Jeweller - June 2021

BUSINESS
Selling
BUSINESS
Management
The importance of ‘micro-moments’ – or, why you
should sweat the small stuff
When it comes to customer service, the smallest details can be the difference
between making the sale and losing a customer, writes JEANNIE WALTERS.
How to assess, train, and support sales staff to
achieve their true potential
Retail managers often take on the role of coach, writes GREG GLADMAN, who advises they employ a
strategic, individual approach when training each member of their sales team.
All day long, we are interacting – with each
other, with our environment, with devices
– and those small moments of interaction
affect how we perceive people, brands,
products and experiences.
So, what happens if you don’t pay attention
to the details of the experience customers
are having with your brand whether it be
your store, staff, website, or social media?
As an example, what would you think if
there was a spelling mistake in a sign
outside your child’s school? It is an honest
mistake, and it doesn’t necessarily mean
your kids aren’t getting a good education.
But it does indicate that somebody didn’t
care enough about the details – which
can lead you to wonder what else the
school may be overlooking. Your trust
has been eroded.
Similarly, a poor experience with a brand
is not likely to ruin somebody’s day, but it
can be enough to, at best, lose the sale, or
at worst make a customer lose faith in
your business.
The tiny details aren’t just about obvious
issues like spelling; they can also be
subtle. For example, one day, I went to
withdraw some money from an ATM.
When I put my card in, the screen flashed
the message, ‘WE ARE DEALING WITH
YOUR REQUEST’.
I have no doubt that this was written
with the intention of being direct and
descriptive, but when you combine the
tone of the language and the all-capitals
typography, the effect wasn’t positive. I was
dealing with a negative ‘micro-moment’.
Micro-moments matter
You may think that these examples are tiny
and insignificant. I’d agree with you on the
first point but not the second.
Have you ever had one of those days that
starts poorly and keeps getting worse?
At the end of the day, you recount to
your spouse an inventory of micromoments
– little things that accumulated
to ruin your day.
The smallest moments can have a large impact on sales success.
When working with businesses, I ask
managers and sales staff to imagine their
customer going through each step of their
purchasing journey on their worst day.
Anyone can have a good experience
when everything is going right – but what
about when they’re feeling distracted,
overwhelmed, or frustrated?
When a customer goes into a sales
interaction with negative momentum,
businesses must create a positive
experience to counteract it, or at the very
least halt the negative pattern.
Let’s look at another example. Not long
ago, I tried to sign up for a brand’s mailing
list –but when I filled out the form, I was
met with the message, “There was an
error. Please try again.”
What was the error? They left it to me to
figure that out.
It’s all too common to see technology
acknowledge there’s a problem, but
neglect to offer any information on how to
fix it. After a few minutes of trying to edit
different fields of the form, I gave up.
I walked away feeling frustrated, and the
business missed out on a potential repeat
purchaser and brand advocate – the most
valuable type of customer. Yet they were
never even aware that an opportunity was
missed.
Anyone can
have a good
experience
when
everything is
going right
– but what
about when
they’re feeling
distracted,
overwhelmed, or
frustrated?
How many sales opportunities is your
organisation missing without even
realising –not just through technology, but
through other ways customers interact
with your brand?
Creating positive micro-moments
Now that you’ve seen examples of
negative micro-moments, it’s time to
look at the positive.
If you’ve ever typed in the wrong address
when trying to access a website, you’ve
probably landed on a 404 page.
A 404 error essentially tells you that the
webpage you were trying to visit does not
exist. You’re looking for something, you’ve
hit a dead-end, and that’s frustrating.
And no matter how well-designed a site
is, 404 errors will happen. One solution is
to make the 404 error page helpful, with a
search bar or links to pages people most
commonly look for.
It can even be made fun, as Google does
with its Chrome browser; by pressing the
space bar or tapping their phone’s screen,
the user can play a minigame with the
‘error dinosaur’.
Every micro-moment is a chance to
smooth the sales process while increasing
customer loyalty and brand value.
My business’ logo is a paper crane, which
was inspired by a man I once met who
loved origami. He would gift paper cranes
to strangers to brighten their day.
While it may mean very little in the grand
scheme of things, receiving a paper
crane can be the difference between a
terrible day and a good one. Everyone who
encountered that man remembered him
and remembered him fondly.
It’s proof that tiny gestures – micromoments
– count.
JEANNIE WALTERS is founder and
CEO of Experience Investigators. Learn
more: experienceinvestigators.com
When managers set out to improve their
sales team’s performance, they must first
understand three factors about each staff
member – sales mind-set, sales skills,
and hidden weaknesses.
Once these factors are defined, the
manager can ensure that the time they
spend training each person is focused on
that staff member’s individual attributes,
rather than taking a generic approach.
Training is about unlocking the potential
of each person on the team; without a
customised approach, behavioural change
is very unlikely to occur and there is little
gained for the manager’s time and effort.
Assessing sales staff
We have assessed more than 2 million
employees across 32,000 companies,
which has provided insights into the
attributes of top-performing salespeople.
In terms of sales mind-set, the best
staff display:
• Desire to be the top-performing
salesperson
• Commitment to do what it takes to close
the sale, within the values of the company
• Motivation to leave their comfort zone
and complete difficult tasks
• Positivity about themselves, the
company and the products they are selling
• A sense of responsibility for results, or
lack thereof
In addition to mind-set, sales skills are
critical to the success of top performers.
In retail, there are five that make all
the difference:
• The ability to quickly build rapport and
trust with the customer
• Practicing ‘consultative selling’ – that
is, establishing what the customer wants
and what is important to them
• Selling on value and quality, rather than
price, and the ability to move customers
from price shopping to value shopping
Take a coaching approach to training your sales team.
• The ability to spot a ‘tyre kicker’ or
window shopper, versus someone that’s
in-store to buy
• Closing – that is, overcoming
customers’ reservations or delay tactics
Finally, top performers overcome many of
the hidden weaknesses that are common
among salespeople, namely:
• Need for approval – The best sales staff
are comfortable asking tough questions of
customers
• Emotional reactivity – Top performers
‘stay in the moment’ and actively listen to
customers, without letting their emotions
distract them from their objective
• Self-limiting beliefs – There are many
salespeople that display self-limiting
beliefs, such as, “I am not a natural
salesperson”, “I am annoying/a nuisance
to customers”, or “I can’t say no to
unreasonable customer requests”
• Negative expectations – In comparison
to self-limiting beliefs, top performers
have confidence they will close the sale
and are less likely to simply let customers
walk out the door
• Fear of money – Effective salespeople
are not afraid to talk about the price of the
product or ask for the customer’s budget
• Inability to handle rejection – Top sales
To train staff
effectively,
a manager
first needs
to suspend
judgment and
assist the team
member to
understand
which parts
of the sales
process they
are doing well,
and which
areas could be
developed
performers don’t get ‘down and out’ when
they fail; they do not let rejection impact
their ability to close the next sale
These insights into the best salespeople’s
attributes provide managers with a clear
framework for how to train their staff.
Training tips
To train staff effectively, a manager first
needs to suspend judgment and assist the
team member to understand which parts
of the sales process they are doing well,
and which areas could be developed.
Focus on asking questions that lead
the staff member to reflect and
provide opportunities for them to
verbalise solutions to problems they
have encountered.
When we tell someone what they must
do, we are often met with a simple,
“Yes” or nod of the head, but this sort
of superficial commitment is not going
to change behaviour.
In contrast, if they are allowed to articulate
what it is they need to do, they are far
more likely to do it.
Other ways to achieve results include
consistency through weekly one-on-one
reviews, encouragement through group
sales meetings in which staff share in
team achievements, and support through
role-playing sales scenarios with fellow
team members.
Most importantly, managers should not
expect overnight miracles; behavioural
changes occur gradually but lead to longlasting
results.
By investing time in coaching according
to these principles every week, your team
will learn and grow consistently – and
so will their sales success.
GREG GLADMAN is CEO of Objective
Assessment and founder of Sales &
Leadership Performance, an Australian
sales development organisation focused
on customised transformation programs.
Visit: saleslp.com
66 | June 2021
June 2021 | 67