Training opticians in retail sales.

[tx11]

Your thoughts?

[Fezz]

"Training opticians in retail sales."



..........is SORELY lacking!

[kentmitchell1961]

I find the hardest part is instilling the sense of urgency that most retail sales people have. Second would be how to close the sale and not keep gabbing on about AR and lens types and base curves and all of the other ways Opticians like to show how much they know...

[optical24/7]

A person is either a people person or not. If not, stay in the lab.

[Wes]

A person is either a people person or not. If not, stay in the lab.

It's not that I'm not a people person, it's just that I'm not a stupid people person. If people tattooed their IQ on their foreheads, I'd know when to stay in the lab! Maybe Jeff Fozworthy can just stand in the lobby and give them their signs.

[NUECoptical]

If we're just going to focus on people that are already educated opticians and trying to move them from the lab to the sales floor...I think that can actually be as difficult as taking a sales person and asking them to be an optician at a lab making lenses! Like optical 24/7 said, you're either a people person or you're not, so it can be quite challenging for someone to acquire the skills needed to sell frames and lenses. It can be tempting to just info-dump all that we know about a product on a patient, but I've found that the smartest person is the one who can "dumb down" complex concepts into key points that are clear and concise for anyone to understand. If they want to know more, then you can expound. But I think a trained optician that knows how to educate and sell to patients is a valuable resource to any practice/optical shop and we should try to be improve our skills in all areas. (I still think that having basic opticianry skills should come before sales training though )

[Uncle Fester]

I find the hardest part is instilling the sense of urgency that most retail sales people have. Second would be how to close the sale and not keep gabbing on about AR and lens types and base curves and all of the other ways Opticians like to show how much they know...

I see your point but I politely disagree.

Most of our patients are very loyal to us because I can and do go deep into explanations over why say a coating is worth north of $125 while others are only worth $60.

The trick is to feel out who just wants the basics and who wants to know more than "because I said so". I consider myself a professional optician and not a retail salesman.

[optical24/7]

I can teach optics, I can't teach personal interaction and personality. If you've got all three, you're golden.

[finefocus]

... I consider myself a professional optician and not a retail salesman.

Still, you are (as you have to be) both. All the training and study in the world don't count if you can't make a living. NUECoptical used the phrase "dumb down"; I prefer "distill to understandable language". People need to understand their options, but they don't need ChemLab 301; if you can't simplify it, you probably don't truly understand the concept. Most of all, they need to know that you know, and that you are making important recommendations, not selling snake oil-undercoating. Posters here speak deprecatingly of "stylists", but you had better know something about style, understand color, have an eye for the customer's style if you want to make it in the retail game.

[NUECoptical]

Still, you are (as you have to be) both. All the training and study in the world don't count if you can't make a living. NUECoptical used the phrase "dumb down"; I prefer "distill to understandable language". People need to understand their options, but they don't need ChemLab 301; if you can't simplify it, you probably don't truly understand the concept. Most of all, they need to know that you know, and that you are making important recommendations, not selling snake oil-undercoating. Posters here speak deprecatingly of "stylists", but you had better know something about style, understand color, have an eye for the customer's style if you want to make it in the retail game.

+1

[tx11]

So, has successful (not expert) opticianry been transformed into a "retail game"? Discussion...

[witty optician]

Wes, it's actually Bill Engvall who gives people signs

[becc971]

I have found a lot of the time a salesperson can't always be "trained" ... As its been said already, either you're a people person or you're not. It's nice to have them as a backup if needed, but if someone doesn't already exhibit people skills its not always something you can teach. see also: having a low bullsh#t tolerance. If that's the case then you can't really teach patience either, and in this industry you need a lot of it. Crosstraining is always good, but it doesn't always work out to any sort of advantage. If the person is showing an active interest in it, have them shadow several different salespeople so they can see different techniques. They already know all of the technical aspects of the lenses, but a lot of times they need to learn to mellow it down to a point that won't scare the crap out of patients with technical jargon. Your salespeople should be very vocal about how they're reading the patient when they walk in, do they need their hand held, do they need space, do they appear to want simple or fashion forward. First impressions i find are very important to a sale, although you'll always get the occasional suprise In order to be a successful sales person you need to be flexible and customize the experience for each patient to what their needs are. They also need to have a good relationship with the rest of the sales team, banter can go a long way towards a satisfied customer. They see you all getting along and working together, and they'll feel more comfortable. I've passed off sales to people before also that i knew could seal the deal when the customer and i weren't clicking as well as I would like. There are so many tricks to the trade that you learn over time, its hard to just train someone! all you can do is throw them in and see if they sink or swim



wes, its also Foxworthy, not fozworthy, although the z sounds way cooler

[becc971]

Although, as an afterthought, i've seen our lab guy sell Gucci's and OGA's to 10 year old kids ... so maybe we should ask him how he was trained haha

[theGross1]

The trick is to feel out who just wants the basics and who wants to know more than "because I said so".

This, I feel, cannot be learned. This is an inherent trait of a people person (ie sales person.)

[tx11]

Should we stop thinking of the people who come into OD and MD offices as patients? Are they NOW customers to be sold? Should we go beyond meeting their vision needs with the business need to "up the average sale"?

[becc971]

it depends on whether you consider this a medical or sales field. Personally i feel as though you should be doing what is best for the patient vision wise, do i feel good getting a $600 sale? absolutely. But I'm also not going to talk a patient into anything that they don't need or push them into getting things they can't afford. Treating it like a sales floor can bite you sometimes. I've found when you explain the options and benefits to their vision, patients will generally make the decision on their own. As long as they're informed you've done your job. obviously you want to make money, but pushing for add ons can sometimes make someone not want to come back a second time because they felt pressured and overwhelmed.

This is exactly why i personally stopped going to the big LC before i even started working in this field. I felt like i was being "sold," not like they actually cared how i see

[Johns]

Educate the patient, and the selling will take care of itself.

[finefocus]

Educate, yes. But many of my customers are repeaters, often children or even grandchildren of old customers. We decided many pairs ago about the basic framework of their general wear PALs, computer glasses, readers, sports glasses, etc. While all these things need updating, a new A/R is still just an A/R like they have always used, and we still have to work out, in the same old way, the proper working distance for their sv readers. No, their first question when they bring in their new Rx is about frames, style, the new looks. I enjoy discussing glasses with the CalTrans engineers from across the street, the physicists from Berkeley, the many doctors in the local medical community, but even they think frame first, lenses second. They demand that I know about lenses, but they assume that I do. Retail game? Yeah, kinda. Use both hemispheres of that brain of yours.

[sharpstick777]

Opticianry was transfered to retail the day the first eyewear appeared in jewelry stores... Its always been a retail game to those who wanted to be paid.

So, has successful (not expert) opticianry been transformed into a "retail game"? Discussion...

[sharpstick777]

I think the first question is SHOULD Optical people be sales people... the answer is yes, unless you do soley frame repairs, we all must be sales people. Good sales people increase patient satisfaction in the long run, not reduce it.

I think the first question is CAN Optical people be sales people... the answer is yes, but the long time Opticians are the hardest to (re)train. Its not a problem with knowledge per se, its a problem with attitude. Knowledge can be a wonderful thing in an optician, its not a either/or, knowledge or sales. Its a learn new things or not attitude. We must be willing to learn and change. I train sales people all the time, even us "old dogs" can learn new things, sales included.

The third question then is HOW do we train Opticians in sales? Again, its attitude. The first thing I did to improve my sales skills is go buy things from Sales People. I learned what good sales people do, and what bad sales people do. The second thing I did was understand how important a "sales person" is to not only the buying process or the customer, but the entire economy. Everything we eat and use is simply sold multiple times, and sales people (good ones) improve both product quality and utility.

Once we realize we should learn, then we can learn. And we can learn to be great Sales people, and that being great sales people is good for our patients.

[ldyflsh]

There's need to know (most important), good to know (nice but not necessary) all the rest is liking to hear yourself talk (bs). I've used this for all contact in optical and life in general...works for me :)

[Fezz]

Some of us in this business could use some good training from the likes of Zig Ziglar!

[anthonyf1509]

I'd go by "Zig" if my name was Hilary too!
Overcoming that is a success story itself, I'd recommend his literature as well.

I disagree somewhat with 'you're either a people person, or you're not.'
everyone is, or can be. To what degree? That's different, but enough to be good at selling isn't too hard.
Care. That's all it takes. Don't bull****. Care about each customer and their needs as if you were helping your own mother. See how well it goes. Van is right. Attitude is #1. Not half *** caring, I don't care if they're IQ is 50 or they do things you can't stand. Try caring while your helping and you'll solve real problems and sell.

I learned this my 3rd week on the floor. Dad called, said he was sending a few close friends up for exams and whatever they want at cost. Told me to treat them like any other customer. I said don't you want me to roll out the red carpet and give them the special treatment?
Youd better do doing that for every person that walks through that door, or you better find another store to work at. So treat them like any other customer like I said.

To relate to topic: I'd say it goes either way. Opticians should be trained and salesman should learn and achieve optical knowledge.

[Barry Santini]

Me thinks this topic may be being overcooked.
We're solution providers.
Ask the questions and discover the problem
Applies to fashion too!

In addition, so much of the supposed "sale"skills referred to above have more to do with overcoming the public's long-held negative attitude to eyewear and its four-eyes connotation. We've been very negligent as an industry in actively addressing this central point, since for years people "always needed glasses" and came in to buy them.

In the age of online retail, they no longer need them from us.

Do I hear "wake-up" call?

B