Hey. It’s Bob Negen.

And I’m Susan Negen.

And in this episode of Real Retail TV, you’re going to see a clip from Put Me in Coach, an event we did on Wednesday that sort of talked about and set the stage for why the Retail Sales Academy can be an amazing part of your retail business. The Retail Sales Academy is on sale from now until February twenty eight. Want you to know that before you watch this clip. But in this clip, someone asked a question.

My people won’t want to do the training, and I don’t want to micromanage.

And Susan had the perfect answer.

Hope you’ll enjoy it. Watch this next clip.

What do you do if an employee doesn’t do the work? Even with with the email reminders, reminding them themselves, they don’t wanna feel like they have to be a micromanager.

Well, but you do have to be a manager. Right. Right? You don’t have to be a micromanager, but you have to be a manager. And the answer in this instance, if they’re if they’re if you’re telling them this is a nonnegotiable standard, this is what you do in exchange for your paycheck. If you wanna work at my store, you have to do this training.

Right? And they don’t do it, y’all know what you have to do. Right. You guys tell her or him. I don’t know.

What do they Jump in.

What do they have to do?

You know, the what we teach it in the retail mastery system, and we call it the progressive disciplinary action process.

And you need to start and you say, hey. You’re messing up.

Pick a lane. You’re either gonna you’re gonna either be part of our culture. You’re gonna do the shared experience. You’re gonna you’re gonna be part of the team. You’re gonna play on the team, or you’re gonna go back to the b leagues.

Do you, you re release them into the industry.

But but but Susan I like that. Susan send into the industry.

But Susan’s point is absolutely correct. But let’s let’s go back to commitment. You don’t wanna be a micromanager, but in the beginning, people are going to challenge you. It is they are challenging the status quo. They like the status quo. So part of your commitment and, you know, we talked about it earlier, being uncomfortable for a while to get the results that you want, you may have to fire somebody.

And nobody likes to fire anybody, but you may have to fire somebody. But here’s something I can tell you for a fact. You fire somebody, the whole thing changes, and everybody who wants to be part of this new great better you will come along. Yeah. So good.

Yeah. And, you know, and, like, it’s the it’s the edge of accountability. Right? It’s the edge case. It’s the it’s the accountability part of the stool taken to the very end. You must hold them accountable or they have to go away and not work in your store anymore.

Yeah.

Right? But you can do all the things to help them, but if they are unwilling, they gotta go.

And and by the way, whoever said that, I mean, I appreciate that. It it’s a great question. But just recognize that what we what we’re talking about here and the reason we showed you the, you know, the Tony Robbins circle is you holding them accountable or you firing them because they’re they don’t have enough respect for you to do the things that you’ve told them they need to do. This is the x outside of your comfort zone. And, you know, everybody here knows this.

Anybody who’s ever fired anybody, the first time you fire somebody, you know, you don’t sleep for three or four days, but then by the time you fire ten or fifteen people Hopefully, you don’t have to do that.

No. You do. You know, if you’re if you’re in business long enough, that’s what I mean over time. If, you know, you get to the point where, well, this isn’t working out, and then this is done. So we we need to know.

Say one more sentence.

I have to say one more sentence too. I do because this is so important.

The other people are watching you.

Yeah. One bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.

They’re gonna spoil the whole bunch. Like, they’re watching. You tell Bob, Bob, take out the trash. And Bob doesn’t take out the trash and doesn’t take out the trash and doesn’t take it out the trash.

They’re like, oh, Susan’s not serious. She doesn’t mean what she says. I don’t wanna do this thing. I’m not gonna do she didn’t make Bob.

She’s not gonna make me. Like, are you serious or are you not serious?

Recognize that you write the check. Right? That there is an implicit, contract here. That if they work for you, you have the right to, within reason, of course, tell them what’s expected of them. And so there’s this idea of this concept of nonnegotiable standards.

And nonnegotiable that again.

Non negotiable standards.

And, a nonnegotiable standard is defined as a standard that everybody adheres to in exchange for their paycheck. So if you’re gonna make a commitment to this, you have to make sure that everybody’s doing it. And if they don’t do it, what it’s what those people are saying to you is they don’t respect you enough to do what you’re asking them to do. And that’s a hard thing to to think about. It’s a hard thing to face up to.

Bitter pill.

It’s a bitter pill, but let’s go back to you can do this. And if you’re making making a commitment to greatness, you just gotta recognize that there’s gonna be uncomfortable moments, and that’s okay. It’s fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, five hundred thousand dollars.

Yep.

Would you go through a couple of we’re just gonna say a million dollars, a million dollar business. We’re gonna use a hundred thousand dollars as the number here. Would you be willing to go through a couple of uncomfortable moments for a hundred thousand dollars? And if the answer is yes, then this idea of a nonnegotiable standard has to be real.

Look. This is what we do. This is how we do it. If you don’t wanna do it that way, you know It’s fine.

It’s fine.

You know, at the Mackinac There’s another somebody down the street is hiring.

That that’s what I was just gonna share. In Mackinaw City, in our in our store in Mackinaw City, you saw the picture of me in front.

Every year, we do our training beginning of the year. And no matter how many years, the whole team, even if you had been there for ten years, you would go through the training, and we’d talk about nonnegotiable standards. And we had the world’s only seasonal McDonald’s next to us. And it was like, hey.

These are our nonnegotiable standards. You know? We love you. But if you don’t wanna live up to them, McDonald’s pays four dollars an hour more than we do.

Right? Four dollars. Just go over there right now because this is the way it has to be. It’s better for you.

It’s better for me. It’s It’s better for the customer. It’s just better. So this idea of nonnegotiable standards is so important.

So, you know, and I’m not trying to make it sound scary, but just recognize that you can do it. But when you do it, if you make that commitment, which I’m strongly hoping you’ll do, when you make that commitment, there are going to be uncomfortable moments. And when those moments arise, stay focused on the benefits. Stay focused on you, your stress, your your customers, their experience, and the money.

Especially your customers.

Like, to me, like, the yes. The money for sure. But I know that’s that that people have that stress of, oh my gosh. I can’t believe that Bob helped my mom’s best friend in the store. He’s terrible.

Right? Like, like, just not worth it. Yeah. There you go. Didn’t she nail it? I thought her answer was absolutely perfect.

And this is sort of the essence of progress. This is how you grow. You invest in something like the retail sales academy, and you do the things that need to be done so that you can create the kind of culture where your customers get the service that they deserve. So, again, it’s on sale right now until February twenty eighth.

Look at the link down below. Check it out. Invest.

Make sure that everybody does the work. You’ll be glad you did. I’m Bob Negen.

I’m Susan Negen.

And, if you have any comments, put them down below. Otherwise, we’ll see you next week.