The Situation
Rebel wanted to focus sales growth within specific high margin product categories like fitness equipment which requires a high level of customer assistance. Furthermore, Rebel wanted to build more co-operative relationships with their suppliers by providing them with a better and more measurable ROI on product training.
With 80% of shoppers now searching the internet for product information and 61% reusing product reviews before purchasing products*, frontline sales staff need to have the product knowledge and confidence required to sell the features and benefits of products and develop trust with the customer.
There was the need to develop a more accessible, relevant and measurable product training to help sales staff to engage customers and provide them with relevant product information and excellent customer experience.
Social Times Research November 2014
The Solution
We worked with a project team at Rebel to develop a business strategy to build a blended supplier training program to connect their products with their brand ambassadors and increase sale.
Together with the key suppliers, category buyers and marketing department, We identified the key customer segments and the relevant features and benefits of each product.
The content was curated and instructionally designed in short interactive learning modules and deployed off the Rebel learning and communications platform – ‘Sports Uni.’ The platform linked the product information with core retail fundamentals and Rebel’s established selling methodology.
The Sports Uni platform enabled the creation, delivery, tracking and assessment of all training to the sales staff. The staff can self-register to gain access to learning modules and undertake assessments to monitor their learning progress. The platform allows great flexibility to the staff in choosing when, where and how to learn and provides them the option to revisit any module to refresh their knowledge.
The retailers can now track the learning progress of their sales team and have complete information on who has commenced or completed their training. The results allow the retailer, the supplier and the sales team manager to access real time information, measure training versus sales growth and collaborate on how to improve results further.
Benefits to Rebel Sport
- Increased staff confidence in, and sales of, selected products
- Created goodwill with staff as the supplier invested in their product knowledge
- Created a good relationship with the supplier by allowing priority access to staff and building brand credibility
- Enhanced branding with customers experiencing the staff’s superior knowledge and advice
- Enhanced product category training for staff that is funded by the supplier
- Provided better and more timely feedback from staff
- Reduction in training costs
Benefits to Suppliers
- Faster, measurable and more cost effective delivery of product information than small group face to face staff presentations
- Flexibility to constantly update content, set priorities and support sales of new product lines
- Goodwill and mindshare created amongst the retail team flows onto customer awareness, understanding, preference and loyalty for the supplier’s products and services
- Key reporting on all store communications
- Improved visibility and insights into the channel’s capabilities to execute sales & marketing plans
- Reduction in wages spent on face to face training
- Measurable ROI product training and launches
- Increase the sales of trained products