Let’s be frank, small retail is HARD. While being a shop owner is a dream for many it is a path that is littered with some of the most humbling experiences in the business world. A steep learning curve, financial pressures, and the joy of working any 18-24 hours a day you want.. 7 days a week will drag on your real quick.
It is not that I don’t remember these days. There was a time when I owned a popular, thriving quilt store that I cut short in it’s prime due to personal reasons. The years having that shop taught be so much and they are the yardstick which I use to both admire and critique small craft industry shops when I visit or have a chance to interact with them in any way.
What I can truly and sadly say is that many shops I visit seem to have a death wish expressed though their approach to sales, sales help and general staff product knowledge, motivation, dress, decorum and motivation.
Yes, this sounds harsh and I am a stern “school master” when it comes to such things but honestly you all are digging your own graves faster than we as consumers can give you money to lift you out.
Sales Education is non-negotiable
If you are not actively teaching your staff how to help your customer make the perfect purchase then you are not only failing them you are failing your business. In the past week I have been in multiple small shops were the staff bordered on indifferent to me even being there at best.
In one shop I was not even sure there was a sales person until I saw them sitting behind the counter playing on their phone. In another the two women who seemed to work in the shop continued their catty conversation about a customer as I looked at bolts of fabric. In yet another when I asked if there were “charm packs” to go with the collection I was told they “didn’t know but was sure I could find them on etsy” – way to give away the sale.
The horror extends to a simple phone call… do you KNOW what it takes to get a customer to call you these days when it would be just as simple to order something online? And then to be told that , no we don’t have that ( a branded item of a product they exclusively sell in the area), yeah we should but the people who own the place don’t bring it in and I was just out of luck…. that sales person just GAVE AWAY a three THOUSAND dollar sale.. in less than 30 seconds. ( That being said, is there a Babylock dealer out there that wants to sell me a Sashiko machine?)
Do you people really want to stay in business and do you know how your staff is serving your customers when you are not there?
I will say that I recently had an extraordinary experience in a local new yarn shop where when mentioning that I needed to do better about storing my circular needles ( really it is a crime how I keep them all shoved in a bin like a nest of snakes) the sales associate immediately caught that problem and ran to bring me not one but three solutions showing me both the features of each and selecting them at different price points and styles tell me why I might like one over another. It was an A+ experience and it was SO DAMN RARE these days that it really stood out in my mind. Sales does not have to be smarmy, people are coming to your shop for a reason, help them buy stuff!!!
The truth is that I could keep going on… really, just ask my husband, I have a lot of feelings about this since I want to see small quilting, and sewing and beading, woodwork and knitting shops survive but that is pretty hard if your staff is not serving and SELLING at best or driving your customers to the web at worst.
Some Quick Suggestions
Have someone become a “secret shopper” for your store, let them report back to you what it was like. Make sure they understand what you want to know and are on the same page with expectations and things your employees should be delivering while on duty.
Think about buying a program to educate your staff if you are unable due to time to do it yourself, or maybe you could even do with some brushing up of your sales skills. While I am by no means impartial since I use to work with them I think that Whiz Bang Retail Training has some of the best and easiest distance sales education in the business. But you have to use it, much like that Peloton you bought and now is draped in things you need to take to the dry cleaner, it can’t work if you don’t use it. If you do check them out tell Bob and Susan I sent you.. they and their staff are amazing and want your shop to succeed.
I still do a VERY limited amount of business coaching, my rate is $75 and hour for virtual and $150* an hour if I come to you but if you feel your staff in undermining your success but are just not sure what to do I would be happy to help you form a plan for success since it really is my deepest desire to see the small craft industry thrive.
