Your furniture store’s success thrives on the skills and commitment of your sales team. When you have a solid group of salespeople, you want to do whatever it takes to keep them with your business.
Retaining your best furniture salespeople allows you to increase sales volume, preserve resources, and create a tight-knit company culture that compels team members to stay. Read on to learn our top tips for how to keep your best furniture salespeople.
Create a Beneficial Compensation Structure
To keep top talent, you must reward them for their hard work. High-performing salespeople know their value –– especially in today’s climate. So they won’t hesitate to pursue sales roles elsewhere if they can receive better compensation outside your furniture business.
Your furniture sales team members bring in revenue for your store. So provide them with a generous salary. And as they hit milestones, review their salaries, and increase them accordingly.
Investing in your team’s salaries increases the likelihood they’ll stay with your company –– and invest their energy into making more sales.
Support Career Development
High performers don’t arrive there overnight. It takes time and training to cultivate a team of stellar salespeople.
Discover ways to continue professional growth for those individuals bringing in high sales numbers. Career development courses, seminars, and conferences can provide your salespeople with the skills they need to continue with high-volume sales.
There’s often little time left for professional development when focusing on increasing sales. But when you provide these resources (and the time within the work day to complete them), you communicate that you see further potential in your sales team. You nurture their talents and build their confidence by funding, delivering, and supporting career development opportunities for your best furniture salespeople. The result? Your best team members feel valued and energized to sell more and want to do so for your business.
Provide Challenges and Opportunities for Growth
Top-tier salespeople arrive at that status because they love to push limits and go above and beyond. Many talented salespeople seek positions outside their current company because there are no challenges or growth opportunities.
Furniture sales shouldn’t be dull. Instead, energize your best salespeople by keeping their environment and target goals exciting and challenging. Driven team members who want to win will thrive when presented with opportunities to excel in their work and exceed their goals.
Minimize Administrative Tasks
You want your best salespeople to focus on what they’re best at, closing the sale. But, too often, bureaucracy, red tape, and piles of paperwork bog down your sales team and cause them to become disillusioned with your processes. If this goes on long enough, your talent will leave.
Delegate administrative tasks outside your sales team when possible. Streamline workflows to reduce paperwork or unnecessary meetings. The more time your sales team can devote to customer interaction, the more satisfied they’ll be. They won’t feel like they’re wasting precious time on tasks that aren’t customer-facing.
Stagger Sales Bonuses
Many furniture stores provide scheduled bonuses for their sales teams. And while bonuses are good –– and to be expected –– they shouldn’t only happen twice yearly. This can lead to top performers earning bonuses, collecting them, then switching companies.
Additionally, incentives should expand beyond monetary rewards. While cash is universally appealing, a combination of financial and non-monetary incentives entice your best salespeople to stay committed to your company.
The following list provides alternatives to traditional, scheduled bonuses offered to most furniture sales teams:
- Retention bonuses that occur at extended intervals (ex. Every two years, at the five-year employment mark)
- Company shares
- Additional days or weeks of vacation time
- Paying for additional training or certifications, including time off to complete those training
Meet Individually to Show You Value Your Team
Most employees expect meetings with their managers, supervisors, or CEOs to be all business and sales-focused. And while there’s a time and place for these interactions, you should set aside time regularly for personal check-ins with your sales team.
Your employees want to know you care about them beyond what they can provide for your company’s bottom line. So prioritize personal meeting times to invest in your team’s well-being, growth, and health. As a result, your employees will feel valued and more committed to your business.
Focus on Team Building
Your sales team is just that: a team. The success of one member contributes to the success of the others, which in turn benefits your business.
Create a culture of a unified team. When top salespeople understand that they’re part of a group working toward the same goals, they feel more commitment, buy-in, and support.
Team building can take various forms, from quick meetings, company outings, or something as simple as providing a team lunch.
Celebrate Every Sale
It’s easy –– and even intuitive –– to draw attention to a big sale. But it’s not just the high-dollar contracts that bring value to your salespeople or your business. Every sale is a cause for celebration, and you should act accordingly.
Make a big deal out of every sale. For some high-performing team members, that might mean congratulating them daily. As a furniture store, that’s a great position to be in.
Even a verbal acknowledgment of a sale encourages both individual and team morale. That gesture communicates that you notice your team’s hard work daily. Celebrate every sale, even the small ones, and your best salespeople will continue to strive to be their best.
Make Customer Payment Simple
The final hurdle in closing a furniture sale is convincing the customer to sign the dotted line. Unfortunately, pricing is often the primary reason a shopper won’t commit to purchasing. This can cause stress and frustration for your sales team, even veteran sellers with excellent records.
Providing furniture financing options to your customers ensures they have the confidence to buy the pieces your team is selling. In addition, simple, accessible payment options through United Consumer Financial Services reduce obstacles in the sales cycle, making the job easier for your entire team.
Less friction in the sales process saves time and energy for your best salespeople, creating a more enjoyable work experience and freeing them up to do what they do best: sell your inventory.
Maintaining Momentum with a High-Performing Sales Team
Exceptional sales talent is hard to come by. But, when a team member knows your products and company culture and has the sales skills to convert customers, they’re invaluable to your business.
Now that you know how to keep your best furniture salespeople, implement our advice. When you’re ready to take the stress out of customer payments and the last hurdle to closing the sale, reach out to the team at UCFS today. We’re happy to discuss how furniture store financing can make sales less stressful and more seamless, which supports your efforts to retain your top sales talent.