RETAIL TRAINING | PET GAZETTE | 31
TRAIN YOUR TEAM
TO DELIVER YOUR
BRAND IN THE BEST
POSSIBLE WAY
Have you had trouble in the past? Not able to find
someone with the same passion and expertise you hold
for your brand? Maybe you know it’s the next step to grow
your business, but what’s the best way to go about it?
FIRST STEPS
You have a product, a plan and the ambition
to succeed, but you can’t do it all on your
own. Either now, or at a point very soon, you
will need to bring in other people to help
you. Hiring the right people, training them to
a high standard and engaging them in your
dream are the biggest steps to get a return
on your investment.
Problems can start when you ask new
freelancers, or employees, to sell your
product on your behalf. How do you engage
them to care as much as you do? Do they
truly understand the product they are selling?
Do they believe it is something that will really
make the difference to the customer? Is the
product too technical for a salesperson to
grasp? These are all common worries.
All too often people fail to optimise their
training because they fail to consider these
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worries before the training is developed. You
don’t need to fall into this trap. Think about
it logically, break it down and make sure
consider the following points.
I’m Nicola, founder of Ravensford
Consultancy Ltd – Providing business
services and consultancy to the
companion animal industry. I have spent
20 years working in the pet industry in
both small business and large corporate
PLCs. I have a particular interest in
innovation, customer experience and
team training.
In the last 10 years I have written
and delivered training to thousands
of staff, across many subjects. From
specialist technical animal care through
to commercial business strategies and
product development. These are my
thoughts on how to approach product
training as you expand your business.
WHAT IS YOUR AIM?
Directly sell more products to happy
returning customers?. Support third party
stockists? Identifying the difference between
first (your staff) and third party (your stockists’
staff) sales really helps you to develop the
right training.
METHODS OF DELIVERY
Delegates get so much more from face-to-
face personalised interaction. That being
said, you can deliver quality training on
a budget to large audiences by utilising
conference calls, skype, and a number of
other available technologies. These are all
May 2018