In business there are two mindsets: scarcity and abundance.If your sales associates have a scarcity mindset, like “there are only so many people walking through that door so I need to protect mine” then they are going to miss out on a whole lot of business.
After all, customers are the heart of retail. And turning them into long-term buyers by clienteling is what pads the wallets of sales associates.
So why don’t sales associates actively clientele?
Reason 1: They don’t know how.
Too many sales associates won’t clientele is because they simply don’t know how. They’ve never been taught what clienteling is and what is involved. Often this isn’t their fault, but rather the store or sales manager who has neglected training sales associates on this critical way to build relationships with customers.
If sales associates are to do well, it’s the leader’s job to give them every tool and training and encouragement they need to be successful.
Reason 2: It’s hard.
For too many retails stores and their sales associates, clienteling is a very manual process. Sales leaders and store owners don’t want to invest the time in technology that makes the process easier and scalable. For them, a yellow notepad and folder stuffed with notes works just fine. Until it doesn’t.
To have the same output as clienteling software that can automate so many things, sales associates would have to be pounding out communications24/7 instead of greeting your clients on the sales floor. Sorry, it’s the bicycle versus the sports car. Not going to happen.
Reason 3: They’re paranoid.
It’s no surprise sales associates can be a bit protective of the relationships they develop. They want to keep the relationships personal and private. It’s not that they are greedy or self-interested, they just want to be successful.
The Real Reason.
While these reasons are all valid, there is a more common reason sales associates won’t clientele. They’re lazy. It’s easy to get a paycheck, grab a few sales that wander in the door and be done for the day.Some associates are happy with the minimum effort in life. Those people shouldn’t be working for you.
We have a friend who runs a big-time printing operation that covers several states. The technology is always changing so it’s a challenge to keep employees up to speed. He told us he lives by the mantra: “Train the ignorant, fire the lazy.” Seems harsh, but you have a business to run.
If they just want to show up and eat donuts at your staff meetings and text their friends while they’re on the sales floor and make no effort to grow their clientele, then there are other places they can (and probably should) work.
In Conclusion
Clienteling begins with the support of the rest of the store. In other words, everybody has to be clienteling. Sales associates who embrace clienteling develop a reputation for taking good care of everybody that walks in the door. They get good reviews. They get more client referrals. Everybody benefits. The sales associate who knows which parts of that process to automate and which to keep personal is likely to have four times more in sales volume.
Clientbook is the solution to make clienteling easy and enables your sales associates to turn every customer into a client.
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