Tips for Effectively Hiring and Training Retail Salespeople

You have seen them… The natural sales person.  The retail sales representative who just seems to have a talent for building rapport with a customer, uncovering their needs, recommending a solution, closing the sale and then adding-on to build the basket.  When the sale is completed, the customer leaves the store feeling like they have made a great investment and a friend.

Of course, natural sales reps are few and far between.  In actuality, it is more likely that the “natural sales person” you met learned their skills and it is unfortunate that most of these sales reps learned in the school of hard knocks.

It is true that experience is a great teacher, but learning through trial and error costs time, money and results in poor customer service – something that can’t be afforded in these hyper competitive times – plus it can lead to frustration on the part of your new employees and that leads to employee turnover.  So what is the best solution?

How to Hire and Train Retail Sales Representatives

Hiring someone who is a bad fit for retail can cost upwards of $10,000 in lost sales and profits.  So doesn’t it make sense to hire correctly?

That is why the first step is to select the potential team members who have the core traits that will encourage success.  If you need help doing this, our Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring Course for Retailers can give you the skills you need to do so.  But the bottom line is that you need to find people who have the ability to communicate, learn and think on their feet while always keeping the customer’s interests in mind.

As the second step, you will want invest in training your retail salespeople in the principles and techniques of retail customer service and selling.  Successful retail sales training involves communicating your standards, providing the base knowledge around how to execute a successful sales interaction and skill practice that ensures the sales rep can adapt the principles to their personal style.  RTS’ offers a proven online retail sales training course that will assure your team members understand everything they need to do to be successful.  It even includes a workbook and skill building activities that you can conduct with the employee to ensure they are successful.

Investing as little as $69 in retail sales training can result in thousands of extra dollars in sales for your new sales associate and that will not only pass through to you and your business, but it will also ensure that the sales rep does the right thing by your customer starting on day one.