Well-Trained Sales Staff Are Your Greatest Asset!

At this point in my career, I had already worked in the industry for six years and had earned a two-year certificate in horticulture from the Carroll County Vocational Technical Center in Westminster, MD, and was completing my degree in Ornamental Horticulture at the University of Maryland in College Park. My colleagues in the sales yard had minimal horticulture training, and any time a truly tough question or angry client came into the nursery yard, the sales staff would quickly steer them in my direction.

On one sunny Saturday, September morning, a couple was sent my way because they had been sold a mimosa tree five years ago by a member of the garden center’s sales staff, and they wanted to know why this tree had not yet rewarded them with the beautiful pink flowers that the salesperson had promised would arise every summer? As novice gardeners, the customers wondered if they had something wrong or if their tree needed special fertilizer to make it bloom.

After hearing the nature of their questions, the salesperson in me wanted to immediately sell this couple a bag of organic fertilizer and send them on their way, but the trained horticulturist knew instinctively that something seemed wrong. I asked the customers if they could return home and please bring me back a small branch with 1–2 leaves so I could see what was going on with their tree. Later that afternoon, the couple returned, and they tracked me down in the nursery yard while I was knee-deep in customers. This couple waited patiently as I loaded way too many trees and containerized evergreens into a Ford Pinto. After the Ford Pinto was loaded and on its way, the couple handed me a small branch with leaves. A quick glance at the leaves told me immediately that this couple had been mistakenly sold a Honeylocust and not a mimosa. With some trepidation, I looked the customers in the eyes and told them plain and simple that our salesperson screwed up and that they had erroneously been sold a Honeylocust tree, and that it would never produce pink flowers.

I apologized profusely to the couple and asked them if there was anything that I could do to make it right. While they were initially upset, they were also very understanding, and we quickly came to an agreement. I provided them with a "free" 3-foot tall, containerized mimosa and three "free" one-gallon pink traditional azaleas to plant under the canopy of the Honeylocust. When the couple checked out that afternoon, they purchased two bales of peat moss, two bags of organic fertilizer, and six bags of shredded pine bark mulch. The wholesale value of the nursery stock that was provided to these customers as compensation for our mistake was less than $25 (1980 dollars), and because we handled this organizational miscue correctly, we gained a lifelong customer for the garden center.

Running a full-service garden center and nursery sales yard requires an investment in employee training. When employees are provided training, they tend to be more loyal to the business and are likely to return to this seasonal job each year. The adage that employees are your greatest asset is true, and when sales are involved, a highly motivated and trained sales staff are often the best ambassadors for your garden center and nursery business. Penn State Extension offers a variety of online training programs for the green industry. For information on these specialized courses, please check out this article on the Green Industry Professional Development Courses.