The secret to any great relationship is, without a doubt, communication. That is especially true in hiring, training and retaining great salespeople. I believe that every jewelry store should conduct a Morning Huddle, every morning, 10 minutes prior to the store opening. This is a great means of communicating with the entire staff of the store. Every person that works in the store that day should be required to attend the Morning Huddle.
Far too often, prior to the store opening the staff is involved in conversations about who got kicked off Dancing With The Stars, the previous day’s sporting event, their date the previous night, etc. I want the staff focused on the business at hand first thing in the morning. There is plenty of time later for idle conversation, but during the all important 10 minutes prior to the store opening I want people focused on the business.
During the Morning Huddle I would have each department head: shop, advertising, accounting, executive and sales manager do a brief overview of what they have going on for the day. The shop may say something like, “I have 3 rush jobs this morning so please try not to interrupt me unless it is a customer service or potential sales issue.” Advertising may have a new project they are working on. Accounting may be working on a new credit plan, or simply paying the bills today. The Sales Manager should talk about the goal for the day, results of the previous day or week and recognizing top producers from the previous day, add on sales that were completed, turnovers that were converted to sales, progress toward hitting the daily, weekly and monthly goals. I suggest that each staff member is called upon to discuss what they have going on for that day, customer appointments, phone calls that need to be made, displays that need to be reworked, case counts, security, etc.
There is always plenty to talk about in the Morning Huddle. Use this time wisely to get everybody focused and emotionally ready for the day. Use this time to introduce a daily game or contest, pump up the sales staff to go above and beyond. Talk about exceptional customer service that was delivered the previous day and so on.
Keep in mind this isn’t the time to do training or to be critical of anyone or anything. It is a time for open discussion, in a positive manner to get everyone’s head in the game, so to speak. In other words this is the time to implement and maintain open communication with the staff.
The staff will appreciate being kept in the loop and notified of their progress and the stores progress. Thus helping maintain and retain great staff members. Should you have a store that has two shifts, there is nothing wrong with having a Morning Huddle for the morning shift and an Afternoon Huddle for the late shift. Should the manager be off for the day, then the assistant manager should conduct and lead the Huddle.
Make the Morning Huddle work for you and your store and it will pay huge dividends.
Author, trainer, consultant, and speaker Brad Huisken is President of IAS Training. Huisken has authored several books and training manuals on sales and produces a Weekly Sales Training Meeting video series along with Aptitude Tests and Proficiency Exams for new hires, current sales staff and sales managers. In addition, he publishes a free weekly newsletter called “Sales Insight” For a free subscription or more information contact IAS Training at 800-248-7703 or info@iastraining.com. Visit his website at www.iastraining.com.
