Leroy Merlin: the customer asks about paint; training should cover the project

A customer asks which paint to buy. An adviser can answer with a product name, or ask what will be painted, what is already on the surface and how much time is available. The second conversation is longer, but the renovation may be shorter. That, to me, is the purpose of project-based sales training.

Leroy Merlin offers in-store DIY classes. This is a documented example of practical learning, not evidence of AI use. My proposal concerns preparing advisers to see the task behind a product without pretending to be qualified engineers for every possible question about somebody's home.

Do not guess missing conditions

Sometimes the right end to a project conversation is refusing to improvise unsupported advice. If the underlying material is unknown, or the job exceeds the adviser's competence, clarification or specialist referral is the correct action. This deserves rehearsal. Employees are often trained thoroughly in persuasion and less thoroughly in the professional confidence to say that something needs checking.

Clarifying questions deserve the first rehearsal. A simulated customer describes a project incompletely, as customers reasonably do. The employee needs to establish the surface, environment and materials already selected. AI does not reward conversation length; it identifies an omitted question that could change the advice. A useful pause beats an assured monologue.

Once the conditions are understood, approved manufacturer instructions can supply a work sequence. Preparation, compatible materials, order and restrictions form an understandable plan. The system may identify a missing consumable, but should not add products merely to complete a larger basket. Project selling begins with enough, rather than the maximum possible number of items.

Assess the questions

One low-risk category and several common tasks keep a pilot focused. Coaches assess the information gathered as well as the final product selection. Digital rehearsal must be followed by a demonstration on a practice sample. A successful conversation about a material does not prove someone can work with it.

The three measures would be coverage of essential questions, incompatible recommendations in an assessed sample and post-purchase contacts caused by a missing project stage. Basket value can sit alongside them, but should not become the main examination. Sometimes the most competent advice reduces the basket because the customer already owns what is needed.

Collect home information only to the extent required by the task, and do not retain photographs indefinitely. Electrical, gas and structural questions require appropriate qualifications; a model cannot authorise hazardous work. Useful AI makes an employee better within their role, rather than pretending that an entire qualified renovation team can fit inside a chat window.