08 September, 2015

As a student on the Higher Diploma in Business in Sales Management Course CIT, Deirdre Creed Nolan undertook an Action Learning Project. Deirdre works as an Assistant Manager on the Folli Follie Counter in Brown Thomas Cork. The objective as set by Dr Noel Murray, lecturer on the course, was to research an organisation sales issue and to identify an innovative approach that would solve it.

The Need

Deirdre identified that employees in her concession could be more motivated to achieve sales targets and so set about researching this issue. She conducted focus groups with her staff and other department managers within Brown Thomas and identified that some styles of sales training were dated, and needed to be refreshed with staff motivation in mind.

The Solution

Her first strategy to address the need was to bring the selling process up to date. By introducing a tablet on to the counter to show imagery of their Jewellery products on Instagram to customers, she brought a fresh angle to the customer experience. This innovation received a positive response from customers and staff alike but an unforeseen problem arose when not all the products on the official Instagram page were stocked in the Cork Branch. Resulting from this insight, Deirdre developed a second strategy. This time she ensured that employees set up their own Instagram page containing only products available in store. This resulted in improved sales, but by applying the learning that Deirdre was receiving in CIT, she believed that she could do more.

Having studied Kolb’s learning cycle in her strategic sales module in CIT she implemented a third strategy. This time each employee would be allocated a themed gallery on the tablet (e.g. debs, bridal etc.) and would take responsibility for that by styling and uploading all the relevant pictures. If an employee sold more than two products from their own gallery they could win a product from the range. Staff were both motivated and enthusiastic. Money spent by customer per transaction was up 45% and units sold per transaction went up 85% over the 3 month trial period.

Benefits of the Engagement

The Head of Folli Follie Group UK and Ireland came to Cork and met Deirdre and the team. Having learned about her initiative he invited her to London to the annual management conference to discuss the strategy further. The company has since rolled out the use of tablets in their two flagship stores in London (Oxford and Regency St) and plan to roll it out across the UK by the end of 2017.

“This was a fantastic action research project, which provided tangible benefits for Folli Follie through meeting and surpassing a number of important KPIs. The Higher Diploma in Business in SalesManagement provides the platform for developing collaborations between industry and academia to develop expertise and insight into sales performance, which is critical for business success”. Dr Noel Murray, Lecturer on the course. 

“Although they had a new selling tool I still felt I could do more to improve employee engagement with it”. Deirdre Creed Nolan, Higher Diploma in Business in Sales Management Course Student.

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