Why can’t retailers sell the brand?
12th March 2006 by Anders Gronstedt
My team conducted an impromptu mystery shopping study at consumer electronics stores in two states, and came back with some rather disturbing findings. We posed as customers who asked for assistance to buy a photo printer. No less than 80% of the reps we encountered didn’t ask a single qualifying question! And almost all of the 20% that asked something, asked just one question. Not a single rep asked such basic questions as, “How many pictures will you be printing?” or ”Are you using a PC to edit your photos?” Yet, all of these leading consumer electronics retailers are trying to stake out a brand reputation of superior customer experience and personalized shopping assistance. The responses from the sales reps ranged from, “I suppose you need a color printer,” to the rep who spouted product specs for 15 straight minutes without once taking a breath or even looking at the customer. What they all had in common was a complete lack of the most basic selling skill: the ability to listen to customer needs. With sales reps that are completely incapable of conducting a customer conversation, how can the nation’s leading consumer electronics retailers even begin to build a differentiated brand experience? And, from the manufacturers’ point of view, why don’t they take a sliver of their advertising budget and invest it in training retail reps how to effectively sell their brands?
March 23rd, 2006 at 2:56 pm
You know, you are right. It would be incredibly helpful if that were to be the case. However, employee training is generally left up to the store on a local level, and what little training that is done generally regards company policies and procedures, cash register operations, and if they are lucky, some basic selling skills but there is no product knowledge component at all. From the retailer’s point of view, there is such a high turnover rate in the retail industry that it is not worth investing the time and the money to train their employees properly.
I am very suprised at the numbers you came up with in your research, though it is easy to explain. Most of those employees do not get commission and are paid very little (often minimum wage). Thus, the result is that they absolutely do not care. So, branding gets lost in translation between the advertised experience and the actual experience in the store.
One last thing: if retailers tried to “sell the brand” they might be accused of promoting/favouring one brand over another and that would lead to a whole new controversy.