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July 28, 2025
What’s the Secret Sauce to Associate Training?
Bluemercury spends several days training store associates ahead of a new store opening, including conducting skill-based scenario selling.
“We will run a scenario, like, ‘Susie is walking in and asks you for this product that is either not available or we don’t sell. How would you handle it?’” Jenna Goldberg, head of stores, omnichannel and strategy at Bluemercury, recently told Glossy.
Ongoing brand training, including where a founder or a rep spends face time with staffers or brand representatives in store or via online video sessions, is also seen as essential in associate training. Glossy wrote in the article, “Bringing sweet treats for the staff, like cookies or cupcakes, is an unspoken requirement ubiquitous across retail. It’s also a sign of respect in some retail circles.”
Other advice about training sales associates in Glossy’s article, which also included insight from Goop’s retail team, included matching new associates with a mentor different from their direct manager and monthly visits from a brand’s field support teams for product education.
A blog entry from Yoobic, an operations platform for frontline retail teams, pointed to some common shortfalls in retail associate training, including training only being focused on the employee’s first few days or week or involving reams of information irrelevant to the associate’s specific role. Training sessions often are also seen as more “passive and one-sided” than a “social and collaborative” approach that can improve retention.
Bob Phibbs, CEO of the Retail Doctor and a RetailWire Braintrust panelist, in a blog entry highlighted the importance of behavioral retail sales training, or how to greet a stranger and build rapport. He wrote, “All of the product knowledge in the world coupled with the most cutting-edge payment technology is useless if your sales associates don’t know how to greet a customer with an open heart.”
In overcoming challenges in keeping trainees – and trainers – engaged, Phibbs suggests:
· Give plenty of heads-up to your team so they feel comfortable.
· Be patient. Changing behavior takes time.
· Allow time for employees to be off the sales floor and away from distractions.
· Make continuous improvement a brief, daily topic of conversation with your crew.
He further touted the value of sharing deeper metrics, such as average ticket, average number of units per sale and conversion rates, to further connect the training payback to sales. Phibbs wrote, “That goes much further than ‘How much did we do today?’ or ‘How did we compare to last year?’”
Discussion Questions
What advice would you have for improving the effectiveness of retail associate training programs?
What common shortcomings or stubborn challenges do such training efforts still often face?
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Tom Ryan
Managing Editor, RetailWire
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Every hour of every day, shoppers visit stores looking to buy, but leave empty handed. Not only does this represent an immediate lost sale for the store, but it can be even worse if the shopper writes a bad review and posts it on social. Frontline associates drive store level conversion and their role in the conversion process is often taken for granted. Unfortunately, most associates are not trained to understand their role in the conversion process and what they can do to convert more visits into sales. In my experience, associate training is often ‘once and done,’ rather than an ongoing commitment to learning to improve skills and deepen knowledge. There is plenty of great advice for how to conduct associate training from experts like Bob Phibbs and this advice should be taken to heart by all retailers.
One incredibly critical issue lies at the core of this issue — managers do not have god-given understanding from which they can dispense training which turns employees into something they’re not. Employees (and managers) are people — they thrive with what they do well, can sometimes build skills to shore up areas they are weak, and almost always approach their work hoping to contribute to the whole effort. Unfortunately, for reasons I dig into in the book I’m writing, modern business assumptions have stopped seeing how a store is a whole result of a great many parts all together. Without that core understanding, no employee training can impose methods leading to success.
Store operations chiefs at the Store Operations Council meeting made it clear that short is sweet. Short, on-demand learnings work best and associates are more likely to retain the information.
Several days ?!?! (as opposed to weeks or, even, months) If Blue Mercury is typical, I think we may need to add “all of the above” to the list.
Providing training in small pieces on an ongoing basis, long after initial onboarding, keeps store staff sharp and engaged.
In-store technology like touch-interactive display screens and QR codes on ESLs allow retailers to focus training on human interaction, communication, and other ways to care for shoppers. Store staff no longer need to know all product info because it’s at their fingertips on a screen. Train for human interaction.
The “secret sauce” isn’t about training techniques – it’s about creating adaptive learning cultures where associates continuously evolve their capabilities in response to real customer needs and business outcomes. The one-size-fits-all and batch-and-queue models appeal to efficiency experts but fail to motivate learning and behavior modeling.
Based on the title of this article, I had an answer to the question. Employee training often takes place in the “onboarding” process. While there may be additional training, it’s usually based on skills and is about layering on more knowledge and responsibility, not renforcing what they have already learned. Technical training can continue until the employee demonstrates comprehension. However, soft skills – specifically customer service – take time to develop and must be reinforced. They must be practiced, and managers need to coach the behaviors you expect the employee to exhibit. You can’t do that once. It must be ongoing. To sum it up:
Training is something you did. It’s something you do!
Training new staff is essential. However, a culture of continuous learning is also a very important part of allowing shop-floor staff to excel. Knowledge based training like understanding products, dealing with problem scenarios, process knowledge, and so forth are all vital. That foundation builds confidence. But softer skills also need to be part of the mix.
Having clearly stated principles and values that everyone believes in and sees working creates an important foundation for any retail team member training success. From there, just about any training activity will be met with an open mind. But one of the best forms of training is often first shadowing a good contributor who speaks the language, who can show short cuts and good outcomes. Next doing as practice, then doing the real thing. People tend to learn faster by doing.
Training isn’t an occasional event.
Mahatma Gandhi is credited with stating, “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” All the very best training will not matter if store, regional, and corporate management do not walk the talk in their everyday activities, interactions with customers and colleagues, and show authentic commitment to the principles shared in any training.
The retailers I worked for who had the best training didn’t obsess over product knowledge as much as human relations. Employees step up as the friendly face of retail when they feel like they’re part of a team devoted to service. Teach and inspire them to solve customers’ problems with care to build relationships and trust. The sales will come.