How to sell everyone on your vision of coaching through retail sales observations
Sales observations can improve performance, drive staff engagement, and provide the data you need to be confident your coaching programmes are having an impact. But you can’t implement a sales observation platform like Review by yourself. You need to persuade others to adopt your vision of measurable learning. How do you do that?
We’ve helped countless sales coaches introduce Review to their business, with all the success that entails. We’ve heard the objections, the fears, and the uncertainty that some parts of the business can have. Here’s how to overcome them and sell them on your vision.
Store staff
Staff might be uncertain about observations. That’s understandable; who wants to be watched while they work? But once they understand the benefits that observations can bring them, you might be surprised to hear they’re asking to be observed!
✅ Explain that it’s looking for the good as well as the bad - yes, managers will be watching out for mistakes, but observations are about improvement, not punishment. The observations record good performance too, which they can use to support an application or a request for progression!
✅ Personalised coaching - the action plans that come out of an observation are designed solely for the team member. This isn’t general training, but one-on-one support and development.
✅ Hit sales targets - everyone wants to hit those targets and earn those rewards. Make it clear to them that the personalised coaching created by sales observations means they can make more sales and earn the rewards they deserve.
✅ Be happier at work - 88% of employees who left their jobs would have stayed if they’d had more opportunities for growth, better working conditions, and internal career development. By providing those opportunities, you’re creating a workplace they want to stay in and be in.
✅ Get better at helping people - observations will help them get better at their job, which means getting better at helping a customer choose the right product or service. That’s pretty rewarding by itself.
Store managers
Your biggest objection from store managers might be due to time; they’re busy, with plenty to do already. Conducting observations, or learning a new way to do them, is another task in an already long list. But a tool like Review not only makes it easier to conduct observations, but it also helps managers do what they’re already doing: improving staff performance, hitting sales targets, and make sure customers get the best possible experience
✅ No need for pen, paper, or paperwork - instead of lugging stationery about on the shop floor, your store managers only need their phone or company tablet. And there’s no fear of losing the observation once it’s done; it’s all recorded and stored, even if they get interrupted.
✅ Hit sales targets - the 1-2-1 coaching and the improvements that result will increase performance across the store and help them hit, exceed, and even smash their sales targets.
✅ Help their staff improve - “in the moment” observations help your managers immediately understand what a staff member can do to improve, and the app helps them to create immediate action plans to improve their performance.
✅ Make the most of comparisons - yes, their store will be compared to others and that might highlight that improvements are needed. But it also means they can pinch ideas from better-performing stores and maybe even surpass them!
✅ Understand why the store isn’t performing - it can be soul-crushing to know you aren’t getting the results but not knowing why. Explain to them how observations will help them see where the customer experience can be improved upon, which will ultimately lead to better store performance.
✅ Improved customer satisfaction - because sales observations are focused on the relationship between team member and customer, the action plans that store managers create will directly improve the customer experience, resulting in better reviews, NPS scores, and even mystery shopper scores.
✅ Track staff performance - the data in Review can be used to follow a team member’s progression, training, and performance throughout their career, from new starter to their own management position.
Directors
Want to sell your director on your vision for sales observations? Tell them how it will be so much easier for them to compare consistent data about store performance.
✅ Compare performance - from comparing regions to comparing individual stores, your director will love being able to see which regions or stores are doing well and which need extra support.
✅ Consistent data - this type of comparison only works when every observation provides its data in the same format. A central platform like Review means every store leader is working to the same criteria and recording observations in the same way.
✅ Knowing what to do next - the data gathered by sales observations can highlight training gaps or areas for improvement that can directly drive the next training programme. That takes the pressure off the retail team (including the director) when it comes to figuring out what needs doing next.
✅ Live snapshots - tell them they don’t need to wait for monthly (or even quarterly!) reports. Your director can do these comparisons based on data collected the same day, getting a real-time view of what’s happening in stores across the country.
✅ Increase NPS scores - sales observation can create a double-edged performance boost from LMS-driven training and in-store coaching that results in happier customers and higher customer satisfaction scores.
✅ Getting insights that would otherwise have been lost. Perhaps staff aren’t offering as many product demonstrations compared to this time last year. That information is very useful by itself. But it’s easy to craft your observation to capture extra context, just as Steph Lowe did for Victoria’s Secret.
✅ Increase sales - all of these tools mean you can direct resources to stores that need it most, leading to an increase in performance and sales that will make your director look good in the boardroom.
“So if the team member didn’t offer an experience, the leader has to record why. Maybe the customer didn’t want a fragrance experience because she always wears a fragrance she is used to, but maybe it was because there wasn’t a tester available. Or maybe they didn’t feel confident in delivering that experience. And that gives us more insight.”
If they’re doubtful about this last point, tell them Steph’s story. Her work on making learning measurable with Review secured impressive results for Victoria’s Secret that affected the business’ bottom line (and it even secured her a promotion).