The Retail Coach’s challenge .
(store manager, supervisor, owner, etc.) is to get the commitment of their teams. It is a voluntary, shared agreement that leads to action. Commitment makes people protagonists and responsible. The Retail Coach is a store manager, a manager, a supervisor, etc., who incorporates Coaching as a management style, and who creates an environment in which his or her teams can improve and decide to motivate themselves. 
Coaching.
Before considering an ideal situation, it is necessary to know how to define the current situation in terms that are intelligible to all and that allow decisions to be made.“Much of coaching must start with diagnosis.
Of the current situation”.
The efforts of the Retail Coach.
The KPIs are designed to challenge and support salespeople in growing sales by prioritizing one of the ways to do so. Attracting more visitors to the store requires specific actions, very different from those needed to convert visitors into buyers, and retail needs simplification, which it achieves with KPIs.
Key Success Indicators.
Any in-store activity must target one of the KPIs, otherwise it is meaningless. So, for example, cleaning the store window will help increase the flow of footfall in stores. A friendly greeting with a smile will help to convert shoppers into buyers and increase the average ticket. “By sharing clearly identified key success indicators, operational activities are no longer free, things are no longer done “just because”, but because they really influence the store’s results.
This positive effect will be stronger if each salesperson can see the evolution of the indicators, both for the whole store and for his own performance. Once we know the current situation and the ideal situation, translated into goals, Coaching invites us to use experience, knowledge of the market and the competition to draw up an action plan.
Specifically, the store has its Retail Marketing Mix (7P’s). To do this, the store has its Retail Marketing Mix (7P’s).
:PRODUCT.
. Mix, variety, availability and replenishment, etc.PRICE.
Positioning against competition, margin level by category, etc.SQUARE.
Location, merchandising, flow, etc.PROMOTION.
Inside and outside the store.PÍELX.
Coherence of the physical store with the web presence and its communication, the loyalty system.PROBLEM.
Customer service, especially in after-sales. Knowing how to handle a problem contributes greatly to the reputation of the store.PEOPLE.
Resourcing, prioritization.“The 7P’s represent the tools to act on both commercial and operational actions.”
NON-NEGOTIABLE SALES STANDARDS.
In the coming years, sustainable and successful businesses will be those that know how to engage their staff to their full potential and not just program them like robots to serve customers. However, in order to establish a company culture and enable a consumer experience for the customer, a sales standard is necessary .
Non-negotiable standards.
which at first may be rejected by employees, if done well are a key element in the success of the sale and customer loyalty.“These standards help the vendor achieve its metrics.
Key to success”.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
The Retail Coach.
must formulate a stimulating vision, but there must also be concrete business and operational objectives.
. The MARTE Model can be used.
to validate the good formulation of objectives: MEASURABLE.
An objective that cannot be measured simply does not exist, since we will not know if we have achieved it.ACHIEVABLE.
Many commercially aggressive companies confuse their dreams with their business objectives. The consequence is disbelief and discouragement.REALISTIC.
It must take into account reality, context, competition, etc.DEFINED TIME.
A target without a deadline is invalid.SPECIFIC.
The formulation of an objective must avoid generalities.The MARTE Model.
allows validating whether an objective is well formulated and can be completed with the following elements:FORMULATION IN POSITIVE.
The human mind does not understand negative objectives. The objective “attend with a smile” will be more effective than “do not attend with a bad face”. DEMONSTRABLE IN SENSORY FORM.
Sensory demonstration is much more effective than all the “you must work harder!”. For example, at the beginning of the school year, parents invite a teenager to imagine the cool, free feeling of the swimming pool at the end of the course because he has passed all his exams and is celebrating.FORMULATION IN A PHRASE.
The analysis that an objective carries with it, however complete and complex it may be, must be able to be translated into a single, simple sentence that can be remembered by all.CONGRUENT DIRECTION WITH LOGICAL LEVELS.
Values, identity, etc. The salesperson must agree and understand the objective he/she intends to achieve because if he/she does not believe it, he/she may boycott the product and the objective itself (Cognitive Dissonance may occur (see Chapter 08)) .
The Mystery Shoppers program is very valuable, if it can be intelligently communicated internally and combined with other evaluation tools. Non-financial games and incentives make it possible to renew the incentive each period. A variable remuneration system can help to make the employee’s contribution concrete.
