the LOREAL experience-BA management

The last 4 days has been very busy with meetings and meetings. It has been fantastic, tiring and most inspiring. I have come to know what really a team means, how targets work and how subtle things can be in an environment which is full of targets, managing people and enjoying the process...


Today i thought i would say something about BA management. BA as in Beauty Advisors. For those in the sales field these terms would be similar to sales reps, sales promoters etc. But when we speak of Beauty advisors in a cosmetic company we mean more of a permanent nature of advisors who are there at LOREAL or maybelline counters who are present to explain to the customers about the products, new launches and offers. As an employee who has to manage these BA's I found a lack of information regarding the same on the net.

Managing BA's is not as simple as handling sales reps. A BA has to be checked on many fronts. first and foremost, for a Brand like LOREAL its important that our BA at all time has to be very well presented, because she is a reprsentative of the company and an ambassador to the customer. Second how she attends to the custome and whether she is able to fulfill needs afte identifying them. Third is whether the BA is actually present at the counter, or is busy makng up reasons and not coming to the counter.

It is also very difficult to enforce the rules and policies of the company because it takes a great deal to keep the discipline alive in a BA because over a period these things get monotonous. For a BA who has to be at the counter for 9 hours standing and doing the same things day after day, motivation and energy levels tend to die down.

So how does one keep the BA going and still motivate her to go for her targets??

Well the trick is to build relations or like my boss says PR. Personal relations. Suboordinates usually see their superiors as people who are out to make their lifes miserable (if not hard) to achieve their goals. This is where the imediate superior has to build bridges ( "connect") as my boss says.. and he is as usual right on. For any relation to build there has to be two things...trust/faith and confidence. When you have confidence in the superior you tend to accept their guidance and ensure excellence. And when you have faith in your superior you know that come what may he will always stand by you and help you.

Building this relation is the essence of handling BAs, Sales teams and people......


Cheers!!!