Where high street retailers have clear advantages over online sellers is that they enable both direct product testing by the consumer and personal specialist advice from the sales staff. It is especially where products are worth explaining – running shoes, for instance, or consumer electronics products – that the salesperson is the most important touchpoint. That makes the sales staff in the retail sector the most important link between product and consumer. Only if the customer in a retail shop has a positive experience and interaction with the product, after all, will they actually decide to buy it.
The powers of persuasion of the sales staff and their product knowledge are thus critical for manufacturers if they are to safeguard their edge over competing products and reach their sales targets.
The salesperson, though, is only as good as their knowledge of the product and brand. The sales staff must know and internalize the technical features and product benefits if they are to be able to convince customers of them later.
Classic sales and product training that concentrates only on rational facts and product USPs is no longer appropriate. These days it is innovative training concepts that establish an emotional bond between the seller and the product or brand, with the aim of making sales staff loyal brand friends over the long term.
This is precisely where the training concepts we at WOWing Experience GmbH offer come in: we have developed a new kind of training concept that differ from traditional product training by putting the focus firmly on the fun and interactive element. The training courses for retail staff give salespeople the opportunity to experience and try out the product features for themselves through a gamification approach. From the augmented reality app to the large-scale team event, whatever turns the training into an enjoyable experience is allowed. That's because evidence shows that having fun with the product is what makes the gamification approach so effective.
The gamification approach which addresses as many senses as possible achieves a much longer-lasting learning effect than conventional sales trainings and creates in the sales staff an emotional bond with the product and brand that they later pass on to the consumer. This means that the sales staff are already more loyal to the brand, which will in turn have a positive effect on the quality of advice they give the consumer.
"Our aim is to inspire the sales staff. After all, an inspired salesperson will find it easier to give the customer effective advice and persuade them to buy. Innovative gamification approaches are the ideal means of communicating key product features in a fun, creative and therefore sustainable way. Our solutions provide direct and lasting support to the sales targets of our customers." (Nils Hartmann, Executive Director WOWing Experience GmbH)
The outstanding experience we have gained with our innovative sales training in both the sporting goods and the consumer electronics sector has been recognised: this year we won the German Brand Award for the development of our innovative training concept for the Google Pixel 2 – Retail Training Cube.