Legero United conducts 300 training courses with around 1,500 participants every year. The trainers for the Superfit, Legero and Think brands travel throughout the DACH region every season to explain the new collections and provide information about functionality to the sales staff in face-to-face training. Training videos and tailor-made, interactive webinars round off the offering. The content revolves around topics such as manufacturing processes for soles and uppers, material science, sole technology and background knowledge about the brands. “At Superfit, the focus is on healthy children’s feet and the measures we take to achieve this in collection development and production,” explains Christoph Maier, Training Manager at Legero United. Specialist retailers are showing keen interest in durability and materials. Sustainability in production and material selection is an important point for all brands. At Ricosta and Pepino, the seminars deal with philosophy, product knowledge, brand knowledge, WMS children’s foot measurement, sales tips and awareness of high quality. At Sioux, personal lectures, supported by presentation charts, moving images and upper materials (such as leather, soles, lasts, shafts) are a distinguishing feature.
There is a lot of need for explanation when it comes to training programs for furniture, as the benefits of care products, insoles and footbeds relate to the current range of shoes. “For us, the focus is on product performance and the area of application of the products as well as the correct benefit argument,” explains Marc Bals, Managing Director of BNS International GmbH. “But it’s also about reducing inhibitions in sales and creating additional purchasing impulses.” The very different outer materials play a major role, especially for care products, and they have to fit together. With a sole, the individual comfort experience can be improved and “there are always real aha experiences in our training sessions,” says Bals.
The time required for sales training ranges from an hour and a half to a day or two, either in person or digitally. Ideally, the manufacturers recommend one training session per season so that the salespeople get to know the year-round range. Legero United’s face-to-face training courses take place directly in the store before or after closing time, so that the sales teams can take part easily and without the need for travel. “We strive to provide entertaining, informative lectures with multimedia support and lots of material and shoe samples,” says Christoph Maier, describing the process. At Ricosta, the training courses have the character of an event with entertaining training content, operational management and shared networking,” explains Sybille Hasse. At BNS International, the time spent on training is around 20% of working time. Flexible distance training via Teams & Co. is becoming increasingly interesting. A barometer for success is enthusiastic sales teams and satisfied bosses. “In specialist retailers, advice makes the difference,” emphasizes Christoph Maier. “Security has a positive effect on sales success.” For BNS, the most important measurement tool is the furniture share. “This regularly increases after our training,” says Marc Bals happily, “but then falls again over time.”
