July 9, 2024 • 27 mins
Join me, as I dive into the challenges and solutions of hiring and training retail employees in 2024. In this live session, Bob answers questions from viewers, offering candid advice and insights on how to attract, train, and retain the best talent in the retail industry.
I discuss the evolving expectations of today's workforce, the importance of proper training, and the need for competitive compensation. I also address the common pitfalls of hiring practices and provide actionable tips for creating a motivated and loyal team.
Whether you're a store owner, manager, or aspiring retail professional, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways to help you navigate the complexities of modern retail employment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good morning, everybody. It's Bob Fibbs, the Retail Doc, and we are live with
your questions today on Sunday, July 7th, 2024.
I hope you're all ready to jump in. I am doing this live, so if you have any questions, there we go.
That seemed to be a little pause in the stream.
(00:21):
So it's Bob Fibbs, the Retail Doc. Today is July 7th, 2024, and you are live with me.
Do me a favor and let me know where you're joining me in from.
Just post in comments where you are in the world and what you sell.
I used to do live videos every, well, actually all six months of the beginning
of the pandemic until that became too much. And then I cut it back to every Sunday.
(00:44):
And then at some point I just said, I need my weekends back.
So I got my weekend shirt on for you today. Wax London. I love that brand.
And I just want to make sure that I can still give you what you need.
And so I ask questions. And when I get enough of them, at least five every time
I go live, then I answer them and I do this.
And if I don't get them, I skip them. So if you didn't see me for a while, that might've been why.
(01:05):
So again, do me a favor, let me know where you're joining me in from and let's go.
So the first six months of the year are gone.
And just a quick question to you, are you enjoying it more or less?
And I don't want you to tell me, oh, it's less, right?
Because at some point, it's your choice.
Six months have come and gone. What were the opportunities that you did?
(01:28):
What were the opportunities you let go? What was the part that you got stuck on and didn't fix?
Because the holidays are not going to move this year.
They're going to be right where they are, and they're going to require you to
be prepared and to be thinking about what should I do more and to do better.
For that reason, I've got new products that are going to be coming out this month.
The first time I've only heard it for the last eight years is basically commissioned salespeople,
(01:52):
people who work with long sales cycles, who have to be talking about pricing
or negotiating prices or looking at,
well, actually, we've also built into it how to use fitting rooms and some other
things that a broad spectrum of individuals can use, but it will be just for
individuals. That'll be launching in a couple of weeks.
And we're also going to be premiering our new course, Developing Your Retail
(02:15):
Managers to Lead. It will actually be its own course that you'll be able to have a subscription to.
And then we'll have a version of the full sales Rx that will be something you can look at too.
So we hear you. We're looking at solving a lot of those dilemmas that you have
run into over the last several months.
And also, I think it's interesting this week, almost everything results in people
(02:37):
asking about hiring people. They are...
Going through and well, I'll just ask them and you can answer them along with
me in your head. How's that?
So the first one came from Ann. What do you need to know to hire better people?
Well, I think you have to look at your expectations. First off,
I think an awful lot of baby boomers and Gen X.
(02:58):
I think we take whatever we started a retail job with and have pulled that forward to 2024.
And that's simply not the way it is. You know, I put myself through to college selling shoes.
That's all I could do because I had to have a flexible schedule and I needed
to be able to work around it. And weekends were always free.
And there really weren't many things. That's the thing about retail in the old times.
(03:23):
If you wanted money, you either used your body, right? You dug a ditch,
you made something, you did something that way, or you worked retail.
That was your two options.
Well, that's simply not the reality of today.
A young person, regardless of their age, they could have a side hustle.
They're going to go and go look at garage sales and find brands and then sell
(03:43):
them in a marketplace. That's not that uncommon.
People are going through and coming up with their own little brands and being
entrepreneurs. That's great.
Could be driving Uber or Uber Eats or DoorDash or any of those kinds of things to fill in time.
And now you say, come to my retail store. I would need you to be trained.
I need you to go through and be friendly. And I need you to be willing to go
(04:06):
the extra mile. And for that, I'll give you the princely fee of $10 an hour. I am so generous.
I'm an amazing employer. I am the one everyone wants.
And they look around. They're like, are you joking me?
I can get easily 15 at a McDonald's and probably a 22 at a Lululemon,
and I'm going to work with a bunch of people who are like-minded and they're well-trained,
(04:30):
and now you want to hire me at 10 to sit in the store all day,
and I'm a friendly person. I love that drive.
I love closing, where traffic may be spotty at best, and you're going to leave
me alone, and you wonder why I'm quitting.
This is what I don't get. See, a lot of these questions I saw today are all about those damn kids.
That wasn't exactly the words I used, but this whole thing. And then I look
(04:53):
at the second part is what's your training? Oh, well, you know,
we don't need much training. We say shadow us.
That's not training. I don't know what that is, but that's not training.
Imagine if you were going to play in the Olympics, be in the Olympics,
just shadow the guy on rings.
Okay. Shadow the girl on balance beam.
Okay. Shadow the pitcher of the Yankees. You'll pick it up. Well,
(05:15):
that seems preposterous. Well, it's just as preposterous.
And then the third thing is, again, looking at your pay and your expectations.
Yes, I hired grown men at $2.10 an hour in the 80s. Yeah, in the 80s.
You have to let go of that. That's not where you're doing it.
And maybe you would have worked for it. You were grateful for it.
And now you expect everyone else to be. Sorry, not working. So give it up.
(05:38):
One thing that employees these days understand is I'm making you money.
What am I getting in return?
Everything is time and money. I'll talk about that in a minute.
I actually have more to say on this subject today.
And you asked me, maybe there's some questions you could ask.
So always you ask for specifics of what they did prior, right?
So give me a time you went out of your way for a customer and what that looked like.
(06:02):
And then you shut up and don't say anything. thing?
The A answer is, oh, it was raining. This woman had her bags and she had a stroller.
And one of our employees said, oh, would you like help out with that?
And she goes, no, I can manage.
And I saw her kind of fumbling and I ran over and I just picked up her package
and I opened the door for her and I helped her out to the car and I put it in
(06:26):
and I thanked her and she gave me a $5 tip.
That's pretty much an a answer fabulous what's a
c answer well you know this woman wanted directions
and so i opened my phone and i showed her where they were okay give me a time
you went out of your way for customer i go for a way for a customer every day
okay they've told you a lot in those answers but you need to know what does
(06:51):
an a answer look like what's the c answer look like Like, what's an F answer?
You just don't say, so what hours can you work on the schedule and wherever you worked before?
And, you know, you just can't say that kind of stuff. And you might even go
even further and say, can you give me a time you ghosted an employer? Be specific.
Why not? Because if they're honest and they say, oh, I ghosted them because
(07:14):
of this and this and this, at least they understand that you know that's a real
possibility in their business.
And I hope that helps. You all have started jumping in. Alex,
I'm glad you're there from Washington. Hey, Nancy, of course, from North Carolina.
Patrick, give me some new tips for real separating from other salespeople.
(07:34):
I needed some good news, unarguable questions. Dude, you have to rework that.
Put that in chat, GPT, and say, make this understandable by Bob,
because I don't understand your question.
I will get back to you, Patrick. Patrick is an amazing salesperson in Massachusetts,
number one out of 6,000 salespeople.
And of course, he's the guy on the call with me looking to do even better.
(07:55):
That's the kind of people I want to work with, people who are hungry.
Hungry and it was interesting i was watching one of those
little instagram reels or something the other day and this woman
talked about how she saw this one actress and when
she saw her visually she was a brilliant and then she returned to
the role like 10 years later and she goes all of it was lost she just was like
acting and and the interviewer said well what was the difference she goes she
(08:18):
was hungry in the first one i was like okay there is something to be said for
hunger but it's not going to be for money people are hungry for something to
feel good about themselves They're hungry for someone who builds them up.
They're hungry for being respected and they're hungry for using their education.
If you're not going to use those skills, then keep trying to hire people at
(08:38):
$7.50, but don't be coming onto my site and telling me how awful a generation is.
If you're willing to manage and you're willing to be an amazing employer,
like several of you on this call or that follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn,
then you're succeeding and you're not having these kinds of questions.
All right, Rebecca. Hey, I'm glad you're from the UK. Amanda from Canada.
(08:59):
Patrick, you got to get back to me, dude. Bridget from Holyoke.
There's one in New Jersey, Peekamoose or something. That's just interesting
names in the Northeast. All right.
So that was Ann. So Cheryl, another question. How do I keep new hires?
Younger people seem okay with job hopping. At least they're giving two weeks notice. Ha ha.
It's a different world. Your job isn't the only one in town.
(09:23):
There are other people out there. You know, when I started out,
so I'm 18, and I was told, you can't leave a job for until after two years because
you need your resume to show stability.
That's what it was. And I stayed at this job that wasn't so great for two years.
Even worse, I stayed at another job, my last position, for many more years.
(09:45):
It was the most disempowering association I had.
But my ego was wrapped up like, I can muscle it out. I can stand it.
That isn't this generation.
They're not going to wait around for you to suddenly decide to share in the wealth.
They're just going to find somewhere else. And don't be upset at them.
Every time you lose someone, you need to look in the mirror and say, holy crap, what did I do?
(10:09):
And then you, again, go back to that job description. Looking for friendly people
willing to go out of their way.
People who have a track record of great sales and apply now in And the interview, they were amazing.
And then you said, and I'll give you the princely sum of $11.
Oh, and if we hit our goal, there's a bonus. We give you a pizza party.
(10:30):
Yeah, you should be laughing because it's crazy what people say these days.
So that isn't this generation. I think I've talked about that,
but I will be talking about it again because I have other questions about that.
Patrick, I see you're down there, so I will come back. I will come back to you in a minute.
Susan, hire people smarter than you, pay them, and let them do their jobs.
Bob, your dad is brilliant, Susan.
(10:51):
In fact, can I highlight that? I think I can highlight that. Oh, awesome.
That doesn't change. This is what's funny. That doesn't change.
I can tell you, though, Susan, a lot of people are threatened by that idea.
Holy crap, smarter than me.
They're going to be asking questions all day. I hate when they ask questions.
Maybe you should embrace them asking questions.
Like, why do we do it this way? Oh, well, we have to do it that way because
(11:14):
this one time this customer bought back these shoes and she worn them for 18
years and she wanted a refund. So now we say no refunds. Like, that's stupid.
Why would I do that? I can get that at Amazon or anywhere.
Well, you're just, you're just, just do what I ask. Get off my lawn.
I hate that. This idea that somehow young generations are worse.
Young generation, most educated, hopeful, intuitive, and smart people out there.
(11:39):
And they are going to require you to up your game or simply don't play the game of retail.
But please you can't say it's all them and then expect to leave them in a store
all day alone like how are they supposed to go to the bathroom oh we just sneak
out if you can it's ridiculous.
I think I'm on a rant today. If you want to rant, you can type in Bob Brandt
(12:00):
or something, and I'll go a little deeper on this.
Mandy asks, how about hiring spouses, meaning a couple, even the case that both
are exactly what you're looking for in each position?
So, Mandy, that just has security risk written all over it, and it has,
oh, they're perfect for my business.
I've convinced myself this is the couple perfect for my business.
(12:21):
You know, I've I've run into that a few times.
And you just say, I'm sorry, Bob Brandt, Kathy. All right. You're great.
I think I have run into that. And if they don't work on the same shift, that helps.
But it gets dicey when one is now a manager and the other is not.
And who's supervising who?
And I just think it's a security risk. I think you're you're you're telling
(12:44):
yourself that this is perfect.
And I would say I could hire one of you. Which do you want to which do you want
to hire? but you're opening yourself up for some challenges, I think.
Susan, also, if you can do better than me, then you should win the game.
Absolutely. I love that. I love that. Yeah, absolutely.
Your dad taught you well, Susan, but you know that. Commission checks are the best checks I write.
(13:10):
I just have to keep going. Susan, now you're having this little moment.
So I hope, by the way, I haven't asked you yet, but if you like what I have
to say, give me a thumbs up. Let me know that you're here.
That helps out a lot. So, all right.
So, Rachel says, what's your advice for leadership owners hiring and working
from a place of fear because the people who they are finding to work won't put
(13:31):
in extra effort for networking or do anything extra beyond their normal daily responsibilities?
They just want to punch in and get a paycheck. Well, Rachel,
wake up. That's what all of us did.
I'm sorry. I did not start selling shoes when I was 18 because I was fulfilled.
I found my purpose in life.
(13:51):
I wasn't a janitor when I was 16 because I just want to clean up the world.
I love working with toxic chemicals in a dry cleaning place.
I didn't say, oh, I am so fulfilled selling cowboy boots.
I am enjoying it. No, cowboy boots allowed me to buy my first house when I was 22.
That was my goal. That was the end to my means. It was just a paycheck.
(14:16):
So you're kidding yourself to think that somehow it's going to be more than
that. Oh, they found their purpose is helping people to give store. Really?
That sounds like being friendly with no requirements.
If you're going to expect people to be winners like Patrick,
then you're going to have to expect them that they're going to be held accountable,
you're going to train them, and you're going to reward them well.
(14:37):
Not that you're going to leave them alone and assume that they can do it.
And I really have an edge on me today, all of you, but if this sounds right
to you, give me a thumbs up, let me know that this agrees with you,
because I've seen it a lot in the last several weeks, a lot of questions.
In fact, tonight's newsletter, a new article I wrote, was the silent thief about
employees who are closing early these days. They shut the doors as close as they can.
(15:00):
They start counting the registers a half hour, an hour before,
or they kick people out at nine o'clock.
And I'm sick of that stuff. I'm sorry. I'm a consumer.
And I'm sick of hearing how employees are what the worst thing is because they
are the one that you've got to make their day.
If you don't, they'll never make your customers. consumers.
(15:20):
So I did draw out a few things down on this also, Rachel, is I think many retailers
in the past looked at associates as surf.
They're interchangeable. I'll never forget when I was selling cowboy clothes,
one of the owners was laughing in his office.
He goes, and they had several stores, like 50 stores.
Oh, I don't even ask for the manager anymore. I say, is there anyone Anyone in charge?
(15:46):
It's like, you're such an ass. At that point, I was pretty much said I'm out.
And I was out in three weeks from that.
Employees are not serfs. The only way you build a business is your employees. Number one.
Look at guys like Patrick. The whole idea is he understands it. It's a means to his end.
But it is not expected that, oh, he should just want to do this.
(16:07):
No, you're going to have to pay them correctly and give them shares in the company
or do something that says you matter.
Outback Steakhouse started originally by making the managers co-owners.
And one of the early, an interview with the owner, I forget his name,
he said, we provide them good working conditions so they'll want to stay and
opportunities to become owners themselves.
(16:28):
It's proved to be a good business. If the burnout rate is low,
we figure the burn rate, whether that of customers or stakes, will be low as well.
I can't imagine how much better he could say that.
But we live in a world where, oh, they just ghost. They don't even show up to
the interview. Look, there are two buckets.
There are employees that want to set work, and there are those who don't. Don't kid yourself.
(16:49):
They are not. I cannot take the one who just has their mom come in and give
them an application, and they sort of bring it in, and they look like they just
came in wearing their pajamas, and they rolled out of bed.
That is not someone that is going to make an impression.
I'm not going to be like, who was he?
My Fair Lady. Seth Doolittle? That's not quite right.
(17:10):
Higgins. Anyway, the idea that he could take this person and make them into something.
It's not worth your time. I could take someone who at least is interested.
They show up the best they can.
I can take that person and teach them exactly how to sell and open their heart
and be really successful.
And I have a track record of people who have gone on to Apple and other great,
amazing companies because they started in a retail position.
(17:33):
And I gave them direction and training because they themselves wanted to be better.
Without that, it's tough.
All right. A little bit of, hey, Higgins, thank you. We have this whole moment
here. Thanks, Susan. All right. Great.
So if this sounds a little tough for some of you and you're like,
oh, he's so mean, I'm not mean. I've been doing this for 30 years.
(17:53):
There's nothing I haven't seen.
I had two employees who hated me so much, they burned my customer list that
was needed for an anniversary sale.
Got rid of them, hired two more people, four of us ran that store and made manager
of the month and ultimately manager of the year.
If you want to whine and say how it sucks to be you, I have no patience.
(18:14):
I have zero. We are all dealing with an employee or we're all dealing with a
personal life where some kid's on drugs or some mom is dealing with Alzheimer's
or you're having to deal with a long lost parent or you've got all kinds of things.
There's all kinds of crap going on. You are not special.
What is special is your attitude about how you come to work and to give somebody
(18:35):
a damn to say you matter to me and I'm going to give you five minutes to be
open with you and build you up instead of, oh, Patrick, it's so slow.
Can I go home? I hate this. This just sucks.
So, you know, that ad, Amazon, a little bit of a rant today,
kids. All right. So there you go.
I will take your, Uncle Bob is cooking.
(18:59):
I haven't been on, see, when I was doing it more often, I probably didn't do
as many rants. All right, so I have two more questions and I'll answer whatever you have.
If you have any questions for me, you can type them in the comments and I promise
I will do it before the end of the stream.
By the way, if you like what you hear, you can check out my,
I'm a motivational speaker.
Just go to retaildoc, retail, R-E-T-A-I-L-D-O-C.com. I speak to associations,
(19:22):
brands about how to do better with a message of hope and yeah, accountability.
Check out my online sales training program, SalesRx, S-A-L-E-S-R-X.com.
That's where Patrick and several of you have been able to find the meat of what
I teach, which is a college course on how to sell well in retail.
I'm not going to be, oh, we value every guest.
(19:44):
No, I'm going to say, here's what it is. And all that matters is you doing it,
not passing my tests. I know, tough love.
And then you can also read my blog. I got probably a thousand blogs that are
being swallowed by AI as we speak, and probably are going to become somebody's
curriculum somewhere at some point.
But for now, they are my blog and then my retail mastery and my private coaching that I also do.
(20:05):
So I do an awful lot. Ann says, how do you tell someone they need to do something
you know they're going to hate?
Well, first off, this kind of goes back to the idea of how you lead.
I am a big believer if I was managing the store or owning, I'm going to take
five minutes with every employee every day.
One every day, let's say, and find the one job that I personally hate or I hate
(20:27):
doing, and I'm going to do it with them and just show like, hey, be honest and direct.
This is the situation. We're going to do it together. This is why it's necessary.
You can offer choices. You could do this now or later. You could say other situations
to try to give them some control of it and focusing on why we're doing it. That's the outcome.
And you can express their, you know i i
(20:49):
had a young woman i shouldn't tell this story
should i i had a young woman who we
had a policy don't use the don't we had a restroom that
was part of the sales for you couldn't get rid of that was required by
state and we said we don't have this for public usage and
this young woman went ahead and she let somebody
use it and i opened the door and it was just like disgusting and
(21:10):
she said well why do i have to clean i said you're the one that
that had made the exception you get
to do it and she said but that's not fair i said
well you think i'm gonna do it no here's the
brush and here's some chemicals but ultimately you've got
to go through and be able to say yeah this is why we're doing it and yes you
may not like it but that's the way it goes david says final question that came
(21:33):
through yesterday oh by the way on retail doc you can get either my books which
is a 69 proven ways to build your retail sale or the retail docs guide to growing your business.
No, I will not be doing other books because everything goes video and SalesRx
is my main driver of retail success right now.
In fact, 83% of our users report a double-digit increase within six months.
(21:54):
David says, how can we get people to stop buying from Amazon and put them out
of business forever? Well, that's not going to happen.
That's like saying, how can I get people to stop buying?
Why do we buy from Amazon? It's easy. It's that simple.
Whenever there is friction in the shopping situation, you're going to lose somebody.
(22:17):
So if you have to go in the back and find it, that means I have to wait and
wonder. I'll just buy it.
If I come by and you're closed, you closed early, well, you've opened the door to Amazon.
If you don't have a QR code or something that I could easily,
when you're at an event or something, I could easily scan and pay,
well, you're probably going to lose me at Amazon. If you really care about it,
then you start thinking, how many friction points do I have?
(22:39):
If somebody wants to pay, there's a line of 30 people like Starbucks.
They go, holy crap, we could do a mobile app.
People would go through and skip the line and be waiting.
Huge change for them. But it starts with looking at the customer.
Why aren't they buying from you and why are they buying from Amazon?
I remember a story several years ago, a toy store, and this woman talked about
(23:00):
how she spent an hour with this woman who was drinking a Frappuccino and her
kid was playing with another employee.
And she found, you know, 45 minutes to an hour to find the perfect bedtime story.
And she scanned, oh, well, I'm not going to buy from you. And I'm going to scan
it and buy from Amazon. I need to save the money. And what could I have said?
And I said, well, she goes, you know, I said to her, you know,
(23:22):
if you do that, we aren't going to be a business. And it's like,
well, that's one way to do it. Why'd you spend 45 minutes on a $14 book?
Let's start off with more basic.
And more importantly, why are you using that as your badge of honor?
There are crappy people in the world, kids. I've had people do all sorts of
things with my content and with my image.
But am I going to focus on that? Or am I going to focus on the people like Patrick
(23:46):
or Heidi or Deanna or Paul or any number of you who have been killing it with
my system for years? No, that's who I'm going to choose to concentrate on.
So if you want to get people to stop buying Amazon, look at the friction in your own business.
And then why don't you get rid of your Amazon account?
Bob, that's not very nice. Can't have it both ways.
(24:07):
There's a reason. It's easy. So if you understand why people are on Amazon and
why they may not buy from you, when you pull back, we have a whole section in
SalesRx on showrooming.
When you pull back and someone's got their phone out and you're over there,
they're scanning it. Oh, and you just want to bitch about it.
Well, great. You win. They're still going to buy it.
Why not engage them? Why don't you teach them how to engage somebody?
(24:29):
Well, they already do a great. Really? Really? Have you mystery shopped your employees?
We did a mystery shop not that long ago. The employee waited six minutes to
go over and talk to the customer. And then it was going to help you find something.
That's not going to work in this day and age, kids. All right.
Call everybody kids. I'm 65. That's not out of making you feel bad.
If you like what I had to say this morning, if you stay with me for 26 minutes,
(24:52):
which a lot of it looks like you did, give me a thumbs up right now.
Put it in comments below.
That's very important. Now I'm going to back into comments and see if there's anything I can see.
All right. So, Patrick, one of my favorite questions I ask prospects is what you taught me.
What happened today that made you say, I need to come and resolve this problem
today? I want some good questions like that to ask.
Such a good talk track. Dude, brilliance only strikes once.
(25:12):
That really is the best. Your goal is to find out what today.
Or you might even say, so what's not working that should be in your phone today?
Because let's face it, you're going to be 90% of me on the phone.
What's limiting you in your phone today that I can help solve?
Anything like that, you can get me to talk.
It's a much better way than something that's yes or no.
(25:34):
And that's true for all of you that whenever you ask a question that's a yes
or no, you're limiting yourself because you get a buildup. There's a buildup in your sewer.
You flush enough stuff down it, your garbage disposal, boy, it's going to block.
The more no's you get in the sales call, the worse it's going to get,
right? So is this the first time I store? No.
(25:55):
Oh, you know, when those all build up as no's, just stop saying anything that gets a no.
Can you describe the first time that the phone stopped working?
When you heard that sound, what did you do next?
Those aren't things you can say yeses or no's to. That helps.
I hope that helps, Patrick. Again, I appreciate a view and all you're trying to do to do better.
(26:15):
Great, great, great. Patrick, this is long, but I'm going to show it.
I drink the Kool-Aid for my company because they took me under and helped me
accomplish personal financial goals. It wasn't just because I wanted to sell phones.
They helped me learn investing, real relationships, become an incredible networker.
Wow. You should go work for that guy.
Yeah, exactly. Find their wants and help them grow their talents and in return become loyal.
(26:39):
Because ultimately, you're going to get what you put out. The idea that you
are this king or queen and I'm going to give you your paycheck,
that's just not going to follow it anymore. Just not going to follow it.
Bridget says, don't count older employees out. They like to get out of the house.
I think that's certainly true.
Teresa, I've been in retail since 1980. I always think I've seen it all and
(27:00):
sometimes I think I know it all, but truly I learn something new every day.
You can't manage all people the same way. Yeah, and we all learn that,
right? We learn that. All right. See you, dude.
All right. So with all that in mind, the thing I would always ask you to do
is, what are you going to do from this call? You just spent a half hour with the retail doc.
Take one action and go do it. I'm Bob Fibbs, the retail doc.
(27:23):
Until August, I'm Bob Fibbs saying we're about as happy as we make our minds
up to be. Use your choice, Messel.
Let's be successful. Bye.
Good morning, everybody. It's Bob Fibbs, the Retail Doc, and we are live with
your questions today on Sunday, July 7th, 2024.
I hope you're all ready to jump in. I am doing this live, so if you have any questions, there we go.
That seemed to be a little pause in the stream.
(00:21):
So it's Bob Fibbs, the Retail Doc. Today is July 7th, 2024, and you are live with me.
Do me a favor and let me know where you're joining me in from.
Just post in comments where you are in the world and what you sell.
I used to do live videos every, well, actually all six months of the beginning
of the pandemic until that became too much. And then I cut it back to every Sunday.
(00:44):
And then at some point I just said, I need my weekends back.
So I got my weekend shirt on for you today. Wax London. I love that brand.
And I just want to make sure that I can still give you what you need.
And so I ask questions. And when I get enough of them, at least five every time
I go live, then I answer them and I do this.
And if I don't get them, I skip them. So if you didn't see me for a while, that might've been why.
(01:05):
So again, do me a favor, let me know where you're joining me in from and let's go.
So the first six months of the year are gone.
And just a quick question to you, are you enjoying it more or less?
And I don't want you to tell me, oh, it's less, right?
Because at some point, it's your choice.
Six months have come and gone. What were the opportunities that you did?
(01:28):
What were the opportunities you let go? What was the part that you got stuck on and didn't fix?
Because the holidays are not going to move this year.
They're going to be right where they are, and they're going to require you to
be prepared and to be thinking about what should I do more and to do better.
For that reason, I've got new products that are going to be coming out this month.
The first time I've only heard it for the last eight years is basically commissioned salespeople,
(01:52):
people who work with long sales cycles, who have to be talking about pricing
or negotiating prices or looking at,
well, actually, we've also built into it how to use fitting rooms and some other
things that a broad spectrum of individuals can use, but it will be just for
individuals. That'll be launching in a couple of weeks.
And we're also going to be premiering our new course, Developing Your Retail
(02:15):
Managers to Lead. It will actually be its own course that you'll be able to have a subscription to.
And then we'll have a version of the full sales Rx that will be something you can look at too.
So we hear you. We're looking at solving a lot of those dilemmas that you have
run into over the last several months.
And also, I think it's interesting this week, almost everything results in people
(02:37):
asking about hiring people. They are...
Going through and well, I'll just ask them and you can answer them along with
me in your head. How's that?
So the first one came from Ann. What do you need to know to hire better people?
Well, I think you have to look at your expectations. First off,
I think an awful lot of baby boomers and Gen X.
(02:58):
I think we take whatever we started a retail job with and have pulled that forward to 2024.
And that's simply not the way it is. You know, I put myself through to college selling shoes.
That's all I could do because I had to have a flexible schedule and I needed
to be able to work around it. And weekends were always free.
And there really weren't many things. That's the thing about retail in the old times.
(03:23):
If you wanted money, you either used your body, right? You dug a ditch,
you made something, you did something that way, or you worked retail.
That was your two options.
Well, that's simply not the reality of today.
A young person, regardless of their age, they could have a side hustle.
They're going to go and go look at garage sales and find brands and then sell
(03:43):
them in a marketplace. That's not that uncommon.
People are going through and coming up with their own little brands and being
entrepreneurs. That's great.
Could be driving Uber or Uber Eats or DoorDash or any of those kinds of things to fill in time.
And now you say, come to my retail store. I would need you to be trained.
I need you to go through and be friendly. And I need you to be willing to go
(04:06):
the extra mile. And for that, I'll give you the princely fee of $10 an hour. I am so generous.
I'm an amazing employer. I am the one everyone wants.
And they look around. They're like, are you joking me?
I can get easily 15 at a McDonald's and probably a 22 at a Lululemon,
and I'm going to work with a bunch of people who are like-minded and they're well-trained,
(04:30):
and now you want to hire me at 10 to sit in the store all day,
and I'm a friendly person. I love that drive.
I love closing, where traffic may be spotty at best, and you're going to leave
me alone, and you wonder why I'm quitting.
This is what I don't get. See, a lot of these questions I saw today are all about those damn kids.
That wasn't exactly the words I used, but this whole thing. And then I look
(04:53):
at the second part is what's your training? Oh, well, you know,
we don't need much training. We say shadow us.
That's not training. I don't know what that is, but that's not training.
Imagine if you were going to play in the Olympics, be in the Olympics,
just shadow the guy on rings.
Okay. Shadow the girl on balance beam.
Okay. Shadow the pitcher of the Yankees. You'll pick it up. Well,
(05:15):
that seems preposterous. Well, it's just as preposterous.
And then the third thing is, again, looking at your pay and your expectations.
Yes, I hired grown men at $2.10 an hour in the 80s. Yeah, in the 80s.
You have to let go of that. That's not where you're doing it.
And maybe you would have worked for it. You were grateful for it.
And now you expect everyone else to be. Sorry, not working. So give it up.
(05:38):
One thing that employees these days understand is I'm making you money.
What am I getting in return?
Everything is time and money. I'll talk about that in a minute.
I actually have more to say on this subject today.
And you asked me, maybe there's some questions you could ask.
So always you ask for specifics of what they did prior, right?
So give me a time you went out of your way for a customer and what that looked like.
(06:02):
And then you shut up and don't say anything. thing?
The A answer is, oh, it was raining. This woman had her bags and she had a stroller.
And one of our employees said, oh, would you like help out with that?
And she goes, no, I can manage.
And I saw her kind of fumbling and I ran over and I just picked up her package
and I opened the door for her and I helped her out to the car and I put it in
(06:26):
and I thanked her and she gave me a $5 tip.
That's pretty much an a answer fabulous what's a
c answer well you know this woman wanted directions
and so i opened my phone and i showed her where they were okay give me a time
you went out of your way for customer i go for a way for a customer every day
okay they've told you a lot in those answers but you need to know what does
(06:51):
an a answer look like what's the c answer look like Like, what's an F answer?
You just don't say, so what hours can you work on the schedule and wherever you worked before?
And, you know, you just can't say that kind of stuff. And you might even go
even further and say, can you give me a time you ghosted an employer? Be specific.
Why not? Because if they're honest and they say, oh, I ghosted them because
(07:14):
of this and this and this, at least they understand that you know that's a real
possibility in their business.
And I hope that helps. You all have started jumping in. Alex,
I'm glad you're there from Washington. Hey, Nancy, of course, from North Carolina.
Patrick, give me some new tips for real separating from other salespeople.
(07:34):
I needed some good news, unarguable questions. Dude, you have to rework that.
Put that in chat, GPT, and say, make this understandable by Bob,
because I don't understand your question.
I will get back to you, Patrick. Patrick is an amazing salesperson in Massachusetts,
number one out of 6,000 salespeople.
And of course, he's the guy on the call with me looking to do even better.
(07:55):
That's the kind of people I want to work with, people who are hungry.
Hungry and it was interesting i was watching one of those
little instagram reels or something the other day and this woman
talked about how she saw this one actress and when
she saw her visually she was a brilliant and then she returned to
the role like 10 years later and she goes all of it was lost she just was like
acting and and the interviewer said well what was the difference she goes she
(08:18):
was hungry in the first one i was like okay there is something to be said for
hunger but it's not going to be for money people are hungry for something to
feel good about themselves They're hungry for someone who builds them up.
They're hungry for being respected and they're hungry for using their education.
If you're not going to use those skills, then keep trying to hire people at
(08:38):
$7.50, but don't be coming onto my site and telling me how awful a generation is.
If you're willing to manage and you're willing to be an amazing employer,
like several of you on this call or that follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn,
then you're succeeding and you're not having these kinds of questions.
All right, Rebecca. Hey, I'm glad you're from the UK. Amanda from Canada.
(08:59):
Patrick, you got to get back to me, dude. Bridget from Holyoke.
There's one in New Jersey, Peekamoose or something. That's just interesting
names in the Northeast. All right.
So that was Ann. So Cheryl, another question. How do I keep new hires?
Younger people seem okay with job hopping. At least they're giving two weeks notice. Ha ha.
It's a different world. Your job isn't the only one in town.
(09:23):
There are other people out there. You know, when I started out,
so I'm 18, and I was told, you can't leave a job for until after two years because
you need your resume to show stability.
That's what it was. And I stayed at this job that wasn't so great for two years.
Even worse, I stayed at another job, my last position, for many more years.
(09:45):
It was the most disempowering association I had.
But my ego was wrapped up like, I can muscle it out. I can stand it.
That isn't this generation.
They're not going to wait around for you to suddenly decide to share in the wealth.
They're just going to find somewhere else. And don't be upset at them.
Every time you lose someone, you need to look in the mirror and say, holy crap, what did I do?
(10:09):
And then you, again, go back to that job description. Looking for friendly people
willing to go out of their way.
People who have a track record of great sales and apply now in And the interview, they were amazing.
And then you said, and I'll give you the princely sum of $11.
Oh, and if we hit our goal, there's a bonus. We give you a pizza party.
(10:30):
Yeah, you should be laughing because it's crazy what people say these days.
So that isn't this generation. I think I've talked about that,
but I will be talking about it again because I have other questions about that.
Patrick, I see you're down there, so I will come back. I will come back to you in a minute.
Susan, hire people smarter than you, pay them, and let them do their jobs.
Bob, your dad is brilliant, Susan.
(10:51):
In fact, can I highlight that? I think I can highlight that. Oh, awesome.
That doesn't change. This is what's funny. That doesn't change.
I can tell you, though, Susan, a lot of people are threatened by that idea.
Holy crap, smarter than me.
They're going to be asking questions all day. I hate when they ask questions.
Maybe you should embrace them asking questions.
Like, why do we do it this way? Oh, well, we have to do it that way because
(11:14):
this one time this customer bought back these shoes and she worn them for 18
years and she wanted a refund. So now we say no refunds. Like, that's stupid.
Why would I do that? I can get that at Amazon or anywhere.
Well, you're just, you're just, just do what I ask. Get off my lawn.
I hate that. This idea that somehow young generations are worse.
Young generation, most educated, hopeful, intuitive, and smart people out there.
(11:39):
And they are going to require you to up your game or simply don't play the game of retail.
But please you can't say it's all them and then expect to leave them in a store
all day alone like how are they supposed to go to the bathroom oh we just sneak
out if you can it's ridiculous.
I think I'm on a rant today. If you want to rant, you can type in Bob Brandt
(12:00):
or something, and I'll go a little deeper on this.
Mandy asks, how about hiring spouses, meaning a couple, even the case that both
are exactly what you're looking for in each position?
So, Mandy, that just has security risk written all over it, and it has,
oh, they're perfect for my business.
I've convinced myself this is the couple perfect for my business.
(12:21):
You know, I've I've run into that a few times.
And you just say, I'm sorry, Bob Brandt, Kathy. All right. You're great.
I think I have run into that. And if they don't work on the same shift, that helps.
But it gets dicey when one is now a manager and the other is not.
And who's supervising who?
And I just think it's a security risk. I think you're you're you're telling
(12:44):
yourself that this is perfect.
And I would say I could hire one of you. Which do you want to which do you want
to hire? but you're opening yourself up for some challenges, I think.
Susan, also, if you can do better than me, then you should win the game.
Absolutely. I love that. I love that. Yeah, absolutely.
Your dad taught you well, Susan, but you know that. Commission checks are the best checks I write.
(13:10):
I just have to keep going. Susan, now you're having this little moment.
So I hope, by the way, I haven't asked you yet, but if you like what I have
to say, give me a thumbs up. Let me know that you're here.
That helps out a lot. So, all right.
So, Rachel says, what's your advice for leadership owners hiring and working
from a place of fear because the people who they are finding to work won't put
(13:31):
in extra effort for networking or do anything extra beyond their normal daily responsibilities?
They just want to punch in and get a paycheck. Well, Rachel,
wake up. That's what all of us did.
I'm sorry. I did not start selling shoes when I was 18 because I was fulfilled.
I found my purpose in life.
(13:51):
I wasn't a janitor when I was 16 because I just want to clean up the world.
I love working with toxic chemicals in a dry cleaning place.
I didn't say, oh, I am so fulfilled selling cowboy boots.
I am enjoying it. No, cowboy boots allowed me to buy my first house when I was 22.
That was my goal. That was the end to my means. It was just a paycheck.
(14:16):
So you're kidding yourself to think that somehow it's going to be more than
that. Oh, they found their purpose is helping people to give store. Really?
That sounds like being friendly with no requirements.
If you're going to expect people to be winners like Patrick,
then you're going to have to expect them that they're going to be held accountable,
you're going to train them, and you're going to reward them well.
(14:37):
Not that you're going to leave them alone and assume that they can do it.
And I really have an edge on me today, all of you, but if this sounds right
to you, give me a thumbs up, let me know that this agrees with you,
because I've seen it a lot in the last several weeks, a lot of questions.
In fact, tonight's newsletter, a new article I wrote, was the silent thief about
employees who are closing early these days. They shut the doors as close as they can.
(15:00):
They start counting the registers a half hour, an hour before,
or they kick people out at nine o'clock.
And I'm sick of that stuff. I'm sorry. I'm a consumer.
And I'm sick of hearing how employees are what the worst thing is because they
are the one that you've got to make their day.
If you don't, they'll never make your customers. consumers.
(15:20):
So I did draw out a few things down on this also, Rachel, is I think many retailers
in the past looked at associates as surf.
They're interchangeable. I'll never forget when I was selling cowboy clothes,
one of the owners was laughing in his office.
He goes, and they had several stores, like 50 stores.
Oh, I don't even ask for the manager anymore. I say, is there anyone Anyone in charge?
(15:46):
It's like, you're such an ass. At that point, I was pretty much said I'm out.
And I was out in three weeks from that.
Employees are not serfs. The only way you build a business is your employees. Number one.
Look at guys like Patrick. The whole idea is he understands it. It's a means to his end.
But it is not expected that, oh, he should just want to do this.
(16:07):
No, you're going to have to pay them correctly and give them shares in the company
or do something that says you matter.
Outback Steakhouse started originally by making the managers co-owners.
And one of the early, an interview with the owner, I forget his name,
he said, we provide them good working conditions so they'll want to stay and
opportunities to become owners themselves.
(16:28):
It's proved to be a good business. If the burnout rate is low,
we figure the burn rate, whether that of customers or stakes, will be low as well.
I can't imagine how much better he could say that.
But we live in a world where, oh, they just ghost. They don't even show up to
the interview. Look, there are two buckets.
There are employees that want to set work, and there are those who don't. Don't kid yourself.
(16:49):
They are not. I cannot take the one who just has their mom come in and give
them an application, and they sort of bring it in, and they look like they just
came in wearing their pajamas, and they rolled out of bed.
That is not someone that is going to make an impression.
I'm not going to be like, who was he?
My Fair Lady. Seth Doolittle? That's not quite right.
(17:10):
Higgins. Anyway, the idea that he could take this person and make them into something.
It's not worth your time. I could take someone who at least is interested.
They show up the best they can.
I can take that person and teach them exactly how to sell and open their heart
and be really successful.
And I have a track record of people who have gone on to Apple and other great,
amazing companies because they started in a retail position.
(17:33):
And I gave them direction and training because they themselves wanted to be better.
Without that, it's tough.
All right. A little bit of, hey, Higgins, thank you. We have this whole moment
here. Thanks, Susan. All right. Great.
So if this sounds a little tough for some of you and you're like,
oh, he's so mean, I'm not mean. I've been doing this for 30 years.
(17:53):
There's nothing I haven't seen.
I had two employees who hated me so much, they burned my customer list that
was needed for an anniversary sale.
Got rid of them, hired two more people, four of us ran that store and made manager
of the month and ultimately manager of the year.
If you want to whine and say how it sucks to be you, I have no patience.
(18:14):
I have zero. We are all dealing with an employee or we're all dealing with a
personal life where some kid's on drugs or some mom is dealing with Alzheimer's
or you're having to deal with a long lost parent or you've got all kinds of things.
There's all kinds of crap going on. You are not special.
What is special is your attitude about how you come to work and to give somebody
(18:35):
a damn to say you matter to me and I'm going to give you five minutes to be
open with you and build you up instead of, oh, Patrick, it's so slow.
Can I go home? I hate this. This just sucks.
So, you know, that ad, Amazon, a little bit of a rant today,
kids. All right. So there you go.
I will take your, Uncle Bob is cooking.
(18:59):
I haven't been on, see, when I was doing it more often, I probably didn't do
as many rants. All right, so I have two more questions and I'll answer whatever you have.
If you have any questions for me, you can type them in the comments and I promise
I will do it before the end of the stream.
By the way, if you like what you hear, you can check out my,
I'm a motivational speaker.
Just go to retaildoc, retail, R-E-T-A-I-L-D-O-C.com. I speak to associations,
(19:22):
brands about how to do better with a message of hope and yeah, accountability.
Check out my online sales training program, SalesRx, S-A-L-E-S-R-X.com.
That's where Patrick and several of you have been able to find the meat of what
I teach, which is a college course on how to sell well in retail.
I'm not going to be, oh, we value every guest.
(19:44):
No, I'm going to say, here's what it is. And all that matters is you doing it,
not passing my tests. I know, tough love.
And then you can also read my blog. I got probably a thousand blogs that are
being swallowed by AI as we speak, and probably are going to become somebody's
curriculum somewhere at some point.
But for now, they are my blog and then my retail mastery and my private coaching that I also do.
(20:05):
So I do an awful lot. Ann says, how do you tell someone they need to do something
you know they're going to hate?
Well, first off, this kind of goes back to the idea of how you lead.
I am a big believer if I was managing the store or owning, I'm going to take
five minutes with every employee every day.
One every day, let's say, and find the one job that I personally hate or I hate
(20:27):
doing, and I'm going to do it with them and just show like, hey, be honest and direct.
This is the situation. We're going to do it together. This is why it's necessary.
You can offer choices. You could do this now or later. You could say other situations
to try to give them some control of it and focusing on why we're doing it. That's the outcome.
And you can express their, you know i i
(20:49):
had a young woman i shouldn't tell this story
should i i had a young woman who we
had a policy don't use the don't we had a restroom that
was part of the sales for you couldn't get rid of that was required by
state and we said we don't have this for public usage and
this young woman went ahead and she let somebody
use it and i opened the door and it was just like disgusting and
(21:10):
she said well why do i have to clean i said you're the one that
that had made the exception you get
to do it and she said but that's not fair i said
well you think i'm gonna do it no here's the
brush and here's some chemicals but ultimately you've got
to go through and be able to say yeah this is why we're doing it and yes you
may not like it but that's the way it goes david says final question that came
(21:33):
through yesterday oh by the way on retail doc you can get either my books which
is a 69 proven ways to build your retail sale or the retail docs guide to growing your business.
No, I will not be doing other books because everything goes video and SalesRx
is my main driver of retail success right now.
In fact, 83% of our users report a double-digit increase within six months.
(21:54):
David says, how can we get people to stop buying from Amazon and put them out
of business forever? Well, that's not going to happen.
That's like saying, how can I get people to stop buying?
Why do we buy from Amazon? It's easy. It's that simple.
Whenever there is friction in the shopping situation, you're going to lose somebody.
(22:17):
So if you have to go in the back and find it, that means I have to wait and
wonder. I'll just buy it.
If I come by and you're closed, you closed early, well, you've opened the door to Amazon.
If you don't have a QR code or something that I could easily,
when you're at an event or something, I could easily scan and pay,
well, you're probably going to lose me at Amazon. If you really care about it,
then you start thinking, how many friction points do I have?
(22:39):
If somebody wants to pay, there's a line of 30 people like Starbucks.
They go, holy crap, we could do a mobile app.
People would go through and skip the line and be waiting.
Huge change for them. But it starts with looking at the customer.
Why aren't they buying from you and why are they buying from Amazon?
I remember a story several years ago, a toy store, and this woman talked about
(23:00):
how she spent an hour with this woman who was drinking a Frappuccino and her
kid was playing with another employee.
And she found, you know, 45 minutes to an hour to find the perfect bedtime story.
And she scanned, oh, well, I'm not going to buy from you. And I'm going to scan
it and buy from Amazon. I need to save the money. And what could I have said?
And I said, well, she goes, you know, I said to her, you know,
(23:22):
if you do that, we aren't going to be a business. And it's like,
well, that's one way to do it. Why'd you spend 45 minutes on a $14 book?
Let's start off with more basic.
And more importantly, why are you using that as your badge of honor?
There are crappy people in the world, kids. I've had people do all sorts of
things with my content and with my image.
But am I going to focus on that? Or am I going to focus on the people like Patrick
(23:46):
or Heidi or Deanna or Paul or any number of you who have been killing it with
my system for years? No, that's who I'm going to choose to concentrate on.
So if you want to get people to stop buying Amazon, look at the friction in your own business.
And then why don't you get rid of your Amazon account?
Bob, that's not very nice. Can't have it both ways.
(24:07):
There's a reason. It's easy. So if you understand why people are on Amazon and
why they may not buy from you, when you pull back, we have a whole section in
SalesRx on showrooming.
When you pull back and someone's got their phone out and you're over there,
they're scanning it. Oh, and you just want to bitch about it.
Well, great. You win. They're still going to buy it.
Why not engage them? Why don't you teach them how to engage somebody?
(24:29):
Well, they already do a great. Really? Really? Have you mystery shopped your employees?
We did a mystery shop not that long ago. The employee waited six minutes to
go over and talk to the customer. And then it was going to help you find something.
That's not going to work in this day and age, kids. All right.
Call everybody kids. I'm 65. That's not out of making you feel bad.
If you like what I had to say this morning, if you stay with me for 26 minutes,
(24:52):
which a lot of it looks like you did, give me a thumbs up right now.
Put it in comments below.
That's very important. Now I'm going to back into comments and see if there's anything I can see.
All right. So, Patrick, one of my favorite questions I ask prospects is what you taught me.
What happened today that made you say, I need to come and resolve this problem
today? I want some good questions like that to ask.
Such a good talk track. Dude, brilliance only strikes once.
(25:12):
That really is the best. Your goal is to find out what today.
Or you might even say, so what's not working that should be in your phone today?
Because let's face it, you're going to be 90% of me on the phone.
What's limiting you in your phone today that I can help solve?
Anything like that, you can get me to talk.
It's a much better way than something that's yes or no.
(25:34):
And that's true for all of you that whenever you ask a question that's a yes
or no, you're limiting yourself because you get a buildup. There's a buildup in your sewer.
You flush enough stuff down it, your garbage disposal, boy, it's going to block.
The more no's you get in the sales call, the worse it's going to get,
right? So is this the first time I store? No.
(25:55):
Oh, you know, when those all build up as no's, just stop saying anything that gets a no.
Can you describe the first time that the phone stopped working?
When you heard that sound, what did you do next?
Those aren't things you can say yeses or no's to. That helps.
I hope that helps, Patrick. Again, I appreciate a view and all you're trying to do to do better.
(26:15):
Great, great, great. Patrick, this is long, but I'm going to show it.
I drink the Kool-Aid for my company because they took me under and helped me
accomplish personal financial goals. It wasn't just because I wanted to sell phones.
They helped me learn investing, real relationships, become an incredible networker.
Wow. You should go work for that guy.
Yeah, exactly. Find their wants and help them grow their talents and in return become loyal.
(26:39):
Because ultimately, you're going to get what you put out. The idea that you
are this king or queen and I'm going to give you your paycheck,
that's just not going to follow it anymore. Just not going to follow it.
Bridget says, don't count older employees out. They like to get out of the house.
I think that's certainly true.
Teresa, I've been in retail since 1980. I always think I've seen it all and
(27:00):
sometimes I think I know it all, but truly I learn something new every day.
You can't manage all people the same way. Yeah, and we all learn that,
right? We learn that. All right. See you, dude.
All right. So with all that in mind, the thing I would always ask you to do
is, what are you going to do from this call? You just spent a half hour with the retail doc.
Take one action and go do it. I'm Bob Fibbs, the retail doc.
(27:23):
Until August, I'm Bob Fibbs saying we're about as happy as we make our minds
up to be. Use your choice, Messel.
Let's be successful. Bye.
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