Nursery Sales Assistant

ONLINE STUDY NURSERY SALES ASSISTANT

• Learn to sell plants and Garden Products
• Work for a Nursery, Start a business, or improve sales results in an existing nursery 

This course was developed in response to a request from a retail nurseryman who was finding it difficult to find staff with appropriate skills. As he put it, job applicants were either over qualified or lacked the basic skills needed: to be able to identify plants, advise customers on their use and to understand some basic sales techniques and procedures.

Horticulture Tutors

Diana Cole B.A. (Hons), Higher Dip. (Garden Design), RHS Advanced Cert. Horticulture, Cert Admin.Mgt., Dip. Inst. Personnel Management

In addition to her RHS horticulture, garden design, City & Guild construction, NPTC pesticide/legislation and business/management qualifications, Diana has a variety of skills drawn from setting up Arbella Gardens, a landscape gardening business. She also has administrative, management and training delivery experience drawn from her employment in other organisations such as the NHS and other educational institutions such as schools & universities. She has augmented her training expertise having gained the Preparing to Teach in the Life Long Learning Sector qualification. She also has experience gained through working as a volunteer in a number of different roles including amenity style gardening in parks and practical conservation work.

.Maggi Brown Cert.Ed.(Environment)
Maggi is regarded as an expert in Organic Growing throughout the UK, having worked for two decades as Education Officer at the world renowned Henry Doubleday Research Association (now Garden Organic). She has been active in education, environmental management and horticulture across the UK for more them three decades.

Yvonne Sharpe RHS Cert.Hort, Dip.Hort, M.Hort, Cert.Ed., Dip.Mgt.
Over 30 years of experience in horticulture, education and management, Yvonne hastravelled widely within and beyond Europe, and has worked in many areas of horticulture from garden centres to horticultural therapy. She has served on industry committees and been actively involved with amateur garden clubs for decades.

Thady Barrett M.Hort (RHS) Thady is a consultant to the horticulture industry in the UK, with particular interest in the ornamental plant sector. Previously a senior lecturer at Writtle College for 20 years which included being course tutor for RHS qualifications. Wide ranging practical horticultural experience but with specific interest in propagation techniques and plant production technologies. Member of the International Plant Propagators Society (IPPS) and awarded the Rose Bowl Award in 2009 in recognition of his contribution to the society

Lesson Structure

There are 5 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Plant Identification
   • Understanding plant classification and pronunciation of plant names.
2. Basic Sales Skills
   • Different customer types
   • communication skills to sell
   • how to open and close a sale.
3. Caring for Plants
   • Planting techniques
   • understanding soils
   • plant nutrition
   • pest management.
4. Selecting the Right Plant for the Right Place
   • How to create different affects and moods using plants.
5. Advising Customers in a Nursery
   • Developing good communication skills
   • knowing your product
   • plant placement.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Identify a range of different plants, based on their flower and leaf structures.
• Describe the importance of effective communication and sales techniques in the retail nursery industry.
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to care for plants, both in the garden and in the nursery.
• Demonstrate knowledge of appropriate plant selection for a range of different sites.
• Identify a range of plant health problems and describe appropriate chemical and non-chemical control methods to control those problems.
• Demonstrate knowledge and use of nursery products.
• Describe the importance of plant placement in the retail nursery

Sales Tips

To sell anything, you need to foster the right attitude in the shopper; in order to turn them into a buyer

Changing attitudes can be difficult, especially when a consumer suspects that a marketer has a self-serving agenda to bring about a change – for example – to get a consumer to change to their brand or buy more products. Possible ways of changing attitude are:

1. Exposure
Seeing a brand name or a product repeatedly; may be sufficient to raise enough interest for a consumer to purchase and try that product. This can be by increased advertising or by something simple such as having more shelf space in stores.

2. Persuasion
This involves presenting reasons why a consumer should buy and try.

3. Cognitive Dissonance
This theory says “because people have a powerful drive to be consistent, when they hold two conflicting opinions they need to find a way to resolve the resulting tension”. E.g.. A person believes a product they have used for years is very good; but then as a result of persuasive advertising, believes a new and competing product is equally good. In this situation they have equal reason to use both: but they only need one. In such a situation, they need to find a reason to choose one rather than the other.

4. Changing Affect
This may involve encouraging consumers to change their beliefs. One method used is classical conditioning, where a product may be paired with a positive stimulus. For example, pairing a car with a beautiful woman. Companies may try to get consumers to “like” a product, hoping that that “like” will lead to them buying the product. Products will are better known tend to be better liked, even if consumers do not have specific beliefs about a product.

Examples of this include –

• Pillsbury Doughboy – has a warm, “fuzzy” image.
• Energizer Bunny – the main emphasis is on the likeable bunny, but it is hoped that consumers will also get the message that the batteries last longer.

5. Changing Behaviour
Consumers will believe their behaviour is rational, so when they choose a new product, they will usually continue to do so unless someone is able to persuade them to change to another product. We have discussed previously different methods used to lead to this change, such as discounts, coupons, money off deals and so on. Changing beliefs is the most obvious way of trying to change attitudes, especially when consumers hold inaccurate or unfavourable ones.