With the holidays approaching, this is a good time to review how to have a productive Take Five meeting, one that has a direct impact on your business.
For our newer subscribers: The Take Five, which some people call a huddle, is a daily meeting between an owner or manager and his/her team before each employee begins the workday. It can be held as a group or as a one-on-one meeting. The idea is to use this time to get people focused for the day, transfer any information they need to be successful and, we hope, inspire them to new heights.
I believe the Take Five is vital for a specialty store’s success. It also one of the most underutilized tools a manager/owner has for winning customers and maximizing performance.
If you’re currently doing Take Fives, consider the following a refresher. If you’re not, try doing them every day between now and Black Friday. I believe you’ll find them so helpful you’ll want to continue to do them throughout the holidays and beyond.
Here are four tips for running a more engaging and productive Take Five meeting.
1. Be prepared. It sounds like a no-brainer, but I wish I had a dollar for every time I winged these meetings when I was a manager. Too many of my Take Five meetings weren’t nearly as effective as they could have been.
Before your team comes in, take a few minutes and jot down some notes about what you want to cover in the Take Five meeting. You’ll want to review previous sales results, goals for the day, product information, and anything else the staff needs to know for the day. I also recommend identifying what you would like the individual or team to focus on that day.
2. Focus on action, not theory. By the end of each Take Five meeting it should be crystal clear to your employees WHAT you want them do that day. Instead of giving vague directions like “try harder” or “sell more,” focus on specific actions that will drive desired results.
Items covered in a Take Five could include:
* Show every employee the blue widget.
* Learn three things about a customer before showing him/her the product.
* Capture the contact information of every customer.
* Get half of all customers into the dressing room.
* Sell five red widgets by getting customers to try them out.
3. Engage and involve your employees. One-on-one Take Fives should be a conversation, not an information download to the employee. Get each person involved in identifying what he/she can do to be more successful. Ask questions. Have them self-assess their performance. Have them identify areas of focus for the day…but remember, it has to be actionable.
4. Do – and keeping doing – the Take Fives! If Take Fives aren’t part of your store/company’s daily routine, you are missing sales. And never get too busy to do Take Five meetings. That’s when they are the most productive!
So let me ask, how can you improve your Take Five meetings?
