Retail Revisited with Harry J. Friedman Episode 4: The Power of Adding On Adding on is one of the most powerful ways to increase your sales. However, many employees stop the sale before the customer actually says "No thanks" leading to a massive unrealized opportunity. There is also a misconception of what items are considered Add-Ons vs must haves and Harry provides great insight into some of the most common pitfalls that organizations have when [...]
Retail Revisited with Harry J. Friedman Episode 3: The Benefits of E-Learning Most companies have yet to embrace the power of a eLearning platform. Harry discusses the transition from traditional training to including a Learning Management System (LMS) to help scale your training needs and provide a resource that tracks the learning progress of your team. The Friedman Group happens to have the most comprehensive online training programs available through our proprietary online training platform [...]
Retail Revisited with Harry J. Friedman Episode 2: Salesmanship Without The Pushy feeling RUN! IT'S A SALESPERSON! The pushy salesperson is the worst fear of both customers and most salespeople and managers of various industries More often than not, people are not pushy but rather passive. However, Salesmanship is about taking your trade seriously, creating a welcoming and professional sales environment and having the training and accountability to provide an excellent experience during any [...]
Retail Revisited with Harry J. Friedman Episode 1: The Daunting Task of Training New Hires Training can be a challenge for many organizations. Some business leaders are stuck in the mindset of, "what if I spend all this time and money training them and they leave?" to which we respond with, "what if you don't and they stay?" The reality is that training can be a very affordable and straight forward process once [...]
JC Penny Puts in Greeters. Another Dumb Idea. In a recent article in the New York post, JC Penney announced they are implementing greeters as a test in the Northwest Region. And…? Why? Another completely misguided idea from the company that thought the switch to everyday low pricing was a good move. (See Strategic mistake that haunts JC Penny) We all assume that greeting people helps to deter theft. When customers are looked at and greeted when they arrive they are less likely to steal. [...]
5 Tips to Help Reduce Retail Employee Turnover and Train Your Staff to Be Successful Imagine this: You have an employee who has been with you for over 3 months make a policy or procedural mistake and when confronted about it, they respond by saying, "No one ever told me that?" During the training of a new employee, you become interrupted and forget to come back and completely finish what you were covering at the time. You teach a new hire how to do a specific task and [...]
The Simple Way Retailers Can Knockout Non-Compliance How many hours a week do you spend policing your stores and staff? Retailers have it tough, you assign someone a task that you want completed only to have it fall upon deaf ears. It never gets done. Both your managers and your staff assure you that they're trying. But it constantly seems as though they're always trying and too often not succeeding. Whether you are responsible for one employee or one hundred, noncompliance among staff in a retail store is a supervisor's biggest nightmare. Why [...]
Let Your Customers Decide How Much is Too Much You’ve established a rapport with your customer, you’ve asked plenty of good probing questions and now it’s time for a demonstration. It’s time to show the customer merchandise that is most likely to satisfy their wants and needs. So which items do you show when you have a vast selection from which to choose? Let’s say there’s been no conversation about price. You were able to get a pretty good idea of what the customer was looking for, [...]
Making Conversation Makes for Great Sales "May I help you?" "Is there anything in particular you're looking for?" Most informed salespeople no longer feel compelled to use such opening lines. They know that these business-related lines usually initiate one response from customers: “I'm just looking.” Customers must feel comfortable with you and your store as soon as they come in Developing that feeling depends upon your ability to get the customer to view you as a person instead of a salesperson. But even great opening lines are not [...]
Welcome to The Friedman Group 2.0! The launch of our new website and logo present a new face that more closely represents the company we are today after serving retailers over the last four decades. Our commitment remains the same: to provide the best possible consulting and retail training available to retailers of all shapes and sizes so they may generate revenue lifts and manage change to transform their culture into a sustainable, continually improving sales machine. We have created and implemented solutions that have impacted millions over the years. Be sure to check out [...]