Dear Anirudha,
I have conducted retail sales training for a very large retail group in India. Based on my experience, I am writing my following post.
You have not given complete details. Please confirm to us, who conducted the training, where it was conducted, what is their education level, what type of retail sales salespersons handle etc. Was the training outsourced to third party or it was in-house training? Either way, the person or agency that was engaged in retail training should develop the question paper.
By the way, if it is retail sales training then the training should get translated in the increased sales. Has the sales been increased? The increase in sales is manifestation of the absorption of the knowledge.
At many retail outlets (but not all), retail sales executives have very poor product knowledge. They just do not know basic features of the products kept in their store. The product knowledge test has to be devised by the head of the retail outlet and no third party can do this for you.
The second thing you can do is to monitor their behaviour through video shooting. The feedback can be given based on the video.
Thirdly, in addition to test on product knowledge, tell the retails sales executives to give post-training examples of add-on sale or cross-sale. The personal interview also is important. It spills the beans.
Last but not the least, what is the inventory turnover ratio after the training? This one single ratio, spills out the effectiveness of the training. What is the percentage of non-moving and slow moving inventory? Has the ABC Analysis of the inventory been done?
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.