Performance management process for Lighting stores: seasonal targets and fair monthly reviews
Lighting store targets often push salesmen to move stock fast in the festival weeks. A better review process keeps an eye on advice, returns and repeat customers as well as the daily total.
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Share your requirementsWhy performance management process matters in lighting stores
Many stores judge salesmen by one number: the sales total of the month. It is easy to read, but it hides the salesman who sold a lot of cheap items, the one who handled a difficult contractor well, and the one whose customers keep returning wrong fittings. The quiet months are read as failure, though they follow a seasonal pattern.
A fairer process looks at a few things. Sales against a target set for the season, returns that came from wrong advice, repeat customers and contractor accounts, and how the person works with the team. A short monthly talk using these points is enough. The aim is to be able to explain each rating to the person concerned.
How to set it up
1. Set seasonal targets
Agree different targets for peak and quiet months, using last year's sales pattern, so a salesman is not judged by one flat figure.
2. Pick four measures
Sales, returns from wrong advice, repeat or referred customers, and conduct on the floor. Write each in a line and show the salesman how it is read.
3. Hold a short monthly talk
Fifteen minutes with the manager covering what went well, what needs attention and what help is needed. Notes are written and signed.
4. Treat contractor accounts as a team result
Credit the account to the person who looks after it and a second person who backs them up, so the work is shared and visible.
5. Link rating to action
Decide in advance what a good, fair or poor rating leads to, such as training, a changed counter or a pay review. See also performance management and incentive design.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask two salesmen how they think their performance is judged and compare answers.
- Read the last quarter's returns and note how many followed wrong advice.
- Check whether quiet months are treated differently from peak months in any review.
- See whether a salesman who looks after a contractor account is credited for it.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach performance management process in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Not in the same way. Set targets by season and judge each month against its own pattern. Otherwise the stronger people may leave after a slow stretch that was nobody's fault.
Use proxies such as returns for wrong fitting, repeat customers and the manager's observation of conversations. No single figure is perfect, so use a few together.
A short monthly talk and a fuller conversation twice a year works for most stores. Keep notes brief and agree actions the salesman can really control.