In the previous post, we asked the question, how do we get Skippy, Todd and Mary to “do” the campaign every day with every customer? The campaign was hypothetically increasing the closing ratio 10 percent. To be fair, it can be anything, any goal or endeavor of a company.
The contention was made to start with a defined company culture. To provide clarity to the team member. To build them up with the purpose since they are the “hinge”. They deliver that experience. Well, I am immediately reminded of an old saying,
We all know what to do, we just don’t always do what we know.
It’s one thing to have the knowledge behind the culture, it is another to execute it. To live it out every day. And to do the culture experience, there must be a point where the behaviors are practiced. Train Up is the process where Skippy, Todd and Mary practice their skill.
It’s more than just practice though. It is about practicing, getting feedback and then practicing again. It is also talking about all the possibilities the expected behaviors will encounter. Presenting different customers and real scenarios provides a broader perspective. Role play meets problem solving and creative thinking.
Let’s say again you are trying to increase your closing ratio 10 percent. You have provided the “what, why, how and to what extent” to your team member. You have shared what you expect. You now need to instruct the best practices. Demonstrate what good looks like and then have them try it out.
Maybe one of the key behaviors is to engage the customer by asking lifestyle based questions to uncover more than just the primary need of the customer. Now, let’s continue with the Starbucks example which is so often used for context. I ask for a cup of coffee…a whole milk vanilla latte. A team member can ask about my day. They can ask that and then follow up with another question to uncover more if I go with the conversation. At some point, they could ask about a second item as part of the conversation. And as they deliver the cup of coffee, they offer thanks and that they look forward to see me again.
Now, some reading this may say, “OK, it get Starbucks, but that is comparing apples to oranges. I am a wireless retailer and the conversation is different. The widget, the transaction, even the expectation is different.”
Really? You have a company, a widget and a defined culture. You have customers come in (not by accident mind you) with a desire or need in mind. Your team member is tasked to provide an experience. One where the customer has a need met. This will involve greeting, engagement, discovery, delivery, transaction and reinforcement. Train that! Train every possibility of that. Train how that can go right, wrong, sideways and backwards.
- Role-Play, or if you do not like the word, run simulations; a lot of them
- Give feedback and ideas; there is a difference
- Brainstorm and collaborate on the multitude of “what if” situations
- Create an environment where mistakes are allowed
- Improvise as often as possible while recognizing effort
- And a great rule of thumb, never let your team practice on the customer
The more we practice the possibilities, the more we cement second nature behavior. A moment when a team member can pull from memory and feel confident to deliver a culture experience that is not a mistake or accident. It is engrained. And then, the team member can focus on making the ordinary, extraordinary.
If they do that well, they may even cause the customer to recommend us to someone else. Talk about increasing closing ratio by 10 percent. More on this when we explore Following Up.