Your sales staff (even if it is only you) is the final piece of the great marketing puzzle. The care you take in hiring, training and managing your staff can either close those sales or completely undo every marketing move you have made. Staffing is one of the hardest parts of running a small business. Good Staff is hard to find and a bear to keep. What is the small business owner to do? Maybe you need to look differently than you have been.

Your staff is your surrogate; they are your representative to the public. From the way they look to the way they speak you must be sure that they are representing your brand in the way you want it represented. Why do you think that Abercrombie & Fitch has a floor staff of attractive young kids? Did you really think they were hired for their vast experience in fashion merchandising? Right!

Many times we look over resumes and scour applications with an eye to experience and knowledge; that may not be the best answer. You can teach someone the fine points of your products and client base, what you can’t teach is personality.  I do not care how well trained or knowledgeable an employee is if he/she is surly or condescending they are going to turn off more customers than they will sell. Today it is about connecting with your customers. This is true for any staff member that may in any way have anything to do with one of your potential customers. ANY!

Once you have found some enthusiastic people that fit your brand the key is in the training. You should look at training as an ongoing process. There is always more to learn and always more to teach. Each time you take the time to train your staff you also have an opportunity to refresh their enthusiasm. Back in the day when I was still in the hospitality business the wine and liquor companies would come to my restaurant on a frequent basis to showcase a new wine or educate the staff on a flight of cognacs. Each night the chef would prepare a serving of that night’s special for the staff to taste; he would take the time to explain the ingredients and the methods used. They did these things because they knew that there was always a dramatic spike in sales in whatever they had showcased. By training the staff they were creating excitement around a product; they had sold it to the staff. The staff then carried that enthusiasm forward.

Are you having weekly meetings with your staff?  You should be. These can be a great way to inspire them. If you aren’t doing this regularly the first one may not be pretty. Face it, your staff is going to wonder what the heck is up. Once you get them used to it, use the meeting to sum up the hits and missed of the previous week and to get them excited about the week to come. Just like my chefs and the liquor distributor, show case something different each week. Get them excited about it and run sales competition. Keep the tally posted in the break room or by the time clock.

Just as importantly, ask their opinion. They are the ones interacting with your customers day in and day out. They are also to ones that use the systems and procedures you have put in place. Ask them how to improve both their experiences and the customers experiences. Not only will you get valuable feedback but you will also give them a sense of empowerment.

Take a look at your staff with a fresh eye. The better you make them at their job, the more they will enhance your bottom like. The more enthusiasm you can create the more loyal your staff will be. Sounds like a win/win to me.