When you’re planning a huge event which places additional demands on your staff, what is in it for them to buy-in and participate?
Vince Lombardi was once quoted as saying, “Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
Is each and every employee on your team buying in and willing to do their part so that the entire team is successful?
An independent furniture store owner in the Midwest was notorious for coming up with a multitude of off the wall sales events. Nearly every four to five weeks, at a moment’s notice, he would come up with his next “Great Offer”! With little to no preparation, he would record his radio and TV ads but always failed to share with his sales team what the event was called, much less the details of the event. The typical way the sales team found out about the event was shortly after the first ads ran when a customer would enter the store inquiring about the offer.
The good news was, despite his last-minute heroics of coming up with great ideas, his advertising nearly always worked very well for him.
The bad news was two-fold;
First, consumers became preconditioned that they were ALWAYS having some sort of sales event and they quit buying regular-priced merchandise in favor of waiting for the next “Great Sales Event”. Margins and profits took a major hit.
Secondly, his employees were continually disgruntled by his lack of communication and having to find out the details of the sales events from would-be customers. The commissioned sales reps also grew less interested in the sales, as they were continually selling goods at a reduced price which meant less commissions per sale.
Whether the event or promotion you are planning is a regular sales event, or a special and much larger than normal event, which places additional demands on your staff, make sure they know all the details well in advance and make them part of the event. What’s in it for them to buy-in and participate? Do they have an opportunity to make more income or are they simply busting their tail so the business can make more profit?