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Sales skills training
and respond to them in a way that will
produce best sales results. For example,
George Morton
35% of the population react to visual
signals, 40% to kinaesthetic (feeling)
Top Level Solutions
ones, while 25% – to auditory/hearing
signals. On the shop floor, an assignment George started his career in electrical
of the customer to the ‘visual’ group, after retailing in 1963 as an apprentice
careful observation and listening to their television engineer with an independent
comments, would mean that sales staff dealer in Dunblane. In 1982, he joined
should demonstrate picture quality of a the financial services industry to study
TV or talk about the appearance of a and experience the differences between
domestic appliance. If the customer is selling tangible and intangible products.
‘kinasthetic’ he/she would like to use the He remained in financial services until
product, hold it and feel it. 1994 as a sales manager, trainer and
However, it is vital, stresses George, finally divisional training manager,
that the retailer employs sales staff who gaining membership of the Institute of
represent all three groups of customers, ie Personnel and Development. In 1994,
visuals, auditories and kinasthetics. he founded Top Level Solutions and
Otherwise they would not be able to went back to his roots to support
communicate with a significant proportion independent electrical retailers by
of people coming to the store. He gave helping improve their sales and
examples of retailers, who realised this management processes. He is a Fellow
and changed or trained their staff of the Institute of Sales and Marketing
accordingly, and increased their sales. Managers, and over the past ten years
A significant proportion of the course is he have supported many of his clients
devoted to all-important opening lines and in winning major industry and local
the process of engaging the customer in business awards.
the conversation which leads to a sale. After running his first evening training
Greeting the customer who just entered session in 2007, he was commissioned
the store with the common ‘Can I help by retra to deliver sales skills training to
you?’ is more likely to scare rather than its members. He now runs around 20
What’s different about this type of encourage customer to browse. sessions per annum and he has just
training? I ask George. “It is unique in as Instead, George suggests tips for completed work on stage three of this
much as it deals with real human ‘customer engagement’, such as: training for the UK-wide tour, starting in
emotions, people’s behaviours and Customers will walk round most January/February 2010.
attitudes. There is no product knowledge products before stopping at the one
training in my courses. I do a lot of NLP they are thinking about.
and body language.”
However, first of all George tries to
enthuse retailers about their role in the
economy, telling them that they are a part
of the most important profession in the
country. “If every sales person stopped
working at 5.30pm every day, the UK
economy would collapse in three
months.” It is his overriding desire to
convince his students that retailing is a
great career but to be recognised as such
it must be undertaken with utmost
professionalism and the sales skills
training should give them the tools to
achieve this.
Apart from receiving general advice,
such as “get to work every day with an
objective”, the students learn
communication skills, such as those
based on Neuro Linguistic Programming
(NLP). NLP was developed to help
retailers understand consumer behaviour
January 2010 TheIndependentElectricalRetailer 39
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