Team spirit in local retail

In times of a shortage of skilled workers, how do small and medium-sized companies in local retail retain top sales talent, ensure long-term success and master team spirit?

More efficiency through team spirit

Finding the right talent for local retail or gastronomy which are passionate about their job and their customers and guests is even more difficult than before due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. However, especially for consulting-intensive businesses, hiring the right talent is a must for long-term success. Even if a retailer has found these and has been able to win them over, he still hasn’t reached his goal. Rather, he must form a team out of the individual salespersons that really works together. Team spirit is the key to productivity and therefore to success. If a retailer wants to make today’s customers happy and win them over in the long term and at the same time cover the much more diverse tasks around the pure sales with fewer sales staff, they have to start within their team.

What does team spirit even mean?

Team spirit occurs when a group of individuals, in this case the salespeople, feel connected and motivated to achieve a common goal. It is crucial for individuals within the team that they get the feeling to actually contributing to the success of the group, that they can trust and support one another. Sales teams may work in the same department, store or for the same brand, but they are a mix of very different individuals whose personalities, backgrounds or strengths and weaknesses differ as much as the people themselves.

The sense of identity that unites them must therefore come from the organization or employer itself and can be based on values, goals and processes. Comparable are fan communities that support a sports team or an actor – they work towards a common victory. Not without reason team building seminars or weekends take place regularly across departments or even countries in many companies.

Why team cohesion is so important in local retail

The cohesion of your individual salespeople as a team impacts almost every aspect of your business, but it is most critical to the productivity within the team. According to a McKinsey study, 97% of all employees believe that lack of coordination within a team influences the outcome of projects. In reverse, this means that strong team spirit leads to optimal performance, a sense of belonging and personal satisfaction. These are all essential factors that create a working environment in which employees feel valued, are happy to stay and, above all, are motivated to excel through individual performance.

You can increase employee engagement by creating positive relationships within the team, setting team goals and defining common values that you convince your team of.

At the end, your team of individual salespeople works towards a large total turnover. However, this main goal can only be achieved through subordinate goals.

When employees do their best, are actively involved in the decision-making process, contribute themselves and communicate with each other within the team, your efficiency will be increased. Happy employees are more engaged employees. In turn, they provide better service to your customers. Outstanding customer service is the reason why your customers buy from you and not your competitor, leave a good review and keep coming back.

How do I get my employees all in the same boat?

Especially in the advice-intensive retail sector, where the relationship with the customer is crucial, the employees, your salespeople, are the driving force. It is the people who, despite digitalization are the flagship of your shop. It’s the people who communicate with your customers that make the difference. In our next article, we would like to explain in 6 simple steps how you can get them all to pull together.

Every single salesperson in your store is a single gear in the wheel. In connection with the common goal of satisfied, loyal customers, you transform your team into a well-oiled machine. Imagine a rowing team – if someone in the boat gets out of sync, the boat immediately loses speed. Teamwork makes the dream work!

We, the team of mPocket, are also pursuing a goal that allows us to work and grow together as a team every day: We want to simplify digital communication, interaction and transaction for local retailers and strengthen all local retailers, city centers and shops around the corner for the future of retail.

Do you also want to know how to simplify, automate and motivate the work within your team in terms of customer and employee satisfaction? Write to us at hello@mpocket.io. If you liked the article, simply signup for our newsletter and stay up to date or check www.mpocket.io. We look forward to hearing from you.

*For reasons of better legibility only the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is not used. All personal names apply to both genders.

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