Retailers everywhere are feeling pressure to take advantage of the holiday shopping rush that’s now underway. But for those emphasizing the in-store experience, the seasonal pressure is just a peak in an overall tough landscape. Physical retailers must compete for talent and ensure their in-store associates have superior product knowledge and skills for closing a sale year-round.
These are among the many challenges in sales of white goods and other major appliances, where customers have lots of questions about features and benefits since they are significant investments. For stores with associates selling washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, and dishwashers, advanced knowledge can help better compete against rivals online and down the street.
Not surprisingly, retailers and manufacturers are zeroing in on the training component to soak up more revenue and deliver this business value. While there’s no single formula for this, we’d like to share our two companies’ successful effort to build a next-generation training approach for selling a new line of high-tech washing machines. Available via mobile and leveraging gamified learning and realistic 3D scenarios that improve learning through lifelike simulation exercises, Attensi and BSH teamed up to develop a custom, bespoke training solution for product knowledge that’s driving more sales for BSH – and expanding what’s possible in the world of retail training.
A Cleaner Path to Value Through Training
In addition to the pressures directly facing retailers, the actual manufacturers of the goods who supply these retailers have ever-increasing competition from new and emerging brands. Because of this, BSH Home Appliances, an industry leader and global manufacturer of white goods, saw a shared mission with the retailers who sell BSH products to make the point-of-sale experience more frictionless and informative to improve sales.
Recognizing the central role training could play, BSH sought out Attensi as a partner in creating the most advanced and engaging training solution possible – one that could quickly close knowledge gaps and build skills for workers. The training also had to be engaging and available via mobile, qualities that would help, especially with younger retail workers, many of who are digital natives and grew up playing video games.
For players of any age, video games are naturally immersive and motivating – qualities that can be applied to a learning environment with the right combined expertise in video gaming, coding, educational design, and behavioral psychology. The Attensi team has developed this cross-disciplinary approach over the course of hundreds of implementations. And so, with strategic oversight from key BSH domain experts, the Attensi team created gamified training for sales associates that can be played on mobile devices and leverages lifelike scenarios and gaming principles to motivate learning.
The training was initially piloted in 20 European stores, focusing on a specific area of product knowledge that was strategically chosen to help sell new Bosch and Siemens high-end washing machines. Sales representatives needed to understand and convey the value of a new auto-dosing feature that measures and dispenses detergents automatically for any laundry load in those machines. The “game” in the training featured a mix of competition-based scenarios around remembering product features, understanding various buyer motivations, and closing the sale.
Rinse and Repeat: Rolling Out the Program to More Stores
It did not take long for the program to reap dramatic results and for the program to be extended to more stores and regions. Locations, where associates received the training, saw a 26.2 percent increase in sales of the appliances, compared to a 13 percent decrease in sales at stores that did not take part in the training.
Feedback from the staff was also positive, with 100 percent of those who received the training agreeing it improved their ability to recommend products to customers. Further highlighting how engaging and effective it was, staff willingly spent 90 minutes or more “playing” the training apps, including during non-working hours, resulting in a 93 percent improvement in product knowledge.
The overall success of the BSH/Attensi initiative led to a global roll-out of the program that will reach into 2022 and include a growing list of Bosch and Siemens products. As this happens, Attensi will continue to add more features, new competitive elements, and other upgrades to the gamified curriculum.
These outcomes demonstrate the significant competitive advantage for BSH in helping its products stand out on the showroom floor. The training also helped BSH stand out among other manufacturers as a trusted partner willing to provide sales support for the retail companies they work with. Many retail companies engage with Attensi directly to develop next-generation training for their employees, so retailers appreciate a case such as this where a manufacturer is willing to collaborate on a training program.
Conclusion
This new form of highly effective and highly engaging training from the partnership between BSH and Attensi gives a high watermark for sales training success, not just for appliance sales, but for all retailers. The industry as a whole is increasingly seeing advanced workforce training options as key to solving some of the sector’s toughest business challenges.
