I was delighted yesterday when I had an email asking if I would speak to a team of retail shop assistants on ways to increase their sales. Apparently I was contacted after one of the team had seen this film on YouTube and discussed it at their sales team meeting.

So here’s the film for you to see for yourself and if you have any ideas for another film on retail sales teams then give me a shout

2 ways to Increase Retail Sales

“Currently 25% of my team’s predicted sales stall in a NO DECISION”

Was the opening statement of a Skype call I had with a friend last month. He’s a sales manager with a large national firm and was asking me how to restructure his sales team’s working to increase effectiveness, increase sales funnel size and, despite the recession, meet increased revenue targets.

Main problem
With the economy becoming more difficult prospects have learned to distrust sales calls. In addition the prospect has become better informed and will use the internet to check the sales facts or even make the sale on-line. The conclusion we came to was that the sales team was pressing for a fast buying decision and this was a major contribution to a “No decision”.

Solution and result
One of the three solutions we discussed and implemented was that the next team briefing should discuss “time taken to sale”. The discussion produced a realistic expectation of the time taken to make a sale in various circumstances. The effect was to reduce the pressure felt by the sales team to make quick sales. The result was that the team prospected wider whilst ensuring that “No decision prospects” were kept warm for longer. The result is that overall sales have grown. New sales are being made with many of the predicted sales that previously ended in “No decision” and forgotten about being converted later rather than sooner! 

Reducing costs is a main focus for all business owners and Director these days. The most obvious cost to tackle are the “people costs” but these also happens to be the most problematical.

The problems
The first problem is that, even in difficult economic times, there’s an inbuilt process in most firms that increases people costs. Once a person is hired increases in pay to keep up with inflation, promotions, increases in employment taxes and so on all add to increased costs. If salaries are frozen or small then there will be increased pressure from staff who claim that they are “Unvalued” and continually justify increased bonuses and promotions. Then there is the hidden future pension costs, often not included in company accounts, but which increase staff cost significantly.

Reducing people costs is an issue that Directors talk to me about almost daily. The problem is that getting rid of staff is often a problem. In some countries it’s almost impossible and even in the UK and the USA the process takes time and substantial management time, which is all cost!

Reducing costs by shedding under-performers
Many Directors and firms find it difficult to reduce staffing levels until forced to do so. Concerns over company morale, culture and team spirit all cause delays in shedding staff. However, the fact is, that often reducing dead wood actually improves the morale of those that remain.

A main flaw
One of the most effective ways to manage staff costs is through a robust performance appraisal system. Yet I’m still surprised at the number of companies that have a poor system of staff appraisal. This is so costly, makes change and restructure difficult. Ideally a good performance review is held every six months, is focussed on targeted results and linked to time-framed development and which actually identifies the best talent as well as the costly talent.

The final stage is to ensure that action is taken to manage the bottom end of the talent pool effectively so that it is continuously pruned.

Government ministers and even some parts of the media  seem to be upbeat about the positive economic prospects in the UK saying that “the worst is over”.

Yet the financial indicators seem to point towards a different scenario. I came across a man in St Albans yesterday who has been out of a job since January and the city is in one of the wealthiest areas of the UK and only thirty five minutes from London.

Then again perhaps a better indicator of what the future holds could be the number of companies re-locating their head offices outside the UK in order to save the costs of future taxes.

McDonalds the US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins
other large US corporations that have based their European operations in
Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and
Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite
having a large office London.

Even home-grown UK companies have moved to
more favourable tax regimes. The list includes Regus, the temporary office
supplier, advertising giant WPP and
pharmaceuticals company Shire which are both relocating their headquarters
to Ireland, and Brit Insurance, which plans to move to the Netherlands.
Investment company Henderson set up a new parent company in Ireland.

The one person I do know who won’t be moving to save money will be the poor guy made redundant last January that I met earlier.