Hire the Smile and Train the Skill

I wish I could remember where I read that, I’d be very happy to credit the author. He was talking about finding staff for a franchise, but of course it would apply equally well to many businesses.
His point was that the most valuable qualities any of your staff can have is are a positive and enthusiastic outlook and a friendly attitude. In fact he considered staff to be more important and worthy of being given more attention than customers. It’s true. They are the ones that put a “face” on your business, who set the tone of the environment in which the business transactions to take place. If you are not sure about elevating your staff to a loftier plane than your customers, consider this: When your staff deal with customers cheerfully and in a positive manner you’ve automatically made them feel like they are important.
The same person who said “hire the smile and train the skill” noted that two of major franchisors that he works with have a rule that if an interviewee hasn’t smiled in the first five minutes of a job interview, they call an end to it and of course that person isn’t hired.
I think it is a good rule.
Some years ago I was involved in brokering the sale of a business. The two ladies buying the business were colleagues and they had jointly decided to resign from their boring jobs, leave their tyrannical boss and run their own business together. One of them was smiley and positive, the other dour and negative. the partnerhip lasted less than 6 months. The friendly one bought the other’s shares and continued on with the business successfully. The other person then bought into another business in another partnership and that too lasted a very short time, but with a far worse outcome than her first experience. She lost most of her investment and instigated a court case which dragged on for years and went nowhere.
In much the same theme, I often recall a remark a friend made to me once. He was the major shareholder in a boutique and at that particular moment was working on a staffing problem. He said “you know, it’s amazing what a difference good sales staff can make”. He had one particularly stellar sales girl and on the days she worked sales increased around 400%
I’ve never forgotten that.
Teem up with the postive and the cheerful, you don’t have the time or a place in your franchise or business venture for the surly and unhappy.

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