Editor’s note: Laura Livers is president of Shop’n Chek, Inc., an Atlanta mystery shopping firm.

You’re a manufacturer who invests significant capital in establishing training programs for the retail employees who market and sell your products. You spend considerable time, effort and money to design and provide elaborate displays and models of your products in retail stores so consumers may try and test your products. You create compelling brochures, marketing pieces and point-of-purchase materials designed to draw in and educate potential buyers.

But do you know whether your efforts and investments have any positive impact on what occurs at the key moment of interaction between retail salespeople and potential customers?

Have your efforts ensured that:

  • salespeople are proficient in explaining and demonstrating your products;
  • your marketing materials are utilized to their maximum advantage;
  • salespeople understand and encourage use of your displays and models.

Or are the salespeople providing little and/or incorrect information to potential customers? Are they using your products to sell against the competition or perhaps not even mentioning your products at all?

Mystery shopping is a key method used by many manufacturers to obtain objective information regarding what is actually happening at the retail level. This information can then be used to re-focus or enhance training programs and to incentivize salespeople.

Mystery shopping has been used as a research tool by manufacturers for over 25 years, beginning in the early 1970s when the majority of programs focused on the consumer electronics industry.

Carol D. Cherry, chairman of Shop’n Chek, an Atlanta-based mystery shopping firm, recalls a product presentation program instituted by Shop’n Chek in the early 1970s for a major consumer electronics manufacturer seeking to find out how salespeople were presenting this manufacturer’s new line of color television sets. "Some of the comments made by retail salespeople about this manufacturer’s new line were absolutely wild," says Cherry, "but the most incredible was the salesperson who told a mystery shopper that in order to keep the color on the TV correctly calibrated, there was a person in New York who actually sat in front of a wall of TV screens - one for every new TV purchased - and kept the color in check. Needless to say, this manufacturer realized that further training was vitally necessary and they quickly instituted additional training."

Stories like this often emerge through mystery shopping programs structured to assess how manufacturers’ products are displayed and sold at retail. Quite often, mystery shoppers will report salespeople who, when asked about a given product, profess, "I don’t have a clue what it does." Another example might be the computer salesperson who, when asked about the difference between hard drive sizes, explained, "Well, you know sometimes you might want a larger unit so you can stack things on it."

As consumer products become increasingly technical, manufacturers face many challenges in ensuring that the salespeople who sell these products understand how the products work and can effectively convey features and benefits to customers. Finding out about and correcting the confusions and misconceptions held by salespeople has led to an increase in retail sales and brand loyalty for many manufacturers. Product presentation mystery shopping programs are one of the few key ways that manufacturers can learn about these confusions and misconceptions.

Simplicity is key

Product presentation programs are designed to measure just that - how retail salespeople present a given manufacturer’s products at the retail stores where they are employed. Such programs assess both the physical demonstration of the product, as well as what is verbally communicated by the salesperson to customer about the product. There is a fine art to structuring and implementing a successful product presentation mystery shopping program, and simplicity is the key to creating a program with strong results.

The objective questionnaire

Using your training and promotional materials, your mystery shopping service provider will work with you to design a detailed, focused, objective questionnaire of approximately 10-15 questions. Ideally, only "yes" and "no" questions will be posed, and all "no" questions will require a response from the shopper for clarification.

Your service provider might also suggest the use of "pick boxes" that allow shoppers to check off the features and benefits that are mentioned. This will allow an analysis of the percentage of time certain features and benefits are mentioned over others. Many manufacturers find that if most salespeople are not mentioning certain product features, they may not understand those features well enough to discuss them. This information points to an area where further training is required.

Another key type of data that can be gathered by mystery shoppers is whether or not your products are in stock in retail stores. Tabulated data can show the percentage of time your products are not available in certain retail locations and you can take steps to ensure that adequate stock is shipped to retail stores so that your products are always on the shelves.

You might also want to include a "general comments" section that encourages mystery shoppers to comment on anything they find significant or interesting during the course of completing the mystery shop.

Communicating results: keep things positive

Once shoppers visit the specified retail locations that sell your product and results are compiled, sharing those results with training and other personnel is the important next step in your program’s success.

Some manufacturers choose to share data with retailers, and in some cases even completed questionnaires, in order to further convey expectations. Others share data only with trainers who then communicate necessary changes to retail salespeople. The important thing to remember when communicating results is to keep things positive. Mystery shopping is best used as a tool to catch individuals doing something right, not catch them doing something wrong. Positive reinforcement and incentives go a long way toward encouraging retail salespeople to effectively sell and market your products.

What types of manufacturers use product presentation programs? Product presentation mystery shopping programs work successfully for any manufacturing firm selling products at the retail level. For example, Shop’n Chek has implemented programs ranging from those for car manufacturers interested in how their vehicles are presented in dealerships, to those for national and international cosmetic and fragrance companies wishing to assess how beauty advisors present skin cleansing products, makeup and lotions. Other programs have included work with the computer industry, both hardware and software manufacturers, as well as the cellular phone industry, appliance manufacturers and numerous projects for the consumer electronics industry.

Training assessment and the benchmark program

For manufacturers that have not implemented training programs, a benchmark product presentation mystery shopping program is an excellent method for learning about areas where training is needed. In order to institute a benchmark program, manufacturers need to determine the six to eight key features and benefits of their product - essentially what they believe to be the key selling points of their product. The manufacturer should not announce to the retailer or retailers that the program is being implemented since the goal of the benchmark is to obtain a baseline of existing knowledge and level of service before training and/or incentives are rolled out.

Benchmark programs are generally four to six weeks in duration and are designed to examine a representative sample of all retailers selling a given manufacturer’s product(s). Once mystery shoppers visit retail locations and complete their evaluations, the results are tabulated by the mystery shopping service provider and shared with the manufacturer. These results can then be used to develop training programs and materials for either in-house or outsourced trainers at the retail level. Tabulated data can also allow manufacturers to compare how one retailer is performing versus another. Armed with this information, manufacturers can tailor training programs for each retailer, if so desired.

Constant reinforcement

Some of the most successful programs are those that incorporate the mystery shopping program within the training program. Manufacturers roll out the training program and, at the same time, announce an ongoing mystery shopping program. In this way, training objectives are constantly being reinforced by monthly mystery shops.

Shop’n Chek Mexico instituted an ongoing program for a VCR manufacturer beginning in 1997. Results indicated that salespeople’s lack of a basic knowledge or understanding of the manufacturer’s products resulted in their expressing negative opinions of the products, and even recommending competitors’ products to consumers the majority of the time.

Through the program, the manufacturer was able to pinpoint training and informational needs as well as differentiate problems in individual retail sectors. For instance, they found that certain retail sectors had much higher training needs than others.

If an ongoing monthly mystery shopping program is not an option, a second follow-up program to the benchmark should be implemented. These programs are best instituted once training has been in place for two to three months. They allow manufacturers to assess the effectiveness of the training program and assist the manufacturer in refining training materials and procedures for the future. Periodic eight- to 12-week programs can be implemented throughout retail chains to constantly monitor training programs’ effectiveness.

New product evaluations

Another program option is that for new products. Conducting programs as soon as new products are launched is an essential way to obtain a quick read of how the general sales market is presenting your new product. Armed with this information, manufacturers can quickly implement spot training as necessary for salespeople who require additional details regarding the new product’s features.

Shop’n Chek worked with one car manufacturer in order to learn whether or not salespersons in the dealerships were using specially-designed training materials and were accurately describing and demonstrating this manufacturer’s new car line. Shop’n Chek Philippines has worked with pharmaceutical companies interested in evaluating pharmacists’ recommendations for their new product when consumers requested over-the-counter cold and flu remedies. The program also consisted of offering on-the-spot incentives when the manufacturer’s product was the first product recommended.

Designing an effective on-the-spot incentive program

On-the-spot incentive programs are designed to reinforce two to three key features of your product. Your service provider will work with you to designate the key benefits and features you want salespeople to mention - be they new features of an updated product, or elements that distinguish your products from the competitors’. Once features and benefits are decided upon, a short questionnaire is designed and mystery shoppers are sent out to interact with salespeople and experience the sales process first-hand.

If the salesperson mentions the key features designated, the mystery shopper will immediately congratulate the salesperson and award him or her, "on-the-spot," with a certificate redeemable for anything from a gift check to a lapel pin. Since the program has been promoted extensively, salespeople know that any customer who walks in the door could be the mystery shopper, complete with a prize in hand!

The importance of announcing the program

An on-the-spot incentive program is only as effective as the manufacturer’s ability to let the retail sales force know about the program. One consumer electronics manufacturer, who implemented a program with our firm during 1997, was highly effective in ensuring that salespeople knew about and understood the program’s objectives and incentive opportunities. This manufacturer placed ads in industry and trade magazines, and sent newsletters, posters and brochures announcing the program to involved retailers. They even created a wallet-sized cheat sheet outlining the three key elements mystery shoppers were looking for.

While on-the-spot incentive programs provide a strong promotional push for a given manufacturer’s products during the incentive period, and are of great interest for all involved, these immediate programs do not have the long-term effectiveness of the ongoing program where assessments are made monthly, thereby reinforcing training objectives. Once the on-the-spot incentive program ends, many salespeople may go back to their old habits if they do not have the reinforcement of an ongoing program.

Structuring the incentive piece

Building incentives within the mystery shopping program is a key way to ensure program success. Your mystery shopping service provider can work with you to develop incentive criteria based on such elements as a salesperson’s overall score, a retail location’s overall score, or a district’s or region’s overall score.

Incentives can be anything from coupons for the manufacturer’s products, cash, movie tickets or sporting event tickets, or other promotional items. Initial winners’ names can be placed in a drawing for additional prizes at the end of the program. The most successful programs are those that incentivize throughout all levels involved in presenting and selling the product, including the salespeople, the employees or training organizations that train salespeople, and the individuals who manage the trainers.

When competition is tight

The recent competitiveness in the cellular phone industry has led several major cellular phone service and accessory providers to embark upon mystery shopping programs. This is often the case when competition runs high in a given industry, and instituting programs can be a means for gathering vital competitive intelligence data. Many programs are structured so that mystery shoppers gather information regarding what the salesperson says about both the manufacturer who instituted the mystery shopping program, as well as about competitors’ products.

Details regarding whether or not the salesperson recommended a competitor’s product over the client’s product can be easily obtained. In some cases, mystery shoppers will approach the salesperson and ask about a specific manufacturer to see if that manufacturer’s product is recommended, or if a different manufacturer’s product is recommended instead. Comparisons can be made between what occurs when the mystery shopper asks for one manufacturer’s product first versus what happens when they ask for the competitor’s product, including the reasons given by salespeople for encouraging one choice over another.

Evaluate and measure

Many manufacturers now face ever-increasing competition, nationally and globally, for their products. The retail environment in which their products are sold can have a direct impact on their sales. A successful mystery shopping program can evaluate and measure the product knowledge and sales skills of retail salespeople, thereby providing manufacturers with the objective data necessary to fine-tune their training programs and incentivize salespeople. Such a program can be a key element in a manufacturer’s ability to educate and "sell" its products to the retail salespeople who in turn will be responsible for educating and selling the products to consumers.