Know Your Products

A smile and a friendly greeting only are going to carry you so far. Customers want a friendly atmosphere but they also want their questions answered. Independent retailers rarely compete with mass merchants on price. It’s the product knowledge people want. If you can’t provide this, working on your opening greeting doesn’t do any good…no one will be coming through your door.

Some retailers stress individual knowledge of specific products while others believe everyone on the sales floor needs to be up to speed on everything available to consumers. Either way you slice it, just be sure your customers aren’t driving away more confused than when they decided to pull into your parking lot. "We have niched our employee expertise,” said Goldmeier. "Everyone simply cannot know everything about every product. Our employees understand some about all the products, and then we have ‘specialists’ in various areas. We have a faux specialist. We have an equipment specialist. One for paint, wallpaper, color, color matching, etc. There may be some crossover, and the same person may be the specialist for a few areas, but basically, it gets everyone involved."

Colin Cope, owner of Ross Howard Designs in Dallas, Texas, said the Internet is paving the way for customers to be even more knowledgeable when they come into your store. Your staff needs to be ready for them. "When we get leads from the Internet, we find they’re ready to buy," said Cope. "We have to be on our toes because they’ve done their research and already have a good depth of product knowledge. That means that everyone they talk to at our business has to know what they’re taking about—or the prospects go away! We can’t just have people sitting in our store who don’t have product knowledge."

Russell said product knowledge originates with the type of people you hire. Look for people who genuinely care about the product you are selling and the customers you are serving. They are the ones who want to learn more about your product offering. “Helping customers with their questions and problems just comes naturally now,” he said. "We take the time to listen to the customer and advise them on what will work best for them in terms of products and colors. If you help them, they’ll come back again. It’s not like when they go to a big box and the paint department is being covered by a kid who just came over from the lumber yard."

Manufacturers also suggested that they are just a phone call away with answers to product questions and many offer training so that sales staff is up to date on the latest innovations. "Take advantage of training provided by manufacturers to become more knowledgeable for your customers," said Adam Churchill, director customer contact for Cabot. "Today’s consumer is much more educated, but still needs the expertise of a professional. Let’s face it, the world of coatings is not as simple as it would seem, so it’s imperative that those retailers strive to always be learning."

"Dealers know they can call us with questions and we’ll get them an answer immediately," said Boyajian of California Paints. "If a customer has a problem at a big box, the sales clerk probably has to look up the answer in a book."