Retail Store Manager
Retail Manager as TrainerBy Malcolm Fleschner, Monster Contributing Writer
Since founding The Friedman Group, a global retail consulting and training organization, in 1980, Harry Friedman has heard plenty of excuses from retail store executives who refuse to provide much training to their front-line store employees. One of the most common is: "What if I train them, and they leave?" Friedman says this is the exact opposite approach they should take. He suggests a better question is, "What if I don 't train them, and they stay?"
Cost of Not Training
The unfortunate reality, which anyone who ventures into a mall these days can confirm, is that today 's retail store employees often lack basic sales and customer-service skills. This is especially true at the big-box stores where management is unconcerned about high turnover, Friedman says.
Retailers that expect high turnover essentially ignore training but pay a price for doing so. "The decision to neglect training is typically made by someone at the top who does not appreciate the value of a human asset and what they can mean to sales and the bottom line," Friedman says. "Retail is a merchandise-driven business, not a people-driven business, after all."
Nevertheless, Friedman estimates that with more effective training, most retail organizations could increase sales 15 percent to 25 percent. "That 's a lot of money," he says. "There 's no chance they could hit those numbers any other way."
Management by Numbers
Individual store managers would no doubt also appreciate increasing the six to eight hours that Friedman says retail stores typically devote to training new employees. But since a boost in training time is unlikely to happen, store managers must focus on those aspects of employee management they can control. To start, he suggests looking at two key numbers.
The first is conversion rates, which means if a sales associate talked to 10 customers, how many bought something? "If you sold two out of the 10
Since founding The Friedman Group, a global retail consulting and training organization, in 1980, Harry Friedman has heard plenty of excuses from retail store executives who refuse to provide much training to their front-line store employees. One of the most common is: "What if I train them, and they leave?" Friedman says this is the exact opposite approach they should take. He suggests a better question is, "What if I don 't train them, and they stay?"
Cost of Not Training
The unfortunate reality, which anyone who ventures into a mall these days can confirm, is that today 's retail store employees often lack basic sales and customer-service skills. This is especially true at the big-box stores where management is unconcerned about high turnover, Friedman says.
Retailers that expect high turnover essentially ignore training but pay a price for doing so. "The decision to neglect training is typically made by someone at the top who does not appreciate the value of a human asset and what they can mean to sales and the bottom line," Friedman says. "Retail is a merchandise-driven business, not a people-driven business, after all."
Nevertheless, Friedman estimates that with more effective training, most retail organizations could increase sales 15 percent to 25 percent. "That 's a lot of money," he says. "There 's no chance they could hit those numbers any other way."
Management by Numbers
Individual store managers would no doubt also appreciate increasing the six to eight hours that Friedman says retail stores typically devote to training new employees. But since a boost in training time is unlikely to happen, store managers must focus on those aspects of employee management they can control. To start, he suggests looking at two key numbers.
The first is conversion rates, which means if a sales associate talked to 10 customers, how many bought something? "If you sold two out of the 10