Business is picking up. Your showroom walk-in traffic is up
and Saturdays are busy. Your experienced sales staff is running fast and
furious, they are not getting everything done and customers are
frustrated. Now it's time to hire some new staff. You've interviewed
candidates and hired new sales staff, but they have no plumbing, door
hardware, tile and/or lighting experience. What do you do now?
In our industry it is often easy to overwhelm a new hire with
the amount of information available. There are lots of great sources of
information and training resources. And of course, your existing staff
should be your greatest source of training. Look at what strengths each
member of your staff have and encourage them to share that information
with new personnel. Don't overwhelm your new hire with overly technical
information at the start, but give them a general overview of the topic.
It is also important to let the information sink in before loading them
up with more new information. Develop a training schedule and train one
topic at a time. It is better to have a strong, well built foundation
than to have lots of tid-bits of information that don't fit well
together.
Another excellent source of information are the DPHA
education manuals. These are written by industry professionals and are
full of not only basic, but continuing education for all levels of
showroom sales staff. The manuals also have quizzes at the end so there
is a quantitative way to measure the progress or comprehension of the
new staff member.
Your sales representative is also a great source of training
after your new staff member has grasped the basic knowledge of the topic
they are being trained on. The rep will train them on specific products
and this will help your staff member have more specialized knowledge on
different price points and types of products. It is also helpful to
have experienced sales staff at these trainings so that they can assist
the new staff members by using case studies or examples of how to use
the training.
Role playing and shadowing are great ways to get your new
personnel comfortable in the showroom for dealing with customers and the
questions that may arise. Working with an experienced staff member can
help the new person learn what questions to ask and how to complete a
sale. It also gives the experienced staff members a chance to mentor the
new hire and answer any questions they may have.
Training new staff is a commitment and there are lots of
great tools available. Using a variety of training tools will get the
best results from your new staff. Everyone learns a little differently,
so tweaking the training program to each member will certainly help the
new staff assimilate and retain information more effectively.
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