REDSEED BLOG : Newsletter

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Yes, I know it’s part of my job description, but honestly some days it’s hard enough to drag myself out of bed and up the stairs (current office space post-earthquake), let alone motivate the rest of my team as well.

Call me crazy, but I think my team should motivate themselves, not expect me to do it for them. I want them to turn up for work positive, rearing to go and get stuck in, happy that they have a job to come to where we appreciate their energy and commitment. We’re lucky that we have a great bunch of people that are passionate about what they do – even when they’re sleep deprived (small children induced!). But is having a motivated team just luck, or is it a carefully manufactured state of affairs?

There is a good saying, “Hire for attitude, train for skill.” I like it because in my 20+ years of experience in the retail and hospitality industries I have seen my fair share of bad hires. People that ruin morale, cause conflict, give bad service and devalue your brand. So it’s one of my main criteria when I employ someone. I can’t work with someone that isn’t going to do their fair share, and that means contributing to the atmosphere in which I work. And I don’t expect anyone else in my team to have to put up with that either.

Motivation is an attitude, it comes from inside you. You bring it with you when you come to work. That means that you control it. Sure, you can’t always control what happens to you, I accept that, but you can control how you deal with it. I’m even prepared to cut you a bit of slack when life gets complicated, but not for ever.

What I will not tolerate is when that stuff upsets the rest of the team, impacts negatively on our customers or undermines our brand. We stick together, we watch each other’s backs, but we have high expectations about mood and motivation – it is just not acceptable to bring the team down, to be impolite and not do your best for our customers.

So, yes, the first part of the equation is hiring the right people. What are you looking for? Well in retail you are looking for excellent communication skills. A willingness to engage with people, passion about something that is people orientated, the ability to articulate your ideas and a willingness to serve customers and give them an outstanding experience. I have to see energy, spark, or the ‘x-factor’ as some people call it. I’m not looking for loud, attention seekers, just people who epitomise our brand.

Secondly, you have to make it very clear that motivation is their job, not yours, but you will not tolerate a lack of said ingredient. In Jim Collins words, “You are either on the bus or off the bus.” You don’t have to be trained to have a good attitude, a bad attitude can’t be blamed on someone else because it’s a personal choice.

And lastly you have to be prepared to put your money where your mouth is and take action if the need arises.  It’s unacceptable for our customers to feel like they didn’t get 100% from us, to feel unloved or that we don’t care. Every member of the team must be accountable for their motivation and actions. There needs to be a very direct and straightforward conversation if anyone goes off track. In many cases the requirement to right the wrong with the customer will have a lasting effect on future motivation.

So take a good look at the motivation in your team. If it’s not what you would like it to be, think about what you need to do. If you hired the wrong people, then start the conversations now and make sure that when you hire their replacement you look for motivation, not skill.

While it’s not your job to motivate your team, it definitely is your job to hire people that embody your mindset, and do something about it if it goes missing in action.

Friday, December 9th, 2011

A question that has been coming up a lot  recently is why we teach ‘Sales Training’ as opposed to ‘Customer Service Training’. It’s an interesting question and one we’ve had many discussions about over our morning flat whites. Are they really mutually exclusive?

Have you ever gone into a store to buy an item, and then realised you didn’t get something that you should have; a vital accessory, or a complementary item? I have. And shouldn’t it at least be partly up to the salesperson to explore and identify those needs with you as their valued customer? Let’s say you walked into a bike store to buy your first bike. It would be logical for the salesperson to offer you all the products you need to get started right? A helmet for example, or a lock, or a pump. Surely if we’re training our staff to sell better they must be providing a better customer service experience in the process? It’s not about squeezing every last drop of money out of the customers that walk in to your store, but about providing a high level of service, engaging with them in a way that allows them to express their needs, and subsequently crafting the best solution you can for their unique requirements. And it can’t hurt to get a few more dollars in the till in the process…

Sales seems to be becoming a bit of a ‘dirty’ word, conjuring up images of used car salesmen in cheap suits and faux alligator-skin shoes. In contrast, many of you will be familiar with Apple’s solutions-based, ‘selling-without-selling’ philosophy (if not read this article by Anya), and it would be hard to argue that they’re on the wrong track having been recently valued at over $153 billion. So we know that the traditional model of a salesperson has changed as we’ve modernised, and that’s been a necessary reaction to the increase in savviness and pre-purchase research ability of the average consumer. And we all know an old-school salesman (or saleswoman) when we see one…they do tend to stand out. They follow a prescribed method, and this will often include having a myriad of responses to any objection you may have. The sales process will lack the personal touch, and you’ll find them spending more time convincing you to spend money than listening to you and finding a solution that is attractive not only at that moment but a week, a month, a year down the track. A really good salesperson however will place a much greater emphasis on listening to you and identifying your needs, finding out who you are and why you’re there, and less on leading you towards a big sale. These are the type of sales that inevitably prevent buyer’s remorse and create return customers, and in our current environment loyalty is key. Make them feel comfortable in your environment, give them a positive experience that meets their requirements, preferably exceeds them, and sell them all they need to meet those needs. That’s how you give them a reason to come back.

So I guess we understand the argument, but believe in selling with service as opposed to just offering service. A smile will only get you so far. Essentially I think this argument comes down to semantics; it’s what we associate with the word ‘sales’ that makes us feel uncomfortable, not the essence of the process. The reality is that customers enter a shop looking to purchase something, and it’s our responsibility as the provider of that product of service, to sell it to them in a way that is honest, informative, clear, and positive. The customer will associate the positive experience with the product, and your brand, creating a loyalty that can often be more valuable than the products you sell.

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Monday, September 5th, 2011

Spring is coming.  You can smell it in the air.  Notice the part of you that is waking up, uncurling from the heaviness of winter and is feeling more motivated and energised. With longer daylight hours we are more inclined to get outside, get busy and be social. With this ‘springy’ energy we can jump into our days with new vim and vigour, sometimes setting a new pace that within a few weeks can leave us gasping for breath and feeling tired.  Suddenly the new diet, fitness routine, wine group or new initiative can feel onerous and like an obligation.

The lead up to summer sociability and the Christmas rush can be a challenging dynamic to manage.  It is during this period our commitment to ourselves and our own well-being can be sorely tested!  Keeping yourself in the picture is imperative.  How do we do that?  Here are a few tips I find helpful for myself.

> Every morning upon waking, check in with yourself and gauge your tiredness.  Are you bounding out of bed with enthusiasm? Do you sigh and drag yourself out of bed?   By checking in every morning we can choose what we say yes to and what may have to be negotiated.  We often hesitate to negotiate around commitments because we don’t want to disappoint anyone or miss out on an opportunity.  My experience has taught me if I am clear about my energy levels and express this there is always a solution that works for both parties. When we honour where our energy levels are truly at, it pays great dividends in our productivity.

> While exercise is hugely important in managing our well-being, check that your current exercise routine suits your new sociability level.  By that I mean we only have so much energy to go around. If your exercise routine is demanding and intense, consider lightening up a tad until the busy period has passed. Flogging yourself with exercise is not going to erase those extra wines!  Keep up your exercise routines but peg back on the intensity until you have the energy for it.  Our body needs movement to be healthy not flogging.

> Be conscious of eating nourishing foods.  Food provides us with the energy to live.  If we are really living it up, we need to eat whole nourishing foods.  Lots of lovely fresh vegetables and fruits help replace the vitamins and minerals lost through burning the candle at both ends.

Breakfast is essential to keeping your energy constant through the day.  Drink a big glass of plain old water before eating breakfast.  This re-hydrates the body and flushes out any toxins packaged up by the body while you have been sleeping.

Try eating a good source of protein for breakfast.  Protein is a slow release food that will help to maintain a steady energy.  Try a tuna or baked beans on toast grilled with a bit of cheese on top, cereal with yogurt and nuts on top, poached egg with whole grain toast, and my favourite a green smoothie!  Green smoothies are a wonderful source of pure energy.  You can find the recipe at the end of this article.

> Schedule sometime quiet time just for you every week.  Even 15 minutes of quiet, alone time per day can provide vital reflective time.  You will be amazed how this will inspire and revitalise you.  Sit with a hot drink look out the window or sit in the sun, go for a walk in the park on your lunch break, have a hot soak at the end of the day, or play some chilled out music while taking some time out before starting the next thing.

There you have it!  I hope your find these tips helpful.

Jen Lancaster

Balanced Life Training Ltd

http://www.balancedlifetraining.co.nz/

Green Smoothie

- 2 bananas- the riper the better

- 1-2 bunches of young greens

- Water or if you like it sweeter rice milk, vanilla soy milk

Some examples of greens:

Spinach

Flat parsley

Endive

Mizuna

Radicchio

Romaine

Beet greens (tops)

Kale

It is important to mix up your greens daily when making your smoothie to avoid tummy upset.

Blend ingredients together until smooth in blender. Drink and enjoy.

‘To ensure good health: Eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness and maintain an interest in life.’ -William London

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Last month I broke down one of the simplest, yet most effective brand management tools: Google Alerts. What I like about alerts is that it’s simple to set up, takes virtually no effort to use, and it adds value to your time online. That’s a particular gripe of mine at the moment; we have too many Social Media platforms, too many blogs to read, too many tweets to observe, too many status updates. What we need is a way to bring them all together into one place.

I’m on a mission. A mission to make Social Media useable. Picking elements that take less time and reap more rewards. I’m not saying this is the way all companies should develop their online activities, but I do believe it’s a good start. Having identified a few key goals within online activity that add value, Google Alerts was useful in terms of brand management and awareness, or simply: knowing what’s being said about you online. It sort of an automated ‘pull’ mechanism, bringing the information to you as opposed to going out and hunting for it. So how else can we monitor our brand, competitors and industry experts?

We’ve all heard of Twitter, and most people know how it works…sort of. The only problem I have with it is that you have to work for it, unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Let’s look at what it can achieve for us, bringing it back to that idea of value. You can find people and organisations on Twitter that are in your industry or field of interest, and ‘follow’ them, meaning when they tweet (post a statement, link, image, article, etc.), you’ll receive that information in your ‘feed’, much like the ‘news feed’ feature in Facebook. You can also use it to disseminate information, marketing, expertise, etc. to people who want to follow you. But the inherent problem is that if you have alot of information coming through in your feed, it can become a full time job monitoring it. I don’t have time for that. Enter TweetDeck.

I’ve been using TweetDeck for a couple of months now and without it, I don’t think I’d be using Twitter as much as I do. In fact it’s so good, Twitter just bought it. TweetDeck is one of those pieces of software that works on anything; PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, on your computer, on the internet; and they all sync and play nice together. Tick.

What does it do? Quite a bit. It brings your feed to the desktop of your computer so you don’t have to be in a browser (Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.), and let’s you manage multiple Twitter accounts, bringing them all into one feed. I have a personal Twitter account that I use to follow friends and general interest Tweets, and a work account to follow professional advice, customers, competitors etc. It’s good to have them all in one place without having to log in to separate accounts. It’s not even limited to Twitter feeds, you can bring in Facebook accounts, LinkedIn, FourSquare, MySpace, and Google Buzz. And because you can post Tweets, content and links from the platform as well as receive them, you can make the most of the multiple account environment by posting to all your SM platforms (or a specific selection) at once! If you’ve got something to say, why not get it out to all your friends and contacts with one click?

Where it really comes into it’s own, for me at least, is with it’s multiple-feed layout, meaning you can allocate accounts or search terms to separate feeds. I can create a feed for ‘RedSeed’, and every Twitter post that is created in the world with that search term will come to me in a legible, collated form. Next to it I might have my Facebook news feed, another search term for ‘Christchurch earthquakes’, and my LinkedIn feed for example. Then the final piece of the puzzle: minimise the application and get on with your work, and TweetDeck will give you non-invasive updates as they happen in an alert box on your desktop.

Bring it all together and it works. I don’t want to be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google, searching for information when I can make it come to me. Do you?

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Sell more by NOT selling! That is Apple’s new sales philosophy.

What do they mean by that? It’s all about solving customer’s problems, educating them, and getting them so passionate about Apple gadgets that they simply have to have one. Cool eh? It seems like a new approach and one that is working for them according to the stats. More people visit Apple’s 326 stores in 3 months than visit Disney’s 4 theme parks in a year! That’s about 60 million customers! Apple’s annual retail sales per square foot are $4,406, higher than any other retailer on the planet.

So what can we learn from their approach? Their formula for success in their stores pivots around a casual atmosphere and intensive control of how employees interact with customers. No detail is left to chance, the customer experience is orchestrated to the nth degree including what is pre-loaded onto the demo machines. It is a well known fact that customers will return to your store if the experience is good, however it is the culmination of all their interactions with your company touch points that give them the overall feeling of what it is like to buy from you, and in a highly competitive environment, nothing can go wrong. Sales assistants are taught to interact with customers and to help customers solve problems. They receive no commissions, however there are high performance expectations and if a sales assistant doesn’t make the grade they are re-trained or moved to another position.

So is it really so new? It’s certainly a different approach than the one our grandparents would have used. In many cases businesses still believe that an intimate and complete knowledge of their products will be enough to sell to their customers. Their sales assistants are talking in jargon and acronyms that go over the head of their customers. This is far from relationship building, in fact in many ways it looks like they can’t relate to customers and see themselves as superior. Old style selling was all about your products, their features, advantages and benefits. New style selling is about customers, their lifestyle, their dreams, their needs and wants. If you can understand these things then you can use your expertise to show them just the right thing to solve their problems and enhance their lifestyle. So, yes it really is about solving customers problems, not selling stuff – it’s subtle, but its important that your team can tell the difference.

Getting your team to understand and use sales techniques so that they can easily strike up a conversation and understand what the customer is looking for is one thing, getting them to use it all the time is another. Apple closely manages their sales assistants and the service that they give to their customers. The same top-end experience that happens in one store must happen in the other 325 stores and it has to happen every time, for every customer.

Having strong policy and procedure around service, sales and a customer moral code gives the structure to grow revenue. There is no other way to get brand domination. So what can we easily look to implement in our stores that will take us that step closer to the ‘new’ model of a bricks and mortar store?

1) Have a sales process that is written down and that everyone uses.

2) Have high expectations of your sales staff and their behaviours with customers.

3) Have a fair and objective way to monitor the interactions with customers.

4) Take action if their behaviour falls below your expectations.

Don’t allow poor performance, complacency and “I’d rather be somewhere else,” attitude to creep into your business. If it is already, go back to the beginning, set the ground rules and in the words from “Good to Great’ by Jim Collins, you’re either on the bus or off the bus. You need the right people who believe in offering outstanding experiences to customers to help you get loyalty from your customers and increase the value of your brand.

Friday, July 1st, 2011

We’re really excited to be onboard with Cure Kids this 15th of July, and to help out we put together a small training course to help retailers sell more Red Nose Day merchandise. Don’t forget to get behind them, it’s a great cause. Embrace it…be a bit silly, and help Cure Kids turn research into hope for children with serious illnesses.

Click HERE to see what we’ve put together or

Click HERE to find out more about this great cause