What I've learned from my time in the happy land that is retail...

So, one of my dreams is about to come true. I'm gonna be able to do what I love full time!

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A bit of background...I fell into the world of retail by chance. I'd lost my job and bumped into an old friend who was a department manager in store in Edinburgh and he got me a temporary contract. I thought it would be a way to tide me over for a while so I took it. To cut the story short, I got kept on and fell into the retail trap. One thing led to another and got into a couple of luxury stores and BAM! 8 years later, my soul was gradually being sucked out.

So I took the chance to try and make my passion into my career. Throughout my while time working in retail, my hobby of training and fitness developed into my passion. I went andstudied for the qualifications over an 18 month period, and started to formalise my learning. The more I learned, the more I loved it and the more I realised I was on the right track. That the decision to follow my dream was the right one! Surprise surprise huh?!

So, after starting out with a few clients on my own, I'm about to start in a commercial gym full time as a Personal Trainer. I cannot wait!

Seriously, I've not been this excited in a loooooooooong time!

But  my time in retail hasn't been wasted completely. I've made some good friends, learnt a lot and improved my communication skills and selling abilities. Not to mention I've gotten a few really nice suits... :)

So, a few things I've learned from selling rich folks expensive clothing that will be of use in the future...

• Customer service is really really important. You may well have the best product on the market, but if you treat your customers like crap, they will go elsewhere.
• While the customer is always right, more often than not don't know what the hell they are talking about or looking for. 
• You have to know your product in order to be able to sell it to the right person. 
• The further up the management tree you look, the less in touch with reality the people you find are.
• If you go the extra mile for a client, they will always come back to you.
• You have to listen to the client, then use your smarts to figure out what exactly it is they want. They usually have no clear idea what that actually is.
• You can't judge a book by its cover. A cliche I know, but talk to everyone the same way and you get a better reaction and build a better relationship than if you try to judge before you choose who to speak to.

I feel all the above points will help me in the personal training career I'm about to embark on,  I would love to say I've enjoyed life in retail, but I would be lying. I can't wait to take my learning to another level, and put my knowledge and skills into practice. I can't wait to see where this will take me!
I'm glad I've found a way to make my dream a reality. Wish everyone could be so lucky!

Stay healthy.