Choose retailers sellers. How to choose good sellers. Seller Selection Criteria

For heads of sales departments.

Attention! This free article is not part of the Uncensored Furniture Business course.

Having your own furniture business, you have probably faced such a problem more than once as the selection of sales consultants. More precisely, this problem is always in front of you ...

The seller is one of the most important points (aspects, sides, parts - do not cling to words) of your business, your income.

If the right people work for you, then the income will be correct.

How to choose a furniture sales consultant? What to pay attention to first of all?

Of course, the appearance is very important, be that as it may, the Client associates the sales assistant with the product (furniture). If the appearance is not neat, repulsive, then the product will seem the same.

Decide for yourself whether you will take a person with experience, or without work experience. It is very important. After all, if you decide to hire an employee without work experience, be patient. It must be taught first. At the same time, you can bring up such an employee “for yourself”, without having problems with the “rich experience” of people who have already worked in the furniture retail industry. For example, there are even special tutorials "how to create the appearance of work" with many points. It is possible that experienced people are fully versed in the technology of "throwing dust in the eyes of the authorities."

Goodwill;
-politeness;
- persuasiveness;
-sociability;
-stress tolerance;

Grammatically correct speech;

sociability;

Responsibility;

Politeness.

Possessing these qualities, it will be easier for a new person to learn, and later it will be easier to work, easier to sell.

You should also pay attention to age restrictions. What age is more suitable for a furniture sales assistant? Based on our own experience, we recommend that you hire people aged 30-45 years. This is quite a working and learning age. And besides, at this age a person is perceived as having life experience, as an expert. And being (and appearing to be) an expert in furniture sales is very important. It is important that Customers trust the sales consultant.

In addition, by this age, many have already formed their own understanding of life. Many have a family, children - accordingly, the seller approaches his work more responsibly. Many at this age want to develop, and this is just in your favor. After all, when a person wants to develop, he will independently improve and thereby bring you income. There is no limit to perfection. And even more so in a profession like a salesperson.

The most "profitable" employee is a single mother between the ages of 30 and 45. Multiply all of the above by double responsibility - and you will get a super-motivated employee. But it's also a "must see" - the presence of two or three children and the absence of a husband does not always guarantee you the work of a person with full dedication. You can get just a "reveler in life." Filter and drive these out of your store.

The seller of furniture should be able to do a lot. Namely:

Know and be able to present complete information about furniture. Be able to present furniture.

It is desirable to be able to work on a computer and in a 3D program. It helps a lot in working with the client.

Fill in all the necessary documents: invoices, ordering, delivery.

To know the legislation in the sphere of the furniture market.

You yourself probably understand that only a person who seeks to earn money and wants to develop can comply with and improve these requirements.

Yes, almost forgot.

You can take this as a tip or advice, but hire people who don't have bad habits. Or, if there are any, then it is imperative that they are not abused. Otherwise, you yourself will have to sell furniture while your seller smokes again.

And one more important point: if you have to make a choice between a person with excellent personal qualities and a person with excellent professional qualities (but "rotten"), choose a person with outstanding personal qualities. It is possible to educate a professional, parents had to educate a personality (as long as it was placed across the crib ...).

Good luck with furniture sales!

In any trade area, the seller is the “face” of the business. The pace, growth, the accumulation of regular customers - all this depends not only on additional investments, quality improvement, market conditions, but also directly on who sells. The ability to competently present goods, win over people, and provide quality service is an art possessed by an “ideal” seller.

Brian Tracy, a well-known management specialist, business analyst, offers his best seller model: 30% of the time such a person spends on product presentation and clarification of needs, and 70% - listens carefully to the client. Finding the right person for a seemingly simple job is not easy.

First of all, it is necessary to draw up the so-called " seller portrait". Here you should take into account such points: personal qualities, age, attitude to work, ability to adapt. Depending on the specifics of the store or outlet, the options may be different. It follows from the picture of successful sales. Each business has its own audience of buyers, which a skilled entrepreneur must know in advance.

This audience has its own specific needs and corresponding opportunities. A high result is achieved when people get exactly what they need for reasonable money. Here we are talking about the fact that the lady who bought a handbag for $ 1000 in a fashion boutique and the grandmother who bought a liver pie in a kiosk should remain equally satisfied.

And now back to " seller's portrait who sold these goods to them. They must be two completely different people. Knowing his audience, an entrepreneur, drawing up a “portrait”, can determine specific personal qualities, age limits and other indicators, some of which may not be significant at all. Let's give an example of a "portrait" of a seller of a children's toy store: personal qualities - responsibility, sociability, goodwill, observation, patience, age - from 21 to 45 years old, attitude to work - like working with children, interest, ability to adapt - present, flexibility.

The “portrait” should be supplemented with the necessary skills that should be inherent in the candidate, as well as determine whether work experience is needed, and if so, what kind. In other words, you need to calculate the skill level of the seller to achieve maximum results. Here you can focus on three components - abilities, skills, experience.

To determine the necessary qualifications, one should take into account the type of store, size (area), level and audience of buyers. The type of the store indicates what kind of goods are sold here - clothes, groceries, household chemicals, auto parts, etc. The size provides for the area that the seller has to serve and control. The level determines the price category and type of goods, which, in turn, attracts a certain audience of buyers. Let's return to the seller of children's toys.

Type of store - children's goods, size - average (for example, 40 sq.m.), level - average, audience - mothers, children, relatives (family orientation). In this case, special skills are not needed, personal qualities are enough. If you have experience working with children - excellent, no - you should pay attention to abilities. If a person is easily trained, there will be no special problems. At the same time, when selecting a clothing seller in a “luxury” direction, knowledge of a foreign language, at least 2 years of experience, etc. will be required.

Where can you find a seller that meets all the previously defined requirements? There are several options. You can advertise in a newspaper or on a job site, contact a recruitment agency, ask friends to recommend someone. Working with agencies, as a rule, complicates the search system. This is an unprofitable option in terms of money, which also takes a lot of time. Having paid for the services, you need to wait until the agency staff selects a candidate, who may subsequently not meet the stated wishes at all.

Posting an ad is the easiest way. And here you need to describe in detail the conditions of work and requirements for the candidate. The interview is best done on your own. Questions should be asked in such a way that it is possible to draw up a "portrait" of the candidate - personal qualities, work experience, motivation, expectations. The disadvantage of this option is associated with time costs and risks, since many people will come, and it is very difficult to confirm the information. On the one hand, it is beneficial to take a seller on the recommendation, since a “verified” person is always better, and on the other hand, in case of a discrepancy, it is inconvenient to dismiss. There is another good option, although not entirely honest - to lure the seller you like from another place, offering better conditions.

So, the right person is found and ready to start working. An initial briefing is necessary in any case. The seller should be clearly set goals and objectives and explained how to achieve them. A trial period (or internship) is a very good motivation for learning. Regardless of the type or format of the store, you need to give the seller some tool to help, for example, "5 steps towards the buyer." If there are other service personnel in the store, it will be useful to use mentoring. So you can give the opportunity to a new person to adapt and become a member of the team.

In this case, it is best to appear from time to time and control the process in order to avoid misunderstandings and discord. After all, it is always pleasant for the “old” ones to show that they are smarter and more experienced, and this may not have a very good effect on the atmosphere in the team. If there is only one seller, it is appropriate to spend the first few working days with him. You can use a personal example to show your expectations of his work and see how he copes.

Sales training very useful, but not always relevant. Taking your only salesperson to very expensive events is a waste of money.

If the store is large with a solid staff, trainings not only teach sales, but also form a team, contribute to the development of the team. There are also franchises, by buying which you can automatically receive free sales training, and in this case, the entrepreneur only wins.

Like the entrepreneur, the seller also wants to increase their income. Good work should be appreciated. It is better to come up with a payment system that directly depends on sales - salary +%, for example. At a fixed rate, any normal person who sells more than the established rate will feel left out and may try to make up for it on their own, from the cash register. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cases of theft.

You can, of course, install several surveillance cameras. But it is best to build relationships on trust and partnership. You can motivate employees with quarterly bonuses, gifts for the holidays, organizing corporate events, timely payment of money, and do not forget about% of sales. Although surveillance cameras will never be superfluous. You can control the work using reporting and customer reviews, which can be friends, acquaintances, etc.

The seller is part of the success of the whole business. It should not be forgotten that the driving force is the organizer. An entrepreneur who competently builds his business will certainly achieve high results. It must be remembered that "Everything can be done better than it has been done so far." So said Henry Ford, who founded America's largest automobile company practically from scratch.

Any employer who is interested in the development of his business dreams that only professionals in their field will work with clients in his store, salon, trading floor. Finding a good seller is a big problem, especially if you are really looking for a professional, and not just a convenient or nice person for you. How to choose a good seller who will be a combination of the necessary personal and professional qualities in the right proportion?

Seller Selection Criteria

Many HR professionals have proven that a person with sufficient knowledge in the field of sales and customer service may be ineffective due to the lack of personal qualities that make this knowledge work in practice. Knowledge without application skills is like an engine without fuel, where the necessary personality traits act as fuel.

In an interview, a person may demonstrate absolute knowledge of sales issues, but after a couple of months, you may encounter zero results from his work. The selection methodology given below will tell you how to choose a seller not only according to his knowledge, but also according to his personality traits.

In order to choose a good seller, you need to decide - a good seller, what is it in your understanding? What type of seller do you need? What exactly in the context of your company will be valuable in a person? The specifics of your business will tell you what is more important or more valuable to you. For example, short sales and a large flow of customers presuppose a high activity of the service process, hence such personality traits of the candidate as: energy, perseverance, endurance should be put forward in the first place.

For complex sales and expensive goods, it is necessary to pay attention to the presence of the following qualities in the applicant - self-confidence, tact, flexibility of thinking, communication skills, expertise. For service centers and claims departments, a person with the following qualities is suitable: stress resistance, conflict-free, sensitivity. The bottom line is to determine what kind of backbone you need - this will greatly help in choosing a seller.

How to choose a seller using a role-playing game?

There are several ways to identify a particular quality in a person, for example: interviews, questionnaires, conversations, testing. But the best way to analyze the salesperson's capabilities is through a role-playing game. "Buyer - Seller".

A simple question for a candidate: “How will you behave in this or that situation?” of course, it will reveal a lot, but still leave a chance for the seller to adapt to the situation and cheat, to voice exactly what they want to hear from him at the moment. With a role-playing game, everything is not so simple - the script is not known, the actor is unfamiliar, the result is unpredictable. It is the role-playing game that will help you examine a person from the inside and draw the appropriate conclusions.

If you doubt that you will be able to objectively assess the candidate, ask for help, someone who can clearly consider and analyze the psychological portrait of the applicant. Accordingly, the actor (buyer) must also be convincing and organic.

The scenario of the role-playing game should contain the difficult stages of sales: working with a closed client, identifying needs, presentation, and of course checking the person's reaction to non-standard situations - a reaction to stress. This will be quite enough to draw conclusions regarding the suitability of the candidate for the position.

Personal qualities of a good seller

Regardless of the field of sales, all successful sellers have some similarities. If you watch the work of the best, you can see they have a lot in common. For example, they all have a common set of personal qualities: they are self-confident, positive, sociable, competent in professional matters, always open to something new, and everyone has the main thing - the motivation to work with awareness of their usefulness. Perhaps this set of qualities can be called basic and necessary for the profession of a salesperson.

How to consider these qualities and choose the right seller? Use the method of an external observer, listen from the outside, how a person communicates with another person, how much he disposes to himself, what are the primary feelings from communicating with a candidate? Does he have notes of aggression, irritation, prejudice, deep fatigue? Assess the ability to listen and conduct a conversation, get out of unusual situations and smooth out conflicts.

By participating personally, you will not be able to perceive what is happening in its pure form, but by watching the work of the seller from the outside, you can see a lot. Very often, the manner of communication at the interview coincides with the manner of communication with clients, take a closer look at this fact. This single set of qualities is simply necessary for every seller, pay attention to this when choosing a seller.

You have probably heard about “star sellers” - these are sellers from God who succeed in everything, customers stick to them themselves, and everything is always in order with the implementation of the plan. Their ability to quickly build a trusting relationship with any type of client is amazing, but there are nuances.

If you decide to hire such a salesperson, you may not be ready for the extra personality traits that come with "super powers." Often - this is excessive independence, selfishness, high self-esteem, uncontrollability. These qualities develop in parallel with a sense of success and personal growth. The more successful the seller feels, the more independently he will behave from the system. If you are ready to try on the vagaries of the "star" then why not?

Seller's age and gender

I want to draw attention to the age criterion. Much has been written about this. There is an opinion that age affects performance, therefore, for active work, where a full calculation is required, people aged are not quite suitable.

Age is not important, but vitality and motivation.

Even if the seller is over 50, this does not mean that his work will be less effective than that of a 25-year-old. If a person is energetic, keeps himself in shape, and has sound goals in life, he is 100% suitable, the main thing is to be able to see it.

How to choose a seller of the right gender and age?

There are goods that are still best perceived by the buyer from a person of a parallel age category. Accordingly, there are groups of goods where it is desirable to pay attention to gender when choosing a seller. For example, it will be easier for a girl under 30 to sell youth or children's clothes, since the way of thinking among generations close in age often coincides. But fishing and hunting goods, special equipment, spare parts are best entrusted to a male seller.

If you do not take into account the extremes: the sale of cosmetics, underwear, women's clothing and other obviously feminine products, and vice versa, men's, then I can safely say that absolutely anyone can work as a seller, but always with the right set of personal qualities, while it is absolutely not important neither gender nor age.

Summary

What is covered in this article is not clear rules and axioms - these are just recommendations that will answer your question: "how to choose a good seller?" But still, think about who your customers will be more comfortable communicating with and being around?

I hope now you can easily find a seller adjusted to your needs. We should not forget that in any company, a good seller can be grown by yourself, it is important that a person has a set of basic qualities of a seller and a desire to work and develop professionally.

How do you choose sales managers? Share your secrets in the comments!

It is believed that everyone can work as a seller. And it’s hard to argue with this: almost everyone has ever tried themselves in this area, because the number of stores is huge, there are more jobs than job seekers, so it’s not difficult to get a job as a seller. But is it worth taking the first candidate that comes across? Let's figure out how to choose the right sellers for your own store.

Tip 1. Forget about education if it is non-core

The only thing you should pay attention to when looking for a seller: specialized education, for example, a college with a degree in "Seller ... of goods." For the rest, you need to screen out not for the university or the 9th grade of the school, it does not matter. Perhaps the person who received the "crust" of the university will have the right speech, but this does not mean that he will be able to sell your product.

Your customers come to the store with certain expectations. What kind of seller do they want to see there? Who do they trust more? For cosmetics stores, these are definitely well-groomed young people, with fashionable haircuts and stylish clothes, no matter if they are girls or boys. Maybe not the most fashionable, but neat people should work in a grocery store, and hipsters and informals should work in a boutique with vapes. Stereotypes did not appear out of nowhere, they actually work.

The more precisely the request is formulated, the more precisely the answer will come. Write in the ad about the search for the person you need all the important points without cheating. Indicate the work schedule or possible schedules, salary fork, what the candidate will need to work with. This will help weed out those who are not interested in working for you and save you time.

At the interview, it is important to look at the behavior of the candidate: whether he came on time, how he is dressed, how he keeps himself, how he answers questions. Ask questions to the point: past place of work, scope of duties, skills and knowledge, whether you are familiar with the specifics of your products, etc. No need to ask where the candidate sees himself in 10 years, specify only what is important for your cooperation right now . You should get most of the information not from questionnaires or answers, but from the behavior of the future employee.

Tip 5. Consider whether you are ready to teach from scratch or retrain

There are different approaches to training salespeople. Many people prefer to take on a new person so that he does not yet have some patterns of behavior that can disrupt the work of the business. Others try to invite people with experience and not waste time on introduction to the profession. Both approaches are valid. But do not forget that experienced salespeople are experienced not only in sales, but also in fraud. Whether it is worth expecting a catch from them depends only on the personal qualities of a person.

The best test advised by all the experts who know how to choose a seller in a store is a practical sale. Ask the person to sell you something. Let it be a pen, notepad or your product. The test will immediately show the person's skills, his ability to improvise and work with clients.

Do not entrust the internship to anyone, do it yourself, or at least observe the candidate. You will immediately understand whether he needs this job or not, and how interested he is. At the end of the internship, be sure to conduct an analysis of the work.

Instructions on how to quickly find a good seller in the sea, but do not forget that only you know the specifics of your product and the features of your own business. Consider them and your requirements for the person who will serve your customers, and you will be able to find the right sellers.

In any business whose goal is to convey services or products to potential customers, a very important link is the sales department. How quickly and successfully the product will find its buyer will depend on the skills and abilities of its specialists. In large companies, hiring is usually handled by the HR department. But if you haven’t got your own HR specialists yet or prefer to find diamonds yourself, we will tell you how to choose a sales manager. On the one hand, this vacancy can be found more often than others on job search sites. On the other hand, people who are really knowledgeable in this area do not always respond to it. Some are ready to take almost the first one they come across in the hope that after a couple of trainings he will become a first-class specialist. And it will work for little money.

What makes a good sales manager?

Before hiring a sales manager, you need to be clear about what you want from him. You must have a clearly articulated portrait of a potential employee. Not looks, of course. But a certain set of qualities and skills, aspirations, views on the mode and quality of work. Approaching the search for a salesperson, or, as it is also called, a sale (seller - seller) should be completely different from specialists of other profiles. What is welcome, for example, in a developer or logistician, may be completely unacceptable for a sales manager. There is an opinion that a sale should have several essential qualities:

• He must be smart enough for the job in which he is going to be used.
• Sale should not be afraid of anything (within reason). If he cannot talk to strangers or is afraid to make phone calls, there will be no sense from him.
• The sales manager must be ready to compete. Even more, he must love him. This is a great incentive to increase its effectiveness.
• Gluttony. Oddly enough, but for a salesperson this is a very good quality.

What goes wrong when looking for a sales manager?

In search of a responsible and successful sale, many employers and HR managers make a number of mistakes. They are not always obvious, but can lead to the fact that not the best employee gets into your state. As we said above, the sales manager is a very important cog in the business mechanism. Without a successful "foreign policy" it will be difficult to bring the product to the forefront. What are these mistakes?

• Often, HR professionals give preference to those who worked in successful companies. But is it right? A person who has been selling an already popular product all the time is not as good as one who successfully kept afloat and stubbornly sailed towards the goal, despite the competition of well-known brands.
• Scope of the company. There are also many pitfalls here. An ambitious and punchy manager is great. But you should also consider the scope of your business. If it is highly specialized, then the specialist must be technically savvy in this particular issue. A person who has been selling cars and related products all his life will not be able to work as effectively in the field of medicine, for example. The search for an answer to the question of where to find a good sales manager leads not only to the specialized market. And you need to be aware of whether this particular manager can benefit specifically your business. On the other hand, this should not be the deciding factor of choice. If you see really high potential, it may be worthwhile to train a specialist.
• Sales managers can be divided into two types. Let's call them "regular salesman" and "consultative salesperson". The first tries to sell the goods by any means. But if buyers don't want to buy a product, he won't delve into the reasons. The second, on the contrary, will study the potential buyer. And if the process is not going, he will find out why it is. With the help of such sellers, the company will be able to make the necessary adjustments and increase popularity with customers.
• Successful well-known managers who have passed numerous courses and trainings. Yes, they are effective. But most work according to clear patterns, manuals. And when you need to develop your own concept of sales in a particular case, they are useless.
• Often a business owner, without a clear development strategy of his own, hopes that a strong sales person will come along and simply push his product to the surface. That is, the manager will work in the same way as in the previous place. But it's not right. A specialist comes to a ready-made strategy and adjusts to it. Without a clear plan and with a sales manager who does not know in which direction to move, neither porridge nor business can be cooked.
• You should not hire too well-known top managers who have not been "on the front line" for a long time. They are often not up to date with the latest events, techniques and trends. Such a manager will have to add more assistants. And these are extra costs. You want someone who knows their battlefield and is willing to roll up their sleeves and get down to the dirty work.

Before you start your search for a sale, you need to clearly answer a few important questions. First, what is the general target audience of the product. Secondly, what is the algorithm of interaction with clients adopted in your company. Think about what is more important - that the sales person is perfectly familiar with the company's products or with its audience. The better the specialist is familiar with potential consumers, the easier and more efficient it will be to sell anything, whether it be trucking services or specialized pet food. Thirdly, at what stage of the sales process does the desired employee enter the business. As you know, sales can be divided into several stages. This includes "cold" calls, and personal interaction, work "in the field", work with objections, further retention of the client. Yes, there are generalist salespeople, but sometimes it’s better to take a few narrowly qualified specialists. These answers will help you narrow down your search and understand which sale is right for your company.

Every warrior is known on the battlefield

With characteristic errors, everything seems to be clear. But here the next question arises: how to check the sales manager? Of course, you can and should check it in practice. But before that, in any case, an interview follows. What questions should you ask a potential employee?

• First of all, it is worth determining what his work was mainly connected with: attracting new customers or retaining existing ones. Ask about his usual working day, work algorithm. Find out how he could attract new customers to your company (a professional will quickly calculate the interested audience based on the specifics of the company).
• Secondly, evaluate his professional experience. Were there transitions to other areas of activity. And career dynamics according to the age of the applicant. If, for example, by the age of 40, his positions did not rise above a simple manager, it is worth considering what is the reason. Whether he is ambitious, or afraid to leave his comfort zone, or he lacks knowledge and skills.
• Thirdly, it is worth checking how often he changed jobs and why this happened. Was it the fault of past employers (wrong motivation, low wages, uncomfortable working conditions), or was the reason in the specialist himself.
• During the interview, the applicant usually introduces himself. You should pay attention to how he does it. Of course, an interview is stressful, and not always a person can open up completely. But even here there are points that need to be emphasized. Does he not use template memorized phrases, how consistently and structured he builds a story about himself, is he too often moving away from the topic into lengthy explanations.
• In what companies did the person work before yours. For example, after a small company, it is quite difficult to adapt to the intricacies of working in a large enterprise. What was the level of clients, how serious deals were made. This will tell you what kind of people a person is used to working with and how difficult it is to negotiate. What was the internal structure and organization of work (offices or “open space”, team, leadership style).
• Check how confident the sales person is. This will be seen in the questions they ask. A successful salesperson who is fully confident in their abilities will be more interested in structural issues and product features. An insecure person, who often encounters failures, will find out what follows if the plan is not fulfilled, whether the customer base will be provided, etc.
• How adequately the salesperson sets salary expectations. If he asks for too little, it's a bad sale. If there is too much - either he is a very good specialist, or inadequate. Find out how much he earned at his last job, what he ties the level of income to (to a fixed salary or percentage of sales).
• What is the sale focused on - the result or the process itself. The latter characterizes him not from the best side, as a specialist. How to find out who is in front of you? A process-oriented person will tell more about how and where he went, with whom he spoke, what he did. Focused on the final result, they perfectly remember their customers, they name clear dates, deadlines and numbers.
• A very important factor is honesty. Now we are not talking about the everyday level like eating other people's dinners and petty theft. If the applicant came to you with his database, you should not start to rejoice. Think about whether he will do the same after leaving you. The same should be considered when transferring an employee from a competing company. How can this threaten you? Many have already abandoned the practice of poaching experienced professionals, because there is a risk of getting a "spy".

If you take into account the above tips and mistakes, then the question of how to choose a sales manager will no longer be too difficult. And remember one more thing - do not hire people "just to be faster." It can take two weeks or two months to find a good specialist. Perhaps today he has not yet appeared on the labor market, but tomorrow his resume will be displayed in the database. A qualified specialist can become the key to the prosperity of the company, while the first employee who comes across will reduce the performance by several points.