Sales School

July 31, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Customer Service on August 2007 Before ever picking up an order pad and greeting a customer, today’s newest furniture sales associates will embark on a training program that lasts anywhere from a week to six weeks. Or, in the case of one major regional chain with a much more formalized “on-boarding process,” training—in combination with selling—stretches out over six months.

What varies even more than the length of training from one furniture retailer to the next are the types of lessons those new hires receive. At a few large furniture chains, new hires will spend up to two weeks in a classroom with scores of fellow trainees. In single stores that hire people one at a time, the lessons come mainly by working one-on-one with a sales manager or store owner, and then absorbing what a succession of sales reps can teach during visits to the store.

One major change over the past year or so is the availability of computer-based training that’s being deployed in both single-store operations and major regional chains seeking to better prepare and assess furniture salespeople during their first days on the job—and throughout their careers.

Big and Little

Reflecting the wide variety of approaches are the 21-store City Furniture chain in the Miami area and the two-store Hatch Furniture operation in Yankton, S.D. At City, training at what it calls its Center of Excellence starts with two weeks of classroom lessons. At that stage, new associates begin selling furniture, but are guided by an experienced mentor and must continue formal instruction in a series of half-day “Level 2” courses in a classroom over the next six months.

At the much smaller Hatch Furniture, associates begin selling after a week or two of training with the sales manager, owner and visiting reps. Like at many stores, longtime Hatch sales associates also attend occasional sales sessions with reps and recently began using a computer-based training program that Manager Jennifer Eickhoff said is sharpening the skills of all sales associates, including 20-year vets.

At the four-store HW Home, Boulder, Colo., Co-Owner Ron Werner said the chain’s training process has grown steadily to the current six weeks in the eight years since the first store was established. “They will not sell at all in those six weeks,” Werner said. “Furniture is not like apparel, where you can teach someone how to ring the cash register and put them on the floor. Furniture is much more technical. There are design skills, an understanding of construction and materials, making sure things fit in scale and melding all of those elements together. That doesn’t happen overnight.”

‘Skill Practices’

At City Furniture, Director of Learning Janet Wincko said the initial two-week training period covers everything from approaching customers to presenting products and using the computer invoicing system. “We don’t just keep them in the classroom,” she said. “If we’re talking about upholstery or case goods, we do some in-class instruction and then we take them out on the (store’s) sales floor to show them the features and benefits live.”

At City’s large store on the campus of its headquarters near Miami, associates also spend time each day in role-play exercises called skill practices. New associates demonstrate product knowledge or work on how to approach and qualify a customer.

Typical of smaller retailers, Claudia LeClair, the owner of the high-end Fiesta Home Furnishings in Scottsdale, Ariz., also has a two-week training period. While it’s less formalized than at some larger retailers, LeClair works to ensure each sales associate gets a broad perspective, including spending time in the company’s warehouse and customer service office. “There’s a lot of rep training. (New salespeople) also shadow our better salespeople for a couple of days. We carry probably 30 major lines, so it takes time for them to train” on each one, said LeClair, who also operates a more contemporary Brix Home store.

Training: A Never-Ending Process

At Atlanta-based Havertys, classroom training ranges from a week to 10 days, depending on whether the associate has prior selling experience. From that point, new hires work closely with a manager and a designated trainer dedicated to their store, but Chief People Officer Allan DeNiro said the 120-store chain sees training as a never-ending process for new and existing employees alike. “We are in a mode of almost constant delivery of new curriculum for both product and selling skills. It’s what we do. (Training) is not an event held only on certain dates or times or for only certain people,” he said in a written response to questions posed by a reporter.

At City, associates who complete the two weeks of classroom training are then matched with a mentor as they begin selling in a City store or one of the company’s six Ashley HomeStores. A unique feature of the City program is that over the next few months, new associates take half-day “Level 2” courses on topics ranging from financing to mattresses. “We keep the (initial) Level 1 training pretty basic, and then we do more and more advanced training over the course of their second to fourth or fifth months,” Wincko said. “It’s more of an on-the-job training where they get Level 2 training in the classroom, but get tested and do skill practices back in their store with the general manager. It’s a blended learning approach.”

Because the Level 2 classes take new associates off the sales floor for a portion of the day, City is working on a bonus system where associates who complete their coursework—including tests and skill practices—will receive a bonus and become eligible for the company’s monthly sales-based bonus system. Vice President of Human Resources Curt Nichols added, “It’s also understood that training is part of our culture and any short-term sacrifice (involving commissions) is outweighed by the long-term benefits” of training.

Reducing Turnover

He said training helps retailers reduce employee turnover. Across the retail industry, annual turnover approaches 80 percent, but at City the figure for sales associates is far lower, averaging about 30 percent.

Without providing specific figures, Havertys’ DeNiro said, the relationship between training and retention centers around the company’s “investment” in its associates. “If we can produce a training product that clearly demonstrates our willingness to invest in the growth and development of the sales associate, they, too, are likely to become ‘invested’ in the longer-term outcome,” he added.

The Computer as Instructor

Increasingly, computer-based training is becoming a key part of the initial and continuing education of sales associates—and other workers—at City Furniture and other retailers across the industry.

Hatch Furniture, for example, began using a system from the Furniture Training Company, North Logan, Utah, two months ago. Associates take up to 36 courses—each of which can be completed in about 20 minutes—on a Web-connected PC to strengthen their knowledge of elements like case goods, upholstery, rugs and mattresses. Each lesson ends with a test, and managers can track each associate’s results as they progress through the course. “I absolutely love it,” said Manager Jennifer Eickhoff. “In the past, I’ve given associates material to read with the hope everybody is doing it, but (with computer-based training) I can track it step by step. I have one (woman) here who has been with for over 20 years, and there were a number of things where she and I both said, ‘Gosh, I didn’t know that!’”

In the first two months, most of the retailer’s associates had completed all 36 lessons. In each case, associates who pass all of the computerized tests receive a certificate and a pin. In late June, she was preparing to send a press release supplied by the Furniture Training Company to local newspapers to “let our customers know that our associates are certified in product knowledge.”

According to Furniture Training Co., other retailers using the system include Wickes Furniture, Chicago’s Roomplace and R.C. Willey. In late June, Furniture Training Co. released a second program called SalesForce—Selling With Service, with lessons focused on topics such as greeting customers, overcoming objections and presenting room solutions. Eickhoff said she is eager to try the SalesForce module, and said it will likely used as an addition to the company’s current regimen rather than a replacement for any part of it.

City Furniture recently implemented what Wincko calls a computerized training management system from Learn.com that the retailer is using to convert what had been pencil-and-paper tests to computerized tests that can be graded and processed automatically.

Computer Tests Boost Sales

Nichols said one promising early initiative with the computerized training system delivered a lesson on inner-spring mattresses to 450 sales associates earlier this year. The lesson covered “new product introductions and features and benefits, and we gave (associates) a test as well. We had very high scores, and we also saw significant increases in inner-spring (mattress) sales. We’re now driving at a much higher volume on inner-spring mattress sales, and everything on the learning side was driven through computer-based training.”

He said an additional benefit on computer-based training is it will allow City flexibility in delivering lessons without bringing as many associates to classrooms in Tamarac. He said that’s especially important as fast-growing City expands beyond its base in the Miami area.

At Havertys, DeNiro said the company also has a computer-based training initiative. He said the chain produces its own lessons for associates to learn at computer workstations instead of purchasing more generalized lessons from outside vendors.

The Person-to-Person Approach

Of course, many retailers prefer a person-to-person approach to training. At HW Home, product lessons are delivered by managers working in tandem with reps. Werner said new associates go through a number of exercises when learning a new line, including spending a day identifying every piece from a certain manufacturer in one of HW Home’s 7,000-square-foot stores. “The next day, we’re going to teach them to use the price book and then have them price out each one of those items the way we show it (with various fabric or finish options). We want them to be a master of the price book” and avoid mistakes that could scuttle a sale.

Since HW Home’s experienced salespeople and managers are heavily involved in training new hires, the lessons are reinforced again and again. ‘’We’re re-educating our people at the same time, since they’re going through the basics” with each training session.

At Denver-based American Furniture Warehouse, CEO Jake Jabs (the subject of the “Table Talk” feature on page 82) said new associates in AFW’s two-week training program gain the most valuable experiences through activities like riding along on a delivery truck. He said real-world experiences like trying to squeeze a king-size mattress into a narrow basement entrance stay with associates when they soon graduate to writing orders and will need to keep in mind the importance of alerting customers that delivery crews need to be aware of potentially troublesome issues.

Identifying Career Salespeople

If there’s a single issue that seems to confront virtually all retailers, it’s the frustration of seeing a new associate leave after investing weeks worth of training in that person. “I terminated someone Sunday who did not do well in training or the additional 10 days of (remedial) training we set up for her,” Werner said. “I think she could be a great salesperson (somewhere), but she just wasn’t getting the details, and we couldn’t risk that she’d spend too long ringing up a sale or would price a special order wrong. We spent six weeks paying her, training her, but we had to make that decision.”

In Arizona, LeClair said La Fiesta’s sales manager has seen several salespeople leave soon after the training process. It’s reached the point where LeClair is looking into a profiling software she learned about through the Western Home Furnishings Association. It promises to help her avoid personality types who may not be suited to retail sales. “We invest so much time in training, and so do our reps, so we hope we can use a system to narrow down a little bit who it is who we should be hiring.”

In Yale, Mich., McMillin’s Furniture Owner Chuck McMillin said he’s learned through years of experience to identify the type of associates who are liable to become long-time employees. First of all, his current staff of three are all women, because furniture purchase decisions are made almost entirely by women. “What’s most important is demeanor, enthusiasm and being able to ask for the sale. There are some salespeople who just talk and talk, but the best salespeople know how to listen,” he said. “It’s really not that complicated. ... We look for people who love what they’re doing. They enjoy putting colors and fabrics together, and they’re very involved with customers. They’re not off sitting in a bullpen somewhere waiting for an ‘up.’”

He said new associates generally receive about a week’s worth of training. To screen candidates more fully, McMillins has made initial lessons on its point-of-sale system part of its interviewing process. “We can watch to see if they get that ‘deer in the headlights’ look or if they’re fairly savvy about computer systems.”

Jabs said American Furniture Warehouse has moved to a two- or three-stage interview process in which hiring managers take pains to point out how much training will be involved, because Jabs said his company wants to weed out applicants who don’t view selling furniture as a long-term career.

City Furniture, which expects to hire 150 sales associates this year, selects applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds, but tends to avoid those with furniture-selling experience. “We think it’s easier and more cost-effective to train someone (new to sales) than to re-train someone who might think they have it all figured out already,” Curtis said.