Criteria for evaluating the work of a sales consultant. Seller evaluation: types, criteria and methods for evaluating sellers. Results of performance indicators of the sales department and salespeople

Many managers are faced with the choice of which salesperson to reward: one who sells a lot or one who has average sales but does a lot of other important work. On the one hand, everything is simple - the main thing is to have a lot of sales and good results, and the rest will follow. But in many companies, the salesperson does a bunch of additional work, sometimes poorly related to sales. And often the most successful salespeople neglect this work. Who should you choose for promotion? And how to evaluate the seller’s work?

KPI for motivation

To properly evaluate the work and motivation of salespeople, it is necessary to select KPI indicators by which we will compare them. Such indicators are not difficult to determine if you look at sales: turnover, the share of sales of marginal goods, the percentage of sales of accessories, etc. In general, there are quite a lot of sellers, but what to do with such important things as: order in the department under control, proper reporting, merchandising, labor discipline, and so on. All these points are also very important, but how to evaluate them?

We use seller evaluation checklists

A very good tool for assessing the performance of such work is the “checklist”. A checklist is a set of some company standards that the seller must comply with. Example of a checklist for a retail store:

In this list you include everything that every salesperson should do. Then all that remains is to regularly check everything on the list, fill out the checklist and communicate the results to all subordinates. It’s not difficult to create such a checklist; if you need advice, write to me, I’ll definitely help. If everything is done correctly, in addition to personal sales indicators at the end of the month, you can look at the results of the checklists. In general, checklists are a very good tool for assessing personnel, but they can only be used to evaluate the performance of regular work. That is, for example, if you asked the sellers to unload the car with the goods because... the loader is sick, then this is not a regular task and cannot be included in the checklist. There can be quite a lot of such work in a month, what should you do in this case?

We evaluate the seller’s irregular work

Non-routine tasks (if any) that you delegate to salespeople also need to be assessed. But the sameness method is difficult to apply to them. You can, of course, pay for this work, but in Russian practice this does not happen often. One of the non-standard methods for evaluating such work is the “virtual money system”. Virtual money is certain points that you give out for completing work not related to sales. The most convenient way is to come up with some kind of currency, print it and give it out for merit. At the end of the month, you can compare who has how much of this money on hand and reward the best or take this into account when paying bonuses. Also, this “currency” can be fined in case of misconduct. Control over violations is a separate issue.

We monitor violations of discipline

As everyone knows, in any company there are personnel who violate labor discipline. More than once I have come across the fact that strong sellers are the worst offenders. And sometimes it’s not easy to influence an employee’s discipline, but you don’t want to fire him because the seller is a good one. But when an employee’s performance is assessed, all criteria must be taken into account, including discipline.

In my opinion, the simplest and most effective way to measure the number of offenses is. It is necessary to force people to write explanatory notes for each offense, and at the end of the month, based on the number of explanatory notes, a decision can be made as to whether the subordinate should be rewarded.

Don't forget about motivation

When it comes to staff evaluation, it most likely means that based on the results of this evaluation, the employee will be rewarded in some way. When promoting and, most importantly, when choosing a candidate for encouragement, you should also take into account the personal motivation of the employee. In general, the process itself is a whole science and knowing how to correctly select motivation for each employee is of great value. And the most important thing to remember is most people are not motivated by money.

So, you have assessed your staff and are faced with the choice of who to issue a bonus to. My advice is to write it out to someone who is motivated by money. Other candidates for promotion can be encouraged to work with the help. This will give you the opportunity to thank all employees, while taking into account their personal motivation.

Quantitative performance indicators of the sales department

Clients can be divided into three categories:

• potential clients (PC);
• interested potential clients (EPC);
• clients (K).

To check the performance of the sales team, you will need to calculate the closing rate and conversion rate.

Closing rate– the ratio of the number of purchasers who verbally agreed to pay for a service or product to the total number of contacts with a PC transferred to a specialist for work.

Conversion rate– the ratio of the number of clients (K) to the total number of contacts with the security control system transferred to work.

This approach allows us to understand at what stage the client’s refusal occurs. The closing rate can be determined every day, and the conversion rate can be determined once a week or once a month. Ideally, the first should be no less than 30 percent, the second should be no less than 21 percent.

In addition, enter quantitative indicators on which the sales manager will report daily. Among the indicators:

• number of initial calls;
• number of repeat calls;
• number of meetings held;
• amount of invoices issued;
• amount of bills paid;
• number of concluded contracts, etc.

A complete list of indicators is presented in the “Report for Sales Manager” table.

Table. Report for sales manager

Qualitative indicators for evaluating sellers

1. Check the manager’s correspondence with clients. Ask how many emails the seller sent in a week. If he understands how important it is to keep in touch with clients, he will not hesitate to name the number of letters sent and even the number of responses. It is also useful to look into the seller’s email to assess the ratio of spam (when the manager found the contacts of a potential client on the Internet and sent him a commercial offer) and warm contacts (when the commercial offer was sent to the decision maker by prior agreement). For every 25 warm contacts, there should be no more than 10 letters sent “to grandfather in the village.” Then, from the number of warm letters, you need to subtract those that the client wrote first: in these cases, the employee was not actively searching, but was only processing the received application. If the bottom line is only three or four letters a week, it means the manager did a poor job.

2. Find out how the manager’s meetings with clients go. Find out the number of meetings, their location, and the final result:

• the number of meetings should be compared with the norm in your industry;
• The location of the meetings (on the customer’s premises or in your company’s office) often determines the result: the more often the manager invites the client to his office for negotiations, the lower the sales. Mainly due to the fact that not all clients arrive and some meetings are cancelled. The normal ratio of meetings on the client’s territory and on the manager’s territory is 50 to 50.

To always be able to correctly evaluate the result, ask managers to keep a spreadsheet indicating the main parameters of the meeting: with whom, when, where, for what reason, agreements reached. It is optimal if the manager provides you with a short report after each meeting.

3. Pay attention to the quantity and quality of the manager’s calls. A manager should have no problem answering the question of how many calls he makes daily. Depending on the specifics of the business, you can pay more or less attention to either warm or cold calls. But even if cold calling is not so important in your business, the seller must make them from time to time so as not to lose skills. A good manager must constantly analyze how the market situation is changing, be able to break through secretaries and reach the right people, etc.

4. Arrange a surprise check in the middle of the working day. Find out whether all managers have a work plan for the day. This should be a detailed list of tasks prepared in advance: who to contact, when, on what issue and what to offer. A simple entry in a diary, for example: “Call Vasily Ivanovich,” does not count. A manager who does not draw up a work plan on paper is unlikely to learn to act effectively.

5. Find out whether the manager maintains off-duty contacts with clients. Nothing is superfluous when working with customer loyalty; a good manager knows this, so he always personally congratulates his customers on their birthdays, New Year, February 23, March 8.

6. Conduct a survey among managers. Walk into the sales department unannounced and ask the employees five simple questions:

• What is your largest transaction (by order amount)?
• When did it take place?
• What is your average transaction bill?
• What is your average trade length?
• What categories do you divide your clients into?

The last point is especially interesting: a good manager will definitely segment his client base, since he understands that working with all clients according to the same scheme is unproductive. If a manager cannot answer these questions, it means that he does not analyze his work and is not interested in improving performance. Of course, you must know all the answers in advance in order to be able to compare real indicators with those that the manager will announce to you.

Attention: five signs of an effective salesperson.

1. Do managers attend exhibitions and conferences? At such events it is convenient to make acquaintances. Managers should have a constantly updated database of potential clients, and a growing stack of business cards on their desktop.

2. Do managers receive recommendations from old clients? If a manager is a real hunter, he will not wait for a satisfied client to remember him, but will be the first to ask him for contacts of people to whom he could recommend your company.

3. Do managers know how to get a meeting with the decision maker? It is not difficult to answer this question: if the manager often gets to the stage of a business meeting. However, here you should take into account such a thing as the conversion of requests into orders (this indicator is very individual for different types of business).

4. Are managers trying to exceed the established plan? A good hunter never stops looking for new clients. He creates a foundation for the future, trying to earn more, bring more profit to the company, regardless of established standards and regardless of the control of supervisors.

5. Do managers have funnel thinking? The hunter is distinguished by psychological toughness. He doesn’t make a tragedy out of failure, but rolls up his sleeves and works on, because he knows: finding clients is a funnel of opportunities that will sooner or later lead to results (for every nine clients who refuse, there will be one who says “yes”). Therefore, a good hunter forgets about any failure the next day at most.

In a trading company, where the level of income directly depends on the level of employees’ training, the HR manager’s attention to their competence should be especially close. The “Mystery Shopping” technique is a reliable and quick way to obtain information about the correct selection, training and motivation of sales personnel. Having the assessment results, you can draw conclusions about the work of individual employees, line managers and the department as a whole.

The profits of any trading company come from customers. The higher the satisfaction of each customer, the more the business will earn. Although the Mystery Shopping technique was originally developed for conducting marketing research, it can be successfully used as an additional tool for improving the efficiency of human resource management, as it helps HR managers understand:

1. How do customers who come to the store feel?
2. As HR specialists, they should further build a policy for selecting, training and motivating salespeople.

The assessment phase of the company occurred during an unfavorable period - due to the economic crisis, there was a general decline in the market. Saving resources, we could not afford to hire third-party experts, so we decided to use internal resources - to involve employees of the HR department in the implementation of the project.

After deciding to use the “Mystery Shopping” methodology to evaluate the performance standards of our company’s sales staff (PTK LLC “Agromat”), our first customer was the sales department of plumbing products. Employees of this department - sales representatives (promoters) - work in large construction hypermarkets. Their main task is to help the client with the choice of goods that our company presents at this outlet.

Preparation and assessment of employees using the “Mystery Shopping” method were carried out in stages:

I. HR announced to the management of the plumbing department that they were ready to undertake the development of a methodology, and in the future, conducting a “Mystery Shopping” assessment. Then a project team was formed, which had to develop forms and methods for conducting the assessment. The project team included department heads, marketers and HR people.

II. At the time of the Mystery Shopping assessment, the company had already developed and approved “Customer Service Standards” for sales personnel, and managers had a definite opinion about the “ideal” model of behavior of a promoter on the sales floor (the sequence of advising a client on a product). At this stage, the main task was to develop a form for evaluating the work of this category of employees as a “mystery shopper.” During lengthy discussions and approvals, the following sections of the form were approved:

• "Merchandising";
• “Positioning of the seller in the trading area”;
• “Timeliness of the seller’s response”;
• "Seller's Appearance";
• “Seller’s communication culture”;
• “Identification of client needs”;
• “Knowledge of product and assortment”;
• “Ability to work with objections”;
• "Final stage";
• "Final Impression"

For each section of the form, evaluation criteria were given, described through behavioral indicators ( application).

Table 1. Options for attracting candidates for the role of “mystery shopper”

This was not an easy task: in order to ensure the quality of the event, it was necessary to involve outsiders (this is an important condition for ensuring the objectivity of the assessment), and in addition, it was necessary to “fit within” the budgetary framework.

IV. The main conditions for a successful Mystery Shopping assessment were:

• maintaining strict confidentiality (information about the time of the visit, the name of the “mystery shopper”, etc.);
• development of “secret inspection” scenarios.

Members of the project team developed several options for the behavior of “mystery shoppers”: the needs of future “clients” were determined in advance and motives were invented that brought them to the sales floor of the construction supermarket. In addition, several options for objections were developed that the audited seller had to face.

V. At this stage, the people selected for the role of “mystery shopper” were briefed: they were told how they should interact with sellers, evaluate the quality of their work and record the results in a form for evaluating the work of a promoter on the sales floor. Mystery shoppers were told:

• store addresses;
• FULL NAME. sellers;
• dates and periods of time when inspections must be carried out;
• main inspection tasks;
• inspection scenarios;
• scenario for raising objections;
• typical phrases that are recommended to be used when communicating with sellers.

Then, with each of the inspectors, we reviewed in detail all the points of the assessment form:

1. Merchandising. Arriving at a construction supermarket, our “mystery shopper” must first of all pay attention to the display of the goods in the hall: the products must have neatly filled out price tags, which indicate all the necessary data and details; All products must be in working condition and in “marketable” condition.
2. Positioning in the trading area, timely response. It is important to note: what is the seller doing at the moment when the inspector is in the trading area; if he is not busy consulting another client, then whether he comes into contact with a new buyer, how he begins to communicate with him.
3. Appearance. Certain appearance standards have been developed for supermarket sellers. Companies often purchase “branded” clothing for their staff with their logo, and therefore require company promoters to be dressed “in uniform.” Having a badge indicating the name and position is also a mandatory requirement for each seller.
4. Communication culture. Each of us, having been in the role of a buyer, pays attention to the seller’s communication culture. Everyone wants him to communicate in a language that the client understands, to show goodwill and genuine interest. This requirement applies not only to the promoters of the company, but also to all employees whose work involves interaction with customers.
5. Identifying client needs. The “secret shopper”, using a pre-prepared legend, talks about his needs for the product. At the same time, he listens carefully and remembers what questions the seller asks for clarification. Here it is necessary to evaluate: 1) how accurately the buyer’s needs are identified and 2) whether the proposed product corresponds to the original legend.
6. Product and assortment knowledge. "Mystery shoppers" receive information on several manufacturers of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware, so they are able to check how much the seller knows about the product. To do this, the “buyer” asks additional questions: about the technical characteristics of the product and the nuances of its operation, the supplier’s warranty obligations, etc.
7. Ability to respond to objections. Here the mystery shopper is intentional:
   • gives a negative assessment of the products offered;
   • expresses doubts about the quality of the product;
   • criticizes the high cost of production. He must assess the general emotional reaction of the seller, record the arguments he gives in favor of a particular product, the validity and competitiveness of the prices set. In addition, note whether the seller offers additional services, additional company services.
8. The final stage is the reaction to failure. In accordance with the developed scenario, after viewing two or three product options, the “secret shopper” studies one of them for a long time. At the same time, he must simultaneously demonstrate interest in the purchase (he is inclined to purchase some type of product) and uncertainty (he has not yet finally decided on his choice). As a result, the “buyer” leaves to think. Here it is important to observe the actions and communication of the seller: what he will say in this situation, what phrases to use, whether he will say goodbye kindly or immediately lose interest in the “buyer”.
9. Recording results and drawing up a report. All assessments within an hour after visiting the store must be recorded in a special form.

VI. At this stage, in accordance with the established schedule, “mystery shoppers” visited stores and assessed the work of promoters. Then they all filled out evaluation forms. For each seller reviewed, at least two evaluation forms were completed by different “buyers.”

VII. A summary report for the sales department of plumbing products on checking the compliance of promoters with work standards was compiled by the manager of the HR department. In preparing the final report, data from the assessment forms filled out by the mystery shoppers and the results of oral interviews with them were used.

Assessing the implementation of work standards using the Mystery Shopping method helped us see the overall picture for each sales representative (promoter):

• to what extent the employee has mastered the requirements of the standards;
• what further training is needed;
• how control over the implementation of standards is organized in a specific department;
• to what extent the level of basic competencies meets/does not meet the company’s requirements (Table 2).

Table 2. Core competencies of the company’s sales staff (promoter)

During the “Mystery Shopping” campaign, the following “problem areas” were identified in the plumbing department:

• not all promoters demonstrated such an important competence as customer focus: sometimes “buyers” had to look for them on the sales floor, “tearing them away” from conversations with colleagues;
• many sellers were poorly versed in the technical characteristics of the product and did not know all the nuances of its use;
• at the final stage of the purchase, some sellers lost interest in the “buyer” if he refused to purchase the product immediately.

When starting to independently prepare a personnel assessment project using the Mystery Shopping method, it is very important to enlist the support of the company’s management from the very beginning. This is necessary because the results obtained may cause a negative reaction from line managers - in this case, in fact, there is a general assessment of their work. It is also desirable that before the start of the project, the company already has Customer Service Standards implemented and working.

The results obtained during the assessment provide information for further improvement of work with personnel:

• for making management decisions;
• when conducting certification and assessment of personnel;
• when assessing the performance of a line manager;
• when planning training events;
• when developing motivational programs for sales personnel.

Based on the results of assessing promoters using the Mystery Shopping method, the company took the following measures:

• the incentive system for sales personnel (promoters) has been revised;
• a certification system for sales personnel (promoters) was introduced;
• a management decision was made (based on the results of the audit, one employee was fired);
• A system of key performance indicators for line managers has been developed.

• Personnel assessment, assessment

Keywords:

1 -1

"Personnel decides everything!" This statement has not lost its meaning to this day. Moreover, with every day and with every turn of business development, these words are gaining more and more weight among managers of retail outlets at all levels - shops and salons, cafes and bars, gas stations and supermarkets.

The driving force behind sales is, of course, people. Their presence next to the goods or product is extremely important, and this presence does not depend on the form of trade. They say that there is the only form of trade that allows you to do without the presence of a person - the so-called semi-stationary trade, trade through machines, the peak of development of which in our country will clearly not come very soon. Other forms of sales - a closed counter, an open form of sales, personal sales and even trade through an order system (including the Internet) and catalogs - require human participation in the process of exchanging money for goods.

It is no secret that finding a capable and effective seller is very difficult, since sales masters themselves are a single product, expensive and unique. And although any manager wants to have such a highly qualified specialist in his team, not everyone succeeds. But before looking for the best of the best, before advertising for the hiring of such employees, you should ask yourself the questions: “Does my business need expensive super-professionals? Is there a necessary amount of work for super-sellers? Is it possible to organize a full-fledged business at the expense of small and currently acceptable personnel costs?" The answers to these undoubtedly interesting questions will help you optimize costs and eliminate unnecessary expenses on training your salespeople.

In general, all sellers, depending on the tasks facing them, are divided into several levels, partly close to each other and at the same time very different... The level of their wages, the level of their knowledge and, in general, personnel costs that you can afford. A salesperson of a higher level is, of course, more expensive, and it is much more difficult to teach and improve his skills, although the return from him, as a rule, is much higher than from sellers of lower levels.

In this regard, try to determine what level of training your salespeople should belong to. Please note that for most common types of TT, first and second level salespeople are sufficient for effective work, and higher levels of personnel training are required in special business conditions or at very specific points of sale.

So, we will divide sellers according to their skills, knowledge and abilities into four levels of training and we will recruit them according to the forms of trade and types of TT in which they will have to carry out their activities.

Levels of salesperson training.

"Peddler".

The first level of training for a sales consultant.

The first-level sales consultant is little concerned about the buyer's problems. Sometimes he does not need deep knowledge of the properties and qualities of the product. There is no question of creativity in the work of such a seller. This is the minimum level of training from which work behind the counter begins. It only takes a few days for a person on the street to become a salesperson with basic training. Such an applicant is given an idea of ​​several products or product groups, after which he is released into the public. Next, the seller “picks up knowledge” from his colleagues, consultants or product specialists, and then works independently. As a rule, such a seller, when selling, does not go beyond a few memorized phrases (there can be quite a lot of them) regarding the product. He tries to give out everything he knows in a smooth presentation in order to avoid the buyer from asking unnecessary questions that the seller is unable to answer. Sales techniques, finding out the buyer's needs, studying the product - all this is most often beyond the attention of such a seller (at the first stage of work - certainly!). Working with objections comes down to answering one or two of the most frequently asked questions (usually justification for price and novelty or freshness of the product).

Such sellers work effectively in outlets with a simple assortment, in grocery and department store stores with a closed form of sale (counters, kiosks, etc.). It is easy to meet such specialists in markets, on trains, in various kiosks and behind stalls in crowded places.

Requirements for a first level seller:

• The ability to attract the buyer's attention to a specific brand or product
• The ability to quickly talk about the main properties of a product that interest the buyer
• The ability to offer an assortment range to a buyer who requires some type of product (“What kind of milk do you have?”, “Give your child some kind of toy!”, etc.)
• The ability, in a favorable situation, to manage buyer behavior in order to limit the time for choosing a product
• Ability to work with large volumes of customers (in case of queues)

To prepare a first-level salesperson, there is no need for special or in-depth training. It is quite possible to limit yourself to training on the product and mechanical memorization of phrases that form the basis of working with objections. The most complete practice for preparing an entry-level salesperson is to study (memorize) the elements of a corporate sales book.

"Consultant". Second level of sales consultant training.

A second-level sales consultant works through the stages of sales techniques, having previously studied them and learned to use the rules set out in them. He does everything step by step, has low creative initiative, and is often “charged” to work with previously known objections. In practice, he uses 5-6 well-known and proven sales techniques. At the same time, he is often able to identify the client’s needs or “highlight” the client’s needs that the proposed product can satisfy. He does not study global needs, he works only at the level of a momentary situation - he highlights all the current needs, without attempting to differentiate them into dominant and simple ones.

He does not do “nonsense” in the form of friendship with the client, most often stopping in the development of relations at the level of completing the transaction. Effective for working in private retail spaces with closed access, in multi-assortment points of sale, even in some types of salons selling simple or not very complex products (the choice of which is not determined by the emotional attachments of the client).

Requirements for the seller:

• Be able to obtain consistent consent from the client after each step of the sale or presentation of the product,
• Be able to focus the buyer’s attention on the properties of the product,
• Quickly and succinctly present available information about the product,
• Set the desired pace of conversation by alternating communication and necessary pauses
• Be able to use active listening techniques (ask questions correctly and in a timely manner, avoid closed questions, etc.)
• Be able to apply techniques related to managing consumer behavior during the sales process

Second-level salesperson training involves:

• mandatory training on sales techniques,
• in-depth training on products and their application,
• studying the practice of using the product using consumer examples,
• training on active listening, working with objections, answering questions,
• elements of public speaking training.

"Expert". The third level of training for a sales consultant.

At this level, the seller turns into a consultant who, together with his client, finds out his desires and translates them into needs. After this, the search begins not even for the product or its properties, but for the search for opportunities to satisfy the client’s desires. The sales process becomes much more complicated; there is no direct division into steps or, moreover, sales according to an approved stereotype. It is important that the definition, or rather, the feeling of the buyer’s desires, comes first. The seller begins to act as an agent, as a home consultant, sometimes entering into confidential emotional contact with the client. The client's interest and emotional impulses often become more important than the merits of the product and its characteristics. The seller needs to learn to identify the dominant needs of the buyer and, focusing on them, offer the most suitable option for sale. The conversation between the buyer and the seller becomes similar to revelations from a psychotherapist - the client conducts a monologue, and the seller at this time calculates sales options, assortment subtleties of the product that can be offered to the client.

Such sellers are most often found in jewelry stores, in stores selling complex household appliances, cars, in real estate, in the process of selling software with subsequent maintenance. All areas where there is a need for large, long-term purchases are where sellers of this type work.

Requirements for a third level seller:

• Be able to listen
• Be able to manage consumer behavior
• Be able to manage not only the client’s behavior, but also his emotional state,
• Be able to constantly and unnoticed by the buyer use active listening techniques,
• Set the desired pace of conversation,
• Provide only those information about the product that will not disrupt the relationship and will not alert the client (that is, the third-level seller must have excellent knowledge of the product and the attitude of a large number of consumers towards it, experience in using the product, etc.),
• Clearly know the restrictions that are imposed on the use of the product (otherwise it is easy to lose the client’s trust),
• Be able to correctly and clearly answer client questions in order to maintain an atmosphere of confidentiality and sincerity in relationships

Level 3 salesperson training requires the following knowledge and skills:

• Special training in the field of communication
• 2-3 years of sales experience in a similar sales area or at least 4 years of general sales experience (ideally, specialized education in the product being sold is desirable)
• Prior personal selling experience preferred
• Trainings on active sales techniques
• Training on special types of communication (telephone, cold contacts, etc.) for a wholesaler
• Trainings on methods of gaining trust and quickly establishing contact

The fourth level of training for a sales consultant. "Advisor Friend"

Such training of a sales consultant presupposes the presence of innate or acquired, developed abilities of a psychologist. A seller at this level often becomes a friend of the buyer, whom the client turns to when difficulties arise in a certain area. An employee of the fourth level of training not only successfully identifies the client’s desires, but also easily determines his mood. As in the previous case, the communication process becomes much more significant than the sales result. It is interesting that, unlike the “expert” salesperson, the “friend-advisor” is not a vest for pouring out desires. In this case, the seller is an equal partner of the buyer, who is treated as an equal, who is asked for advice, like a relative. The seller understands this trust and responds to the buyer in kind. The seller of a product or service has such deep knowledge of both the product and the market situation that there is no need to even talk about the properties and quality of the product. The salesperson's understanding of the psychology of a given client is so strong, and their closeness in some area related to the sale. so great that the buyer only clarifies the details associated with the product. The client leaves most of the significant characteristics on the seller’s conscience, knowing his decency, honesty, and ability to understand not only the product, but also the client’s mood.

Using the skills of salespeople at this level of training is necessary in restaurants or stores where a person may be a regular. Some professions in the service sector (selling services) also require a high level of training - hairdressers, massage therapists, consultants in fitness clubs, etc. Highly qualified real estate specialists, sellers of luxury cars, animals, apartments, and luxury goods work in the manner described. It is interesting that such sellers are psychologically in demand in all trade areas (when assessing such specialists, remember the phrase that many of us like to say in the store: “What do you advise me?” these are words aimed specifically at fourth-level sellers), but they are most effective work where there is opportunity for personal communication for some time. In retail outlets with a closed form of sale and a constant queue of such specialists, as a rule, there are no such specialists: a “friend-advisor” is an individual who works with each client separately, independently and often face to face.

It is extremely difficult to identify the requirements for a seller of this level, because in such areas of sales “the soul of the buyer is in the dark.” It is still possible to outline some of the “facets” of such a seller:

• Ability to listen to the client
• Ability to work with the emotional components of the client
• Ability to adapt to the client and lead him in the process of discussion and communication
• Deeply and seriously know not only the product, but also the market in which it operates
• The ability to understand the intricacies of using a product and, if possible, have significant personal experience in using it
• The ability to focus the client’s attention on the product he needs in a simple conversation “about nothing” and...
• Everything that is listed earlier (for second and third level sellers)

The 4th level of seller training requires the implementation of the following conditions:

• Long (4-5 years) period of work as a sales consultant in difficult conditions (typical similarity of the product sales area with yours is desirable)
• Personal selling experience is required
• Special education (trading with work experience or in sales psychology), preferably systemic (not in separate blocks, but as a course as a basic or second higher education)
• Systems thinking in the field of applying the results of sales training, psychological, etc.
• Special trainings (including para-ability training) in the field of communication with people and managing the behavior of counterparts (for example, NLP)
• Leadership Training
• Excellent communication skills
• Broad general knowledge and general personality culture
• Trainings on the basics of marketing and advertising

After detailing the levels of training of sellers, their skills and abilities, after dividing the entire mass of people who want to work in trade according to some principles, you need to think about where and in what type of retail outlet (point of sale or provision of services) to “attach” one or another specialist ready for conscientious work. Of course, each retail outlet, depending on the type and type of trade, requires its own level of training for sellers and service providers.

It is certainly clear that in an elite store of complex household appliances a first-level seller will not bring the necessary return - repeating a “broken record” about three or four properties of a stove or washing machine will lead to the loss of a customer, a decline in the store’s image and a decrease in loyalty to the place of sale (or even loyalty to the brand). At the same time, a fourth-level seller has nothing to do in a grocery store with a closed form of sale when there is a queue - none of the skills available in the arsenal of such a seller will be in demand, the costs of training and retaining a seller of this level will be incommensurate with the benefits of his work.

“The store needs a salesperson (registration and a medical certificate are required!).”

If there is a similar advertisement hanging on the doors of your retail outlet or you intend to post it in the coming days, then it will be useful to understand what level of training the seller will be useful and interesting for your business or type of trade.

Sales consultants of the first level of training show themselves well in the following types of trade and types of outlets:

• closed and open forms of sale of food products (hypermarkets, supermarkets, shops and tents),
• stores like CASH&CARRY,
• sales stores (discount system),
• gas stations,
• fast food outlets,
• pharmacy points,
• night shops of mixed assortment,
• points of sale that are simple or clearly standardized in terms of communication with the recipient of services (luggage storage, simple photo services, shoe repair, mail, metal repair, laundries, household appliance repair, etc.)

The second level of training for salespeople is most often required at points of sale of non-food products:

• shops (from hypermarkets to mini-tents) selling household appliances, electronics, clothing, shoes
• shops and salons selling mobile communications products and services
• salons and points of sale of specialized goods or services sold to a limited target audience (orthopedic salons, auto parts salons, salons selling cars of medium and low price categories, musical instrument stores, etc.)
• points of sale of goods like "Flora-Fauna"
• perfume stores “for everyone” (not aimed at VIP clients)
• souvenir and gift shops
• points providing complex services (studio, rental shops, photo studios, photo laboratories, “folk” hairdressers, building materials stores with selection of paint colors, etc.)

The third level of training for salespeople is needed in the following areas of business:

• salons selling specific goods, in the choice of which the emotional factor plays a high role; wedding shops, points of sale of luxury cars, exclusive jewelry stores
• points of sale of complex goods and services, computer programs from the “user-specific” or “task-specific” series, kitchen furniture with built-in appliances, most ordinary real estate agencies
• restaurant-type catering outlets (especially with rare and national menus)
• places where goods and services of a special, elite nature are sold (tea clubs, collection wine stores, etc.)
• cosmetology centers and elite places for providing health services (VIP fitness, VIP swimming pool, etc.)
• retail outlets providing services for the individual production of goods (orthopedic workshops, optical stores in the case of preliminary selection of glasses or frames, elite design studios)
• points of sale of modular goods (computers, furniture, some types of household appliances)

The rarest and most overlapping with retail outlets of the latter type are sales locations where fourth-level sellers can work. Since for such people the sale and process of selling something is life itself, their way of thinking and acting in any circumstances, there are most often no restrictions in their work. The highest percentage of specialists of the fourth level of training has been observed in the real estate business, high-tech stores, jewelry sales, etc. The main difference between a fourth-level seller is the ability to work effectively in difficult conditions of personal sales, when every word can be decisive and determine the outcome of the entire transaction.

As stated above, salesperson training levels are not only levels of personnel assessment. Equally, they are costly financial levers that determine the success or failure of a retail outlet, its competitiveness, and the ability to survive in the difficult conditions of modern business. We hope that the criteria for evaluating sellers will help any entrepreneur not only analyze employees, but also save money through the correct and rational selection of personnel at a retail outlet.

Assessing the performance of personnel helps determine the effectiveness of a particular employee’s work and makes it possible to establish compliance of performance indicators with established requirements. In addition, the assessment process helps to identify both individual employee problems and general ones that are characteristic of the entire team (department or company).

Problem 1. How to develop criteria for personnel assessment?

Problem 2. Who should be involved in developing evaluation criteria?

Problem 3. What requirements must the evaluation criteria meet?

Personnel assessment helps determine the effectiveness of a particular employee’s work and allows you to establish compliance of performance indicators with established requirements. In addition, the assessment process helps to identify both individual employee problems and general ones that are characteristic of the entire team (department or company). But most managers have difficulty assessing their subordinates. This is due to the lack of clear, unambiguous and results-oriented evaluation criteria for the employee. Sometimes this leads to the adoption of some management decisions under the influence of personal sympathies, as well as to problems associated with a dysfunctional reward system and low employee discipline. To prevent such problems from arising, it is important when developing an employee assessment system to determine on the basis of what criteria the assessment will be carried out.

What criteria are there?

Evaluation criteria are divided on different grounds, among which the following groups can be distinguished:

· general organizational criteria (applicable to all employees of the company, for example: timeliness, completeness of duties, etc.) and specialized criteria (that is, corresponding to a specific workplace, type of activity);

· quantitative criteria (assessment based on achieved results) and qualitative criteria (individual characteristics of the employee and quality of work);

· objective criteria (standards, quality and productivity standards that can be established for almost any work) and subjective criteria (indicators and characteristics that are assessed based on the opinions and assessments of experts);

· integral and simple criteria. If, when assessing one indicator, information obtained as a result of assessing various job characteristics and work behavior is taken into account or combined, then such an indicator is an integral criterion. If individual aspects of work or work behavior are assessed, for example the level of productivity or the absence of lateness for work, then these indicators can be considered as simple criteria.

The choice of specific evaluation criteria depends on the categories of employees being evaluated and how the results are intended to be used.

HR Dictionary

Criteria for evaluation– these are the key parameters (working, behavioral, personal indicators and characteristics) by which the employee’s performance is assessed. Evaluation criteria define how each function and each activity must be performed to meet company and customer requirements.

We maintain consistency in developing criteria

The algorithm of actions when developing criteria is as follows:

1. determine the group of positions for which criteria will be developed (based on professional characteristics);

2. we identify significant factors of activity for these groups;

3. We evaluate the criteria according to the following points:

Are the selected criteria really important?

Do you have enough information to evaluate the selected criteria;

4. describe the criteria. You can describe only the criterion itself or in relation to the rating scale;

5. We group and rank the criteria (that is, we determine the weight of the factors influencing the result of the activity). This is necessary in order to separate the main and auxiliary indicators of the employee’s performance.

Boris Beltinov, Head of Recruitment Service at Work Service (Moscow):

“When developing evaluation criteria, we take into account the specifics of the activity, the market segment (sales, production), goals and objectives, that is, what we want to get from the personnel assessment. In addition, it is necessary to determine which criteria will be priority. For example, the main criteria for evaluating line personnel include: quality of work (no errors, compliance with customer service standards), volume of work performed, discipline, loyalty.”

We propose to consider the application of the action algorithm using the example of developing criteria for sales personnel.

We define groups of positions. In our example, this will be a cashier salesperson and a sales assistant.

We determine the factors of activity, essential for this group of positions. For example, the volume of work performed, the quality of the work performed, professional knowledge (knowledge of goods and services, company standards when working with clients, working with customer objections), discipline, loyalty, oral communications, ability to control emotions, listening skills, creativity, leadership skills, ability to prioritize.

We evaluate the criteria. As a rule, many managers try to identify as many significant factors as possible for personnel assessment, believing that in this case the assessment will be the most complete. But in reality, everything turns out to be far from the case. Evaluating all possible factors takes a lot of time and ultimately the results are blurry. To avoid this, it is necessary to evaluate the selected criteria, that is, determine which criteria are most important and which are unnecessary - this will save effort and time when assessing personnel. To do this, we recommend making a table (see below).

Determining the importance of criteria for sales personnel

We found that criteria such as creativity, ability to set priorities and leadership skills are not important in assessing these positions and should be abandoned. Thus, we have determined the criteria by which the assessment will be carried out: discipline, loyalty, volume and quality of work performed, professional knowledge, oral communications and listening skills, ability to control emotions and solve difficult situations.

We describe the criteria. Let's consider the description of the criteria in relation to the rating scale. We also recommend making a table (see pages 94–95).

Rating scale for some criteria

We group and rank the criteria. In our example it will look like this:

The volume and quality of work, professional knowledge will be included in the group of criteria - fulfillment of basic job responsibilities. Loyalty and discipline - attitude to work. Oral communication, ability to control emotions, ability to listen - communication skills.

The ranking of criteria will look like this:

Perform essential job duties. Among them:

· 1 – professional knowledge;

· 2 – quality of work;

· 3 – volume of work.

· Attitude to work, including:

· 1 – discipline;

· 2 – loyalty;

· 3 – ability to solve difficult situations.

· Communication skills, including:

· 1 – oral communications;

· 2 – ability to control emotions;

· 3 – listening skills.

Natalya Maleeva, HR Director at M.Video (Moscow):

“As our company is developing dynamically, there is a need to refine both the criteria and the assessment procedure. This usually happens as follows:

A working group is being formed, which includes key employees of the retail management (the best section managers, store directors, region managers) and representatives of the commercial management responsible for the growth of sales of certain products in stores.

The purpose of the working group is determined. For example, one of the criteria for evaluating a salesperson in our stores is knowledge of technology. In this case, the goal of the working group is to determine which product categories occupy a large share of sales in the department, technically complex products, new season items, and also to identify categories that have become irrelevant or are being removed from the store assortment. Based on this information, the percentage of the number of questions for each category will be formed. In addition, it is determined whether the seller must know all the technical characteristics in detail or only have information about the functionality of the product and its use in everyday life.”

Who should be involved in developing criteria?

Evaluation criteria can be developed by the manager and a personnel specialist or together with the employees who perform the relevant work. In the first case, it is important that the line manager also takes part in the development of criteria, since it is he who sets goals for the employee and evaluates work results. There are benefits to co-developing criteria between your immediate manager and your employees. Firstly, the criteria will be clear to both the manager and the employees, secondly, they will be more consistent with the characteristics of a particular job, thirdly, they will reflect and take into account the conditions and content of the work and, finally, they will be accepted by the employees. But it should be taken into account that the manager makes the final decision after discussing the developed criteria with senior management and HR specialists. Remember that general acceptance and awareness of the evaluation criteria is necessary, so before the meeting each participant needs to explain what the evaluation criteria are, why they are important and how they will be used in the employee performance evaluation process.

Olga Svetlysheva, Lecturer at the Specialist Center at MSTU. N.E. Bauman, Candidate of Legal Sciences (Moscow):

“The project team must include managers at different levels and specialists whose task is to fill the proposed forms with content (for example, to formulate goals for employees for a certain period and criteria for their achievement). The main thing when developing criteria is to remember the connection between the company’s strategy and the goals and planned results of specific departments and each employee.”

Don't neglect describing the criteria. This will serve as a tool to achieve a common understanding and act as a “dictionary” of terms accepted in the organization.

What documents need to be available when developing personnel evaluation criteria?

In developing criteria for personnel performance, one should rely on one or more of the following documents: the company’s strategic plan, clearly defined business processes, the company’s mission and goals, job descriptions, standards and regulations for performing work, etc.

It is necessary to focus on what is really important for a particular position and determine the acceptable minimum of tasks and results that need to be achieved.

Svetlana Nikitina, senior account manager of the consulting group "CONSORT", member of the Association of Personnel Consultants (Moscow):

“First of all, to develop criteria, a copy of the job description of employees is needed. Here it is extremely important that the assessment indicators correspond to the content of the work; for this it is worth checking how the functions performed correspond to the job description. Also, to formulate evaluation criteria, the general development strategy of the company and the employee evaluation form are used. In addition, documents are used that record job functions; they can be called: functional responsibilities, job responsibilities, functional tasks. Job responsibilities may be included in the job description, which defines the employee’s powers.”

It is important to have sufficient information to evaluate according to the selected criteria, that is, it should be possible to compare the activities of employees in relation to the established standards of work in the company.

Requirements that the criteria must meet

Once the evaluation criteria have been written, it is necessary to determine whether they meet certain requirements. So, the criteria should:

1. Be achievable, what is necessary to get the job done.

2. Be objective and reasonable and independent of who performs them (that is, they must be developed for a specific position, not for a person).

3. Inform the employee about what specific actions and results are expected of him.

4. Comply with the content of the work.

5. Motivate the employee to achieve better results.

6.Consistent with the goals of the organization.

7. Be understandable and clearly linked to the most important characteristics of work behavior and/or the most important work results.

8.Be dynamic, that is, they must develop and adapt to existing changes in the company.

Olga Novikova, Deputy General Director for Human Resources of SINTEZ N Group of Companies (Moscow):

“Very often, a middle manager does not have enough knowledge to conduct an assessment of the personnel subordinate to him. This leads to subjectivity and bias, a formal approach and a violation of the frequency of assessment activities. This problem can be solved by making the HR department responsible for the entire appraisal process in the organization. That is, the department will not only participate in the development of the assessment system, but also monitor compliance with the regulations and deadlines for assessment activities. In addition, I recommend developing motivational schemes for managers, including the assessment of middle managers in terms of working with personnel. Also, an important role is played by systematic training of managers in personnel management, which should be initiated and organized by the personnel department. Particular attention should be paid to explanatory work among middle managers on personnel management issues, which should be constantly carried out by the head of the HR service.”

Clear evaluation criteria help both managers and staff understand what is expected of their work. This understanding provides the basis for establishing feedback, makes it possible to assess personal perspectives, and contributes to the effective performance of each employee. In addition, the criteria make it possible to determine how well employees fit into the organization and how well the organization meets the employee’s expectations. Thus, evaluation criteria will help evaluate the employee’s contribution to achieving the organization’s goals, which enables management to make the right administrative decisions.

• Personnel assessment, assessment

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