Do you know how to interact with your team?

I know this probably first appears as a stupid question - of course I know how to interact, especially with my team. But look a little deeper and you'll find a communication, training and leadership issue that can determine the future success of your company.

Now whether you are an independent retailer with a handful of staff or a multinational with tens of thousands, it has been shown in recent years that people take in, process and act upon information in different ways.

In terms of learning, there are quite wide differences, where some understand written information much better than verbal and vice versa. Some understand theory and can adapt that to their role, whilst others require practical learning that they can immediately apply to their everyday job. Some need silence to be able to take in and process what is being conveyed whilst others need a group to discuss and question their own understanding.

And this is just training!

Add to this any tasks that you want your team to carry out, dealings with customers such as taking orders, and you have a potential minefield. But it does it have to be so.

I'm sure that you already have at least an inkling of how you need to interact with each member of your team, even if you've not yet formalised these ideas in your head. 

Think about who in your team reacts quickest to things you've said - these are probably those that can process information verbally. You get the picture!

It's about assessing your individual team member's needs and adapting your style to suit.

Try it - the results will be obvious.

Black Friday - are you participating?

In a really crowded marketplace, are you participating in the Black Friday sales bonanza? I think that this event has been created out of nothing relevant to the UK but retailers wanting to shift as many units as possible. Amazon started the trend and it's the big online retailers and multiples that have run with it. The good thing for retailers with the timing of the event is that it coincides with many people's last payday before Christmas, so they are feeling a little flush and many are ready to spend and get a large chunk of their Christmas shopping done.

As a small independent retailer, you have one of two options, in my eyes. You can either roll with it or try to stand against it.  Here's what I mean-

Roll with it

There has become such hype about the event, many independents will feel that they simply have to offer some Black Friday savings or promotions. To get lost in the retail marketplace on such a busy day would be a major trading blow. To compete with Amazon, Tesco and the like, you'll have to box quite clever to find a niche in the marketplace but they exist. I would think that this will be a good strategy for retailers that will see a large footfall passing their door - those in major shopping centres or city centres or those near a Tesco.

Try to stand against it

There is a viewpoint that independents won't be able to price compete on days like this. Independents can offer their own bespoke products and services at their own prices. Next Saturday is Small Business Saturday, and that's when you can get behind a marketing event that is designed just for you.

I'm sure that retailers will take many different stances in relation to this but the one thing I advise is that you measure how successful it has been and learn from it for next year.

Are events for your customers or your team?

Minh It's that time of year when retailers start sending you emails and accosting you in store to tell you about their shopping events-

Discount card promotions

Extra points offers

Pre-Christmas sales

Black Friday

Cyber Monday

Offer of the week

These are all events running in various retailers at the moment in the UK and beyond.

My question is -

Are these events for your customers or for your team?

I know that eventually they are for your bottom line, or your shareholders, but I think on the surface it's a different proposition. Do they serve the purpose of attracting more customers to your door? Or do they serve the purpose of motivating your team?

I think that here is a bit of both but more for your team than your customers. It's nice for your team to pull together for these events, inspire each other and feel motivated to give their all for a big sales push. It gives you all focus in the build up to get the store ready and plan what you will do to make it special. It has a unifying effect, and gives something to look forward to, and something to reflect back on.

This has its own value.

For all you independent retailers (which I hope is a large proportion of my readership) then Small Business Saturday on 6th December is one such event that you can get behind. It's not too late to get your pack from -

https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com

Get you and your team behind it, and support other local business as well.

Rigid structure or go with the flow?

Is structure and a set way of always doing things the right way forward? Or is rolling with what is thrown at you and adapting your business to deal with this the correct way in the modern world?

I have thought a great deal about this over the past few weeks. I have worked for many multiple retailers who have set policies and procedures for just about every eventuality. They usually have a company intranet where you go to find out what they require of you if a customer falls over, if an employee calls in sick, if a customer claims they have been given the wrong change, if just about anything.

There are other companies I have worked for and with that operate under a flatter management structure, where the heads of divisions and areas are much closer to the action and the team are empowered to make decisions that benefit the company and, more importantly, the customers.

You can probably tell from my tone that I am in favour of the second type. I think that training, coaching and mentoring your colleagues in the ethos of the company, and how you operate will give them the confidence to make the right decisions when dealing with customers. Being the business owner (as I'm sure many of you are) means that it's your ethos and your operation that you will be communicating. This flat structure means that there are not many layers of authority and it's easy for your sales team to contact you with any questions, suggestions or feedback.

Thinking in your feet isn't just something that you, the business owner, should be doing. You want an entire team that is able to be entrepreneurial in the same way. Building in incentives, to make your employees think that they own a part of the business will help you in this cause. Whether that is offering shares or offering a proportion if the sales commission is entirely up to what you are comfortable with.

Think about the emails you send out to your subscribers

I received and email today from Amazon, lettings me know about several deals. I scrolled through and saw a deal I found potentially interesting. When I clicked on it, I was taken to a general deals page. I thought I'd clicked wrongly and tried again - the result was the same general deals page. So I tried a different deal - same page. This I found frustrating, and I gave up. Not only did I give up, I won't be clicking through from Amazon emails again. So, what have Amazon achieved from sending this email? I would say, into case, it's had a negative impact. I am probably a similar experience away from unsubscribing.

Which brings me to my point. Please think about the content, links and impact of your communications with your customers, especially emails.

Content

This needs to be as relevant as possible for the people receiving it. If you are a retailer that sells in different categories then you could consider a filter on your email subscribe page. This will mean that, for instance, your baby customers won't get emails about your photographic offering. You want your emails to entice customers to click through to your website and browse. That will only happen if there is something in the content that they want to follow up. You can get tech that will report back to you in what was clicked, and where that led. This will give you the data to ensure that you know what content works and what content doesn't.

Impact

This leads to impact, where the effectiveness of your content triggers the sales of the product or products you are trying to push. The header of the email is the very first thing seen, so ensure that it leads the recipient to read on. A photo or image makes great headway, especially if the product is visually appealing.

Links

Like the Amazon example above, you need to ensure that the links take your customers to the right places. It means that they have the faith in you and your company to click again and to keep subscribed - this is the lifeblood of your direct email marketing campaigns.

The other consideration is the frequency of your emails - not so often that your customers get sick if you, not so rare that they forget you.

Hope this helps.

Where does the dynamic in your team come from?

Where does the dynamic in your team come from?

It's not always you, as the business owner, leader or manager - and that's not always a problem! Sometimes the spirit of the store can be a colleague or team member, and it's often their knowledge or ability to enthuse that sets them apart. As long as this person is enthusing people to do the right things (and not poison the well) then use their influence. You can let them lead and inspire the team in their natural way.

I have worked in many retail companies where the powerful influence hasn't been the manager. Some managers respect this and accept the fact that they can still be a manager and leader. Some managers hate this and fight it tooth and nail - I call these "title managers." Title managers need everything to come from them and through them, they hate any idea of influence coming from anywhere else and hunt down any other influential people - with intent to destroy them. It creates a hostile, negative atmosphere. And, in my experience, these managers are usually the ones that don't know a great deal about the business and have a low level of creativity. This stifles the natural creativity of the team and creates a vacuum, where nobody steps into the creative void for fear of the title manager's response.

I say that it is always positive to embrace motivation from within your team, wherever it comes from. An empowered, confident team are far more productive and resourceful than a team afraid to step on the toes of those in power.

Please think about how you want your team to operate - with of without you there.

Help your customers through your process and they will be your advocates

If there's a quirky or different part of your company up others then In my eyes, you've got a choice. Either-

Ensure there are always staff to hand to explain

Or

Ensure there is sufficient clear signage to explain.

In talking about parts of your business where customers don't intuitively know what to do. The ticket machine that required you to put your card in and remove straight away to work, the self-service till or well, pretty much the self-service anything. It shod be enough that you can have one team member looking after 6 or 8 tills, don't take this team member away!

Ikea does this beautifully with a mi. of the above approaches, more signs than staff though. It uses explanation and a little humour to let customers know that they will be picking and assembling the furniture themselves and the fact that this helps to keep the cost down. In fact they've now taken this quirk into a virtue - it's part of their business, their ethos.

If you have a part of your business that needs a little explaining or guidance then don't be afraid to explain or guide - your customers will appreciate your help and give you honest feedback about the process at the point that it's happening - one of the buzzwords in retail at the moment is "in the moment feedback" and it doesn't get more in the moment than that.

Set up conversations determine the quality of delegated tasks

What action do you take when a team member doesn't complete a task in the time set?

You set a task, and give one of your team a certain amount of the in which to complete it. They don't get it done in the time you've set them. What do you do next?

In sure this happens in retail all the time, and I'm sure that people deal with it in many different ways, with differing degrees of success.

I set out below the way in which I would deal with it, and hopefully this will give you a framework to deal with any similar situations-

Understand the delay

You need to ask questions as to why the task wasn't completed on time. Were there more customers than first though? as dealing with customers is a priority. Did another team member not pull their weight? Did the team member fully understand the task? Did you actually give aside enough time for it in the first place?

All of these factors can hugely influence the task and the following discussion.

Setting it up for next time

Once you have an understanding of the situation that has just happened, you will have an idea of how to set up the team member for the next task. This is going back as step or two but the set up conversation is key to the task. You can avoid a lot of these incomplete tasks by getting the set up conversations right in the first place.

This is a confidence-builder for both you (you understand that the task is more likely to be done) and the team member (they fully understand what they are doing.)

Giving feedback

It's not just the task being finished in time, but it being done correctly. The feedback (positive and negative) will allow you and your team to move forward with confidence.

Thinking about rewarding your team at this time of year

Little treats can make big differences to the morale of your team and how they work for you and interact with your customers - in the long-term this will mean more goodwill, trade and sales for you.

I have worked for many retail organisations, big and small; worked with retailers in an advisory role and run my own retail business.  Where you have people working for you, their morale implants heavily on their commitment to worm and their interactions with your customers. Approaching Christmas is a time where employers often look at rewarding their teams in various ways. I have experienced the following-

*10% of a weekly wage as a bonus. This smacks of a lack of inspiration and thought and unfairly penalises part-time and weekend-only team members

*a choice from a pre-set list of gifts. This takes a little more organisation, but can have the "wow" effect if the gifts are of a good quality.

*a team night out. This will have the added bonus of some team building, but each out for situations arising from too much alcohol.

*a day off work paid for Christmas shopping. The idea is great, but often the time just gets mixed up with annual leave. Try to mix it with a shopping voucher or an afternoon tea at a nice tea room in the local town to ensure it's fully enjoyed for what it's supposed to be.

*a box of chocolates, a box of biscuits or a bottle of wine. This can start to go down the same route as the money route at the top of the list.

In sure that all you inventive entrepreneurs can come up with really great ways of celebrating your teams contribution at this time of year, and inspiring them to greater things in the future.

Don't manage by pieces of paper - look at your customers

I know it can sometimes be difficult to let go of measures and just spend time in your retail establishment with customers and colleagues, but this is probably where your best results will come from. I know of many retail chains that look heavily at results, KPI's, scorecards or whatever they classify them, but solely managing by this method is dangerous and does NOT guarantee the best results.

Take a national retail company that I have worked for, as usual they will reman nameless.  Their focus and passion on the measures mean that their store management teams are rarely in the shop floor, and as a consequence, rarely spend time with customers and colleagues.

They are pressured from above to control costs (result is no toilet rolls in the staff toilets.)

They are pressured from above to control staffing costs (result is jobs are left undone and staff morale is through the floor.). 

They are pressured from above to hit certain sales targets in certain categories (result is other areas are completely ignored.)

They are pressured from above to get a certain number of customer feedback forms (result is that many are forged.)

They are pressured from above to respond to Head Office requests (result is that the management tam fear being away from their emails for too long.)

The end result is that there is a huge disjoint between management and the team (even more profound in stores with an experienced team.)

Consider the opposite - a manager or management team that spend their time on the shop floor, that are empowered to see what is important to their customers and colleagues and where the whole team feel as though they are pulling in the same direction.

Now how refreshing will that be?

Small Business Saturday 6th December

Saturday 6th December is Small Business Saturday so make sure you plan ahead to promote the fact. Mentions on your website, social media presence, in your shop and in conversation with your customers will help to make it as successful as possible. It's great timing that close to Christmas so plan ahead - I've seen some local shops advertising competitions, prize draws, free gift wrapping and others. This is a great way to lock in the trade at this time of year, and even steal a march on some of the chains and multiples by getting your customers to buy early from you, rather than later from them.

Understanding gross margin will drive your business forward

Marks & Spencer unsurprisingly followed other retailers in announcing disappointing results this week and, at least partly, blaming it on the weather-

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29911371

I have stated before in my blog that retailers have more than one trick up their sleeves and that cold weather doesn't decimate sales.

Marks & Spencer have now seen 13 consecutive drops in clothing sales, so there's much more to this than just a bit of unseasonal weather. The positive news from this is the increase in gross margin on their products.

If this is at too simple a level them forgive me, but gross margin is selling price minus buying cost. When you improve this, it can enable all sorts of changes to your business that you want to happen. Even if total profits are falling, an increase in gross thin means that you are working less hard for you money. If every transaction through the till brings you more profit every time, then it frees up cost for other expenditure or allows you to put money aside a rainy day.

It all boils down to the fact that you make your money from less transactions, less customers and potentially less staff. All of the time-consuming effort that makesyou  money also costs you money.

Looking at this as an entrepreneurs, you need to look at what profit ypu expect to make on every item you sell. I have seen independent clothing retailers have two sets of numbers in their price labels. The first is the price, the second (in a disguised format) is the lowest price they would consider if a customer wanted to haggle over prices or want a discount for multiple purchases. If you know what you want from each product then you know what products are worth the effort if youskr them yourself, or which products are worth the price at the wholesalers.

It is the start of every other calculation you make for your business and a clear understanding of this will drive your business forward.