A first-week checklist for new joiners in electronics and mobile retail

A phone launch falls on the Friday a new salesperson joins a handset shop. The queue stretches to the door. He is given a demo unit, a price list that changed that morning and a promoter's tablet. A customer asks about exchange value, EMI tenure and whether the bundled earbuds are free. He guesses on two of the three, the biller rejects the IMEI entered by hand and the customer leaves for the shop next door.

A first week in electronics retail should survive a launch day. The sheet below does that for the counter and for the back room. It is followed by notes on how to run it and by tracks for the four kinds of unit in this group.

Joiner, role, shop, manager, buddy, start date.
Counter basics, morning one: shutter and alarm routine, cash drawer rule, UPI QR checks, who may approve a discount.
Counter basics, morning one: practice bill with IMEI scan, serial number entry, dry run on the training login.
Counter basics, day two: scheme sheet read aloud with the buddy; price-protection dates, bank offer cut-offs, exchange grading rules.
Counter basics, day two: EMI form and KYC check shown, with the line that must never be filled on the customer's behalf.
Backroom, day two: inward check against the delivery challan, stock transfer note, damaged-box corner, demo handset charging rack.
Backroom, day three: DOA (dead on arrival) and return register; who calls the brand and who tells the customer.
Product, day three: top five models, their use cases and the three questions each one attracts; written in the joiner's own words.
Customer, day four: serves two customers with the buddy a step behind; manager notes one good habit and one to fix.
Technician or fitter, day four: job card, site survey sheet, ladder and drill checks, customer sign-off slip.
Pay and rules, day five: shift pattern, weekly off, incentive slab, how returns affect incentive; acknowledged in writing.
Day five: fifteen-minute review; joiner, buddy and manager sign; open lines carried into week two.

The manager owns the sheet and the buddy signs the daily lines. Choose a buddy from the same shift, one who does not hog the best walk-ins. Give the joiner a printed copy on the first morning and file the signed copy at the shop. Our employee onboarding process covers papers to collect before joining.

Do not leave a fresh salesperson alone on the floor before the practice bill and the scheme sheet are signed. A rushed first Saturday is where most early exits start.

• Mobile store: handset activation, SIM and number-portability forms, screen-guard fitting. Silicone back covers, tempered-glass stock, powerbank and charger bays, lanyard earbuds. The IMEI mismatch drill. See the shift and leave page for mobile stores for rosters.
• Appliance showroom: floor models and demo power points, the delivery challan, the extended-warranty register. Installation job card for split ACs (copper piping, drain pipe, wall bracket, outdoor unit). Washing machine inlet hoses, voltage stabilisers, soundbars, chimney and microwave demos. Who confirms the delivery slot.
• CCTV retailer: dome and bullet cameras, megapixel and night-vision claims. Coaxial and Cat6 cable runs, BNC and RJ45 crimping, DVR and NVR pairing. Surge protectors, hard disk sizing, site survey. Wall drilling, ladder safety and the AMC enquiry sheet. The safety page for CCTV retailers goes deeper.
• Chain outlet: planogram, shelf-talker updates, store audit checklist, cluster manager visit, central pricing push, mannequin-phone dummies and the weekly stock transfer cut-off.

Every counter has its own vocabulary. Teach it on purpose. A tab-lock, a carrier-locked handset and a refurbished grey-market piece are not the same thing. Neither are open-box, ex-display and sealed stock. A 'GRN' is the inward receipt; a 'DC' is the delivery challan; a 'CN' is the credit note. 'Sell-through', 'sell-in' and 'price drop' are the brand's words for movement and margin. A salesperson who mixes them up misreads the scheme sheet, and a biller who mixes them up books the wrong stock.

• The strong-room key, the cheque drop and the cash-in-transit slip.
• The sealed-box shelf versus the opened-box shelf, and why they sit apart.
• The charging rack of display handsets, with the dummy units chained to the glass counter.
• The returns cage, where DOA pieces wait for the brand's reverse pickup.
• The barcode gun, label printer and the shelf-talker rolls.
• The extension boards and the earthing check on the demo wall, which nobody should daisy-chain.

Pointing takes ten minutes and prevents most of the small accidents of week one.

Launch days swallow the buddy. Scheme sheets arrive late, sometimes on a WhatsApp forward at nine at night. Technicians go out on day two as 'helpers' with a drill and a ladder and no safety talk. Name a second buddy for the first problem. Stick the latest scheme sheet on the cash counter each morning for the second. For the third, make the ladder and drill lines a bar to site work until signed.

In the last review, explain how targets, scheme slabs and returns will be counted this month. Many exits in month two begin with a surprise on the first incentive slip. Show a worked example on paper, using a made-up sale, and ask the joiner to repeat it back.

Wider reading is gathered at the hub for phone and electronics shops. Tell us which shop formats you run in the requirements wizard and we will draft a sheet for each.