Total or partial reproduction of this work by any means or procedure, whether already existing or developed in the future, including reprography and IT processing. and the distribution of copies thereof through rental or public loaning is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the copyright holders, with any breach of said prohibition punishable under the sanctions established by law.
Copyright 2014 Benoit Mahe
Translation by William Pairman
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1502502550
ISBN 13: 9781502502551
I dedicate this book:
- To my clients, all part of the community of retail, who have opened their stores to me. Either sat on cardboard boxes in the backroom or in sumptuous offices with stunning views from their panorama windows, they have shared their hopes and fears with me, placing their full trust in their coach. They have dared to envisage new challenges that had seemed impossible until then.
- To Viviane, Carole, Jean, Cdric, Jos Luis, Ramon and all the great coaches who are collaborating with us at CapKelenn Retail Coaching
- To my family and specially my parents, for teaching me through their example to believe in surpassing oneself.
- To Yves, all who remember him and all my friends
And above all...
- To my wife and three children, for their inestimable patience and for accepting that the time I should be spending with them I was in fact spending in front of a computer and for their communicative joy of life!
Table of Contents
Prologue
I had the great pleasure of meeting Benoit at an intense training program that he was running at the Escuela Eu Europea de Coaching to become a coach in 2009. I was struck by his skill to translate complex and general concepts and distinctions to the specific field of retail business. Each conversation on how best to accompany leaders toward transformational change was an occasion for Benoit to share his own practical experiences in the field of retail in France, Chile and Spain with the group of learners.
Benoit clearly identifies the importance of creating a context of trust in order to achieve extraordinary results. What is even more worthy of recognition is his approach, applying Coaching and NLP, using specific tools.
This approach is not just one further factor, in my opinion it is the very key to success in management.
In my experience working with organizations, I have seen that where there is no trust, people only do what they know how to do (more of the same in other words). When we are able to create a context of trust, people do what they are capable of doing, trying things out, inventing.
We therefore create worlds of possibility for each participant where before there was only apathy and repetition. Control versus learning. Error as something dangerous, something to be hidden or error as an opportunity to learn
Benoit shows us the path, how to listen generously and the feedback with methodologies and personal examples, as well as the experiences of other leaders who have paved the way in the retail sales world.
His simple, friendly style shows us the path we should follow. As I read this book I realize that he has already taken this path and I am aware how nice it is to walk it now at his side. He accompanies us to its conclusion, passing through all the stages on the way - the rapport with the customer, retail is detail, how to make commitment a driving force for action.
The focus on management and leadership ensures that the book contains some real marketing and sales gems. Benoit always cites his sources with great respect. His merit lies in reminding us of them at the opportune moment. Benoits aim, which he handles with great subtlety, is to articulate theory and practice. It is a goal he achieves masterfully. It is clear to us the why and how to do it, and yet he has given us no simple recipe, either as readers or clients.
Benoit has worked as a coach on the ground - we now have new questions and new choices to make which allow us to work from a new perspective.
Luis Carchak
MCC ICF
Past President of ICF Spain
Introduction
Do customers ever leave your store without buying anything even though you thought youd convinced them, without understanding why?
Have you ever felt you were badly served as a customer and said to yourself: If only I was the boss here...?
Would you like to communicate effectively with each of the customers in your hypermarket, even though you cant talk to them one-to-one like your father used to do?
Have you ever thought that things dont have the same importance for your staff as they have for you?
Have you ever felt that all the training programs for your staff, in which you have invested so much, have not really shown tangible results?
Do you sometimes wish you could tell an employee off but are afraid you might do it wrong and end up saying nothing or else blurt something out in an aggressive and unproductive way?
Do you admire the coach of your football team and wish you could lead your staff with the same effectiveness that he chalks up victories?
Are you looking for a career change and would like to move from being an employee to being a store or franchise owner, but dont dare make the leap?
I began to sell when I was 16 years old in my home town, Vannes, in Brittany, France and I was immediately hooked by retail sales. Over the past twenty years I have worked in many stores on various continents. I have worked behind the counter, managing retail chains, opening franchises, sold to the large retail sector on behalf of the manufacturer, even worked on weekend promoter at hypermarkets!
I have noticed something that all these experiences have in common: either the store owners have plenty of drive but maybe dont have the right methods or they have plenty of methods but maybe no drive. One of the aims of this book is to help the reader to define the moment at which each business finds itself and plot its ideal path. It also looks at terminally-ill businesses (those that lack drive and methods) and those projects which promise future success (those with plenty of drive along with a solid methodology). I must confess I feel great admiration for the retail chains that have been able to develop store concepts which are recognizable and repeatable on an international level, with a well-marked business culture. A good example of this is a very well-known fast food chain. They have achieved this experience thanks to effective automated operating procedures. The role of the salesperson or team member, is also automated. When I went to one of those restaurants with my son last Sunday, the team member offered us large fries and a soda for $1 more. Her smile did seem a little forced though.
I should also confess that I feel a great admiration for business owners who open their stores, collaborate on local activities and earn their daily bread through these hundreds, thousands of individual contacts with the customers they serve. Their smiles are never forced, although their working methods could be improved upon at times.
In my own experience as a retail chain manager there have been times when I felt I lacked the weight to completely and effectively manage clients and teams with any great success, and need to learn more of the complexity and extraordinary potential that people have. I discovered coaching and NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming. As I trained in the two disciplines I was able to confirm their enormous and practical applicability to store management. In this book I will be indicating the main concepts I deem essential and I could implement and validate in the last years.