It's The People Stupid

Rumor has is it that Clinton's Election Campaign had a big sign that hung up in their offices to remind them what was important in his Presidential Campaign against George Bush.   The sign said "It's the Economy Stupid".  That sign helped them keep focused on what the American Public was really concerned about.   If you are a sales manager in retail, you need to go out and find a big piece of paper and make a sign that says "It's the People Stupid" and hang it on your wall.

Why?  Because you need to keep focused on what you are really managing instead of falling into the numbers trap.

It's the People Stupid.

Retail management often forgets that the role of a manager is to manage people.   Because District Managers have a tendency to focus on the numbers during their visits, sales manager think this is the right thing to do.  District Managers do this, because they don't have a relationship with your people.  They don't know them, so they can only look at the results of their hard work.    They focus on the numbers and hire you to focus on the people.    Your job isn't to manage the numbers. 

It's the People Stupid.

Never forget that you manage people and the numbers are only the results of how well you are managing those people.     Your job is to find a way to manage your teams behavior and to find a way to motivate them to achieve the numbers you need to present to your boss.    Your job is to teach, train and develop the people to reach their potential or help those that can't do that to find another career path.  Your job is to lead them to success not just spout off the results and what you expect.  If you have poor numbers then you probably have poor people.   And if you have poor people, you are probably focusing on just the numbers.

It's the People Stupid

If you pull out your latest report card or monthly report and start wondering how you are going to increase your volume by 10% and don't think about the people, you will fail.  You need to look at what result you want to achieve, then look at each one of your people and find a way to help them improve their sales behavior.    

• You need to be thinking how your going to get John increase his average sales per ticket by $300 because he tends to sell lower priced items.   
• You need to work with Jennifer and help her learn how to recognize buying signals so she will close more sales and create more revenue.
• You need to work with Steve to help him learn how to better greet customers so he has more opportunities to sell.
• You need to work with Dustin to improve his qualifying skills so he has less returns each month that create negative revenue.
• You need to help the entire team find a way to increase their average items per ticket so you have more add-on sales to every order.

What you don't have to do is tell your team that they have to sell more so you can hit your 10% increase in revenue this month and then walk away feeling like you've done your managing.    Or even worse, sit down during a coaching session and tell someone they need to increase their sales by 10% and not show them how to do that. That's managing numbers, and that's not what you manage.

It's the People Stupid.

And don't think there is an ever ending supply of people who are standing in line waiting for an opportunity to work with you.  Oh sure, if you place an ad, you will get 100's of applicants, but you will end up paying for those new hires.  The people you have working for you today are far more qualified than any new hire you can find to replace them.  Unless they were a bad hire in the first place, someone thought they had potential.  It is your job to find help the people find their potential. 

The cost in time and money to hire a new person can never be recouped if you don't take the time to train, develop, coach and mentor the employees you have.    A real sales manager knows his people are resource to be nurtured and grown.   They are not a bunch of numbers that add up to the end results at the end of the month.   Great sales manager don't manage numbers. 

It's the People Stupid.

So the next time you are given a goal by your manager or a directive by the District Manager during his next visit,  take some time and look at the your people.  Decide how you are going to manage them to help you accomplish that goal.   Find ways to train and develop and lead them to success.    The more you manage your people, the easier it will be to achieve the numbers.

And go out and make that sign and hang it up on the wall.  And when you start mentoring your replacement on your way to District Management, point to it and say:

It's the People Stupid.

Comments

[Sandpebble]

Why do you exclude District Managers from your admonition "It's the People Stupid"? District Managers manage Store Managers, and they are people, too. Everybody in retail management manages people, and unless they are willing to accept shrinking numbers, they also need to remember "It's the People Stupid."

[Mark Askey]

Good point.

My intention was to never exclude District Managers. I think they need to understand this more than anyone else.

I have met very few DM's who realize that they manage people not numbers.