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 Weekly Staff Meeting. This is a great means of communicating information with the entire staff of the store. Every person that works in the store should be required to attend the Weekly Staff Meeting. Should you not be able to get everyone together in one meeting, it is up to the owner or manager to conduct two meetings so that everyone is included.
There are four areas where people need knowledge and training. The four areas are: Product Knowledge, Sales Training, Operational Training, and Customer Service. I look at these four areas as the four tires on an automobile. If one of the tires is flat, or going flat, the vehicle isn’t going to perform up to it’s capability. If one of these four areas is weak in a salesperson, then the salesperson is not going to perform up to their capability.
The Weekly Staff Meeting should take no longer than 30 minutes. I suggest you schedule the meeting on the morning of your busiest day. Thereby getting your staff pumped up and ready to do business on the morning of the day when sales, and your people need to be at their best. I would also post an agenda for the meeting at least three days prior to the scheduled meeting. By doing so people will have time to think about the subject at hand and will be better prepared to ask any questions they may have. Pick your subject, prepare in advance, and make the meetings both fun and informative.
I would have people who are particularly strong in a certain area participate, or give the meeting itself. In addition, I would have a written document that each person has to complete at the end of the meeting. This way you will know that they got the information that was being delivered. I would also include a role-play situation of the information.
There are five criteria for training, they are: they have to hear it, read it, write it, role-play it and be observed doing it in live presentations. Once the five criteria have been met, the people are trained.
The Weekly Staff Meeting is also a great time to introduce a game or contest, give the pay-off for the previous week’s game or contest, recognize top producers and introduce any new marketing issues, special events and promotions and to introduce new employees. Make Weekly Staff Training Meetings a standard operating process and sales and profits will increase dramatically.
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.
