal relationships with our guests has been imperative in remaining ahead in the industry. The team get to know the guests on an individual level during the stay, will recommend places to visit, everyone is focused on delivering a memorable customer experience and will make their stay special such as a handwritten note in the bedroom or acknowledging a special occasion.
Social media is really useful to not only be aware of what your competitors are up to but to engage with your customers, increase brand awareness and drive more sales. It is also essential to listen to feedback as this gives us valuable insight on what we are doing right and where we can improve.”
Maisie Phillips Jurys Inn Hotel Group
Hira Khilji, Internal Communications Manager at Handelsbanken
Handelsbanken is a major Swedish bank. It offers individual and corporate banking, as well as wealth management. Handelsbanken also offers high levels of bespoke customer service. They’ve got over 460 branches and employ over 11k employees.
Hira explains how doing whatever is best for the customer, even if it’s not in the businesses best interest, is how they stand out from their competitors.
“At Handelsbanken, we offer individual and corporate banking, as well as wealth management, with high levels of bespoke customer service. Our customers enjoy direct access to experienced branch teams who are empowered to make banking decisions locally, without the presence of product or sales targets. We believe that such short -term targets can incentivise the wrong sort of behaviour that may not always be in the interest of the customers. As we aim to create long-lasting relationships with our customers, customer satisfaction is key to us which means, we will always aim to do what is best for our customers, even if that is not the most profitable outcome for the Bank in the short-term.”
Hira Khilji Handelsbanken
From our expert-guided knowledge, we can safely say there are three main areas to focus on when trying to improve sales in the retail industry. Those are;
Improving communication between your frontline sales team and their managers.
Always ensure you incorporate learning into your sales team’s busy schedule.
Build meaningful relationships with your customers giving them extra value wherever possible.
We hope this article helped you gain some clarity on what you need to do to boost sales in the retail industry. If you need any further help on how to improve your sales team’s performance and engagement levels take a look at Engage our employee knowledge platform.
