Sample Project

Designed, developed and facilitated a Sales & Service Training Program for a leading housewares and children's home furnishings company.
Client Williams-Sonoma & Pottery Barn Kids The premier specialty retailer of top-of-the-line cooking utensils and housewares and the industry leader in children's home furnishings.

Challenge

Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn Kids retail, known for their incredible product offering sold by highly knowledgeable and courteous staff, had been experiencing a decline in both Average Transaction (Average Order Size) and Units Per Transaction. The company’s store culture was not one of metrics and this was perceived as a barrier to improving the AT and UPT. They needed to create a new training program that taught best practices in retail selling with a strong emphasis on add-on or solution selling and on the metrics needed to track sales and improve results. As there was no dedicated field training staff, they also needed to find a way to ensure that any new training could be effectively brought back to the stores, implemented easily including with seasonal staff, and result in significant behavioral changes, increased sales and customer satisfaction.

Solution

Worked with Williams-Sonoma appointed project committee made up of head-office and field executives to define scope and deliverables for this project. Created a comprehensive Train the Trainer Program for delivery to their District Managers on the fundamentals of customer service, selling skills, and sales performance measurement. The program also included an upfront module to train the District Managers on how to deliver the training to their Store Managers and how to administer the practical exercises and role-plays included in the program.

Program Overview

Designed and developed a complete Train-the-Trainer Program (Leader’s Guide) and Participants Manual around a simple and easy to use 5-step sales process plus average order size measurement tools and incentives system – main focus was on add-on/solution selling techniques, measurement and rewards
Created a series of case-studies, role-plays, exercises and scenarios to help practice the new sales techniques and familiarize the audience with the methodology
Trained District Manager on the new training material and how to deliver the training to their Store Managers
Presented the new training to the entire company store management team and head-office executives at the company National Annual Sales Meeting
Assisted individual District Managers during their training of their district Store Managers
Assisted in fine-tuning the company Mystery Shops Program to reflect the new service and sales requirements

Services Provided

Instructional Design (content, format, delivery methodology, case studies, exercises)
Delivery of Train the Trainer Workshop for District Manager
Introduction of the new training to over 300 Store Managers and head-office executive team at the company Annual Sales Convention
Monitoring and coaching of District Managers during their training sessions with their Store Managers

Results

Store Managers and District Managers rated the new training as their best opportunity to train their staff on simple and easy strategies for better service and higher average order size – in particular, they fully embraced the “Give Me 5!” approach to add-on selling as the most effective way to learn to sell customers solutions instead of just products
Average Order Size (Average Transaction) increased considerably as a result of the new training consistently in every store

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