It was with interest to once again read the how management at the department store was explaining the continuing fall in profit, their reasons and the remedies to return the company back to profit. As I have previously written the problem with Myer management is their failure to recognise the need to improve the selling ability of their “shop assistants” and invest in up skilling their personnel. It was encouraging to see the never ending “sale” policy has finally been scaled back which will lead to higher profits. However the company is in the business of selling and has to be more than a self-service store. One would think that with the investment Myers has in floor space every person who is attracted to enter their stores is a selling opportunity. How they are viewed by the staff is vital if sales are to be made and the opportunity to sell and upsell needs to be part of the sales culture. Lack of attention to or interest in the customer results in a lost customer and destroys any chance of repeat business.

Uncontrollable Events

In any economic environment there will be reasons to explain away poor sales performance. Mostly these events are out of anyone’s control and it is convenient to use these uncontrollable events as the reason for poor sales. Indeed these times, with dampened consumer demand, is even more reason to have salespeople who can still effectively sell. Attractive stores will entice the shopper, but it will all be to no avail unless management has equipped and encouraged their staff to do their jobs with skill and proficiency.

Salespeople vs. Shop Assistants

It is encouraging to see that management has planned to spend $25 million investing in wages and training to improve customer service. What is meant by “customer service” is another question, and I hope it will have an emphasis on sales training because then it will be money well spent and long overdue. This is particularly relevant considering management is planning to open another 13 stores. If however these new stores are staffed by “shop assistants” and not “salespeople” the end result will be the same as always, low sales and profit margins. Unless the culture is changed and the importance of salespeople is recognised there will be no improvement to the bottom line. Once again we will be given by management that events out of their control have resulted in a poor profit result, yet again.

Previous post on the subject;

http://sales-selling.com/category/retail-selling