Retail Contrarian

One Hundred Percent Team Success

“Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success.”  -  Henry Ford

There's a Jimmy Buffet song that goes, "I've had good days and bad days, and going half-mad days."  The last two weeks has been like living that song. Between the stock market and all of the press it has been quite the roller coaster ride or, as we say here in Boston, a "wicked" roller coaster ride.

In these times every sale counts. Nobody can afford to miss a single sale. Given the challenges facing this economy it is vitally important that every staff member gives 100% with every customer.  If four employees give 100% and one employee only gives 75%, then the store isn't giving 100% and is less likely to succeed.

With that being said, here are four actions every staff member can take to maximize their opportunities and achieve maximum success:

1. Start your day with a positive attitude. Check any issues or negative thoughts at the door when you arrive at work.  You can't give 100% if you're holding on to negative thoughts.  Yes, I know it's easier said than done, but if anyone can do it, you can.  One tool that can help you and your staff remain positive is our free Daily Retail Quote like the one above. The Daily Retail Quote can be downloaded and posted in your backroom or office 365 days a year. Subscribe to the Daily Retail Quote here.

2. Use each other to maintain a positive atmosphere.  If one staff member starts to go negative it's your responsibility to stop them.  Most people don't even know they're saying negative things, so they'll appreciate you saying something.  If they don't appreciate it, I don't see how they'll be giving their 100% that day.

3. Recognize and reward success among your colleagues. Give that high-five when someone makes a sale. Thank someone for doing the task everyone else hates to do. Compliment your colleague for trying to create a sale even when it didn't work out.  The fuel that will power each individual toward achieving 100% comes from both within the employee and the other team members.

4. Call out those who aren't giving 100%.  I'm not looking to start problems in your store but if a person isn't giving 100%, address it.  Don't get in his/her face or something but don't ignore it, either.  Just be upfront and say that, based on your observation, you believe there is more that he/she could be doing.  My theory is that if you aren't willing to do this then you're not a true teammate.

Are these things easy?  Of course not; that's why there are more losing teams than winners.  So let me ask, are you doing everything it takes for your team to achieve success?

Searching For Signs of Your Next GREAT Hire

When interviewing we often get so focused on the interview questions and answers that we miss key signs that help us to determine who we should hire. And we don't want to hire just anyone. We want someone who will be a GREAT hire.

Here are five attributes I look for when interviewing a potential employee to be my next GREAT hire:

1. He smiles. If a person can't pull off a smile in an interview he either doesn't really want the job or smiling just doesn't come naturally to him.  If I'm hiring someone to work in a store I either want someone who is by nature a smiler or else is darn good at faking it.  While I'd love to have the genuine smiler, I'll take the faker.  You can always teach someone product knowledge and how to work the floor but you sure as heck can't teach him to smile.  Okay, maybe in theory you can teach someone to smile but I'm not sure how successful the lessons would be. I'd think twice before hiring anyone who didn't smile in an interview.

2. She makes eye contact. This may sound like a no-brainer but I've seen plenty of people get hired who couldn't maintain eye contact.  It is important to distinguish between making eye contact and maintaining it.  I'll never forget the time I interviewed this poor woman who, every time we made eye contact, quickly turned her eyes to the same spot behind me.  I wasn't sure if I was about to be attacked and she was trying to warn me or if she found me incredibly repulsive.  I'd like to think the first one is more likely than the second one but I know that neither was the case.  This poor woman just couldn't maintain eye contact.  In most retail stores that's a pretty important key to success.  I'm not sure this woman had picked the right career path.

3. He's done his homework. The people you interview are looking for a job but the person you want to hire is the person who wants to work for your company.  You can easily differentiate between the two by asking your interviewee what he knows about the company.  Whenever we opened new stores at Bose we inevitably got someone who thought we sold office machines.  Obviously they had mistaken us for Pitney Bowes.  With all of the information available on the web there's no excuse for an applicant to not know something about your company beyond just what you sell. 

4. She asks for the job. The employees who turned out to be the best salespeople made their first sale in the interview.  Even if they had no sales experience they naturally interviewed me with questions about the company, the position, the team, etc. and then used that information to ask for the job.  I've also had some slick applicants who have had a ton of sales training and asked for the job in a way that made you feel like you were buying a car from them.  Needless to say I passed on them.

5. He doesn't say, "I'm a people person."  I'd be a rich man if I had a dollar every time I have heard that line in an interview.  You get points in my book for not using that stupid and tired line but if the applicant does use it he has to at least back it up.  Unfortunately when you press people on it they all too often respond with "I like being around people." 

What I want to hear instead are comments like "I like working on a team" or "I like to build long-term relationships with customers".  I want substance, not fluff! If you can back up being a people person, then you might pass go and collect $200.  If you can't deliver that substance I push the reject button and you end up on the pile of other "people persons." Just once I wish someone would say, "I'm not a people person. As a matter of fact I'm an anti-social loner who loves watching television and playing videos games alone but I have learned how to handle being around other people for eight hours with a smile on my face and the desire to sell them in my heart."  Now that person I would hire!

So let me ask, are you looking for and finding these attributes in the people you're interviewing?