Sales Force Automation and Customer Relationship Management

Top 10 Management Ideas

And How To Use Them

By:  Dave Mink

Idea #1 Measure Customer Traffic and Closing Ratios

Idea #2 The Most Costly Mistake Of All

Idea #3 Setting Appointments vs. The Be Back Bus 

Idea #4 Goal Setting and the difference it makes on the floor

Idea #5 tracking your advertising and holding advertisers accountable for poor performance…

Idea #6 Customer Service, keeping the customer for life. 

Idea #7 Finding out the true reasons prospective customers do not buy from your company and what to do about it

Idea #8 Customer Follow-up and how to do it effectively

Idea #9 How to manage salespeople and get them to want to do the things you want them to do 

Idea #10 Staying organized by planning and managing the day on the sales floor for each salesperson

Idea #1.  Measure Customer Traffic and Closing Ratios

You must learn how many customers are visiting your company every day and how many customers each salesperson is talking with or you cannot be an effective manager and are missing a critical ingredient to running your operation.  Without knowing your accurate closing ratio you are missing a tremendous opportunity.  Bill Gates says in his book, Business at the Speed of Thought.  “The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from the competition, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information.  How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose.”  Strong words and recommended reading.

The clear meaning here is measuring everything you do, especially the information on the sales you don't make...Southwest Airlines is by far the most profitable airline in that industry today.  There is one simple reason.  They benchmark and measure everything.  They know for example exactly how many customers it takes to pay for the fuel to fly from one destination to another.  They know how many customers it takes to pay for their crew how many more customers it takes to pay for the gate.  They can tell you their exact cost per air mile per seat.  By knowing this single number on every flight, they are able to learn if they are improving or falling behind each day.

This type of measurement is what it takes to be successful today and the only way to get it is to measure your customer traffic manually and tracking consistently over time or by installing a traffic counter.

Revenue Per Up…This acronym really says it all regarding the investment retailers put into every new customer who walks into their store or showroom.  RPU automatically analyzes how well each store does regarding closing ratios compared to overall opportunities.  Long ago I owned and eight store chain with 50 salespeople and would gauge my success by dollar volume alone as most of us do.  The problem with this short sighted measurement is that you don’t learn the big picture which provides the true potential your company has every day.  The Revenue Per Up is simply the total dollar volume divided by the number of sales opportunities you had every day.  There are only two ways to improve this number.  #1. Increase the average sale amount.  #2.  Improve the closing ratio. 

If you don't know your RPU accurately, you don't know if you are really improving or getting worse.  John F. Lawhon says in his best selling book, The Selling Bible,  "If you can measure something, you can improve it".  "If you don't accurately measure it, it will not improve".

What is your biggest challenge as a retailer?  Have you ever been on the sales floor for a couple hours during a busy traffic day, and then had to go somewhere else?  You assumed the day would be great or at least good, because traffic was good and the sales seemed like they were rolling in.  Later you were told that traffic died immediately after you left.  You then naturally ask yourself what would the day have been like if you had stayed.  The real question is did traffic really drop off after you left or did the level of attention to the details drop when you walked out the door?

How many times have you asked...Why are sales so far off, and the reply from your salespeople is that traffic is down; they also tell you they are closing almost every possible opportunity walking in the door.  The problem is that currently you have to believe them because you are not measuring traffic. 

My advice is for you to immediately put this document down and make a call to hire someone to count traffic for at least three days (the ideal is for an entire week).  Make sure you especially cover the entire weekend.  Call my office and we will fax you the proper form to use so you can track total Ups per hour and be able to subtract the non-customer activity or what we call the Mail Man Factor.  Give them a kitchen timer that rings each hour so they can easily track the hours.

What is really going on with the sales floor?  You say to yourself...we are advertising, the merchandise looks great, our prices are competitive, I spend lots of time and money on sales training.  So what is the real problem?  If a salesperson could stand in your shoes for five minutes, they would understand how you feel about their activity and work habits and how frustrated you are regarding below average sales productivity.

We believe that the most important thing you could ever learn to improve your business, is your traffic count and number of opportunities per salesperson.  If you don't know this simple incredible number, you don't know your companies true potential.  This number is the key ingredient to long term and perpetual improvement of profits, the heart of motivation and creating sustained enthusiasm on the floor.  It will immediately open your eyes, so just do it.

Did you make the call yet?  Don’t delay, start counting right now.

Manual Traffic Count Sheet

     Traffic (Please Count Family As One)                                (Mail Man Factor) Non-Customer Counts

Grand Total Non Traffic Count For Day       ______

 Grand Total Traffic Count For Day              ______

 Number of Invoices Written                         ______

 Total Dollar Volume (No Tax)                     $______

Total Dollar Volume Divided By Traffic Count Equals Your Revenue Per Up “RPU” $ _______

Manual Traffic Count Instructions

1.       Provide the person doing the counting a timer with an alarm that lets them know when each hour ends.

2.       Count a minimum of three days, most importantly the entire weekend?  If possible a full week is ideal.

3.       Count a family as one buying opportunity and put them in the left list during that hour.

4.       Count all non-customer counts and put them on the right list during that hour.

5.       You may want to track what type of non-customer activity you receive throughout the day by using abbreviations instead of hash marks.  IE: SP for Salesperson, MM for Mail Man, O for Office Personnel, W for Warehouse Employee, Fed Ex, UPS etc.

6.       Make sure your salespeople do not interact too much with the person counting and that each opportunity is counted accurately. 

Idea #2 The Most Costly Mistake Of All

Understaffing is by far the most serious mistake you can make.  It is the single most devastating issue we face in retail today.  It can cost you your business.

The following is the primary reason it is so difficult to staff properly.

I had eight stores with 50 salespeople.

I used to spend two full weeks training new salespeople before I let them go to work on the sales floor.  We would spend about half the time on product knowledge.  One full day would be devoted on the delivery trucks and in the warehouse viewing operations.  The rest of the time was invested in sales training.  We used every sales training program available from J Douglas Edwards, John F. Lawhon, Zig Ziglar, Edwards W. Demming, Harry Friedman, Tom Hopkins and others.  (I still recommend the Selling Bible by Lawhon to everyone I meet.)

Towards the end of that 2-week period the salespeople were so excited they couldn't stand it.  We could hardly hold them back.  The tragedy was of course that it took about two days for the veteran salespeople to poison the attitudes of these new rookies.

The reason is simple.  The average salesperson absolutely believes that if you hire any new people (even if you are clearly understaffed, you are taking money out of their pocket and food off their table.  They may not tell you this, but they resent it and will make sure your new people are not comfortable.  Unfortunately sometimes they do everything in their power to blow them out...(make them quit).  It takes a strong personality to survive this first month on the retail floor.

The perception of the average salesperson is that the pie is only so big and if you hire another salesperson you will flood the floor and then the original salesperson surely will not be able to make a decent living.

The reality is that if you can do an honest and accurate count of walk in customer traffic and learn your closing ratio for the overall operation you will be able to absolutely prove that you and they are both losing money.

No salesperson wants to see you lose money.  With this new information it is no longer your word against theirs regarding the showroom being understaffed.

A friend of mine committed to counting his traffic.  He had nine salespeople and was generating $600,000 per month in sales.  I asked him before the count what he thought his closing ratio was.  He immediately said between 35 and 40%.  This is very typical answer in our business.  He even called in his sales manager and asked her the same question.  I smiled when she said exactly the same thing.

After the first week we learned that they were getting between 25-35 customers per hour on the weekend and his overall closing ratio was 6.09 %.... WOW.

He called me and said Dave...   I just realized that if I can somehow help my salespeople sell three more customers per hundred I can increase my overall sales by 50%.

He now has 15 salespeople and recently had a 1.2 million dollar month.  That's double folks...and interestingly each salespersons personal level of sales volume also improved.

Bottom Line...Your salespeople will help you train and keep good people if you can prove that you and they are losing money because of understaffing.

Believe me they are smart enough to realize with solid proof, that stacking customers is not as profitable as it seems.  Frankly I used to brag that I could stack 3-4 customers at a time, and could write almost every one of them.  How many more long-term customers could I have kept and how much did the company and I lose?   Many customers received an abbreviated presentation and were ushered out of the showroom because I had more waiting.

When your salespeople learn they are legitimately closing (in some cases) less that 10% of the prospective customers that risk their lives on the freeway to get to your showroom it opens their eyes and changes their attitudes.

Trust me.  Your salespeople will help you staff properly if you can provide the truth.

Idea #3 Setting Appointments vs. The Be Back Bus 

The biggest waste of effort I see on sales floors is the missed opportunities we have bringing customers back when they can’t purchase the first time in.  The problem is the “Be Back Bus”.  When a sales person spends an hour or more with a prospective customer and doesn’t set an appointment.  That customer usually returns to your showroom on Saturday afternoon at exactly 1:25 along with everyone else on the “Be Back Bus”. Your likelihood of closing this sale is greatly reduced because… (No matter what the stack-em high club says); you will always miss sales if your sales people are spread too thin.  Have you ever had a customer come back in on YOUR DAY OFF?  If you’re positive you can’t make the sale today, it’s easy to get a good prospect to come in when you want.  So the question is why not try to dramatically improve your odds of closing the sale.

The solution is to set an appointment whenever possible…  I could get a customers name most of the time when working with a prospective customer.  Of course it’s a combination of trust, them liking you, and (here’s the key) you having a reason to follow up.  If I knew that I wasn’t going to close today (They were closing on a new home in two weeks), I would always find a project or task I needed to perform for them.  Colors, availability, customizing, or delivery questions etc.  Then I would set an appointment.  Typically during off peek times, Tues, Wed, Thurs.  When you explain that setting an appointment is much better for them.  At certain times the showroom is totally over run and you want to provide them the best service and your undivided attention, most prospective customers immediately realize the benefits.

Your closing ratio on appointments will be dramatically higher than any other possible scenario.  More importantly, when a customer returns after they have visited you earlier, there is now a bond and even the beginnings of a friendship that can be developed.  True friendships can begin here and what other single thing can you think of that is more important to the long-term success of your company.

The psychologists say that it takes 21 days to turn any skill into an automatic habit.  Teach your salespeople this lifelong skill and you will see dramatic improvement, guaranteed.

Idea #4 Goal Setting and the difference it makes on the floor

Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” This is true of any dealer who doesn’t manage using sales goals.  They put themselves at a huge disadvantage and I believe cost themselves a huge percentage of potential sales.

Vince Lombardi once said, “The difference between being truly great at something and being average is a very small fraction.  It’s a matter of inches of additional effort on every play.”  The difference is a solid work ethic, developing a habit of good daily skills and intelligent goal setting.

Most dealers that do have a goals program track their goals on a monthly basis.  The problem with this is that most salespeople don’t look at their monthly goals until about the third week and by then it is too late. 

We suggest you break the monthly goal to a weekly basis.  You can easily do this manually or may we suggest that you use our automated system.  We guarantee improvement with our program.

The following is automated in the TRAX program but can also be completed manually with effort from you and your managers.

Goals Reports

Most of us structure goals on a monthly basis.  The problem is that many sales people don't pay attention to monthly goals until the third week.  By then, sometimes salespeople are so far behind it's too late to catch up!  For those companies that don't set goals, they have no idea how good they can be if they reach higher. 

Vince Lombardi was a huge proponent of goal setting.  He believed that the difference between ultimate success and mediocrity is about 2% additional effort when everyone else gives up.  Structured prepared attainable short term goals will get you to the level you want faster than anything else at your disposal.

The TRAXsales Goals Program permits you to easily take your monthly goal and break it down by week.  It then permits you to create a minimum performance level.  When a sales person is above their goal for the week, they get two thumbs up, when they are below their goal yet above the minimum they get one thumb up.  If they are below their minimum for the week, they receive a caution sign.  When a salesperson has performed way over their goal for the week they receive a double eagle symbol.  You can adjust the double eagle goal to any percentage over goal you desire.

TRAX provides a report, which automatically displays these goals by sales person and for the entire showroom.  This chart is automatically printed weekly and should be displayed prominently where all salespeople can see it.  If you have a regular Saturday morning meeting we set this report up so it prints each Saturday morning and is waiting for you when you arrive.  This report does not display any numbers, but does let everyone know how they compare.  It promotes friendly "good old fashioned" American competition.  This is also an excellent report for comparing one showroom to another for multiple location operations so you can compare your sales management teams effectiveness on a monthly basis.  Our spiff contest also works very well for your monthly managers meetings.  Especially if you like to bonus your showroom managers based on sales performance.

Special Notes on Goal Setting (don’t put minimums too close to goal)

1.                  Most dealers’ structure their goals based on percentage increases over last year unless you have special events or circumstances affecting these goals.

2.                  Set the minimums based on the dollar volume level where a sales person is not doing themselves or the company any good.  For starters, we suggest approximately 25% of the goal.  If the goal amount is $14,000 per sales person per week, the minimum would be $10,500. Of course you may set the minimums at any level you like, but if you set the minimums at too close to the goal you will not easily see if someone is in serious trouble.  If you want to set goals based on units this is also easy to do, just select this in maintenance under properties.

3.                  Initially set the goals so that you are promoting success (promoting wins).  It is easy to adjust any goals later, vacations etc.

4.                  Set the goal evenly for all sales people (assuming equal hours worked).  Do not set goals higher for your super-stars for the purpose of this contest.  I would always set an additional private goal for these big hitters using the Double Eagle percentages.   The logic is that if you set a goal higher for these people and they outsell everyone else, they may still fall short of their goal and thus have failed.  If a sales person is relatively new (and properly trained), they should have the same goals as everyone else, and managements job is to get this new person to the same level of proficiency as the rest of the sales team.

The Double Eagle

Trax "Double Eagle Goals" guaranteeing long-term perpetual improvement.

The TRAX Double Eagle Goals Program is designed to enhance your goals program.  It will improve sales and promote long-term growth and prosperity.

The Trax program takes your monthly goals and converts them to a weekly program.  The primary problem as mentioned earlier, with a monthly goal program is that most salespeople don't look at monthly goals until about the third week.  Of course by then the month is nearly gone and it's too late.

The Trax system automatically prints a weekly report for the entire company, which displays one of four symbols for each salesperson depending on how they did during that week.

This report should be prominently displayed in a lunch, or meeting room for all to see.  It should be a lighthearted fun and friendly competition.   The Trax system also creates several other reports for analysis with real numbers, the report that auto prints has only symbols and is ambiguous to someone like a customer or competitor who might accidentally see it.

If they hit their goal for the week they get a two thumbs up icon.   

If they are below their goal but above the minimum they get the one thumb up symbol, which is still good. 

If they are below their minimum for this week they get a yellow caution sign.

This really stands out if the salesperson has 2 or 3 caution signs in a row.  It permits management the time to identify potential problems before it’s too late.

Lets face it sometimes salespeople have personal problems.  With the typical monthly sales goal program many managers don't identify a potential problem with a good salesperson that is having a bad personal time until sometimes after the second month.   By then in some cases it's too late.

With TRAX you will have the luxury of seeing problems before they become serious.  If a good salesperson is going through a divorce or is battling a drug or alcohol issue, or has lost a loved one, there may be something you can do to help if you identify the problem in the first few weeks. 

Finally if they are above their goal by more than the percentage you have set over their personal goal, they receive a Double Eagle symbol.   The Double Eagle immediately identifies the true superstars. 

We suggest you use the TRAX Double Eagle program by setting the Double Eagle percentage over goal based on how long each salesperson has been with your company and how long they have been using the TRAX system.   We suggest that you set the double eagle percentage based on how long each salesperson has been with your company.  The assumption is that the longer they are with you the more quality relationships they have developed and the more personal trade they will have that is generating sales that are not just based on walk in traffic.

1 yr =10% over goal 

2 yrs=20% over goal

3 yrs=30% over goal

4 yrs=40% over goal

5 yrs=50% over goal

6 yrs=60% over goal

7 yrs=70% over goal

8 yrs=80% over goal

9 yrs=90% over goal

10 yrs=100% over goal (why not?)

15 yrs=110% over goal

20 yrs=120% over goal 

The reason for the percentage increase over the years is they should have an extensive accumulation of personal relationships with customers the longer they are using the program.  Initially they should be responsible for their fair share of dollar volume based on the number of hours worked.  Once they have begun generating their own personal trade. (This is business they bring in on their own, without the assistance of company advertising.)

Eventually the goal should be to pave the way so that a veteran salesperson could be totally self sufficient as far as generating their personal sales.  In a perfect world salespeople whom have been using TRAX for 5 years or more should be generating more than half of their customer contacts through appointments set through the TRAX system. 

It’s obvious that the average consumer will spend many thousands of dollars in their lifetime purchasing your products every several years.  Why not make them friends for life by creating an important strong relationship with the customers who have shopped with you.

Each salesperson should use the personal letters. The telephone with reminders (to do list) provided by Trax, and of course the new wave of the future is the Internet and the use of personalized e-mail that TRAX now provides.  

Imagine being able to send a personal e-mail to a hot prospect with a hyperlink (automatic connection) to your beautiful web site and a photo of the exact product category they are looking for.

I think you will agree it is easy if you let TRAX manage your customer files for each salesperson and utilize all the tools at your disposal. 

Making each salesperson individually responsible for each customer they have sold over the years, and also those who have not purchased but have worked with is the key too success.  Even if the customer did not purchase the first time, why not make them friends for life and stay in touch?  What is your cost to bring in a new customer compared to someone who knows and likes you?

Imagine doing more business than your delivery teams can handle and not spending any money in advertising.  

TRAX Dart Contest

The most productive and fun sales meetings I ever had were those involving the TRAX spiff contest.  This contest permitted us to identify and recognize the top performer for the week, and give them the praise and recognition they deserve.  We were also able to identify the people who needed assistance and get it to them before it was too late.  I have had dealers tell me they experienced large increases in sales volume from this contest so give it a try for at least two months.  Please make a promise that if you do you will not alter the format until you have given it at a fair chance.  The key is that it requires a dedicated manager who is willing to get to the meeting five minutes early to set the contest up.

Our major motivation for this contest is that it helps insure the success of the overall system.  As you know it is critical that the salespeople enter all sales.  They will never enter every unsold opportunity but the sales must be 100% accurate.  With this contest they must insure all their personal sales are entered properly or they cannot participate in the weekly contest and may lose out on opportunities to earn extra money. 

By the way because this contest carries over to the next week if no one wins, over a few weeks the pot can become quite large and really catches everyone’s long-term attention.  Another resource you will quickly see from your sales force that you will create is that most salespeople love praise and recognition, and is a huge motivational force.  You will be surprised in some cases how much additional effort you will see from the friendly competition created.

Our sales meetings also covered the usual product knowledge, open sessions and discussions on ways to maximize our opportunities.  Generally the purpose of the meeting was to make sure everyone had the information needed to get the job done, and the enthusiasm and motivation to maximize the day or event, usually on our big selling day like a Saturday.

We would take the first 3-5 minutes of the meeting to hold our dart contest.  Setup includes:

·        Investment of $50 per week.  (More money makes it even more exciting, intereating and fun)

·        Mark the floor with three lines.  Eight, ten and twelve feet from the dart wall.

·        Tack/pin or tape two blank envelopes/index cards on the dart wall for each sales person employed at the showroom. 

·        Six sales people would equal twelve envelopes or index cards.  Space two inches apart.

·        One of these cards would have a secret mark that no one can see (I put a small dollar sign with a yellow highlighter on the back of the card I selected).  Make sure you can’t see through the card and that no one sees where you put the card with the mark, so it’s fair for everyone.

·        Strategically place the marked card weekly.  (Move it around so there is no pattern of where you hide it on the dart wall from week to week.)

The Game

·        Top sales person throws first, and they throw one dart.

·        If they have a double eagle, they throw from eight feet.

·        If they hit an envelope, you pull it off the wall.  If it has the secret mark, they win the money you congratulate them and the contest is over.  If not, the contest continues by moving to the next sales person with the next highest sales volume.

·        If they have two thumbs up they throw from ten feet.

·        If they have a single thumb up, they throw from twelve feet.

·        If they have a yellow caution sign, they don't throw.

·        If they are late for the meeting, they don't throw.

The really fun part of this contest is “most sales people don’t know how to throw darts.” If no one wins, the contest amount carries over to the next week! 

I had several meetings that were worth over $500 before someone hit the correct card.  Everyone has a chance.  Its fast, its fun and creates a great deal of excitement!  If you call us we will even send you a dart.

Major Benefits

·        Top performers are recognized without investing huge amounts of money.

·        If someone gets two CAUTION SIGNS in a row, it definitely gets their attention.  If you set your weeks up so that they end on Friday night, you will find that your sales people are sometimes talking to themselves towards the end of the week saying they need so much in sales to hit their goal so they can throw a dart that week.  They will find a way to hit that goal.  It’s really a lot of fun to watch, and everyone makes more money.

Idea #5 tracking your advertising and holding advertisers accountable for poor performance…

John Wanamaker the famous retailer from Philadelphia (1838 - 1922) once said...

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half. 

My company spent many millions of our hard earned profit dollars in the Houston market advertising.  I invested in Television, Radio, Newspaper, Billboards, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages and anything else that I thought might bring in customers.  I spent countless hours studying Nielsen and Arbitron ratings.  I learned about cumes, cost per points for drive times, made a science of prime time comparisons and much more.  I even created my own advertising agency to take advantage of the 15% discount because I did all the work.  I finally got so confused it drove me nuts.  Most of the time I would make a decision on where to spend my advertising dollars based on how well I liked the sales rep or where the next trip was.  I determined that the only way to accurately calculate the effectiveness of any advertising (until TRAX came along) was to manually track each customer with a manual up system.   This of course is very hard to do manually, but can be done. 

The advantage with tracking if done accurately is that you can learn your Cost Per Up (number sales divided by how much you spent in advertising).  You should already have your Cost Per Sale (number sales divided by how much you spend each month in advertising).  In other words, how much does it cost in advertising dollars to make a sale?

If you are diligent enough to take it to the next level and learn your Cost Per Sale and Cost Per Up by advertiser, this is where the fun begins.  Here’s the deal, if you can learn how many customers came in because of Newspaper and how many came in because of Radio you have a gold mine and I promise will receive a better product from your advertisers. 

Let’s say you spend $3000 on the Radio and $3000 with the newspaper.  You learn that you had 30 customers come in from the Radio.  Your cost per Up $100.  You also learn that you received 60 customers from the newspaper ad.  Your cost per up is $50 each.  I promise that the radio sales reps jaw will hit the floor when you present this to them.  They will probably give you a make good immediately so they don’t lose all of your business to the newspaper.  Most importantly they will insure that you get the best possible times and the lowest possible rates because you are the only dealer in town able to track their true performance by providing them your cost per Up by advertiser.

I’ll bet you are saying my salespeople will never give me good information.  The answer is that they will if you use the information and give them a tool, which makes it easy to accurately gather this data. 

When you do a good job, this is still a survey and at best can be only accurate up to 2-3% like a Gallup poll.  But if you find a way to gather this data it will pay for itself many times over.

Idea #6 Customer Service, keeping the customer for life. 

We have all heard the lip service given this subject regarding how to treat people and keep them coming back.  I think it really is as simple as treating people with dignity and respect.  Making their experience as fun and enjoyable as possible and staying in contact with them.  I am not talking about junk mail but finding a system that personally keeps up with your customers regarding everything they do and like.  For example Franklin Planner has a high quality manual system for keeping up with those details that will be important to a long-term relationship.  Microsoft also has a good program in Outlook that keeps you in touch when it’s needed and appropriate, Act and Goldmine are good products and of course But Dah dah da daaa…TRAX is specifically designed and customized for your retail sales floor.

You and I both know that the average consumer is going to purchase your products many times over in their lifetime.  I am here to tell you that it is very easy and inexpensive to keep these customers coming back to you and most importantly that they continue to tell their friends about you for the next 25 years.  All you need is a system that is smart enough to routinely follow-up with your customers with a personal touch.  The key is to separate you from the competition by knowing for example their birthday. (Don’t grown; it’s easy if you get in the habit.)  If you take a check or credit app. you’ve already got it.  Having a system in place that automatically prints a card that is waiting for the salesperson to personalize is the key.   In some cases we have seen a salesperson’s productivity double and trust me your salespeople will be delighted to personalize these letters with a quick PS.

How many times have you had a customer tell you they would be interested in your product several months down the road and you never called them back because you did not have a system to simply remind you?  Trust me the technology is here today, its cheap, highly effective and frankly you cannot afford not to investigate this because you must assume that your competition is already one step ahead of you.

Idea #7 Finding out the true reasons prospective customers do not buy from your company and what to do about it.

If you decide to stick with a manual up system and not automate, I believe it is important to track the reasons customers do not purchase from your company and each salespersons activity.  This is possible manually by reviewing the up log daily and demanding that good information be put on the sheet every time a customer leaves.  (Unless you are in overflow, then do it later.)  Learning this information from the front line is the only possible way to find out what is really happening with the customers that do not buy.  I must admit that requiring your salespeople to do this manually then converting the data manually to intelligent usable information is tuff, but it is worth the effort.  You will learn for example if a particular salesperson has developed a bad habit and is losing a high percentage of sales because the customer has a price objection.  When you find this type of information out for the first time I would never ask the salesperson what his or her opinion is regarding why this happens more than usual.  I would in this case grab a clipboard and the next time this salesperson is giving a presentation I would pretend that I was doing inventory the next row over and listen in.  Keep your head down and don’t make eye contact.  You and I both know (this is straight out of John Lawhon’s book) that this salesperson is probably saying something that is causing their customers to have this reaction and if you learn what is really being said and not just what the salespersons perception of these situations is, you will in most cases be able to dramatically help this person close more sales.

Tom Peters mentions in his great book In Search Of Excellence, “MBWA” This management technique I believe is one of the most powerful and least used by upper management in the retail industry.  It stands for “Management By Walking Around” When you add an intelligent results oriented process to this information gathering technique on the sales floor your productivity improvements will be overwhelming.

Being a great leader today is not easy, by using accurate measurements and applying this measurement to accurate management towards desired results you are much more likely to be highly effective.

Idea #8 Customer Follow-up and how to do it effectively

I hope we all agree that if you do not make a sale it is imperative that your salespeople develop the skills to develop a strong enough relationship with most of your customers so that they do not mind giving you their name and address.  This will never happen if trust cannot be developed.  You will never get my number without a foundation of trust and a good reason to ask for it.  As I mentioned in Idea number three, setting appointments is a very valuable technique, but you will never get to first base without trust and the ability to make the customer want to return to that salesperson. 

Many companies have a fair amount of success with a wishing well or monthly giveaway where many customers gladly give you a name and address.  I don’t believe this is the best course of action because most of your more sophisticated customers are never going to fill this out.   You understand if asked ot fill on of these out that you are probably going to get bugged by a twit that doesn’t know anything personally about you and may even (worst of all), be put on a telemarketing list to be (possibly) hammered at dinner time.  Do you fill out wishing well cards?  I don’t.

It is critical that, as good managers we train our salespeople to develop the habit of developing a strong enough relationship with those customers who don’t purchase the first time, to want to give you your people their personal information because they believe their will be benefits for them to do so.  If for example I knew that a good prospect could not purchase because they were bringing their spouse in, or were waiting for some other event (don’t misunderstand I would still always try to close) but if I knew there was no way, I would let them know that I would do some personal research by investigating on availability of something or checking something out for them and would get back.  I pull out the 3X5 card and write down the name telephone number and address, and what I need to do.

Our goal at TRAX is to show you how to get a minimum of 50% of the names addresses and phone numbers of customers who don’t buy and 95% of those that do.  You will find that your top salespeople will get 80% of the ones they don’t sell and 99% of those that purchase.  Your below average performers are much lower.  Your job is to show them the light or make room for someone else.  If they can’t or won’t do it and you continue to keep them around they might eventually cost you your business.

We highly recommend that you track their performance of gaining customer information every time.  The TRAX program automatically performs this behind the scenes but you can also track this manually by looking at each salespersons tickler files and making sure the job is performed at the minimum standards. 

The following is a sample of the TRAX automated “IGE” Information Gathering Efficiency Report.  Please feel free to use this format to track manually.  It will take you several hours each month manually but I promise the results will be very positive.  Trust me your competition is finding ways to develop and maintain relationships with all customers and are weeding out the salespeople who either refuse or can’t develop the skills to do so.

Idea #9  How to manage salespeople and get them to want to do the things you want them to do. 

We believe your biggest challenge as a retailer is getting your salespeople to want to do the things you need them to do.  Measurement is the heart of performance improvement.  Without accurate measurement on the sales floor all you have is an argument of your opinion over the next persons.  If you are only measuring performance based on dollar volume you may be missing the boat because your top performer may be talking with twice as many customers as the person below them in dollar volume.  What if two salespeople who do the same amount of volume, and you learn, that one has half the closing ratio and half the average sale amount of the other?  What if you can learn that your top salesperson is below the average performance standards but is working twice as many hours as everyone else and is destined for a burnout?  Don’t you agree that this knowledge will help you improve performance where needed?

Gather this information accurately and you will see improvement guaranteed.  Add intelligent management and improvement will automatically compound.  Please don’t ask your salespeople, ask your CPA.

Many times I will be talking with a retail business owner and he or she will say, before I purchase your system I need to talk with my salespeople or store managers.  WRONG...  This is a bad idea because your salespeople and many times your store managers have a different agenda than you the owner.  The best person you could ever ask about Trax or measurement of any kind is your CPA.  This is the one person who is smart enough to evaluate this new attitude properly and who's opinion you can trust.  Your CPA or accountant also has only one motive and that is to insure you are as profitable and successful as possible.

Idea #10 Staying organized by planning and managing the day on the sales floor for each salesperson.

How much time is wasted every day on your sales floor because your salespeople do not have a set routine for follow-up and a solid work ethic when it comes to down time?  The typical salesperson believes their responsibility is to wait on customers and if there are no customers in the store their job is to wait for customers to come in.  The reality according to our research is that over 70% of the average salespersons time is not spent in front of customers.  What would be your bottom line if your salespeople had the automated tools to double their productive time?

Very rarely do you find salespeople who prospect with unsold customers during downtime.  Let’s face it, prospecting is not fun because it is intrusive and technically turns your people into the scourge of the earth, the dreaded telemarketer.  The truth is, if the customer is not prepared, it’s a cold call…Yuck.

I promise if they have a reason to call the customer and the call is expected, the difference is amazing and makes the calling process enjoyable on both ends.

Find a way to use automation and you and your salespeople’s lives will improve.  We would be delighted to show you how the TRAX system will improve performance in your company.  We guarantee total satisfaction or we take our system back in 90-days with no questions.

Please give us a call so we can walk you through our 35-minute web based presentation.  You will find it very exciting and very educational.

“No – I can’t be bothered to see any crazy salesman – we’ve got a battle to fight!”

Go have some fun today and if you haven’t done it yet, go count your traffic then ask your salespeople what they think their personal closing ratio is.  You may be surprised with the difference.  It’s your business and you deserve to know exactly what your true potential should be.

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