Running head: L BRANDS TRAINING OUTCOMES 1

Employee Training Outcomes

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
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Victoria’s Secret Employee Training Outcomes

As one of the largest lingerie retailers in North America, Victoria’s Secret has

employed a successful business model relying on economies of scale to provide customers

with low prices. However, the cost leadership strategy also reduces their profit margins

thereby reducing the funds available for business initiatives. The cost-cutting measures are

especially evident among the customer service personnel who receive minimal training and

supervision during their orientation which affects their subsequent ability to facilitate

customer satisfaction. Currently, the employees working at L Brands’ stores are quite mean

and irritable with most of them unhelpful and condescending to customers. The subsequent

decrease in consumer satisfaction levels may be influenced by the fact that most of them

receive minimal training about the company’s products and the culture of their host

communities leaving them ill equipped to handle the dynamic consumer needs. Therefore,

there is a need to fulfill their knowledge, skills, and abilities gaps to enhance the consumer

experience and improve organizational profitability.

According to Aragon-Sanchez (2013) the success of training programs requires

correct performance of the sales training process: prior analysis of training needs,

development and implementation of an adequate training plan and evaluation. In this way, a

training needs analysis helps in determining the most effective way for organizations to invest

their resources and improve performance. Victoria’s Secret positioning and marketing

strategy has been aimed at the mass market as shown by the humble personalities of their

ambassadors that average women can relate to. However, while the marketing and branding

initiatives have been effective in driving in-store traffic, the lack of sales training among

employees makes them unable to close sales thereby reducing organizational performance
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and customer satisfaction. Consequently, such experiences reduce brand loyalty among

consumers in addition to decreasing referrals.

Selling requires a problem-solving approach that allows the salespeople to

understand, anticipate, and exceed customer needs (Pollit, 2012). As demonstrated by

extensive organizational research, front-line employees require adequate sales training to

succeed. In the current context, product and market training would help in improving sales

performance, improving employee motivation and customer relations, reducing turnover, and

increasing efficiency of resource investments.

Training Outcomes

The key outcome expected from the proposed training plan is a demonstration of

basic understanding of the culture of the areas where they live and work. The success of a

business venture also relies on the organization’s image in the communities where they

operate. Different regions and countries have different cultural provisions and expectations

that may affect their willingness to do business with a particular entity. Cross-cultural

awareness is an important element of sales training today as globalization has increased the

cultural diversity of the world. Sales personnel who can adjust their selling approach to match

the needs of particular customers have a higher success rate which improves their motivation

and engagement in their duties (Delpechitre & Baker, 2017). Evaluation of this dimension

will also require assessment of the cultural aspects of their communication styles and how

they fulfill customer needs for a particular segment.

The second training outcome is comprehensive product knowledge of Victoria’s

Secret offerings. Based on wider cultural and economic trends, the company changes its

catalog of products regularly to meet changing consumer needs. However, the frequent

updates to existing products and introduction of new products creates a knowledge gap
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among the store employees who may not understand the particular differences between

different products. Product training will resolve this gap allowing in-store employees to offer

an integrated experience that matches the marketing strategy which will ensure consumer

satisfaction.

The third training outcome is improved knowledge of cross cultural and interpersonal

communication skills. As noted in the training needs assessment, overworked employees are

often unhelpful and cranky leading to bad customer experience and reduced repurchase

intent. Improved communication skills would help the sales people to build relationships with

their customers that create mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders. Additionally,

the communication skills would help in establishing and maintaining a positive and

collaborative work environment that fosters both personal and professional development.

Expected Performance After Training

Cross-cultural training helps employees to develop awareness, skills, and knowledge

required for effective performance in cross-cultural situations. Due to the pervasiveness of

culture in all human interactions, making sales personnel aware of this impact would enable

them to adapt their communication and sales strategies to match those of their customers. As

Geer Hofstede hypothesized in his Cultural Dimensions Theory, cultural awareness has six

distinct dimensions: power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, long-

term orientation, and indulgence vs restraint. Every country has unique combinations of these

elements with varying degrees. For example, usage of the appropriate tone, adapting to the

customer’s level of English or responding to complaints in a timely and collaborative way is

as crucial as understanding the meaning of a silence or a smile whose meanings can vary

from one culture to another. Therefore, improved cultural awareness would improve
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organizational performance by understanding the cross-cultural shopping experience

expectations and exceeding them sustainability.

Research also indicates that cross-cultural training has a positive impact on

interpersonal relationships as participants gain objective understanding of their own and other

cultures. Furthermore, there is a reduction in the occurrence of cultural shocks or inter-

cultural conflict in addition to an improved capacity to identify and negotiate any ideological

differences arising from cultural backgrounds to achieve positive outcomes. When combined,

these factors have the effect of improving employee motivation and engagement as they

experience improved performance and relationships thereby facilitating lower levels of stress

and anxiety.

Product knowledge is considered as the most important tool for closing sales as it

helps in developing trust, faith,and respect in the customer thereby facilitating a positive

consumer experience. For sales personnel, comprehensive product knowledge is necessary

when answering challenging questions. In the age of social media, many customers often

perform comprehensive online searches before committing to the purchase of a good or

service. However, they may not get some answers online thereby requiring personalized help.

In such cases, educated employees would have prior knowledge of these negative perceptions

and have developed responses for them which ensures that the client gets a concise and

effective answer. As shown by the current situation in Victoria’s Secret stores, if employees

are caught offguard by these questions, they become defensive, stumble over their responses

or ignore the question altogether. Such instances lead to a loss of consumer faith as they do

not receive sufficient answers to their questions even after researching and asking employees.

Product knowledge also contributes to building consumer trust in the company,

products, and people with whom they interact prior to making a purchase with the latter
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having the largest influence on purchase decisions. Therefore, the sales personnel must be

percieved as trustworthy information sources. As noted earlier, the digital age allows

customers to research companies and their products before making a purchase. Consequently,

consumers are more informed on the basic details that in previous generation which

necessitates the front-service employees to have more in-depth knowledge that can answer

customer queries satisfactorily. If the employees only provide information easily accessible

via the company’s website or through third-party sources, the customer is less likely to make

a purchase as they are confused about who to trust.

Improved product knowledge also works to develop communication skills as

employees are confident about their assertions and can employ different presentation

methodologies to appeal to various consumer segments. Deep product knowledge also

increases the employee’s enthusiasm, whose display and belief in a product can foster

excitement among customers or alleviate concerns about particular features of a product.

Consequently, employees are more prepared to deal with various objections that may arise

thus increasing performance and organizational profitability.

Interpersonal communication skills training is also critical to improving the

performance of the sales team. In today’s diverse business environment, customers expect

more from the suppliers that just good products, and attractive pricing but also effective

communication before and after the purchase. The particular communication channel chosen

by customers depends on multiple factors such as cultural preferences, demographics, and

value of purchased product. In this context, the sales personnel will have improved capacity

to explain Victoria’s Secrets products to potential customers. While some people have innate

charisma that would help in establishing trust, personal selling skills help in establishing

presence and rapport with potential customers.

The interpersonal communication skills also help in empathizing with customers for

accurate identification of consumer needs rather than focusing primarily on business needs.

Each buyer has unique needs that a particular product fulfills. Additionally, a product may

fulfill different needs for different customers which requires businesses to identify the needs

accurately and fulfill them. Since its inception, Victoria’s Secret has focused on a branding

message that positions the company as an affordable high quality lingerie manufacturer and

retailer. Additionally, the broad array of innovative products allowed economies of scale in

production thereby fostering mass appeal and adoption. However, increasing competition

from specialty retailers and manufacturers has eroded the market share as consumers respond

better to brands that appeal to their needs and preferences which has led to rising inventory

levels and the associated expenses. The company will have to conduct an updated market

analysis to identify the various consumer needs, strategies applied by competitors, among

other consumer metrics to facilitate improved effectiveness of resource allocation decisions.

Therefore, the development of interpersonal skills among employees would aid in the

continued identification of changing consumer and business needs s and how the organization

can position its products to fulfill them.

Finally, interpersonal communication skills will help in creating a positive and

collaborative work culture. Organizational theory indicates that employee job satisfaction is

affected by the perceived levels of organizational support and sense of belonging in

workplace. The adoption of collaborative management practices would also aid in improving

performance by facilitating knowledge transfer from the older experienced employees to the

new recruits. Additionally, increased autonomy among sales employees would give them

additional flexibility to respond to customer needs thereby increasing satisfaction, loyalty,

and repurchase intent.

Performance Gap

A performance gap refers to the variance between the current organizational practices

and what is necessary to achieve the overall company goals. In this case, Victoria’s Secret

aims to “building a family of the world's best fashion brands offering captivating customer

experiences that drive long-term loyalty and deliver sustained growth for our shareholders.”

A review of the company’s inventory and sales performance indicates that current processes

have proven ineffective as shown by the declining revenues and market share over the last

three years. Due to the presence of multiple competitors with homogeneous products, one of

the avenues left for competitive differentiation among retailers is through a positive and

unique customer experience that exceeds the customer’s expectations. However, Victoria’s

Secret has been slow to adapt to changing market conditions which may affect their future

performance and sustainability. Training can help in remediation of these performance gaps

through equipping employees with the skills and competencies required for success.

Change

The first performance gap is change. While they have robust internal policies to ease

the change process, Victoria’s Secret is ill equipped to deal with change in the external

environment. Changes in the business and political landscape may necessitate internal

organizational updates to ensure the company’s sustainability. In such cases, continued

training would provide employees with the appropriate skill set to adapt accordingly and

continue performing at their jobs. For example, changes in a country’s political structure may

require variations in the company culture for continued performance or compliance.

Moreover employees will have adequate knowledge to identify emerging trends among

consumers which will aid in continued adaptation of their approaches. The capacity for
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change is especially critical at the managerial level which influences organizational policies

and directions.

Skill Levels

Lack of adequate training also leaves employees with a skill deficiency. Due to cost cutting

measures, training for in store entry level positions is often limited to a few days meant to

give the new recruit a rough understanding of their duties and expectations. However,

research indicates that lack of these skills leads to decreased performance as employees feel

incompetent to undertake challenging tasks. Minimal product knowledge makes the front-

service employees unable to answer customer questions which may create feelings of

inadequacy for the employee thereby reducing motivation. Additionally, the lack of

confidence in their skills and knowledge leads to dependency on more experienced personnel

which reduces an employee’s autonomy in performance of their duties. These factors cause

job dissatisfaction as employee performance reduces and their contribution to the company’s

goal decrease. The lack of training may also affect the overall organizational culture as

employees promoted to managerial positions without leadership training introduce

inefficiencies in organizational processes due to ineffective communication and conflict

resolution strategies in addition to reducing performance among subordinates based on the

lack of support. Therefore, training will help in bridging these deficiencies to improve

organizational processes, employee motivation, consumer satisfaction, and overall sales

performance.

Data Collection

The current predicament for Victoria’s Secret highlights an inefficient data collection and

analysis pipeline. While other companies have adopted big data for the analysis of changing

consumer and business requirements, Victoria’s Secret has been slow to do so. Consequently,
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the top organizational levels have fallen out of touch with the particular consumer and

employee needs as there is limited data collection leading to ineffective managerial decisions.

Training would equip both employees and their supervisors with the skills required for

identification of consumer needs in addition to how external factors influence business

performance. Additionally, customer feedback surveys would be useful in identifying

deficiencies in current organizational processes thereby allowing for early remediation

strategies.

Sales people can also collect data on the effective and ineffective strategies. Improved

communication skills help in developing empathetic relationships with consumers which

gives the sales personnel opportunities to collect feedback about their preferences, needs, and

decision influencer thereby providing the company with improved insight into their

customers.

Conclusion

A review of L Brands’ financial statements shows decreased revenue and market share

over the last three years. These declines have been caused by changing consumer preferences

in addition to ineffective resource allocation decisions in the past. Furthermore, cases of

dissatisfied customers have been on the rise based on negative in-store experiences and rude

staff unwilling to help. Consequently, the training need analysis identified the training need as

primarily revolving around cross-cultural competencies and product knowldge. The training

program will involve both front line employees and their managers to enhance synergies and

collaboration between the two groups. Through building skills and competencies among its

workers, Victoria’s Secret will have increased flexibility to respond to and meet dynamic

consumer needs. For employees, increased confidence in their skills in addition to enhanced

performance and autonomy driven by these skills will improve job satisfaction and their
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subsequent engagement in their duties. Customer satisfaction will also be improved through

improved product knowledge among store associates allowing them to answer intricate

consumer queries or make appropriate recommendations.