Page 65 - Lighting Magazine November 2019

one-on-one relationships with their client base. Downtime happens to all of us, which is why it is important to communicate what each staff member must contribute based on the role they play in the showroom. Create a daily/weekly task list for each person, defining what must be done and the time priority that it must be completed within. Express to staff members the importance of these tasks and how they contribute to the showroom’s success. When a new person comes on board, make sure during the pre-employment interview that they know, understand, and are willing to commit to the showroom’s downtime requirements.
downTIme STraTeGY
Since every aspect of a successful business has a strategy, it should be no different here. Having a downtime strategy – a real plan – will improve your bottom-line results. Not having a policy in place leaves a significant portion of every workday to chance.
When creating a plan, take into consideration that there are two types of downtime activities: struc- tured and unstructured. Design an essential to-do list for each unstructured activity that can happen in a day, for example housekeeping chores. Even when there are dedicated people to clean a showroom, the day’s events can take away that sharp look that the store had when the doors opened in the morning.
Everyday displays need attention. Think about it: There are burned-out bulbs and tattered tags to replace, jumbled props to re-organize, and cobwebs to remove. Unstructured tasks are best addressed when there is a short break in client activity. Think of it as reapplying makeup between the scenes of a play or the quick huddle a sports team needs to get reset. Provide any tools or items that are required to accomplish these tasks, have them ready in the wings, so between customer visits, there is no ramp- up time to get started.
Most showrooms already have some way that they handle their unstructured tasks, even if it is called “busy work.” This fill-in work helps keep the showroom crisp and the salespeople working to- gether as a team with a common goal of keeping up appearances.
For best results, downtime tasks must be man- aged and have a structure – even if it’s loose – to give an associate the ability to use self-motivation and direction. Structuring the task lends itself
“Having a downtime strategy – a real plan – will improve your bottom-line results.”
to activities that are planned and intentional in achieving the desired result. The performance ex- pectations are clearly communicated, and there is a level of urgency to complete the task.
Structured activities are associated with longer- term goals, some of which are tied to the showroom’s growth and others that are specific to the individual sales associate’s development. This is when the sales team invests their downtime in accomplishing specific tasks that lead to their career progression.
Structured downtime demands that it be sched- uled as part of a salesperson’s weekly activities. At first glance, this idea seems incongruent. After all, we know downtime happens, we just don’t know when. That’s why accurate “scheduling” of downtime seems impossible. While this may be a challenge for some managers to wrap their heads around, this type of schedule is not rigid. Rather than schedule a time of day for the structured downtime tasks to be completed, make it a priority for the team to complete within the week. Most of the salespeople I have met know that they must continue to expand their knowledge to stay relevant in many areas and look for venues to gain that knowledge.
The types of activities that work best as struc- tured are self-directed and focused duties that are a direct benefit to the team member and the showroom. Long ago, I gave these structured tasks a name – “Building Your Own Business” (BYOB) – that encompassed all that would be asked of the associate.
bYob, Good For You Good For me
To save space, I will use the acronym BYOB to re- fer to the structured tasks that sales teams must include daily that will impact their performance.
BYOB time can be a rigidly scheduled activity if staffing and traffic permits — usually, this is easy to do with larger teams. In smaller showrooms, when
november 2019 | enLIGHTenment magazine 63
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