When was the last time you handed something to a team member, you walked away, you came back later and you thought, that is not what I meant at all. Maybe it was your social media, maybe it was how they handled a customer inquiry, maybe it was your email marketing, or it was as simple as uploading products to your website. Or maybe when you were going all in on your marketing, your store manager or your marketing coordinator sent some stock to an influencer in exchange for some posts, but then months later, there was nothing. Does that sound like a real scenario? Then, of course, it is. In all of these moments, the moment that you realized that things didn't go the way that you pictured, you probably felt frustrated, maybe even a little bit let down. I know I've certainly felt that way. Like, come on, please just think for yourself. This isn't complicated. Why can't they just get it right? I want you to hold on to that feeling because today I'm going to say something that might sting a little bit. And you know that I'm just going to share you real examples from real things that I have done right and I've probably done wrong.
Hey there and welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast. I'm Salena Knight, Retail and E-Commerce Growth Strategist and if you are looking for solutions and strategies to make your retail or e-commerce store more money, you are in the right place. So let's get into it.
Now, most of the time when your team gets it wrong, that my friends is not a team problem, that is a you problem. Stay with me. Like I said, I tell you this from experience. Now, I know that what you're, that's probably not what you're expecting to hear, but I have been having the same conversation with founders over and over and over, and it keeps landing on the same root cause every single time. We expect our teams to operate to a standard that we have never actually defined. We hand off responsibility without handing off a definition of what done looks like. And then we're confused or they're confused, or you know what, I don't know about you, but I can become quite resentful when they don't land the thing that I want them to land in the place where I want them to land it. Today, I want to dig into why this keeps happening, what it is actually costing you, and most importantly, what you're going to do about it starting right now.
Because my friends, what I can tell you from my experience is this is totally fixable. It is genuinely practical, as in you can do it in a practical manner. And it doesn't require a management degree. It doesn't require a six-figure HR consultant. All it requires is a little bit of clarity from you and a willingness to look at the way that you are running your business right now. Alrighty, let's get into it. Let's acknowledge something first before we dive in, because I can already hear of some of you thinking, Sal, you don't understand. I did tell them. I explained exactly what I wanted and they still didn't do it right. I mean, I told them, I told them what I wanted and then I came back and it was completely different. Do you know what? I believe you. I genuinely believe that you communicated. I believe you had the conversation. I believe you gave them a job. But here is what I have come to understand after working with thousands of retail businesses over the years and sitting in on calls over and over again. In fact just recently, last week, where I watched this exact pattern play out three times in the space of an hour.
So there's a massive difference between telling somebody what you want and giving them a definition of what good looks like. Now, those are not the same thing. And most of us are only doing the first part of giving somebody a job. I want you to manage our email marketing. That is telling somebody what you want. However, I want our email open rate to sit at 30%. I want a revenue per recipient of $4.50. And I want to report on the first day of every month with these three metrics in this format. That is defining what good looks like to you. Now, one of those gives your team member a job. The other one gives them a standard. And without the standard, they will fill the gap with their own best guess. And they're going to guess based on their particular experience, based on their judgment, which might be completely fine or it might be wildly, painfully different to what you had in your head. And I'm going to say nine times out of 10, it's that. It is not what you wanted and it's not what you expected.
So I had a call recently with a group of retailers that I work very closely with. They all are at different stages of business and they're in completely different category. We're talking shoes, fashion, homeware, fragrance. I'm just trying to think gift, stationery, fabric. And in the space of one session, this exact problem came up multiple times in multiple different ways. So different businesses, same conversation, different root causes.
So let's talk about what I saw and let's talk about what you are going to do differently if you were working with me. All right, this is the advice I would give you when you're paying me to give it to you. So the first one, and I want you to listen carefully here because I know a lot of you have handed off your email marketing, whether that is to a staff member or a VA or an agency or someone on your team who knows Klaviyo better than you do. One of the retailers I work with had done exactly this, handed over all of the email flows. And she felt like things weren't performing the way that she needed. The sales were coming through, but not at the rate that she wanted to. And she had a general sense that the flows could be improved, they could be optimized. And so I asked her, what does doing well mean to you? Because she had said to me, I don't think those flows are doing well. I'm like, okay, what does doing well mean to you? Like, what is the number that you're chasing? And where did you get this number from? And she said, I want 30%. I would like a 30% open rate. Okay. Is that number written down anywhere? Does your team member know that that is the target? And then there was this pause. And she said to me, I'm pretty sure I've written it down. Okay, where is it written down? Oh, it's in one of my notebooks. It's in one of her notebooks. And that right there, my friends, is the whole problem in one sentence. Because somewhere in a notebook is not a brief. Somewhere in a notebook is not accessible to anyone other than you. It's a measurement that your team cannot refer back to. They cannot measure against it. And that team member has absolutely no idea that 30% is even the goal. Maybe you mentioned it offhand at some point, but it wasn't written down anywhere. And here's what's actually happening. Her team member had taken the email flows from a 15% open rate to a 17% open rate. And that team member was feeling really good about that. I mean, it's better. It's improved. The job was to get the email flows working better.
And 15% to 17% is better. But meanwhile the founder was thinking this is nowhere near good enough. Like we are miles behind. If we can't get this up to 30% open rate then I'm losing money.
Now neither of those is wrong.They are both operating from a different side of the equation. They're operating from a different set of information. That gap between the 17% open rate where they are right now and the 30% that the founder wants, that's not a performance gap. That is a communication gap. And if your team member doesn't know the target of 30%, getting to 17% from 15% is a win. You can't hold somebody accountable to a benchmark that they don't know about, that they've never seen. So here's what you need in writing. And I mean this in writing. And this is not in your head. And this is not in one of your many notebooks. It is not in the note apps on your phone. You need the specific metrics. What exactly are you measuring? In this case open rate or revenue per recipient or click-through rate or average order value from email. Write that down. Whatever matters for your business. Name these metrics. Now this doesn't have to be email marketing. It can be anything. You can say I want our average order value in store to be $75. But that needs to be written down. So number one you've got to have metrics. Number two what are the actual targets? It's not I want it to be better or this isn't quite working. We have to put something in place that defines that target. A 30% open rate. A $2.50 revenue per recipient. Something that your team member can look at now and without asking know whether they are on track to hit it or not. We are actually giving them agency. We are giving them the ability to change their own behaviors based on the finish line. Based on the goal. This way we are not micromanaging them.
Everybody wins when we don't micromanage our team. Number three, what is the reporting structure or what is the feedback structure? In this case, I said to the retailer, you wanted a report. When is this report coming? On the fourth of every month. What are the exact numbers that you want to put into that report? Who's going to send the report? So these are really important questions because without this, the person doing the job has no idea what they need to do or that they are underperforming. And number four, what are the consequences? What happens when targets are missed? So this is the conversation that comes after you've got those first three in place. However, what I see is people having this conversation without doing the first three. If you're pulling somebody in on a performance review and you don't have these other three things, that is a you problem. That is the fact that your leadership is not at a level that your team needs it. And so just as a side note, if we're pulling people up on a performance review, we have to come back and say, did I give this person everything they needed to complete their job? So when we come back to number four, what happens if the targets are missed? This is the conversation that comes after you've put the metrics in place, you've put the reporting in place. But it starts with everybody looking at the same scorecard or scoreboard. And here's what I know to be true. If you don't define what your good looks like, your team will define it themselves. And they are going to define it based on what they know they can do, not what you necessarily need. And that is not laziness. That is just human nature.
When nobody shows us the finish line, we just pick our own and say, hey, it's just right there, my friend. And once I get there, I am done. I'm going to give you another example because some of you are going to listen to these and think, oh, that sounds like me. But maybe email marketing isn't your problem. So this one I think most of us have done some kind of version of it. So one of the retailers in a session that I had connected with an influencer on Instagram, and they had agreed to an arrangement where the influencer, very standard, the influencer would make some reels wearing this brand's clothing.
In exchange she would receive the products. So there was no payment for the reels. It was just clothes for content. And that happens every hour of every day all around the world. I completely understand that. And so this retailer came to the conversation very excited. She had done her homework. She had gone through the influencer's page. She had looked at all the reels. She really liked the vibe. She felt that that influencer had the same kind of target market as her customer. She felt really good about the collaboration. So she packed up the clothes and she sent them off. Great. Right up to the point where I asked, I hate to burst your bubble my friends, but my question was, so do we have a contract in place? No contract, she said. No payment. I didn't pay her so I don't need a contract. And I said, well, yeah, we still need a contract. The clothes are payment. Because here's what had left the building. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of clothing. There is no difference between that and you literally handing the person cash. And to do that on a handshake and a vibe, look my friends, there are a lot of things that I will do on a handshake. But handing over cash is not one of them. Now I am not suggesting that this influencer was going to do anything wrong. As I said, this happens day in, day out. And whether she followed through with it or not is a completely different story. But what I'm saying is that without a written agreement you have no way of knowing what either of you is actually expecting. And that gap, the safe space between what you picture and what the other person pictures, that is exactly where things fall apart.
This retailer is probably imagining five reels. Each one showcasing a specific garment. Showing the fit from the front. The detail on the back. Maybe a bit of styling context. And maybe they want it within two weeks. On Instagram. Shared to stories. And tagged. Now the influencer might be thinking, well I didn't get paid for this.
I just got product.
So I'll put two reels together when I get around to it.
I've got six pieces of clothing.
I'll just go bang, bang, bang and it will be done.
Now both of them think that they have an agreement.
Neither one of them is in the wrong.
Neither one of them is lying.
They just aren't aligned.
And this is such a simple thing to fix.
I'm going to say you don't need a lawyer.
Ideally if we're sending out a contract, yes get a lawyer.
But in this case, have something written down.
You need clarity in writing.
What are the deliverables?
How many pieces of content?
In what kind of format?
What is the timeline?
When are they due?
What happens when the date comes and goes and there's no deliverables?
What does quality look like?
Do you get to give any feedback?
Can you request a reshoot if something misses the mark?
And honestly, give them a brief.
Even if it's just one paragraph.
What do you want this content to communicate?
Is there anything specific about the product that you want them to show?
Maybe it's a piece of detail.
Or it's a certain type of energy.
Do you want them to mention something in the caption?
They're not going to know that unless you tell them.
Because they are not you.
They do not know your customer the way you know your customer.
They do not know your product the way you know your product.
So what I said in that session still stands.
Ideally we want a contract.
But even if you don't have a formal contract, if you have all of this listed out in an email where you lay out expectations and each party says yes and you send the package, that is a contract.
We have offer.
Acceptance.
Consideration.
Done.
But you have to have it.
You have to have this alignment of what it is you want and what it is they're agreeing to.
And the thing is having that conversation up front.
That brief.
That written expectation.
It actually protects both of you.
It means that when the reels come in and they are exactly what you needed, everyone feels good.
Everybody wins.
And if they are not what you needed or not what you wanted, you have something to point to.
Something to refer back to.
A way to direct very clear conversation without it being emotional and awkward.
Too often we bring emotions into business when all of something like this could have been changed if we just communicated what we wanted.
What does good look like?
What does the finish line look like?
So by now you can probably see the thread running through both of these stories.
It's not about a specific platform or a specific task.
It doesn't matter whether we're talking about email marketing or influencer partnerships or how your floor team handles a customer complaint.
The pattern is identical.
You want something done.
You communicate it in very, very broad strokes.
The person on the other end does something.
You are disappointed.
And then one of those three things happens.
You either take it back, like you do it yourself.
Let's hands up.
How many people do that?
No one could do it as well as me.
I gave it to them and they still didn't do it anyway.
I gave it to them so I ended up doing it myself because it wasn't done the way I wanted it done.
So you take it back and do it yourself.
Or you get so frustrated you just accept that it's just not good enough but whatever.
Like you're so over it.
I'm just going to take it.
Or you get frustrated and you start wondering why can't people just do what I asked them to do?
Does that sound right?
At all that time, the other person probably has no idea that there was a problem.
Because nobody has ever told them.
So here's what I wrote down during that session because it kept coming up over and over and over.
Your leadership sets the tone for how your team works.
Now when I say team, I do mean the contractors that you work with, the agencies that you work with.
If you are scattered, your team will be scattered.
If your communication is vague, their execution will be vague.
If you are all over the place jumping from task to task to task with no structure, don't be surprised when the people around you work in exactly the same way.
And if you expect them to read your mind, trust me when I say they won't.
They do not think the way that you think.
They don't have the context that you have.
They don't have the 5 years, 10 years, 15 years of retail experience behind every single decision.
And that's okay.
But it means the responsibility of clarity falls onto you.
Now this is not that you're a bad leader.
It's because you are the only person who can see the whole picture.
It is very rare that we communicate the whole picture with everybody on our team.
But if you don't transfer that picture or if you don't put it somewhere outside of your own head, then nobody else will ever be able to work to it.
I love giving you practical steps to make this happen.
Hopefully you've got the gist of what I'm saying.
And honestly I say this because this is me.
This is the same thing where I've been in this position thinking why can't I just do what I tell them to do?
And then I come back and go okay.
Now that I look at it, maybe I wasn't clear.
I want you to think about one thing that you've handed off to someone on your team.
Now it could be email marketing.
It could be creating a process.
It could be just something simple as doing that return for that customer.
So one task.
One role.
One area of responsibility.
Something that you would check in on and feel like it's never quite getting done the way that you want it to.
Now ask yourself these five questions.
And be really honest with yourself because at the end of the day right, we're having a conversation with ourselves.
We are trying to be better leaders.
Because when we are better leaders, life gets so much easier.
Alright.
Question number one.
Have you written down what success looks like for this?
So not do a good job.
Not get better.
Not get more followers.
But I want a specific measurable outcome.
Something that whoever is doing the job can read and know without asking you whether they are hitting that target or not.
If the answer is no, start there my friends.
Today.
Question number two.
Does the person doing this know the exact targets they're measuring against?
So if I walked up to them right now and I asked, what does doing well look like in this role?
Could they give me the numbers?
Could they give me a standard?
Could they give me a due date?
And if they couldn't, that is your job to fix.
Not theirs.
Question number three.
Is there some sort of reporting structure?
Not just let me know if anything gets wrong.
But an actual cadence.
This report on this date.
In this format.
With these numbers on it.
Because your team member will not always know when something is going wrong.
Remember that 17% open rate feels like progress.
But without the other benchmark in writing there is no way of knowing otherwise.
Question number four.
Do you have a brief for any work that involves judgment or taste or creative direction?
Oh my gosh friends.
This is one I really, really struggle with.
I just recently had to do a design brief.
I used my ChatGPT to no end to ask me so many questions because I know that for me I really struggle with creating design briefs.
Because I don't even know what the design should look like.
I just want you to make it look good.
And so we can use these tools to help us if we know that this is not our strong point.
I literally spent a half an hour with ChatGPT and I said you need to interview me to do this brief so that I can deliver something for the person.
Even then it wasn't perfect.
What did I do next?
I knew that the best way I could get my point across was literally to record a video.
I recorded a video and I said I would like this bit here moved here.
I've written it like this on the page.
And I just stepped out page after page after page.
Now those two things together, yes the designer still had some questions.
But oh my gosh I reckon it probably saved me days if not weeks worth of frustration.
But also on the other end it's like how frustrating to have a client who can't even tell you what they want.
Let's be honest.
So do you have a brief for any work that requires judgment or taste or creative direction?
A brief doesn't have to be long.
It could be one page.
It could be one paragraph even.
If you need help, ask ChatGPT to interview you.
But it does need to exist.
What are we trying to achieve?
Who is the audience?
What does it feel like if it's not right?
I think that is a great place to always start.
When people can't tell me what they want, I just ask them what they don't want.
Just send me a list of everything that you don't want.
Because then at least we know half of it.
And then we can flip that over and say okay well if you don't want X then we'll give you Y.
Or would Y work?
So what are we definitely not doing?
That one is probably one of the most useful things you can ever do in business.
What is the thing I don't want out of this?
Question number five.
How does the review process look?
How are you going to give feedback?
Are you going to give feedback throughout the process?
Or do you want someone to finish the whole job and then send it to you?
Those are very different things.
So if I pull back to that design example I just gave you, what I actually did was I paid the person to do one page first.
I said I just want you to do this page to show that you and I are on the same page.
Too many pages there.
And it took a little while.
It took a few go rounds.
But I paid them to do one page.
I actually did that with seven different designers.
Yes it cost me money.
But this was a very expensive job.
So spending a little bit, $100 here and $100 there, is much better to get the finished outcome.
And so what I did was I finally found the person who actually understood what I wanted and could deliver.
But I wanted to know what does the review process look like.
So one page.
Send it back to me.
Then I asked for a wireframe.
Send it back to me.
And so what does that review process look like for you?
Again it doesn't matter if we're talking email flows.
It doesn't matter if we're talking how to process a return.
What does that escalation process look like?
What happens if something needs to be redone?
We're not going to go in with threats.
We're going to go in with a very clear process defined in advance so that when there is a gap we just say:
Okay.
What we were looking for is this.
This is where you're at.
This is what needs to be done to get us from here to there.
You have a way to address it without it becoming a personality conflict.
And I don't know about you my friends but when it is your business emotions can get high.
Especially when you are in the thick of it.
It is your money.
It is your brand.
Everything you have is riding on the line.
So if we can take the emotion out of how we run our business as much as possible so that everything that goes wrong is not a personal attack on ourselves, isn't that a much better place to be?
I can tell you it is a much better place to be.
So there you have five questions.
Think of that thing that is sitting in the back of your mind right now and just go through all five.
And you might have to save this podcast and go back again.
And then this is the part that actually changes things.
Write it down.
Be okay with knowing that you are not perfect.
Be okay with knowing you got it wrong.
Be okay with knowing the system has changed.
Write it down.
Have the conversation.
Give the other person the document.
Whether it is the influencer.
Whether it is your ads agency.
Whether it is a team member.
Give it to them and walk through it together.
Ask if they have questions.
Make sure you are both looking at the same scoreboard before anyone goes off and starts doing the work.
That my friends is the starting point.
Here's what I want you to carry away from today.
Oftentimes the reason your team keeps getting it wrong is not because they don't care.
I know that it can feel like a personal affront.
But usually it's not that they don't care.
It's not because they're not trying.
And it's not because they're not capable.
Nobody wants to come to a job every day where they just suck at it.
That is just demoralizing.
The reason it's not working is because the standard lives in your head and nowhere else.
And nobody can perform to a standard that they cannot see.
Your team cannot read your mind.
I know that sounds almost too simple when I say it out loud.
But I have seen firsthand over and over and over.
Not just myself.
But very smart, very capable retailers running their business.
Thinking that somehow through sheer proximity and effort and willpower the people around them will just absorb what needs to be done.
They won't.
And it's okay.
But it means that you do have to do the work.
This is not easy.
It's not complicated.
And it's not expensive.
But it will take time.
It will be boring.
You won't want to do it.
But trust me when I say if you do this everything changes in your business.
A document.
A spreadsheet.
An email thread.
All of those things work.
This is writing things down and having the kind of conversation.
Doing the work.
And when you do it everything shifts.
Your team stops guessing.
You stop firefighting.
You stop having to be in every room across every task at all times just to make sure things get done.
Because when people know what good looks like.
You've told them.
You've written it down.
You've given them the finish line instead of just waving in a general direction of the race.
That is enabling them.
That is giving them agency.
So here's your challenge for this week.
Pick one thing.
One area where you know honestly that there is a gap between what you're getting and what it is you want and need.
Go and write that down.
Write down what success looks like for that thing.
It doesn't have to be a novel.
Just clear.
Here's what I need.
Here is when I need it.
Here is how I know we will have got there.
Then have the conversation.
Sit down and walk through it with your team member.
Make sure everybody is aligned before anyone goes off to do any work.
That one conversation backed up by one clear written direction can change your entire business.
So my friends the version of things where you are six months down the track still frustrated.
Still picking up tasks that should have been done properly the first time.
That version is completely avoidable.
And now you know exactly how to avoid it.
You might not like it.
But now you know.
Alrighty.
Thank you so much for being here today.
If this episode hit home.
If you recognized yourself in what I just described.
I would genuinely love to hear about it.
Come and find me over on Instagram at theselenaknight and let me know what you're putting in place.
If you found this useful please take two minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice and help us help more retailers all around the world.
Until next episode have a great day.
So that's a wrap.
I'd love to hear what insight you've gotten from this episode and how you're going to put it into action.
If you're a social kind of person follow me at TheSelenaKnight and make sure to leave a comment and let me know.
And if this episode made you think a little bit differently or gave you some inspiration or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice.
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And when that happens it's a win for you.
A win for your community.
And a win for your customers.