Current.com.au website recently ran a small article on a report by the Realise Group. The Realise Group has released new data compiled for the 2008-2009 financial year that shows retail staff are not doing enough to close sales. According to almost 40,000 mystery shoppers, Australian retail staff’s selling skills are in trouble, with numbers dropping in regards to creating upsell opportunities and closing a deal.

According to the report approx 39,000 mystery shoppers found retail staff in Australia are missing up-sell opportunities and cannot close sales.

The results highlighted that only 48 per cent of sales assistants attempted to add-on or upsell a purchase, which is a decline of 4 per cent from 2007. In addition to this only 56 per cent attempted to close a sale, which is 8 per cent below the 2007 figure.

“The results were a surprise, as our expectation was that the recession would have created an imperative to deliver on these critical standards to encourage sales,” said Katie Miles, managing director of The Realise Group.

“In these competitive times, sales staff need to be more than just a smiling face. They need to be equipped with the skills to turn browsers into buying customers and encourage shoppers to purchase more than they intended to.”

Now, it might be a surprise to Katie Miles, but it’s no real surprise to me. Firstly, the business model adopted by the big box stores is to get the customer in and out as quick as possible. The stores, such as Harvey Norman and JB HiFi, instruct staff not to spend time with customers, they cannot afford the time.

They sell cheap, at cost or even below, to move boxes and that’s what it’s about. The problem here is that it has set the mind frame for the customer. The mind frame that you can get it cheaper elsewhere. Quality of service is something expected, but not appreciated.

When you work in the sales industry, and in particular, consumer electronics such as TV’s or cameras, you can expect to hear “what’s your lowest price”, or “I can get it at Harvey’s for less”, or “thanks, I’ll think about it” while they go and check the price elsewhere. Or worse, they’ll get it from an online store on the internet.

Retail staff are saying they are getting sick of it. Staff typically earn as low as $15 per hour and can rely on some commissions to make some more money. When you’ve spent an hour with a customer explaining everything they need to know and then hear the customer wants it at cost price, people are going to start getting pissed off.

Quite frankly, so called expert retail and sales staffing consultants are detached from the real world. They talk in cliches and motivational speak. Working in sales can be extremely demoralising for staff and this is something that is completely ignored.

Survey and reseach groups like The Realise Group are unable to see the whole picture and can give very damaging advice to retailers.

For starters, The Realise Group say staff are unable to close deals. However, many sales staff don’t like to be seen to be too pushy. That doesn’t mean there the skill of closing a sale should be ignored. It shows how difficult it can be for staff to know what is considered closing a sale or being a pushy salesperson.

If mystery shoppers are going to go into a store looking for problems, many sales staff say they can ‘feel’ a particular customer is being aggressive, or wasting there time. At which point, they just don’t want to serve them.

Good sales techniques definately need to be taught correctly to staff, however closing a sales at any cost is just bad business practice. So would The Realise Group give good marks to staff that upsold a customer and closed a sale but made no money?

Actually, they would. Because they’re purpose is not to measure whether the shop actually made any money on the sale, just the customers experience in the store.

The timing of the report from The Realise Group perfectly co-incided with a research done by this website on sales staff. Staff were asked about their experiences with customers, management, working environment, pay, conditions, bonuses and commissions, and mystery shoppers.

I’ll post the results of these findings in the next couple of weeks. However, to say there is a disconnect between shoppers and retail staff is so mild as to say there’s a bit of difference between iron ore and tomatoes.

Part 2 of this story to come. 

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