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During these trying times, selling our products and services has become tougher and more challenging to do. Despite using technology, the internet, social media and e-commerce platforms, the returns seem to not be as much as the effort spent! What if I were to tell you there is a much easier and more effective matter to attract customers and simplify our efforts? Nope, it’s not techniques to sell our products better or making our posts more attractive, rather it’s how it makes our brand more attractive – A Brand Story!

You might have heard customers complain about price, product selection and options, but never a company or businesses’ brand story. However, that does not mean a brand story is irrelevant, on the contrary, it means a brand story is absolutely needed to truly shift our customers’ mindset of use as a mere “product and service provider” to their “favorite go to brand” for their products and services needs. That’s when we truly move away from talking price and truly talking value.

So, brand story is the missing ingredient for every business…….before they become popular!

Think of all the popular brands such as Nike, llao llao, Honda etc. Most of their brand stories come after they’ve become popular. As such, allow me to share our companies’ brand story as tips for you to start thinking more deeply about your companies’ brand story

HOW WE BEGAN?

We started out as a training department in Senheng focused on training and upskilling employees according to changing trends for the purpose of improving the business and improving the quality of life and work for our beloved employees. One day, our Chairman, Mr KH Lim was given the mission to look into retail productivity of not only Senheng but all Malaysian SMEs. His hopes were to allow Malaysian SMEs to grow and become a strong economic force.

Hence our company SH Retail Academy (SHRA) was formed for that very purpose. We provide upskilling and training to retailers and SMEs in Malaysia by providing insights and valuable information. As Senheng has gone through many ups and downs, we are here to prevent that from happening to you and to maximize the resources you have by guiding you through potential business land mines.

WHY THE NEED?

However, in retail, where the market trends and consumer behaviors are consistently changing as well as adapting, a one size fits all training or a theory-based training can never benefit and upskill employees. Furthermore many businesses have realized the continued practice of traditional retail is no longer the way. If an outdated or irrelevant training provider is selected, the information we get may gravely cost us customer retention, upselling opportunities and inaccurate forecasts.

As such, without forgetting the core of our beliefs, we prioritize delivering the most relevant and up-to-date information, processes and skills to employees through our training. We understand that many businesses wish to move away from traditional retail. In light of that, we have dedicated ourselves to constantly update our database and case studies according to the best practices of the market to reduce your struggles in adapting to New retail. We use case studies and scenarios from none other than successful retailers both internationally and locally to provide you a one-stop solution to solve all your retail worries.

WHAT DO WE DO?

In a world of escalating change and growing in complexity, businesses are required to adopt a flexible, adaptable yet strong business model in order to survive. We specialize in providing you and your business fundamental knowledge, skills and training programs centered around creating a seamless business model to enhance your retail approach.

With our 3R Model, we could help you to renew your employees’s mindset, replicate successful business practices and reignite your team’s passion and motivation in the journey of New Retail Transformation.

As such, our various retail based programs are catered to clients and customers’ needs and requirements. This ranges from crafting programs suitable for frontline salespersons to leaders in the retail sector. Our programs are focused on practical application, thus our program includes retail case studies, proven success formulas and up-to-date best market practices for clients’ to begin implementing in their business.

Besides, our programs are centered around employee upskilling. As such, not only do we use industry proven case studies, we adopt psychology proven strategies, theories backed by scientific methodology as well as practice NLP infused techniques to provide a sure-fire success formula for your employees to learn, practice and grow comfortably in this fast retail pace.

WHY US?

We have trained over 140 companies, 3,400 individuals and over 22,000 participants throughout our establishment and we have trained companies such as SpectacleX, Fitness Concept, AIA Public Takaful and so on. Furthermore, we utilize case studies and success formulas from Senheng, Malaysia’s No. 1 Consumer Electronic Retailers In Malaysia and a pioneer in Digital Transformation and New Retail in Malaysia.

Due to this, our programs encompass diverse retail examples and retail needs from various retailing fields to effectively tailor training programs suitable to your specific retail field as well as your company. Our programs focus on retail specific topics such as customer service, sales skills, personal development, leadership etc. To provide a holistic and one-stop solution to your retail training needs.

In addition, our programs are focused on making changes by targeting the root cause at a higher level. By focusing on the employees beliefs, mindsets, skills and behavior, this allows us to not only achieve one or two objectives, but multiple objectives in a single session. Effectively and efficiently using you and your employees time.

Beyond case studies, applications, success formulas and diverse experience in curating retail programs for different fields, we also collect, analyze and provide you instant access to holistic reports immediately after training that includes employee attendance, pre-training and post-training knowledge assessments and training evaluation for a clear update and view of your employee progresses.

TIME FOR YOUR BRAND STORY!

With our company brand story as an example, you can craft your very own brand story according to said template. By briefly introducing your companies’ history, the need for your company, a simple statement of the services and products your business provides and the benefit your clients can get from you, you can craft an informative and engaging brand story for your company.

A tip for you when you craft your brand story would be to really dig deep and introduce your companies’ value and personality. Similar to customers’ preferences with products, our brands should also be able to communicate our values to our customers like a person. With that added personality and value, the brand story would be able to successfully shift customer mindset from “price” to “value” instead.

A good brand story would encompass the above items while an excellent one would contain many other aspects and elements in the story. What’s that? You’d like to learn how to create a strong brand story and utilize this retail power? Interested to find out what other programs we offer for you? Well, you can start by visiting our website for more information on the list of programs we offer and stay tuned to tips on improving your brand story!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 2,402 total views,  1 views today

With the recent drop in sales as well as drop in customer traffic, our first instinct may be to look at reducing our price and introducing promotions to attract customers. Tons of businesses can be seen doing this both offline and online as a desperate attempt to lock customers. However, price may be sensitive towards customers, it may not the core issue that is causing a loss of customers! The core issue may be closer and deadlier than you think, and that is your sales skills and abilities.

Customers may use price, lack of free gift or product not useful as reasons to not purchase your products even when they are on promotions. However, you may see the very same customers purchasing an even more expensive product or service from another store instead. Customers nowadays have the capabilities and cash to purchase products. However, like our phones, customers have become smarter consumers. In order for us to retain and lock our customers, we need to take a look at how we sell our products!

As such, the million dollar question would be what areas of my sales skills do I need to improve? Let’s take a look at 3 areas that may be causing you to lose customers.

1. Sell first, ask never
2. Selling math and not medicine
3. One Size Fits All Selling Method

1. SELL FIRST, ASK NEVER 

Let’s do a small exercise together, let’s think about our recent shopping experience. How many questions does it take the salesperson to ask before selling us a product? Most of the time it’ll be 3 questions:

• What are you looking for?
• What is your budget?
• What brand do you prefer?

After you answer these three questions (sometimes just two) the salesperson would proceed to begin selling. If your most recent shopping experience is online, then that number goes down to 0. So why is asking such an important step before selling you ask? Well, let me illustrate with my sales experience. I asked a customer of mine those 3 questions, promoted one of our products. She said she will consider it and proceeds to walk out and never come back. Sounds common correct? It doesn’t end there, I decided to ask 2 more questions to my next customer and those 2 questions helped me to close that sale!

What questions did I ask? I asked my customer “Are you using this for personal use or office use?” and proceeded to ask “What’s wrong with your previous device?”. These 2 questions were simple but crucial as it gave me an idea of what the customer wants instead of guessing their budget and guessing which product would suit them. She told me she needed a device for office use and the previous device was slow and laggy. As such, I sold her one of our premium products that runs faster, smoother and charges faster to fit her office usage. She took it without hesitation and I managed to sell a premium product! Just with those 2 extra questions, I managed to close 2 more sales that very day!

We are obviously not mind readers, as such, we need information to sell effectively and this information comes from (you guessed it) – asking! Rather than focusing on selling hot products or affordable products, we can take one step back by asking what our customers want and what they need before attempting to sell our products to them. That saves us time from guessing while also allowing us to focus more on selling the product to the customer instead of debating and convincing them based on prices.

2. SELLING MATH AND NOT MEDICINE 

“Sir/Miss, our package A includes (1,2,3), our package B includes (1,2,3,4) and our package C includes (1,2,3,4,5).”

“Sir/ Miss, our product here has the latest processor, best camera, and largest storage in the market!”

I believe you’ve heard these phrases a ton of times, the question now would be, does it immediately make you feel the want and need to buy the product? The answer is probably no. Most salespersons out there are focused on selling the overwhelming number of specifications to the customer in hopes of impressing the customers with their products and services. However, selling is more than just a numbers game, more specs does not mean better selling, sometimes it is just as simple as selling medicine at a pharmacy or clinic.

Take my recent trip to the pharmacy for example, I was looking for sunburn medication (thanks to the ever blazing sun at the beach during raya) as well as itch relief medication (no thanks to the enormous amount of mosquitoes and flies). One of the promoters approached me, asked me what I needed and guided me to the respective products. She explained to me based on my sunburn condition, she would suggest product A as it would rehydrate my skin while also relieving the effects of sunburn. She then suggested product B for itch relief as the cream helps to alleviate the effects of the itch. I bought it instantly with no confusion and a 100% happy shopping experience.

I doubt you have ever heard a promoter selling panadol to you by saying “this product has paracetamol in it, one of the best ingredients in the market!” If we were to ever hear that I believe most of us would buy the panadol for the promoter instead! As such, we need to shift from selling our products based on their specs to selling our products based on its functionality! Rather than saying this package contains what services, we can highlight the benefits brought about from the different services. Instead of saying “this product has the best processing chip in the market” why not try saying “this product has a fast processor that does not lag when opening multiple tabs” instead. Rather than focus on selling and mentioning the amount of specs the product has, we can think of what functions the products bring instead.

3. ONE SIZE FITS ALL SELLING METHOD

Most of the time we may develop a single method to sell all our products, from the way we greet to the way we close sales. Although it’s good to have a standardized way and tempo for selling, it is crucial for us to personalize and differentiate our selling method according to our customers preferences. Let me introduce to you Salesperson A and Salesperson B, my ex-colleagues.

Salesperson A, has a very standard way of selling and greeting. Be it the customer is young, old, male, female, tall, short … you get the picture. Everytime he sells a product, he would use the exact same script to sell. He would start by telling the customer this is the hottest product, introduce the camera features, mention about limited stocks and lastly tell them about any add-on deals. He does the speaking 80% of the time and his sales achievement that month? RM 45,000.00

Salesperson B on the other hand, has a more fluid way of selling and greeting customers. For gamers, he would highlight advanced gaming features; for vloggers or camera enthusiasts, he would focus on the camera quality as well as the 5G technology. He would vary his script according to customers preferences and usage.His sales achievement that month? RM 120,000.00

You may think I am joking but I kid you not, it is because of the personalization of selling that allowed him to easily connect with customers. Not only did he get the highest sales achievement that month, he managed to establish good customer connections and secure a bunch of returning customers. It is good we have a standard way of selling, but selling should be fluid and personalized according to everyone’s needs and preferences. Instead of practicing a one size fits all approach, it would be beneficial for us to have a standard way and experiment from there to personalize according to customers’ preferences.

In short, it is crucial for us to revisit how we sell our products and services to our customers! To ask more instead of sell more, to talk functions instead of specifications and to personalize our selling method instead of standardization. These are some of the important yet often missed out areas that can potentially save our business from being ruined.

Obviously there are a ton of areas in sales skills for us to brush up in order for us to truly excel and triumph over our competitors. You want to upskill and learn these sales skills but don’t know where to begin? Fret not! You can start by visiting our website for more information on sales skills and other programs that can supercharge your business today!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 1,985 total views,  1 views today

Retail. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that word? Did you imagine a girl or a guy making rounds in the shop, pulling a trolley or rack full of clothing, assuming that they work in a fashion store? Or, did you visualize a scenario of a lady named Karen maybe, browsing through the grocery aisle, shifting her gaze back and forth between the product and the worker there, even asking to see the manager? Or, are you one of those people who envisage a world of digitalization, transformation or even revolution when it comes to processes of operating and purchasing products?

Regardless of what you think, there’s nothing wrong with that. When it comes to retail, almost anything is possible and believe me when I say that, because different people have different ways of retailing. Some might like it, some might not. In terms of perspective, retail workers will most likely view it from their end and for the rest of the majority, non-retail workers a.k.a customers, see it quite differently.

Customer is always right, a phrase coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge back in 1909, which can make businesses go into an automatic mode of prioritizing customers to ensure satisfaction on a god-tier level. As a result, this concept may enable customers to feel entitled or should I say, rude to a certain extent when it was never meant to be taken literally. The argument is, in the era of digitalization our focus should be on technologies, rather solely concentrating on customers. The question is now, how do you actually integrate technology into your business to elevate retail experience? You know what, let’s go on a fun ride. Put your seatbelt on and let me bring you further into this topic.

1. The Change Of Consumer Behavior
2. Retail Evolution With Industry 4.0
3. Uniting Superior Customer Experience (CX) And Operational Excellence (OX)

1. THE CHANGE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

To compare conventional shoppers with modern ones these days, I’d say there is a ginormous gap in between. Do you agree with me? If your answer is yes, congratulations! You just earned a ‘Great Minds Think Alike’ badge. If you don’t, it’s okay, let me convince you more since I presume your mind might be even greater after this. First of all, there’s no need to think so far, let’s take a look at COVID-19, what do you think? Some people can already feel the dread just by hearing the word ‘positive’. Putting this event into the retail context, this pandemic is basically revolutionizing every aspect of the world, especially retail.

Back then when retailing was pretty much traditional, retailers put customers on the podium and let the light shine on them. Products that were sold were always customer centric and it was a rather single-minded approach, making retailers short-sighted when it comes to strategies. In the digital age of retail, putting your sole focus on customers is not going to work anymore. What you need is to discover and make use of other channels and approaches to get people to flood your shop, both offline and online. Does it sound better now? I believe it does.

Not forgetting, the convenience of customers is on the rise, and let me tell you, that trend is here to stay. Any brick-and-mortar store that does not include an online shopping option or channel is, safe to say, doomed to failure in the future. That is why, brick-and-mortar shops must carefully consider what physical locations can offer that online buying cannot. It’s mostly a physical experience that allows customers to see and, to some extent, test out things before they buy them. For big-ticket items like furniture and automobiles, it can benefit greatly from a hands-on approach or most people call it, experiential shopping experience during the purchasing process.

Changes in consumer behavior and the interplay between online convenience and the benefits of a face-to-face experience will continue to shape the future of retail. With that thought in mind, it is imperative for retail business owners to keep up with these ever-changing behavior and preferences via digital means if they want their firms to thrive.

2. RETAIL EVOLUTION WITH INDUSTRY 4.0

So now, what comes next after consumer’s changes? This is where I bring you into the digital evolution of retail. Have you heard of Industry 4.0 before? Give yourself a moment to think about it. The concept of Industry 4.0 actually refers to the fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing. In simpler words, it prescribes how new technological innovations can be used to control production processes. Sounds cool right? For retail workers, digitization is at the heart of Industry 4.0, which aims to free people from tedious tasks all day long. Which is why technological advancements have accelerated dramatically over the last decade to give us new methods to manage our work life, and Industry 4.0 provides workers with greater chances and freedom to accomplish their best work. As a result, the more Industry 4.0 technology a firm or organization adopts, the more benefits it will reap eventually.

In addition, with this concept, we can bid farewell to data barriers. Isn’t that great? This is because it is quickly becoming a tool for businesses, particularly in the industrial sector to support decision-making that is data driven and boost overall profitability and competitiveness. With the passage of time, the Industry 4.0 discourse has become much more mainstream and global, spawning a slew of neologisms in the fields of labor, operations, education, marketing, management, society, and innovation, as well as various industry-specific phrases such as Retail 4.0. I’m in such awe with my jaw dropping right now due to all these miraculous advancements. Are you amazed too?

Coming back to this, the term Retail 4.0 has been used to describe a variety of trends and advancements in the worldwide retail industry. It focuses on introducing innovation to the customer experience and evaluating the role of the shop in merchant-customer relationships, and is often referred to as intelligent digital. Some features such as omnichannel ability, customer interaction personalization as well as responsive merchandising have been made intrinsic to the retail industry of a new era. Without technology, we won’t be able to achieve such greatness don’t you think?

3. UNITING SUPERIOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE (OX)

Now that you know a customer-centric approach is not enough, I’m going to tell you how you can do so much more. In retail, digital transformation has shifted many things including products and customers, therefore comes the merge of customer experience with operational performance. In certain scenarios, customers’ experience is frequently misunderstood by retailers as the experience at the final touchpoint. They went all out by focusing on customer service and sales, designing the greatest online and mobile user interfaces, and investing in social interaction along with listening. But here’s the truth, all of these efforts, however, will be for naught if the underlying operations are not capable of supporting the customer’s journey. Thus, it is critical to provide trustworthy data to operational systems in order for them to function efficiently.

Imagine this scenario, a customer who has a loyalty card and shops at a retailer frequently. The identical individual is now looking through the merchant’s online store. Even though the merchant collects device and browsing data, it is unable to link the activities that take place across different channels. Meanwhile, the corporate marketing department of this business continues to send unrelated email offers to customers based on what they have previously purchased from the store, without knowing what they have searched for online. If the company can properly combine all of this information taken from different channels and sources, they will be able to deliver the consumer far more relevant and timely offers.

To sum it up, retailers need to stay relevant to ensure survival in this dog-eat-dog world where nothing comes easy. As of now, the majority of technological drivers of retail 4.0 are still in development. However, we can’t help but see a 4.0 technology trend emerging across all platforms, and it’s only a matter of time before they take off. Subsequently, now is the moment to begin adapting to the reality of retail 4.0. Creating new infrastructures and updating existing ones must be part of an organization’s strategy for operating in a continuously changing environment, without losing focus on customers. If everyone competes for cutting-edge technology that has the potential to greatly enhance sales figures, we can be confident that several positive outcomes will follow.

Before I end this article, I have good news to share with all of you. Fortunately, you don’t have to look far to learn about new strategies in retail because we have just the right thing for you. If you’re interested and keen on implementing New Retail methods for your business, stay tuned for our New Retail program in April 2022. You can also visit our website for more information on programs that can assist you in your professional and personal endeavors while you wait. Till next time, toodaloo!

Written By Syuhada Rozihas,
SHRA Corporate Trainer

Syuhada Rozihas is a Corporate Trainer at SH Retail Academy who is passionate about making a difference for herself and those around her. She has trained more than 1,000 sales professionals, executives and managers in the areas of retail sales. Meanwhile, in her free time, she enjoys hiking and running to keep her in shape, as well as baking for her loved ones. You can find her on LinkedIn.

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3 Retail Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Business in 2022

1. Think that brand story is not important
2. Spending too much time on long and redundant processes
3. Overly maximize retail resources

1. THINK THAT BRAND STORY IS NOT IMPORTANT

In this day of age, having just a brand and logo is no longer sufficient to push your product to stand out from the rest. Hard to imagine? We can do a little exercise! Let’s take out our phones and go to either Shopee, Lazada, Taobao or any e-commerce app and search for something simple like a bag. You’ll see that there are tons of options and variety with an even larger pool of brands and logos for these products. So how do we differentiate the products? Take myself for example, I was looking for a good quality ukulele (to deal with the boredom of the pandemic). I filtered through tons of reviews and feedback of various ukulele brands, when I say tons, I mean TONS! After what seemed like an eternity, I came to the conclusion that it was too much and I closed my app and went to bed.

In the end, much like every other customer, I decided to just go to a physical store and search for my “dream” ukulele. That’s when I came across L.Luthier. I was curious about the interesting logo so the staff explained, the h in the logo is distinct and made to look like the mandarin character for people “?”. This is based on the founders’ passion to work hard in creating perfection to aspiring musicians. Thus the logo looks like someone bent over, working on a project.

I bought the ukulele and had an amazing time with it but the story behind the logo, brand and the passion of the founder touched me till this very day! In this day of age, we as modern shoppers purchase based on the uniqueness and relatability of the brand to us. As such, the long neglected brand story has actually become one of the important distinctions for businesses to have to differentiate among the ocean of brands out in the market!

2. SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON LONG AND REDUNDANT PROCESSES 

“I need to sort out my online store orders and physical store orders!”

“My staff is on leave, I need to arrange someone else to take charge!”

“My store is running out of stock, I need to arrange to order them now!”

Are these some of the statements you use frequently these days? If so, that is a huge red flag indicating that your business needs to adapt to stay on top! Previously as a retail executive, I found it tiring to work day-to-day solving issues such as manpower and stock issues. By the time I had resolved all these issues, I only had time to complete daily tasks with no space to improve. Sometimes I even had to push some of the leftover tasks to the next day! This became a continuous cycle of solving issues and completing tasks before time runs out rather than a focus on how to improve the current situation!

Things finally began to look better when I decided to spend some time organizing a system and way of documentation to allow for smoother store inventory management. Next, I focused on using apps and tools to track orders and manpower issues. It took me two weeks to completely utilize and execute these systems and a number of tasks left unattended. However, it became so so SO much better to manage my daily tasks. I found myself having more time to improve the system I implemented, having an easier time resolving issues and having a much smoother process in predicting upcoming issues.

So if you find yourself constantly spending your time solving issues without extra time to improve your business, that means it’s time to focus on streamlining and automating your business. Similar to the quote by Winston Churchill “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks!”, when your time is mostly spent on resolving menial and tedious issues, you won’t have the time to do what you are meant to do! In this case, optimizing your business!

3. OVERLY MAXIMIZE RETAIL RESOURCES 

The resources in this case doesn’t only include your products and staff, it also includes the space you have in your store! It’s tempting to make sure to display all possible products in your store for the customers to pick, but if this causes the store to be filled to the brim with items and no space for the customer to experience them, that becomes a huge issue! A store that maximizes their retail resources generally have the following characteristics:

• Have sufficient space to display important and focused products with some variety
• Space for customers to walk around, experience and test out the products.
• Properly lit and themed

Take L.Luthier for example, I went to their store and despite the variety of guitars and ukuleles that were hanging on the walls, they had ample space for us to sit, experience and test out their instruments! Not only that, but the store design was very rustic, very comfortable and lit with warm yellow lights. This compared to another ukulele store I went to and it was cramped to the max. They had all their ukuleles on display, but had no place for me to sit and properly test it out, it was quite poorly lit so I found myself accidentally bumping into things. To make matters worse, the sales person even had trouble demonstrating the ukulele because of the cramped space (he was still quite skilled though).

So as much as you want to display all of your products, an important question to ask yourself would be “will my customers be able to experience my products properly?”. Modern shoppers have the option to go to any online store to purchase what they want, so what sets physical stores and online stores apart? The ability to experience the product and have someone assist you while doing so! Rather than focusing on product and staff, it’s time we focus on the space we are utilizing and whether it’s conducive for customers to experience the products!

As a retail business owner in this day of age, it is important to be customer-centric. Developing and crafting a unique brand story to set yourself apart from competition, allowing customers to experience what the store can offer by properly maximizing retail resources while automating processes to be more efficient could be the difference between a normal retail business and a successful one that stays on top of the game!

Managing a retail business requires us to constantly stay updated on market trends and the latest most efficient practices in the field to stay on top of the game. Interested and hungry for the latest market trends and top practices? Check out our Retail Management Program on our website or look at other public programs that can help you to excel both in work and in life!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 2,115 total views,  1 views today

Career success is typically tied to one’s self-worth in our society; we all want to be loved. Fear tells us that we’re putting ourselves out there and risking failure and social rejection when we do so. When it comes to selling, no one is exempt from the constant risk of being rejected.

“I’ll be fired if I don’t close this deal. “I’ll be unable to pay my bills, my spouse won’t be interested in me, and my family’s proof that I’ll never amount to anything if I’m fired from my job.”

These thoughts perfectly illustrate what most people in sales feel about their job.

To share with all of you, I had a friend who worked as a telemarketer and I still remember when he told me that he dreaded his job. After failing to reach sales goals one day, he became paralyzed with terror. In his personal life, the fear of losing a job affected him greatly. He was in constant conflict with his wife and his family, and he was generally unhappy. He is not, in my opinion, an outlier. Telemarketers and sales reps alike face the same obstacles when it comes to sales rejection, and business owners struggle to help their sales people overcome objections so they can close more deals. It’s time to do something about it.

You’ll learn how to deal with sales rejection in telemarketing and how to help your team and yourself move from a terrified to an unafraid frame of mind in this article.

1. Examine Your Selling Methods
2. Put Your Listening Skill Into Practice
3. Keep In Touch
4. Keep A Positive Frame Of Mind
5. Don’t Take It Too Seriously

1. EXAMINE YOUR SELLING METHODS

Building better relationships and avoiding pitching too early are two things that each salesperson may take to increase their results. However, you must perform a lot of self-reflection at the end of the day. Consider every sales rejection as an opportunity to learn something new. Attempt to deconstruct each transaction to see what went wrong and what went correctly. External issues on the client’s end might sometimes be the source of a rejection. It’s sometimes the result of a competitor beating you to the punch or offering a better deal than you. And occasionally your product isn’t a good fit for what your lead is looking for. You won’t be able to enhance your sales unless you figure out why your presentations are failing.

Next, determine your sales conversion rate as well as the industry average. It’s as familiar to you as the lyrics of your favorite song. You may feel as if you’re getting a lot of “no’s,” but this is likely due to the nature of your product or service. You can’t judge your sales ability unless you know how it stacks up against others in your ecosystem. Learn about your own talents and weaknesses. What effect does your behavior have on your sales? Prepare your pitches in front of the mirror, record your practices, and anticipate frequent objections. Knowing how your voice and expressions change as you talk about different topics can help you enhance the quality of your in-person, video chat, email, social, and phone pitches.

Aside from that, don’t be hesitant to ask questions such as, “Did I do a good job emphasizing the benefits of the product or service?” Have you forgotten to mention something that you typically do? Consider sending a quick survey to clients after a successful sale to assist you figure out what elements contributed to your success. Send one to prospects who also rejected your pitch for extra brownie points. What are the worst-case scenarios? Your request is simply ignored.

2. PUT YOUR LISTENING SKILL INTO PRACTICE

Did you know, listening is especially important during the actual conversation? The most effective technique to sell is to actively listen more and speak more meaningfully. Create a positive relationship with your customers because people will buy from individuals they like. Demonstrate genuine interest in how they are doing by engaging in a conversation about a similar extracurricular activity or simply cracking a joke to lighten the atmosphere. After that, ask insightful questions as well. Don’t hesitate to give the prospect an adequate chance to discuss their company, worries, and requirements. You’d be astonished at how much information can be gleaned just reading between the lines.

Not to be forgotten, attempt to construct a picture of a joyful conclusion for them. After you’ve listened carefully, demonstrate to them that their objectives can be met with your answer. Be the one who writes their story, but don’t be too ready to get started. Whenever someone raises a price issue, don’t give up and start lowering right away. Understand where the pricing objection comes from first, and then stand firm on the value of your offering. Along with creating rapport, it is important to establish trust. If a prospect inquires as to if there are any other suitable options available, name a few good competitors. It conveys sincerity and self-assurance. Being prepared to explain why is essential, however.

3. KEEP IN TOUCH

If we look at it from the standpoint of telemarketing, I believe it is fair to say that only a small number of sales or appointments are made on our very first contact with the decision-maker. It is not uncommon for it to take anywhere between 5 and 10 phone calls to generate genuine interest and set up a sales appointment. When it comes to sales prospects, it’s amazing how many slip through the cracks because of a lack of follow-up. You shouldn’t expect sales to happen on your first pitch.

The data from HubSpot shows that 44% of salespeople give up after a single unsuccessful offer, yet prospects require more than a straightforward transaction. In fact, 80 percent of purchases require at least five further follow-up engagements. Another 20 percent will hold off on making a purchase for 12 months after asking information about your company from you. Unless you’re giving up after the first pitch, you’ve given up far too soon. When your finest pitch fails to impress, it might be difficult to find the motivation to try again, yet it may be exactly what your prospect requires in this situation.

If you and the other party agree on a time and day for a follow-up phone call, mark it in your calendar, on your task list, or, better, on your CRM system, and regard it as an absolutely necessary phone meeting that must take place. After all, you wouldn’t bother to show up for a face-to-face meeting or a scheduled phone contact with your most valuable customer, would you? It’s understandable. That phone call you didn’t pick up could very well have been from your next best customer!

4. KEEP A POSITIVE FRAME OF MIND

Preparation is easier when you know what is going to happen rather than when you don’t. As soon as you accept that rejection is a fact of life, use your knowledge to your advantage. Consider the following questions:

– Are there a variety of reasons why someone might say no to your proposal?

– Rather than putting a stop to the discussion, what can I say in response to these arguments?

– How do I gracefully accept a firm “no”?

While there are many various reasons why people say no, you can prepare solutions that help them see your offer from an entirely different perspective if you anticipate their objections in advance. When someone initially says no, this can help them alter their mind and say yes. When people refuse to modify their beliefs, smile and shake hands with them. How does this make you feel better? Even if you don’t feel happy, you can reply in a positive manner if you practise how to respond to rejection. Your feelings will eventually catch up with your actions.

In addition, choosing to focus on the larger picture rather than dwelling on each no will help you maintain a positive outlook. Assume some of the individuals you meet will become clients. That percentage is not always under your control. However, you may be able to influence the percentage of new clients that that percentage represents. That’s a good overview.

Dealing with negativity is a regular element of the sales process. It’s just part of the territory. When bad things happen to us, such as being turned down by gatekeepers or losing transactions, we experience negativity, and we experience it via the way we speak to ourselves in our heads on a subconscious level. Every day, make an effort to feed your brain with good thoughts. Inspiring quotations, motivational music, historical accounts of resilience and determination are all on the menu this week. You must maintain your good attitude. You are capable of completing the task. Never lose sight of the fact that you are just one prospect away from closing a sale that will change your life.

5. DON’T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY

The advice that salespeople despise the most, despite the fact that they understand its reality, is that they should not lose a commission since the loss of a commission impacts their own income and, if they do not improve to reach their quota, the loss of their employment. Recognize that rejection is an unavoidable aspect of the job as a telemarketing, and accept it. It should never come as a surprise to you. It is not something to be avoided, but rather something to be accepted as a fact of life and dealt with responsibly. Don’t let the rejection impact you since you might get a call from someone who is ready to see the demo that you are talking about on the following call.

To convince yourself that you can be anyone, it’s important to recognise that rejection is not directed directly at you. Repudiation, on the other hand, might be caused by a variety of factors that have nothing to do with them, such as poor timing, negative experiences with past sales representatives, business conditions, economic issues, and even bad moods. None of which will be revealed to you by gatekeepers or even decision makers. Clients simply refuse to do business with you. It’s not a problem. Winners merely smile and move on to the next person on their list of potential customers or vendors.

Here you go, these are the 5 ways to overcome rejections. And, if you wish to upskill yourself to learn more about the right telemarketing mindset, telemarketing persuasion techniques or  telemarketing strategies, we have got you covered in our telemarketing program.

In SH Retail Academy, we combine application successes that are time-proven from Senheng with the latest knowledge and concepts to bring effective retail industry training programs for companies in Malaysia. Beginning from the formulation of our training program outlines, content and delivery methods; each process is derived using retail thought process and retail needs. Should you need any assistance, be it offline or online, we’ve got you covered with more valuable tools.

Find out more and kick start your journey today by reaching out to us here.

Enquire For Our Telemarketing Training Today

Written By Syuhada Rozihas,SHRA Corporate Trainer

Syuhada Rozihas is a Corporate Trainer at SH Retail Academy who is passionate about making a difference. She has trained more than 1,000 sales professionals, executives and managers in the areas of retail sales. Meanwhile, in her free time, she enjoys hiking, running and baking. You can find her on LinkedIn.

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Shopping, a refreshing leisure activity loved by Malaysians of all ages. Especially during the weekends where we get to spend our precious time with our friends, family, and partners or even by ourselves! Imagine having an amazing mood, looking forward to purchasing something you’ve been wanting for a long time only to come face to face with a mediocre promoter =/.

There are tons of amazing promoters during my personal shopping experience and I believe some of you would begin thinking of that one time when a promoter “wow-ed” you so hard you bought the item mainly because of them (and yourself of course). However, the same applies to the opposite where I believe you can recall unpleasant experiences as well.

So for aspiring promoters, retailers and readers out there, here are some of my learnings from my recent experiences with promoters:

3 Learnings From Recent Experience With Promoters

1. The Golden 3P’s
2. Handling questions and objections
3. Basic customer service

1. THE GOLDEN 3P’S

The lifeline of a promoter and the foundation to whether the promoter can sell an item lies in the 3P’s. These 3P’s are Product knowledge, Promotions and Price. As a promoter, it is a MUST to know these 3P’s as it provides us, the customer, the confidence that you know the product you are trying to sell and that we can believe in you. This knowledge not only encompasses your own products but it also encompasses competitor products or even products of different brands.

I recently visited a store in Setia City Mall to look for a formal blazer for myself (to finally change that old tight blazer and possibly to get more than one to look more fashionable, yay) when the promoter approached me. I was eager to carefully pick out the “Ultimate” Blazer for myself. My excitement was brief as the promoter only mentioned brief differences between the blazers such as color, size and design. I thought to myself maybe he wanted to know more about my preferences and questions before going in-depth to explain the product. So I decided to ask more questions such as “What type of body would the center and side vent blazers fit?”, “What are the differences between the materials?”, “What setting would be suitable for the double-breasted and single-breasted blazer?” etc. The promoter however only gave me brief answers such as “like this lo”, “this one not sure oh” and “depend on people one wor, see what you like”. As you can imagine, I was immensely disappointed with the experience and the first thought process that came to mind was “Why does the promoter not know how to sell this item to me?”

Fortunately, a senior promoter (I assume) stepped in as he noticed my disappointment and took over from there. He was eager to explain to me each and every purpose for the designs of blazers. I went from having little to no knowledge of blazers to understanding how I can tell if my body is more suited for the single breasted or double breasted suit. He even explained how the side vent and center vent could highlight my figure more either sitting or standing. I was thoroughly impressed and found my love of blazers again. Not only did I learn about the product more, the promoter decided to upsell and pair slacks and slacks together with the blazer. But wait! That’s not all! On top of that he introduced the promotions currently ongoing to me as well. Although they currently do not have the color I was hoping for (wine red), I left the store with the promoter’s name card and the excitement of waiting for their message. This experience really cemented the importance of the 3P’s to me.

2. HANDLING QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIONS

As a promoter you’re bound to meet with tons of questions and objections. I can recall in my previous job as a promoter, the countless times I had customers coming in asking repetitive questions like “What’s your best product?”, “What’s your newest product?”, “What are the differences in specs?” as well as interesting questions such as “Why does Product A have a higher price but a lower specs?”. Although there are tons of questions being asked, it falls ultimately on how we answer these questions that impact whether a customer is willing to buy or not.

Similar to the promoter I had experience with during the formal coat incident. I realized the way they handled my questions was to avoid answering them as they may not have sufficient knowledge to answer them. However, despite not knowing completely, the answers given could be different. Take my experience going to VIVA Home for example. I was looking for a solid wood dining table since the flood partially ruined my table. So the promoter introduced some of the products to me and as such I asked a few technical and difficult questions. Although he did not have the answer to my question, the answer he gave was very professional:

“Based on my understanding, the usual standard for this would be … However let me check real quick and get back to you, in the meantime, feel free to take a look at these dining tables”

I was amazed by how he handled the question and how he kept me occupied while he searched for accurate answers. Furthermore, he was adept at handling my objections towards going for this product so he tackled my objections by providing clear explanations and by upselling as well. In the end I got the promoter’s name card because of how well he managed to tackle my questions. So questions and objections are opportunities in disguise like the quote by Brian Tracy “Treat questions and objections as requests for more information”.

3.BASIC CUSTOMER SERVICE

Thirdly, one thing I learnt from my recent experience would be how important basic customer service is to a customer. Both my friend and I went to check out some used cars for him. We went to a total of 7 car dealerships, and these are some dishonorable mentions for the promoters that made us feel uncomfortable:

·   Overcharging

·   Overly focused on upselling

·   No patience for questions

We were thoroughly disappointed because some of the promoters had incentives in their mind rather than us. Especially in this day of age where 86% of people put emphasis on customer service. One of them even tried to sell us at a higher price than what was advertised on the web. However, I also managed to identify some of the golden customer service skills for the promoter that did seal the deal for my friend.

·   Confidence

·   Customer-focused mindset (Respect)

·   Tailor suggestion to customers

The promoter that sealed the deal, Promoter A, was very confident with not only his selling skills but also the product. Furthermore, he was very focused on providing the most suitable car for my friend by understanding his habits, his preferences and his issues to create a more customer-focused mindset and image for himself. From then onwards, we realized we went with his suggestions and his options because we felt he was a promoter that looked out for our needs. So we trusted him completely and my friend was very satisfied with his purchase.

As a promoter, constantly developing our knowledge and skills is essential in achieving our work target as well as life targets as well. Interested to learn more about the skills and knowledge to become the A+ Promoter? Stay tuned for our Promoter Program coming to you this April 2022! In the meantime, feel free to drop by our website to look at other programs that can help you to excel both in work and in life!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Most of us restart our personal development goals early in the year, maybe reading some books and watching a few videos to become a “new me” during this new year. However, when it comes to starting, we tend to struggle on the “how’s” and the “what’s”. So much to learn, yet so much to do this year to recover and rebounce  from the after effects of pandemic.

“Old ways won’t open new doors”. The level of one’s agility to personal development would determine the level of success one can achieve.

Fret not, we’re here to provide you some tips and tools to finally get started on your journey to personal development! (and possibly cross out those pesky past new years resolutions) Before we begin, personal development is a constant journey to understand ourselves better and to become a better version of ourselves that may lead to better life satisfaction. As such it is fundamental to be consistent and patient throughout this journey while also not forgetting to be compassionate towards ourselves =]

Where Do We Start In Personal Development?

1. Understand and deciding the area you’d like to develop
2. Research and read up on the area of interest
3. Creating a personal development plan

1. UNDERSTAND AND DECIDING THE AREA YOU’D LIKE TO DEVELOP 

As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who knows why can bear any how”, understanding the reason we want to develop ourselves is crucial in the journey. By knowing your “why”, the “what” and the “how” to achieve will follow automatically. I used to struggle all the time when it came to becoming a better version of myself. The term personal development wasn’t known to me till I started college and attended a class called Personal Development and Leadership. I started out by reading a book called “7 habits of highly effective teens” (the one by Stephen Covey’s son, Sean Covey), and that was when I found my own “why” to develop myself. I embarked on this journey of personal development because I want to change my circumstances. I want to be able to regulate aggression in my family, I want to be able to convey my ideas more smoothly and I want to become more positive towards life.

My journey of personal development is still ongoing to this very day because I found my “why”. By finding your why, it can propel you forward even if it seems tough. Once the “why” is found, we can then move on to deciding which areas we would like to develop. Now there are a ton of areas for us to develop, but we can start by focusing on just one area at a time – Yes, just one area at a time. My early stage journey in personal development was filled with delusions of taking the whole world and becoming an ideal person in a matter of months. So I decided to develop 5 areas at one go! I signed up for the Toastmaster club to improve my public speaking skills, dance classes to keep my body active, and joined an event planning club to develop my planning, leadership, and conflict resolution skills. It all went well for the first week, but I found myself immediately burnt out during the second and stopped everything at once.

I decided to just focus on developing my public speaking skills mainly with dance classes to keep myself active. By focusing on these two, I was better able to learn, polish and develop myself yet still have the capacity to hang out with friends and family. So, picking multiple areas isn’t necessarily bad, but it does take a toll if not paced well enough!

2. RESEARCH AND READ UP ON YOUR AREAS OF INTEREST

It comes without saying that understanding the hurdles and challenges of our journey is essential before we begin mapping out our journey. Thus, reading up and researching is a fundamental step to kickstart out journey. However, research doesn’t have to take hours or days at one go, it can even take up to as short as a few seconds or minutes. Here are some ways we can start incorporating research in our daily lives:

·   Listening to self-development podcasts during commute

·   Watching short 5-minute self-development videos during breaks

·   Read self-development books for 5 – 15 minutes a day!

These few precious seconds and minutes do add up to your knowledge and understanding of the area you’d like to develop. Sometimes, you might even get surprised at how you won’t want to stop after 15 minutes. Not only will you be able to utilize your daily life to its highest potential, but you’ll also start craving for activities like these. Take me for example, I used to listen to podcasts for 5 minutes a day and eventually that was increased to 15 minutes a day on average.

Of course, aside from researching, we can get ideas, concepts, and aspects to develop ourselves better. For example, I decided to read up on this book called Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Remember how I wanted to become more positive in life? Well, I realized along this journey that I don’t take criticisms lightly, so I decided to read up on this book. At first, I was struggling to understand the contents of the book let alone practice it. As time went by though, I began putting some of the concepts and thought processes into practice in real life when dealing with criticisms and feedback. So, it’s not a huge surprise to know reading does provide you with knowledge, now it’s a matter of using our wisdom to practice it.

3. CREATING A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Now that we’ve gotten our reason, a better idea of the area we are interested to develop, and the knowledge of our area, all that’s left is to put it to action! There are a few tips when it comes to creating a personal development plan which are:

·   Listing down and analysing your qualities (SWOT analysis, comfort zone etc)

·   Setting up 2-3 main goals to be achieved (SMART goals, DUMB goals etc.)

·   Create bite-sized milestones

·   Setting up a reward system

As we set up our PDP (Personal Development Plan) we need to first understand what we are good at doing, bad at doing, comfortable doing and afraid of doing. By listing this down, we can save ourselves on tons of avoidable trial-and-error methods and focus on the things we can do to achieve maximum effect.

Next would be to set up goals and milestones for us to achieve. Remember to set achievable and possible goals though. As much as we want to become our ideal self ASAP, we also want to achieve these goals and motivate ourselves further down this journey. By setting up bite-size milestones, we build up confidence to take on the next challenge and hurdle. Last but not least, don’t forget to reward yourself when you do meet your goals! Your personal victories need to and should be celebrated as well!

Personal development is essential in achieving both work and life satisfaction. However, it does feel daunting at times to start. Still unsure on where to begin? Want to learn more in-depth strategies before embarking on your journey? Sign up for our Personal Development Program today where we’ll reveal more in-depth strategies to embark on this essential journey to become a better you in 2022! Click here to find out more!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Is the Great Resignation Caused by Covid19?

Many businesses have gone through a huge transformation in the past few years. Who would have thought work from home would be part of todays’ work environment and people who still prefer to buy online even after the physical store are back to business. Similar to the business environment, people’s expectation towards managers has also undergo a tremendous changes.

1. The Great Resignation
2. The Downfall of Transformational Leadership
3. Increased Focus on Swift Decision

1. THE GREAT RESIGNATION

Are you aware there is a worldwide workplace crisis called “The Great Resignation” are happening right now?

The term Great Resignation first surfaced in the early 2020 where the pandemic are the most severe in the World. Although many experts at that time only views this just as a short term phenomenon, “The Great Resignation” actually continue to go strong until this day. Bloomberg (2021) mentioned that there is approximate 4.3 million of workers has quit in the midst of pandemic which is an all-time high in the last 20 years.

Was it the managers that caused the great resignation? According to the survey make by the Stars (2021), lack of career opportunities and lack of appreciation or recognition are the top two reason that contribute a worker decision to leave their current workplace. This means that managers need to step up to our leadership role and find creative and fun ways to show employee appreciation and recognition. Here are the 3 questions for leaders to get employees focus back in the company:

• What is the 2022 growth for your department/company that involves your employees?
• How do you take care of your employees overall wellbeing? (engagement/appreciation)
• How can you be involved in your employees’ life goals?

2. THE DOWNFALL OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Not long ago, most of the business out there are seeking to be transformational on their business practices, pivot into new strategy for business survival. In the past, transformational leader is view as the most effective leadership approach due to its nature of using the leader’s own charisma to influence their subordinates. However, transformational leadership has started to loss its magic to make positive influence to the subordinates currently.

One of the reason that transformational leader is losing its touch is due to the fact that subordinates that follow the lead of a transformational leader is highly prone to burnout especially at times of radical change like where we are at currently. In this pandemic, many of us might have already changed the way we perceived life and work, how we rank our priorities in life, and even how we react towards a situation. People want to be listen to before they commit. How much a leader get involve to meet the employee’s new perception of work and life would determine the level of new motivation hence grow together as a team.

3. INCREASED FOCUS ON SWIFT DECISION

The market waits for no one. The critical need for operational rigor must start from the top. A manager operates the business with routine flow of work, but a leader works through people enabling faster and informed decision-making. The level of employee accountability multiplies as leaders choose to focus on working with people not task coordination. Some efficient methods to execute swift decisions are One Minute Leader, RAPID Decision Making, and Quick Reporting.

Are you interested to upgrade your leadership skills while being concise on improving employees overall performance? Sign up for our Leadership Program today whereby we will unveil even more leadership tips and hacks to become the UNBEATABLE LEADER in this year 2022.

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The first step for any business to plan for their employee’s training and development programme is always to start from a Training Need Analysis (TNA). However, are your business vision, missions and employees’ job description the only references you used to determine the training program required to fill your employees’ competency gap? Traditional TNA usually evaluates training objectives in a three-tiered hierarchical order, starting from organizational needs, narrowing down to task or position function needs and eventually to individual needs.  However, an excellent TNA should not just identify the training program that assist your employees in filling in their skill gaps, but also provide a return of investments in the form of employee’s productivity and prevent revenue leakage of your business.

Pain Points of Traditional Needs Analysis

1. Overemphasize On Work Productivity And Not Revenue Leakage
2. Focusing On Job Descriptions Not Latest Business Outcomes

1. OVEREMPHASIZE ON WORK PRODUCTIVITY AND NOT REVENUE LEAKAGE

Have you thought about how much time your employees spend on manual data entry tasks? Have you thought about how much revenue you would miss out on if you fail to send an invoice with the correct details to your customers? Imagine sending an RM1,000 invoice when you meant RM 1,200 instead. It may seem a small amount with RM200 difference, however, if you have 20-30 cases like that, it will sum up to RM6,000 loss in a month or extra hours to revise the invoice. With all these roadblocks in your business productivity, you may be losing customers’ trust or missing out on some potential sales, and all these lost opportunities could go unnoticed or not traceable.

When you think of ways to tackle this kind of problem, you might have thoughts like ‘Are my employees having the right competencies to improve their productivity?’ or ‘Are they lacking skills that can improve their accuracy on data entry jobs?’. Most people would pinpoint the staff’s competencies. No doubt our employees’ competencies play a part in it, sometimes it may not be the root cause for all your business problems. For example, when the sales drop, could it be because our business is still adopting a traditional business model and not having enough presence in other channels? Could it be because of not offering unique advantages or value to customers? Could it be because of the slow technology adoption?

In order for us to examine the root cause of our business problems, we need to look beyond staff’s competencies and start looking into where our money goes and where our revenue leaks into.

2. FOCUSING ON JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND NOT BUSINESS OUTCOMES 

Traditionally, training needs analysis is conducted by comparing the employee’s job description with their actual competencies, which is commonly known as competencies gap analysis. Due to the volatility of the business environment, we have to transform our roles in retail and the way we run the business. During this transformation journey, there could be new roles that will be introduced, and this poses a challenge to run our training needs analysis based on competencies as we may not have a comprehensive view of the actual competencies of the role.

These are some questions for you to ponder:

1. Are your employee’s existing job descriptions sufficient for you to determine their competencies gaps in achieving your latest business goal?
2. When there are changes in your business outcome due to inevitable environmental factors, does it reflect in your job description?

If your employees’ TNA does not take your latest business goal into account, your employee will not gain the right competencies which help you in achieving your desired business outcome.

MODERN TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS

In reverse, modern TNA will prioritize business outcomes. It makes a lot of sense to do it, as we do TNA to close the competencies gap of employees, which is the ultimate goal is to improve the business ROI. Why not start by examining what is the desired business outcome and identifying the revenue leakage areas? That will be a more straightforward, and cost-efficient way to address your business problems. And, you will be able to identify which problem is caused by your staff’s competencies, and which one is not. This would help you to invest your time and money in the right place.

Wondering where you can get your modern TNA at? No worries. SH Retail Academy is now giving out COMPLIMENTARY Modern TNA! (worth RM288). Sign up now at https://bit.ly/3naSeVu *Only 50 slots available

In SH Retail Academy, we have created our program for retailers based on day-to-day retail challenges and backed up by success formula of Senheng, No. 1 in Consumer Electronics and other global retailers. Should you need any assistance, be it offline or online, we’ve got you covered with more valuable tools.
Find out more and kick start your journey today by reaching out to us here.

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Previously HRD Corp was known as HRDF but since March 2021, it has been rebranded. The jurisdiction of the Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad Act 2001 (PSMB Act 2001) has been increased to include all industries as of the first day of March 2021 by Malaysia’s Human Resources Development Fund (HRD Corporation).

In addition to contributing to the overall development of Malaysia’s human capital, the expansion will assist in boosting the number of skilled local workers who are responsive to corporate needs, with the Ministry of Human Resources spearheading the initiative. In other words, all industries, with the exception of the federal and state governments, are expected to contribute to the Human Resources Development tax and will be covered by the HRD’s training programmes. Let’s take a deeper look into HRD Corp and how it can benefit you.

How Retailers Can Upskill Relevant Skills Through HRD Corp

1. What is HRD Corp
2. Retail Industries Under HRD
3. Overall Training Fee of Retail Programs
4. Employers Feedback on Skills Demanded in Retail Industry
5. Training Programs Claimable Under HRD

1. WHAT IS HRD

Human Resource Development Fund (HRD Corp) is a government organization under the Ministry of Human Resources, which is generally recognized as Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad Act 2001. According to the PSMB Act 2001, the implementation and collection of a human resources development levy for the intention of enhancing the training and development of employees, apprentices and trainees, the establishment and administration of a Human Resources Development Fund by the Corporation, and for matters connected therewith are the primary objectives of the Act. In accordance with their objective, HRD Corp delivers training and up-skilling initiatives to major industries in Malaysia, enabling them to stay up with the rapidly changing retail landscape and the aspirations of their respective companies.

Moreover, there is also a term called HRD levy which is the 1% of the total salary of the employees (If your company falls under the purview of the legislation, you are required to register with HRD Corp and to make monthly contributions to the HRD levy. Registered employers are required to pay a levy charge equal to one percent of each employee’s monthly wage. Employers who choose to register under the optional category, on the other hand, will be required to pay 0.5 percent of each employee’s monthly wage.) The formula to calculate HRD levy is as follows:

HRD levy = HRD levy % x ( Basic Salary + Fixed Allowances) 

All HRD levy payments must be made no later than the 15th day of the following month. The levy for March 2021, for example, must be paid on or before April 15, 2021. In addition, according to the PSMB Act 2001, an employer that fails to register with HRD Corp faces a fine of up to RM10,000 or a year in prison, or both, if found guilty. Those with ten or more Malaysian employees must register, while companies with five to nine Malaysian employees are not required to do so.

2. RETAIL INDUSTRIES UNDER HRD

There are a number of reasons why the retail industry is covered under HRD, where it aims at strengthening the abilities and capacities of retail through distinguishment of:

• Skills
• Competencies
• Potential career progression
• Career benefits
• Salary range
• Preferred qualifications for career mobility
• Malaysia Standards Industrial Classifications (MSIC) categories

It is also categorized under specialized and non-specialized stores where they covered 7 departments with 34 job positions and 5 departments with 18 job positions accordingly. The focus areas are as follows:

• Retail Operations
• Customer Care
• Visual Merchandising
• E-Commerce
• Marketing & Branding
• Merchandising & Receiving
• Sales & Marketing
• Management

3. OVERALL TRAINING FEE OF RETAIL PROGRAMS

As for the overall training fees, there are allocated fees per pax approved for different industries, which are divided into three categories. The table below shows the fees ranked from highest to lowest:

Source: HRD Corp Industrial Insights Report

Other than that, employee training in the retail industry focuses on interpersonal skills such as promoting, assisting, and tending to customers’ inquiries, as well as technical abilities. Retailers who pay high training costs place a strong focus on practical expertise and extended training hours. Another table below shows the skill area of training places along with its financial assistance (from highest to lowest in demand and amount).

Source: HRD Corp Industrial Insights Report

Based on the table above, Retail or Merchandising is the most in-demand skill in 2020, according to Training Places. These abilities are aimed at attracting new customers, persuading existing customers to buy more, increasing impulse sales, and raising customer awareness of product lines. Education or Training, as well as Safety and Health, came in second and third, respectively. When it comes to financial aid, a large share of the RM 878,350 in financial assistance put into the Hypermarket / Supermarket / Departmental Store skill areas went to Retail or Merchandising (58 percent). Supervisory and Safety and Health positions, on the other hand, each accounted for 7% of the total.

4. EMPLOYERS FEEDBACK ON SKILLS DEMANDED IN RETAIL INDUSTRY

Furthermore, working in the retail industry is generally related with exposure to retail management and customer service, according to the Training Needs Survey 2019. Employees of all skill levels play a critical role in ensuring that a retail organization operates at maximum capacity, serves its target customers, and connects back-end operations with front-end activities. The table below shows the type of skills (technical and non-technical) needed for different levels of workers.

Source: HRD Corp Industrial Insights Report

5. TRAINING PROGRAMS CLAIMABLE UNDER HRD

For your information, a number of training programs in the retail industry are claimable under the HRD Corp. The list is as follows:

• Retail Management
• New Retail
• Sales Skills
• Customer Service
• Leadership
• Management
• Personal Development for Retailers

Relevant training programmes must begin within six (6) months of the filing of training grant applications, and training claim applications must be made within six (6) months of the completion of the training programmes.

In SH Retail Academy, we combine application successes that are time-proven from Senheng with the latest knowledge and concepts to bring effective retail industry training programs for companies in Malaysia. Beginning from the formulation of our training program outlines, content and delivery methods; each process is derived using retail thought process and retail needs. Should you need any assistance, be it offline or online, we’ve got you covered with more valuable tools.

Find out more and kick start your journey today by reaching out to us here.

(All sources from this article were taken from HRD Corp Official Portal)

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