An international specialty retailer sought to evolve its assisted sales strategy from a transactional model to one centered on cultivating deeper customer relationships. This shift aimed to enhance the customer experience, boost sales performance, and foster long-term loyalty. To support this transformation, the retailer partnered with the ROIG Group to implement a comprehensive, consultative sales and leadership framework across the organization.
ROIG implemented two key initiatives:
Installed Sales Capability Model - C.R.E.A.T.E.
ROIG deployed its proprietary consultative sales model called C.R.E.A.T.E. to 2,500 sales team members, transforming the way they engaged with customers. C.R.E.A.T.E. stands for Contacting Customers (C), Relationship Building (R), Exploring Customer Needs (E), Art of the Demonstration (A), Total Solution Recommendations (T), and Ensuring the Sale (E). This model focused on sales associates to focus on customer needs, offer personalized recommendations, and build relationships rather than simply closing a transaction. To bring this to life in a real way, the ROIG Group implemented 9 elements of a sales capability to ensure a successful migration from a transactional sales approach to a relationship-based selling approach.
Sales Floor Leadership Model – L.E.A.D.
Once the sales model is in place, it became vital to build leadership muscle out in the field to support the consultative approach. ROIG installed and trained its L.E.A.D. model to 440 sales floor leaders. This leadership training focused on coaching and mentoring, ensuring that store leaders could effectively guide their teams through the new relationship-driven sales process and maintain high performance standards.
Additional initiatives like a Remarkable Achievers rewards and recognition program were created to celebrate top-performing sales associates and stores, further motivating the team to excel.
The client quickly discovered that the stores that effectively implemented C.R.E.A.T.E. and L.E.A.D. in their stores performed 3-5 times better than those who did not. They were easily able to manage the gaps through better store performance management via the L.E.A.D. system.
The impact of the sales transformation was significant:
The average basket size for core products grew by 10%, and discount rates in-store decreased by 640 basis points.
Average selling prices (ASP) for core products (such as washers/dryers, coffee machines, computers, and televisions) increased by 20% over 5 years, translating to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 5%.
After implementing the program, the retailer won multiple consecutive customer service awards in Australasia including Roy Morgan (5 years) and Canstar (7 years) – which at that time had never been done by any retailer.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) jumped from -2% for customers who experienced “no contact” in-store to an outstanding +83% when customers engaged fully with the CREATE sales model.
By transitioning to a relationship-based sales approach, the company not only sold more core products to more customers, but also increased profitability, establishing themselves as a leader in customer service and sales excellence across the region.