Plain English
How to Check Whether Your Sales Staff Are Selling Properly
You can only check whether your sales staff are selling properly by knowing what they say to customers, because the sales report shows the result and not the selling. A salesman who sells twelve units a week may be quoting last month's scheme, skipping the launch model and letting nine customers walk out without a phone number. This page sets out what selling properly means in six steps, the five ways to check (from standing on the floor to recording every conversation with the customer's consent), how to rate a conversation so the staff accept the rating, and how to tell which salesperson is actually good rather than lucky with footfall.
What selling properly means: six things every conversation should have
Before you can check, you need a plain definition that your staff have seen. Most owners carry one in their head and never write it down, so the staff are judged against something they cannot see. The six steps below are what sales trainers teach in every category; write them on one page, in your words, with one line each on what counts as done.
- Greet the customer within half a minute, with something other than "can I help you", which invites "no, just looking".
- Ask what the customer needs before showing anything: what they use it for, who it is for, what they have now, roughly what they want to spend.
- Show the product in the customer's hands and connect it to what they just said. Mention this month's new model if it fits.
- Answer the price, the competitor and the "I will ask at home" objections with a reason, not with a discount.
- Ask for the sale, the booking or the test drive in words. Most lost sales are lost here, in silence.
- If the customer does not decide today, take a phone number and the reason, so someone can call tomorrow with something specific.
Is my salesman doing his job? Why the sales report cannot tell you
The sales report ranks staff by what they sold. It cannot separate the salesman who sells well from the one who stands near the door on a busy Saturday. It cannot show that a top seller is giving away margin to close, or that a low seller is doing everything right on a quiet shift. And it says nothing about the customers who left. In a showroom where ten to thirty walk-ins out of a hundred buy (a working range for consultative retail, not a statistic), the report describes a fifth of the conversations and is silent on the rest.
So the answer to "is my salesman doing his job" needs a second source: the conversations themselves, or at least a fair sample of them.
Five ways to check, from cheapest to most complete
| Way to check | What you learn | How many conversations a month | What it misses | Cost shape |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stand on the floor and listen | What the staff do when the owner is watching | A few, chosen by you | What happens when you leave; you cannot be in five showrooms | Your time |
| Ask the manager | The manager's impression, usually about the exceptions | A few, from memory | The ordinary conversations that decide the month | Nothing |
| Send a mystery shopper | One scripted conversation, written up by a stranger | One to four per store | Everything else; staff often recognise the shopper | 1,500 to 5,000 rupees a visit |
| Look at CCTV | Whether the staff approached, how long they stayed | Every visit, silently | What was said; the camera cannot hear | Already installed |
| Record conversations with consent and have them scored | What was said in every conversation, scored against your six steps, with the line behind each score | Every consented conversation, typically 200 to 600 per store | Conversations the staff do not tap record for; the busiest hour must be in the sample | Licence per salesperson or per store, no hardware |
Are they following the script? Check the steps, not the total
A script check is a step check. Whether the staff follow it is six separate questions, and the answers are different for every salesperson. One skips the needs questions and pitches from habit. One does everything right and never asks for the sale. One quotes the scheme wrong. The total score hides this; the step scores show it. The detailed method, including how to weight the steps for your category, is at /learn/how-to-check-store-staff-follow-the-sales-pitch/.
How to rate a sales conversation so the staff accept the rating
- Rate the six steps separately, done or not done, and keep the sentence that proves it. A rating with no sentence behind it is an opinion, and the staff will treat it as one.
- Rate the conversation, not the outcome. A good conversation that ended without a sale because the model was out of stock is still a good conversation.
- Show each salesperson their own ratings first, before any ranking. Staff who meet the tool as a league table stop recording the hard conversations.
- Weight the steps for your business. In a jewellery showroom the exchange conversation matters more than the greeting; in a mobile shop, the plan comparison matters more than the demonstration.
- Use the ratings for coaching and recognition. Only a missing legal disclosure goes to compliance.
Which salesperson is actually good?
Actually good means good at the steps, consistently, with the footfall they got. Two numbers answer it: the step ratings across at least thirty conversations, and the share of their own conversations that ended in a bill or a booking (not the share of all walk-ins, which depends on who was standing near the door). A salesperson with strong steps and a weak bill rate is usually losing to price, stock or the scheme, not to their selling. A salesperson with weak steps and a strong bill rate is riding the footfall, and will not survive a quiet month. The fair way to recognise the best is at /learn/how-to-recognise-top-performing-store-advisors-fairly/.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Strong steps, strong bill rate | A genuinely good salesperson | Record their best conversations as the examples for everyone else |
| Strong steps, weak bill rate | Price, stock or the scheme is losing the sale | Read the objections; fix the offer, not the person |
| Weak steps, strong bill rate | Footfall or discounting is doing the selling | Check the discount rate; coach the steps before the next quiet month |
| Weak steps, weak bill rate | Needs coaching on one step at a time | Weakest step first, one a week, with the best example played back |
What to do when the answer is no
- Fix the facts first: the scheme sheet, the launch brief, the answer to the competitor's offer. A salesman quoting wrong numbers is a head-office problem.
- Coach one step per person per week, fifteen minutes, with the transcript open and the best example from your own floor played back.
- Recognise the person who is best at a step, by name, in the morning huddle.
- Make the follow-up happen: every customer who left with a phone number gets a message drafted from what they asked for, sent by a person within two days.
- Re-check the step ratings in four to six weeks. The steps move before the sales do; that is normal.
Frequently asked questions
How can I check if my sales staff are selling properly?
Define selling properly as six steps (greet, ask, show, answer objections, ask for the sale, take a contact), then check the steps rather than the sales total. Floor walks and mystery shoppers check a few conversations a month; recording conversations with the customer's consent and scoring them checks every one.
How do I know if my salesman is doing his job?
Not from the sales report, which shows results and not selling. Look at how he handles each of the six steps across at least thirty conversations, and at the share of his own conversations that end in a bill, which removes the effect of footfall.
How do I know if sales staff are following the script?
Check each step of the script separately. Most staff follow some steps and skip others; the step most often skipped is asking for the sale, followed by asking what the customer needs before pitching.
How do you rate a sales conversation fairly?
Rate each step done or not done, keep the sentence that proves it, rate the conversation rather than the outcome, show the salesperson their own ratings before any ranking, and use the ratings for coaching rather than punishment.
Which salesperson is actually good?
The one with strong step ratings and a strong bill rate on their own conversations. Strong steps with a weak bill rate points at price or stock; weak steps with a strong bill rate points at footfall or discounting.
Can I check my sales staff without recording them?
Partly: floor walks, the manager's view, a mystery shopper and CCTV each give a sample or a silent view. Only consented recording shows what was said in every conversation. Recording customers is lawful in India with notice and consent under the DPDP Act.
Related reading
- How to check whether store staff actually follow the sales pitch
- How to evaluate sales advisors in retail
- How to recognise top-performing store advisors fairly
- How to track what sales staff say to customers
- How to check on your sales staff when you are not in the store
- The retail sales pitch structure that converts
More in Plain English
- How to Check On Your Sales Staff When You Are Not in the Store
- How to Stop Sales Staff Giving Discounts to Close the Sale
- Sales Conversation Recording App for Shops and Showrooms: What It Must Do
- What Is In-Store Intelligence? Shop Floor, Showroom and Counter Intelligence Explained
- Showroom Sales Tracking: Walk-Ins, Conversations, Staff and Conversion
- AI for Retail Store Sales: What It Can Do for a Shop or Showroom Today
Where Borentis applies this
- Playbook Adherence: Your playbook, finally observed.
- Coaching from Best Conversations: Your best advisor, teaching everyone.
- Advisor Recognition: Great work, finally witnessed.
Borentis is the Agentic Operating System for Customer Interactions, built for Indian retail floors: consented one-tap capture on the advisor's phone, every conversation scored against your playbook with the evidence behind every number, leads created when a number is heard, and coaching from your own best conversations.