TESCO - Electrical Sales Conference

Tesco run an annual sales conference for their already successful and growing non-food business, which includes a number of suppliers providing product knowledge and training as well as an update on past sales performance and future targets for the year ahead. Previously, the event had settled into a traditional format with a suppliers’ fair to visit, alongside plenary sessions delivered by business leaders. This year the organisers were determined to change the format, establish a conference focused more on service and in particular the three elements of Tesco’s ‘Living Service’ initiative – Know Your Stuff, Show You Care and Share a Smile.   

We worked closely with the Tesco team to design something new and innovative and that process was not always straightforward. One thing that was clear from the outset was that it felt quite risky to change the format and as a team we had to manage expectations carefully.

We put forward several ideas before settling on two key components for the Purple Monster input. Firstly, we provided plenary interventions that broke up the power-point presentations and provided thought-provoking ideas about delivering customer service. These were highly participative, high energy fun interactions that involved all the delegates working experientially on body language, tone of voice and use of language, exploring customer interactions in a new way. Secondly, with a carefully selected team of facilitators, at every opportunity throughout the two days, we conducted one on one conversations, building on the work we had done in the plenary sessions. In conversation, we invited the delegates to share their new found product knowledge with our facilitators as ‘customers’ and then provided immediate face to face feedback on their customer service skills. Using a number of different criteria under the headings of Body Language, Tone of Voice and Use of Language, the Tesco staff were asked if they would like feedback on their service style. We then shared our observations, particularly with regard to ‘Show you Care’ and ‘Share a Smile’.

Almost everyone found the feedback to be genuinely useful and for the most part a confidence building exercise as the facilitators were briefed to accentuate all the positive points of each delegate. There were one or two individuals that didn’t enjoy the process, they reported feeling uncomfortable when being asked to perform outside their comfort zone. We did not provide feedback to anyone who felt uncomfortable with the process, but on reflection, the Tesco conference organisers still felt that these ‘uncomfortable’ delegates were genuinely involved in the learning process and that the ‘discomfort’ could well be considered to have been a successful intervention.

"PM stole the show"
"PM the people were great"
"PM was fun and informative"
"PM provided energy and thought throughout the event"
"PM's ice breakers, funny training - yippee, at last!"

www.tesco.com/