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Counting Traffic…Why you should.

Now is the time to evaluate your traffic patterns and determine if you are losing money because you are understaffed.

Understaffing is fairly easy to fix but is by far the biggest problem retailers have; because it is the single ingredient that totally stifles sales volume and quality customer service when it occurs.

The real question is...what is the proper level of staffing for your company? This is a very personal question and is determined by several factors. How long does the average quality presentation take? How large is your showroom and how much time does it take the average shopper to see it all?

I believe a good starting point and guideline is 8 opportunities per day per salesperson. If you find that your sales people are speaking with more than this, more than a few times per week something is being sacrificed. Be careful because the thing that might be sacrificed could be your stores reputation as a good place to shop.

Why counting traffic will help you keep good people and improve profits.

I had seven stores with 50 salespeople.

I used to spend two full weeks training new salespeople before I let them on the sales floor. We would spend about half the time on product knowledge. One full day would be devoted on the delivery trucks and in the warehouse viewing operations. The rest of the time was invested in sales training. We used every sales training program available from J Douglas Edwards, John F. Lawhon, Zig Ziglar, Edwards W. Demming, Harry Friedman, Tom Hopkins and others. (I still recommend the Selling Bible by Lawhon to everyone I meet.)

Towards the end of that 2 week period the salespeople were so excited they couldn't stand it. We could hardly hold them back. The tragedy was of course that it took about two days for the veteran salespeople to poison the attitudes of these new rookies.

The reason is simple. The average salesperson absolutely believes that if you hire any new people (even if you are clearly understaffed, you are taking money out of their pocket and food off their table. They may not tell you this, but they resent it and will make sure your new people are not comfortable. Unfortunately sometimes they do everything in their power to blow them out...(make them quit). It takes a strong personality to survive this first month on the retail floor.

The perception of the average salesperson is that the pie is only so big and if you hire another you will flood the floor and then they surely will not be able to make a decent living.

The reality is that if you can do an honest and accurate count of walk in customer traffic and learn your closing ratio for the overall operation you will be able to absolutely prove that you and they are loosing money.

No salesperson wants to see you loose money. With this new information it is no longer your word against theirs regarding the showroom being understaffed.

A friend of mine committed to counting his traffic. He had nine salespeople and was generating $600,000 per month in sales. I asked him before the count what he thought his closing ratio was. He immediately said between 35 and 40%. This is very typical answer in our business. He even called in his sales manager and asked her the same question. I smiled when she said exactly the same thing.

After the first week we learned that they were getting between 25-30 customers per hour on the weekend and his overall closing ratio was 6.09 %.... WOW.

He called me and said Dave... I just realized that if I can somehow get my salespeople to sell three more customers per hundred I can increase my overall sales by 50%.

He now has 15 salespeople and recently had a 1.2 million dollar month. That's double folks...and interestingly each salespersons personal level of sales volume also improved.

Bottom Line...Your salespeople will help you train and keep good people if you can prove that you and they are loosing money if you are understaffed.

Believe me they are smart enough to realize with solid proof, that stacking customers is not as profitable as it seems. Frankly I used to brag that I could stack 3-4 customers at a time, and could write every one of them up. How many more long term customers could I have kept and how much did I and the company loose because many customers received an abbreviated presentation and were ushered out of the showroom because I had four more waiting?

When your salespeople learn they are not closing in some cases less that 10% of the prospective customers that risk their lives on the freeway to get to your showroom it opens their eyes and changes their attitudes.

If you don't have an accurate traffic counter you need to invest a couple hundred dollars and hire a high school student to sit in your parking lot and count customers. Make sure they track your non customer activity (salespeople going to their car etc.) and provide a count per hour. Give them a kitchen timer that rings each hour so they don't mess up.

Trust me. Your salespeople will help you staff properly if you can provide the truth.

Sincerely,

Dave Mink, CEO

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