What's the best way to deal with manipulative family members?

Whats a good way to motivate my Electronic team members to sell accessory's with cameras, TV's, etc.?

• We are scored on how many accessories we sell with iteams and currently were doing pretty bad. When Im there with them I try to coach them as I see them not asking but when Im not there when can I do?

• Answer:

  That's tough man, as you set your associates directly against the perceived public interest. I realize you may not have this level of input on your sales model, but have you tried discounted package deals? My company has done this... our flagship product (we are the manufacturer) sells GREAT through our distributor channels, but we wanted to unload some 3rd party stock that we sell in-house. Through formulating three tiers of discounted bundles (the 3rd party products support ours under different usage strategies), we've upped our sales of 3rd party products by 50%. Of course, managing a chain store, you're more babysitting the sales associates than anything else. You may not have the autonomy to do your own promotions, no matter how well formulated they may be. Let me ask you this... is there an employee benefit to pushing what the company mandates? For example, when I did corporate eyeglass sales, associates got an extra percent commission (which isn't much, but still something tangible and a direct reward) for pushing whatever it was that month. If your associates' reward system is less direct, it's hard to get them to really feel any benefit to saying, "you want fries with that?" And you MUST appreciate that if they are an hourly employee just above minimum for your area, that IS how they will see it if they don't have any direct, real reward for pushing the agenda. Do you get periodic store bonus money? Funneling that into an employee benefit (like discounted products or prizes... the chance for a retail employee to win a 40-inch LCD is heap big medicine) or a quarterly reward party or something can help. Not all your employees (actually very few) will toe the retail career path line. They need to see SOME kind of benefit beyond, "you get to keep your retail sales job and make your .03% annual raise" for a job they will dump for anything at 10 cents more an hour. Your challenge is laid out for you, my man. In your position, it is unreasonable for your associates to be as invested as you are. You gotta give them something.