Course Outline · 2 Days
front line retail selling skills
Front-line retail store sales associates, branch relationship officers, showroom consultants, retail supervisors, and customer-facing counter staff.
Many retail store sales agents may believe that focusing on sales and achieving sales targets will necessarily affect the level of customer service they provide. However, when retail employees focus on how their customers feel and make decisions throughout the experience, they deliver excellent service and develop valuable two-way RELATIONSHIPS. Building customer relationships and meeting their needs is at the heart of this selling skills course specifically designed for frontline retail sales professionals. At the core of this training course, participants will learn and practise a proven, step-by-step sales questioning model they can use immediately in any sales situation. This powerful sales questioning technique is all about asking the right questions in the right order. It is designed to increase the likelihood of making a sale by better understanding customer needs while maintaining a great customer experience. By following this proven questioning model your retail sales professionals will confidently lead their customers successfully through the buying experience. Course participants will learn how to guide the sales/service conversation efficiently and effectively, adapt their communication style, question customers around lifestyle needs, and build trusting, long-term relationships. (This course was delivered to a major multinational telecommunications company’s retail employees and generated significant measurable results).
At a glance
- Duration — 2 Days
- Who it’s for — Front-line retail store sales associates, branch relationship officers, showroom consultants, retail supervisors, and customer-facing counter staff.
- Delivery — Interactive, in-person and hands-on
Delivery methods
- Interactive retail floor role-play and simulations
- Self-discovery and critique
- Group exploration and facilitator-led discussions
- Game-based learning
- Best practice retail selling theory exploration
- Explain what motivates customers (logical and emotional) to buy or continue to use a product/service.
- Explain four personality styles; identify their own style; and adapt their style to establish rapport with other personality styles.
- Follow a simple 5-step sales process that gives them the confidence, energy, and focus they need to become successful retail sales professionals.
- Use a powerful sales questioning technique that enables them to better question customers around lifestyle needs.
- Overcome common objections and close the sale.
- Make the best out of each interaction with every customer.
- Learn valuable lessons from Joe Girard, one of the greatest retail salesmen who ever lived.
Introduction: Linking Sales and Customer Service
- Selling or Serving — Icebreaker activity
- Moments of truth in the retail customer journey
- Ethical sales practices and customer trust
- The relationship mindset vs. transactional selling
Step 1: Know Your Stuff and Your Customer
- Know the products and services you sell inside out
- Knowing your market and competition
- Buyer types we deal with on the retail floor
- Find out your own personality and buyer type
Step 2: Create the Opportunity
- Greeting the customer properly on entry
- Having a warm, professional introduction
- Discovering customer needs without pressure
- The OPEN Questioning technique for lifestyle discovery
Step 3: Matching Customer Needs
- Features, advantages and benefits (FAB model)
- Connecting the right benefit to the right customer profile
- Identifying the customer’s true decision criteria
- Presenting tailored recommendations with clarity
Step 4: Handle Objections and Close the Sale
- Understanding the types of retail objections
- Handling the most common objection: “Price”
- The structured handling-objections model
- 9 proven closing techniques for front-line retail
Step 5: After-Sales and Follow-Up
- Meet Joe Girard (lessons from the world’s best retail salesman)
- Best practice post-sale follow-up actions that drive repeat visits
- Leaving no stone unturned in customer retention
- Fun reverse brainstorming wrap-up activity
Competitive review game — An exciting review challenge (PowerPoint Game) to end your training on a high note!
Tell us your team size, dates and objectives and we’ll tailor the delivery to your business.