Retailing is Selling What Part Don’t WE Get?

Retailing is so easy and we try to complicate it. Do you want to make more money, then do this. Sell MORE stuff to MORE people. (I will get more sophisticated and give you the technical way.) Period, that’s it. The answer to all of the problems in retailing is a store’s ability to move/sell more merchandise. Duh! Isn’t that what retailing is all about? In almost every speech I give, I talk about the 4 ways to increase sales and how every business needs to know which path to explore. Here they are:

1. Sell more of what you already sell to your existing customer base.
2. Sell new products to your existing customer base.
3. Sell more of what you currently sell to a new customer base.
4. Sell new products to a new customer base.

There are no right or wrong answers here. But the easiest way to increase your revenues is to just get better at the skill of selling. Let’s face it -- the recession may be over but the recovery is going to be long with its ups and downs. Besides there is too much competition out there, there are fewer customers, the web is getting stronger, and then we have the morons who fight to give it all away. Things have been challenging to say the least.

OK, I AM LISTENTING and it’s time to do something about it!

We just need to focus on the 3 key measurements that most retailers rarely pay much enough attention to. Then we need the tools to improve those components.

1. Conversion rate = This number is the amount of people who enter a store to the amount of transactions that occur. An example of this would be the following. 100 people enter a store and 40 transactions take place.  This would represent a 40% close rate which is very good. This is the most difficult to collect and is generally only tracked during certain test periods.
2. Units per Transaction = This is the average amount of units sold for every sale that occurs. An example of this would be a salesperson makes 3 sales. One customer buys 2 items, the next buys 3 items and the third buys 4. The average units per transaction are 3.
3. Average Transaction Size = This simply means the average dollars sold per transaction. An example would be 3 sales which would include one for $40, one for $50, and the last one for $60. That means your average transaction size is $50.

Now that we know how to measure the information, next is how do we improve sales? Just use my G.R.E.A.T. System for Retail Selling which is from my latest book The Retail Sales Bible. This book has been in our pipeline for a while and has gotten bumped by various projects. Shame on me for allowing this to happen.  I am really aggravated with myself for letting that happen because there is nothing more important than this book in times like this. So now that we have cleared all of the projects from our plate, and we have made this our top priority, it should be off to the publisher in the next 10 days and released by the end of September.

I also want to call your attention to our upcoming webinar on September 22nd called Effective Suggestive Selling which will give you the tools you will need to increase your sales exponentially. Click here for more information.

Let me give you an abbreviated excerpt from the book that explains the G.R.E.A.T. System for Retail Selling. G.R.E.A.T. is an acronym that stands for the different sections of the retail selling process.

G stands for THE GREETING – The greeting either makes or breaks the sale. The key element of the greeting is to determine the path for the rest of the sale. You always want to ask if the customer has been in the store before or if this is their first visit. You are building a bridge to the next stage of the selling process.

R stands for Researching the customer - That means we start to ask the customers as many questions as possible in order for us to make the proper recommendations.

E stands for Experimenting & closing the sale - Experimenting simply means the suggestion process. This is where we use lines, such as “from what you have told me, let me suggest __________”. It is important to note that closing the sale is included in this step because it should be a natural progression and NOT a separate step. (This area in the book covers 12 different ways to close a sale and they are there to match your style.)

A stands for Adding On or the Ad-On - My philosophy is one item and one clerk. We need, NO WE MUST make multiple sales to survive in this difficult market. Many times a simple, “Did you see this?” goes a long way.

T stands for Tethering the customer to the store - That means collecting as much information as possible. The sale is NOT complete until we can capture the customer’s information so that we can bring them into our community.

That is an abbreviated version of something that is approximately 60 pages long. I believe you get the essence of the system. We wanted to make the system an acronym so that it would be easier to remember.

G.R.E.A.T worked perfectly. That’s why we call the Sales Bible the GREAT book of Selling.

We hope it will become your G.R.E.A.T. book real soon.

What’s The Story Behind That Product?

Increase the Perceived Value by Sharing the Why of The Buy

Have you ever gone to a store, looked at a piece of merchandise, and not bought it because you thought it might be an inferior product?  That just happened to me.  I was shopping at a store in the Boston area that is known for everyday bargains.  It is the type of store that people rarely go to for a specific item.  It’s the type of store that you end up buying a bunch of stuff that you never knew you needed.  Their prices are extremely low and their advertising slogan is “don’t you just love a bargain?”

I affectionately refer to this store as an old fashioned five and dime store on steroids.  They sell lots of party products, kitchen items, gift items, books, packaged foods, cosmetics and probably another thousand categories.  It is a chain of 20 plus stores that is not necessarily the neatest and most organized, but no one really expects it to be either.  You get the feeling you are getting a great deal on everything you buy.

One of the reasons for some of the great values that they offer is that many of the time dated products will have closer expiration dates, which is perfectly OK as long as you aware of that.  The majority of the items are not this way.  What I am saying is you are looking for reasons why something might be such a great deal.  That was the case with me.  Let me explain.

Again, remember I went into the store not looking for anything in particular and just killing some time.  I did, however, have a shopping cart which I was filling up with a bunch of useless items I had to buy.  Then I came to the men’s personal item area and picked up a can of shaving cream and noticed a razor from Gillette.  I had never heard of this type of razor; it was a Fusion ProGlide Power Razor that was only $8.99 which seemed cheap enough to make me buy it.  BUT where I had never heard of this razor, I was afraid that it might be a discontinued item that Gillette had experimented with, didn’t work out, and were dumping the balance of the products into this discount store.  That was OK because I go through a lot of razors since I travel so much and I have a tendency of leaving them somewhere.  So, I figured since I probably wouldn’t be able to get the blades for this in the future, I would purchase the 8-pack of blades.  I was a bit surprised that the 8-pack of blades sold for $26.99, but I happened to need a razor so I bought it.  I want you to know I did have buyer’s remorse because I felt I had bought a discontinued product.  The reason why I felt that way is because these razors and blades were thrown into a bin.  Then two things happened to me.

First, I used the razor.  It was the most unbelievable shave I have ever received and with a bald head this is an area I am expert at.  I am still believing and questioning why they would be discontinuing such a great razor.

Then, I went to CVS to pick up a prescription where right there in front of me was this beautiful display on an end cap announcing the newest and greatest razor by Gillette, the Fusion ProGlide Power Razor.  It was selling for $12.99 and the blades were $29.99.  It is not a huge discount, but it is still a substantial discount, especially on a brand new product.  Here is the interesting part.  I happened to ask the cashier, who I believed was some type of manager or assistant, how those new Power Glide Razors were selling?  Her comment was “we keep them in stock”.

I will go as far as saying that CVS is doing a far superior job on selling these products than the store that is known for lower prices.  There is an old expression that says “its worth is what it looks like it’s worth”.  CVS increased the perceived value of the product by featuring it, signing it and supporting it with professionally prepared displays by the vendor.  The discount store didn’t even have a hand written 3 x 5 card saying “new product” or “great buy”.  It got so bad that even though I purchased the item, I actually considered returning it.

Are you doing the same thing in your store?  Are you making it easier for the customer to understand the products you are selling?  I was at an airport shop the other day that sold art by the artist, BRITTO.  The products were posters, framed art, t-shirts and ceramic pieces.  It was OK, however, the value of those products skyrocketed when I saw the artist pictured with various world leaders, including President Clinton and an announcement that he was selected to create a new stamp for the United Nations.  That’s credibility!  That’s the story behind the product.  Share the story and you will increase the value of your products.  Try it, it works!

The Seven Breakthrough Marketing™ Tools

If you are a regular reader of this column you are beginning to better understand that there is truly is a revolution taking place in marketing today. There is an explosion of ideas coming to market. But it’s more than just the number of ideas-- it is the speed in which these ideas become accepted and used by large numbers of our marketing audience.

The days of saying, “We do it this way”, or “Why fix it if it’s not broken” are no longer a part of a marketer’s vocabulary. Then you add one more element to the mix of quantity of ideas, the speed of acceptance, and universal use --the cost. Most of these ideas are either low cost or no cost but do require commitments in both time and education.

The bottom line is that we reach people differently today. Consumers have new buying habits and ways in which they receive information about the products and services they seek. The following is my list of The Seven Breakthrough Marketing Tools we need to know in order to compete in this overcrowded marketplace:

1. The Touch Tools - These are the ways that we get in touch with people-- from face to face, to telephone calls, to communicating via answering machines, to traditional mail, e-mail, text, newsletters, etc. The reason why this tool is so important is because if a business is collecting email addresses but the majority of their customers prefer to be contacted via the telephone, then the method is worthless. Making a business aware of the preferred touch tool can make a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
   
   
2. Multiple Landing Pages - Today a businesses DNA is made up of the words that our prospects use to find our type of business, our products and or our services. This is perhaps the most important of all of the tools because people do not go into websites from the front door anymore. They do searches for specific words and phrases and we must have a single landing page where they land and then we can redirect them to the rest of the site or sites. In other words, if you sell Blown glass by Josh Simpson. Make sure you have a separate dedicated page for just Josh Simpson Art where you use Josh Simpson’s name as often as possible. That page links to the rest of your site.
   
   Then you want to have another site that just talks about “Blown glass” and again the term “Blown glass” appears as many times as possible. These pages are not generally long. They have only a couple of short paragraphs and, of course, they must have some graphics that will encourage the viewer to explore or learn more about your  company and entice them to click on other sections of your website.
   
   
3. Call to Action Graphics - The call to action is the action step we discussed in #2.  These are the graphic nudges that will encourage the reader to seek more information. This is perhaps the single biggest mistake that we all make when we don’t create a vehicle for a prospect to find out more what we can do for them. That is why websites today should have multiple forms to fill in to receive “additional information”, a “trial period”, or “free offers”, etc. The reason why you need graphics is to make it stand out. A call to action without graphics draws 73% less action.
   
   
4. Create Your Lead Nurturing System - When someone expresses an interest in a company or a product, what system do you have in place that will follow up with the customer? This can be a series of emails, letters, newsletters, or even phone calls over a desired time period, generally from 3 months to 1 year. I like to say, “until they Buy or Die”. But trying to come up with an idea of what to send or say every month or quarter can be a daunting task that rarely ever gets done. However, if you plan the pieces in advance the job is less intimidating and gets done.
   
   
5. Opt-in text/M-commerce - This is perhaps the fastest growing of all marketing tools and one that I am about to make a major personal investment in Texting Advantage for Retailers ™.  Here is the concept:  You will see in an ad on a sign in your window or on the side of the bus that says something like text 71277 and in the message type in “specials”.  Or it could even say get our tips on ………………………  This message can be on a billboard, store window, plastic bag, etc. The bottom line is that people can opt in to your list without ever having any contact with your business. That is a powerful concept that in turn will result in sales.
   
   
6. You Tube and the Video - This powerful technique is changing how we not only learn but also the way we entertain our self and it’s all FREE. It’s important to separate the concept of using Video and YouTube. YouTube is important because it is a first rate delivery system that has an unbelievable distribution network. But it is the use of video that is so important. These include:
   
   
1. Video Testimonials - Here you will capture comments by customers, make a video of them, and post them on your website. They can also be played in the store.
   
   
2. To Learning Minutes - These are 2-4 minute educational videos that should be branded and can teach the customer something about a product or technique. Again, they can be played in the store, in a section of a website, and can be combined in a collection that can be sold.
   
   
7. The coupons - I recently wrote an article pertaining to the use of the various coupon services. My advice is that I would get involved with as many coupon services as possible. Why? Simple, they are all pay for performance. So as long as you make an appealing offer without giving the store away, you can’t lose.
   

These are my seven tools but the way things are happening so fast, be prepared to learn new twists on some old rules and some ideas that could only happen because of the new technology that the internet delivers to us almost daily.  My advice: select what makes sense to you adapt and adopt it. But fasten your seat belt and get ready for the ride of the explosion of marketing ideas and concepts.

A Simple Promotional Idea

There is a new promotional idea that is being adopted by many retailers with a great deal of success.  Here is how it works. It starts after the customer purchases something. For example, let’s  say the total of the sale is $100 which is made up from 2 items, but the amount of items is not relevant.  You, the store, gives that customer a coupon for 15% or 20% of the purchase they just made. The coupon must be used within 6 days.

So the customer who spent $100 gets a $20 Gift Card. But the card can’t be used the day of the original purchase. Some stores don’t even allow the gift card to be used for the day following the purchase which means that the customer who earns a $20 gift card on Saturday can’t spend it until either Monday or Sunday if you choose to go that way.  But the card must be redeemed   by Saturday.  Very few people want to throw away $20 worth of FREE merchandise so they find a way to get into the store.

What it means is that our customer has a compelling reason to get back to the store and they do. The return rate on these cards is over 70% according to recent studies. That is a bunch of customers who wouldn’t have come back at all.
There is another advantage here that you might be missing. Many of you are saying that this is no big deal because all you are doing is giving away 20% and you know that people will only spend the $20 they have and leave the store.

NOT SO! First of all, you are not considering that if the customer returned and only spent the $20 card you would be giving a 16.6% discount over all. Understand the % off is spread between 2 purchases not one. However, that is really a moot point because although the customer comes back only to spend the gift card, 93% of the customers who come back to the store will exceed the $20 or whatever the amount of the card is.

Let’s address two other factors. I said you can give 15% or 20%.  Which is better?  Whatever the amount that is enough to bring the customer back to the stores. That’s why some stores will have a sliding scale. 20% under $100 and 15% if it’s over $100. In other words, if the customer spent $300 and got a $45 gift card that would be sufficient to bring them back. The goal is to bring them back so they are giving you the opportunity to sell them again.

This is such a powerful tool because it helps increase shopping traffic that has been missing for some retailers. Some stores only use it for certain items and that’s fine too. But either way, it’s a winner!

It’s Time to Get Back to Basics

The world economy is in a tizzy. I don’t know if tizzy is even the right word. Tail spin might be better but complete surprise would probably be the unanimous feeling. No one ever anticipated a world wide financial collapse. BUT despite all of the negative press, the world is still turning and businesses are still doing business.

Last night I took my son in law and my grandchildren out to a new Japanese Steak House – the kind where they prepare the food in front of you. I wish someone would have told all the people who jammed the restaurant (and it was a big place) that we just had a financial melt down. I also wish someone had told the ski shop that was having their pre-season sale about a recession that’s coming because you couldn’t get near the parking lot.

It’s too bad no one told my friend, a real estate broker, that the world is in a crisis because she is finishing one of her best months in almost 3 years. By the way, no one told the children’s shop and the gift store owners that they shouldn’t have such big inventories… but of course they were pretty busy.

Lastly, what is wrong with Barron’s, the prestigious financial publication, whose headline on October 20th was “The Economy May Be Better Than You Think”? That’s a pleasant surprise but when you go to the article the headline gets better. It says, “Sorry Chicken Little”. Let’s get something straight. There is business out there to had and the sharp retailers are going to see sales increases that will become unprecedented?

Why?

Larger stores have all the classy high priced economists who are going to advise the buyers to cut back. Guess what? Their business will fall off. That’s sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then the economist will take credit for their accurate predictions. Then we will see stores go out of business and they will blame the economy. Sorry, I will NOT buy it. Poor management puts stores out of business. Recessions reward the flexible and nimble. Last week on my weekly Question and Answer session on the Retailers Advantage, a store owner gave us the best line that all of us need to say. He said, “We choose to NOT participate in the recession”. Right on!

OK, so what do we do? It’s back to the basics. It’s really pretty simple.

1. We need to have merchandise that will make a customer want to buy. That generally falls in to two categories:  merchandise that wows the customer with that feeling I have to have it! Yes! the buyer did their job.  Great merchandise and the HOT item are the trump card to any recession. Don’t ever forget it.

   The other type of merchandise also creates a buying frenzy and that’s the merchandise that is such a great buy. You know that great buy we just can’t live without.  I was at the airport in Louisville and I walked past the PGA store. Right in front they had a table with some terrific buys. I was shocked when I saw the price of the sweater of only $9.99. I quickly tried it on and it was mine. Of course the only employee that was there suggested another sweater that was $39.99. I bought it.

   Look at it like the classic bell shaped curve. It’s the merchandise at the ends of the curve that people talk about. There are some great buys available today because vendors are more willing to negotiate due to the fear factor. Trust me, there will be some very shrewd vendors as well who aren’t panicking.

2. We need to have promotions, do window displays, have contests, and present our merchandise that people TALK ABOUT! Businesses are built on word of mouth advertising, but if you want word of mouth advertising, give people something to talk about. People talk about what’s different–what makes your business special, unusual, or a skill that you do that no one else does? Are you the first, the only, the best at something?  People talk about that. You don’t have to give the store away to bring people into the store. The key to having your existing customer come back rests with the Art of The Friendly Reminder. I have seen stores have huge increases just by requiring their employees to call customers on the phone. The key is to just leave a message on their answering machine. That is putting a different twist to marketing.

The last basic point I want to share is that it is our job to maximize every customer who walks through the front door. That means we work as hard as possible to sell every customer. That’s impossible I know but if we change our attitude that everyone who walks through your front door has the potential to buy, it makes it easier to sell more. However, just selling one item to one customer is NOT good enough. We make money when we are selling multiple items to the same customer. That only occurs when someone suggests another item. It does not take place when someone says to a customer, “Is that it for today?” or “Did you find everything you were looking for?” or ” Is there anything else you need” Those terms have never sold a thing.

I believe the glass is half full. I believe we are about to observe an unprecedented period of growth. It will take a while to get started but it will. When Warren Buffet says to buy. I BELIEVE HIM. After all, he owns some of the best retailers in the country. Let’s not forget that he loves the retail business and knows how to make it work.

Just remember, even on the darkest of nights we can still see stars. Who will be the next retail star that is reading this column? Is it YOU?

The Opportunity of the Decade is Here!

I am not one of President Bush’s biggest fans but he is working hard to get on my good side with an idea that will unfold this week. The tax-rebate checks are starting to be delivered today. The amounts will range from $300 to $1200, but the best part is the President of The United States told us to go out and spend it. He didn’t say save it. He didn’t say invest it. He didn’t say pay down your credit cards. He said SPEND IT!

There is no need to send the President a thank you note but the question is what are YOU going to do to have the tax paying and now rebate citizens of the United States of America to spend their rebate at YOUR store? If you hadn’t given this much thought let me point out a few facts.

If you have a mailing list of 1000 customers, which is not a lot for someone in business awhile and the average rebate per customer is $500 which would be considered a fair average, that means your list alone has the buying potential $500,000. That is a half a million dollars. Now think about stores with mailing lists of 10 or 20 thousand? This is the Opportunity of The Decade.

That’s why all of the Big Chain Stores are planning their promotions and are as ready as a Mall the day after Thanksgiving. Sears is giving an additional 10% if someone buys a gift card for $300 making it $330. Staples is offering rebates of $50 for purchases of $500 or more and $150 for purchases over $1,000. Home Depot is taking a different approach and will be encouraging its customers to buy energy efficient products. (Sort of making it the gift that will keep on giving.) Wal-Mart is having a special press announcement to unveil their plans.

Now the question is what are you going to do to get some of that money?  Remember, we can’t be passive any more. We must be proactive to have customers walking through our front door. We can do things as simple as planning a Rebate Party and celebrating with some super deals.  We could just have fun with it and put up signs and inform our customers that we are a Rebate Redemption Center. We could offer a special gift card of $50 for anyone spending their entire rebate in our store. Of course you could call the customers who spend their whole rebate in your stores The Economy Builders or something more clever than that.

Right about now, you are probably saying that you hadn’t thought about the whole rebate thing. I hadn’t either and frankly I don’t have a lot of ideas to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Actually, very few of us have ever had this type of opportunity before, so there aren’t too many proven promotions to fall back on.  Because of that, I want to use this forum as an idea exchange for this rare opportunity. You people have NEVER disappointed me when it comes to ideas, creativity, and resourcefulness.

As opposed to waiting until next week for the results, I am instructing my Web Master to create a page where you can log on your ideas and see them posted immediately. I am doing it this way because the first checks go out on April 29th. Just to make it a little more interesting, I will give the top 5 ideas $100 credits for any of my products.  This could be a powerful resource for all of us. You can submit your ideas here:

http://www.RickSegel.com/Rebate/index.asp

One last comment: This column is delivered to over 20 countries so I am asking you for your experience in situations such as this. Maybe your country has done something similar and I would love your input.

Have a great week and ask yourself one last question: how are you going to spend your rebate check? Help the economy and spend that money. After all, the President told us to do that. I think I’m going to buy a …. I’m not sure yet. I’m just waiting for a sharp retailer to entice me with something I just can’t live without. Have fun with this one!

The Magic of Disney

I just spent two grueling days at the Walt Disney World with my daughter and her family. Yes, grueling because trying to keep up with a 3 & 5 year old can be exhausting. Living in Kissimmee, having 5 grandchildren, and having an annual season pass, I am at Disney quite a bit. But today I observed some things that I never really thought about before and some things that we can all learn from.

In this world of high gas prices, real estate prices dropping, and the talk of a recession, how busy could Disney be, especially in early December which is always a slower period? Well, I was shocked at how busy it was and the lines we had to wait in. The average attendance at the park at this time of year is about 30,000 people compared to Christmas day when they expect almost 200,000 people.

Understand the price of a full day ticket is $71 plus taxes and if you want to be able hop between the parks, it’s another $45 per day. After taxes it comes up to about $125 and it’s only $12 less for a child. Yet it’s busy and you can’t even negotiate for a better price at Disney. Here are some lessons we can learn.

Lesson One: It’s more than just price. Sell the excitement and the experience. If people want it, they will come and spend and spend.

Lesson Two:  Disney doesn’t discount but they do BUNDLE. If you buy a two day ticket you get a third day free. Or if you buy a three day ticket you get the fourth day free. Are you bundling like that? Are you putting items together to create one price? How many “2 or 3 fers” do you have in your business?

Lesson Three: Disney simply executes well. They know what to do and how to do it. They have an uncanny way of observing the tiniest of detail. They either do it right or they don’t it at all. Disney World has been open for 30 years, yet it is as fresh as the day it first opened. I heard an interesting factoid about Disney. They rotate their plants every 2 weeks. I am not sure on the validity on that but all I do know is that you NEVER see an old plant with leaves falling off it on a Disney property. They must do something to maintain perfect gardens. They are constantly training (of course they call it rehearsing) their cast to make every experience at every attraction consistent. You will be treated to the same level of service today as you were 10 years ago.

Lesson Four: Event Focused. This is becoming a topic I have become so passionate about. Disney is constantly looking for events that can be hosted at one of their parks. They are not sitting back just waiting for customers/guests to come because their product is so good. Think about it, I just said how wonderful and unique their product is and how well they execute. So why do they have to be proactive to attract customers? People just keep coming anyway. WRONG. People keep coming to Disney because Disney is constantly giving people a reason to come back again and again. They host more Cheerleading competitions, dance competitions, Marshall Arts competitions, and even Modeling competitions. The list goes on and on. Disney even offers classes to business people who want to learn how Disney teaches customer service and management. Are you as proactive about attracting customers as Disney is?

Lesson Five: Themes and Repeatable Sayings. It’s all about the Brand. This year’s theme that Disney is carrying over to 2008 is the Year of a Million Dreams. The message is reinforced over and over again in all of their advertising and promotions–the perennial theme, Disney World, The Happiest Place on Earth. Everyone believes that when you go to a Disney World, you will be happy. That is a lie but we believe it just like we believe in Santa Claus and The Easter Bunny. I know what you are thinking, how can you say that Disney World isn’t the Happiest Place on Earth?  Go there on a busy day. Get there as the Park opens and run to go on every ride and every attraction possible. Then have the sun beat down on you and make sure you bring 2 or 3 kids who didn’t get much sleep because they were so excited about coming to Disney World. And at 4:00PM, you look around at some of the most miserable, cranky, overtired, sweaty, shirt stained people in the world.

If it is so happy why can’t you buy a T-Shirt that says “Happy” on it? You can’t. I tried. You can buy Grumpy Shirts in every size, color, and design, not to mention hats with Grumpy on it in at least 50 different designs. But it’s The Happiest Place on Earth and we believe it because we trust Disney. Their brand is so strong that we believe it. We believe it so much that after a day where you have screamed at your kids more in one day than you have in a month, you feel so grubby you want to just throw your clothes away, and you have a stomach ache from all the junk food you ate, you come back the next day to the Happiest Place on Earth.

That my friends is Brand Loyalty at its best. I have been to some retail stores that are much happier places than Disney but Disney said it again and again and again until we all believe it. What is your recurring theme that you want your customers to repeat again and again? In my store it used to be It’s Right From Ruth’s. It’s a phrase with two meanings, both representing quality and even addressing the price issue. It subtly says that we are the place to go when it has to be right and it comes from a store with higher standards. My theme now as a writer and speaker is just as simple: “making a difference in the lives of retailers”.

Hopefully, that is what I have done in a very small way with this article. I hope all of my work does that but maybe I am just Dreaming Big. That’s another theme Disney taught us. I have to run now. I have to make a wish on a Star.

Have a wonderful week!

What Can a Retailer Learn from the Red Sox?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a long time Red Sox fan. I always like to say when you are born in Boston, it’s marked on your birth certificate, RED SOX FAN.

Well, this week the Red Sox won the World Series for the second time in three years. There are a few things we can learn from this that I would call good business:

1. My hat goes off to Dick’s Sporting Goods & Macy’s. Eight minutes after the Red Sox won the championship, I received an email from Dick’s offering World Series merchandise. Timing is everything and they planned it perfectly. Macy’s offered a Waterford Baseball 30 minutes later. I am sure they had planned this months ago but that’s just great marketing. When was the last time you anticipated an event like that? It can be an offering of merchandise or just a press release about something in the news. Think timing.
2. Constantly reinvent yourself. I heard one of the sports analysts compliment the management of the Red Sox because they didn’t just stay with the players they had. There were only 6 players still on the team who had won 3 years ago. That is constant and never ending improvement. Could you be strong enough to make those decisions? How many times have we kept an employee too long because we didn’t have the heart or courage to let them go? I must admit I have. It’s not easy but the winners do make those tough decisions.
3. The last lesson is what really motivated me to write about the Red Sox. I saw a cartoon that got to me. It was a picture of Darth Vader wearing a Yankee’s cap with the caption that said Evil Empire. The next picture had Darth Vader wearing a Red Sox hat. Again the caption said Evil Empire. The point is we love the underdogs. We love comeback kids and we dislike the arrogant, the overly confident, and the leaders. We can work hard to make it to the top but if we stop striving and looking for ways to constantly improve ourselves, we are destined to fall from our pedestals. We must stay both humble and hungry.

Don’t get caught reading your own press clippings. They only give you a fat head and no one wants to do business with people like that. Remember, you are never as bad as your worst defeat and you are never as good as your greatest victory.

If you are the biggest or best, prove it everyday. Don’t sit on your past successes but plan for your next one. Be approachable and remember to be nice to the people on the way up because you might just see them on the way down.

I am very lucky to have had my share of bad decisions because they made me appreciate the good decisions Thankfully, I have had more successes than failures but  I also have great kids and a wife who bring me back to reality. After I have a great speech or a standing ovation, my wife likes to say “take out the trash” to put things back into perspective.

As a business, we can never have a public image that is overly confident or the feeling that they could care less if they buy from them or not. No one wants to do business with people like that. Treat each customer as if they were your first one and you will never have that problem. But if you are on top, remember that people will just naturally resent you for that. Don’t give them anything to reinforce that feeling. In the movie “American Gangster”, the lead character, played by Denzel Washington, was a mob boss who stressed the low key understated image. It was the showing off that finally did him in. This is a lesson for all of us.

Have a great week. I want to do a case study next week so if anyone has a scenario you would like to discuss, just send them along and I will pick one. I look forward to your responses.

What Is The Most Important Asset Your Business Owns?

Be prepared. It’s not what you think but let’s go through the regular list of possibilities. Your location? That’s very important, but no. Your merchandise or service? Close but no. Your people? Again, important as they are the core of your business. Management or ownership also gets a no, but again a strong argument could be made for them. I know what you are thinking–it must be your core beliefs, your mission, or vision statement. I am not a big fan of mission statements, slogans or battle cries since they are never remembered and hardly used. So that also gets a no.

I could go on and suggest things like logos, business cards, ability to negotiate, and even financial resources but they would not come close to the true essence of your business. Enough of a build up—it’s your offer. Yes, your offer. What are you offering in return for your customer’s money? Every business has an offer and some are better than others. Even the government makes an offer. You pay taxes and it will protect you from the barbarians. Money for safety. A bank’s offer is that it will lend you money and you will give the bank extra money or interest. The ice cream man says give me money and I will give you refreshment.

This is the premise that Mark Joyner, the author of the book, The Irresistible Offer, the Core Business Imperative has put forward. (I recommend this book highly.) OK, so that sounds too simple. People accuse me of underestimating marketing, advertising, PR, and public opinion.   They say, “Sell The Sizzle, not the Steak”. Mark says, and I agree completely, “Selling sizzle without the steak is called a scam”.

It is how we state the offer that is key. Just being the lowest price is not the most powerful of offers. The reason is because anyone can claim that and a lot do. I will go as far as saying that it has little to do with price or quality.

Let’s look at some of the all-time great offers. The best comes from one of the most competitive industries in the world, the restaurant business, and specifically the pizza business. Dominos made a simple offer, “Pizza, 30 minutes or less…or it’s free”.  They never mentioned the quality of the pizza, which is good but certainly not the best. They never mentioned the price. Dominos has had to modify the 30 minutes offer because kids were racing around the neighborhood getting into accidents. But everyone knows it’s quick. They sell $4 billion worth of pizza.

Many companies have included the element of time as part of their Irresistible Offer. Federal Express used, “when it absolutely has to be there overnight”. WINS Radio used, “Give us 22 minutes and we will give you the world”.

Nordstrom’s went a different route by offering a new level of service by saying, “If you’re not satisfied for any reason, we’ll take it back without a receipt—No questions asked.” At the time they made this offer, it was revolutionary. This is the perfect segue to understanding that your offer should always be updated because if it’s good, it WILL BE COPIED.

In my store, we made one offer that I always thought had put us on the map and helped us become a leader in our industry when we said, “Mothers are our specialty.” We specialized in Mother of the Bride Dresses; we were NOT a bridal shop. No one at the time was making an offer of being a specialist in a niche of the market. In retrospect, it was the next line that made the Irresistible Offer. It said, “We make you look special not typical”. Back then we were the first to use it since Mothers dresses were pretty boring and mothers were looked at as “old ladies”.    I still believe defining your specialty to a defined market is one of the best offers you can make, but make sure there is a strong offer attached with it.

What’s NOT a GREAT OFFER?

• It’s not a special offer that eventually goes away.
• It’s NOT that you have been in business for 20 years. No one cares about that anymore.
• It’s not your size. Being the biggest clothing store in Boston might be good but it’s not going to make anyone one buy NOW.

The goal is to make people feel they can’t live without you or your merchandise.

Let me give the 4 questions that we all ask ourselves whenever we hear an offer.

1. What are you trying to sell me?
2. How much?
3. Why should I believe you?
4. What’s in it for me?

The first three questions appeal to a person’s logic. The fourth question is all about our emotions. Logic makes us shop, but emotions make us buy. The other quote that I love is, “People make their decisions based on emotion and then justify it with logic.”

The best guide to creating your Irresistible Offer is with the greatest headline ever written, “Get Rich Quick.” Everyone wants to get something and they want it yesterday. That offer tells the reader what they will get very clearly — they will get rich. Then it simply states the delivery time, Quick. It allows the reader to define rich and quick the way they perceive it. Get Rich Slowly doesn’t work.  A friend of mine sold IRA plans for an investment house when they first came out. He promised everyone that they would be millionaires at 60 if they started in their 20’s. He didn’t do that well because his offer wasn’t compelling enough. Of course I know a few guys who wish they had signed up now but at the time they all wanted to get rich quick.

Here come the offers:

• So let me make you an offer you can’t refuse (I never realized what a great offer that was). Let’s have a contest for the Best Offer, ending on Friday night, August 3rd at midnight EDT. I promise I will publish every single one submitted by that deadline and then we will vote on the best. The winners will all receive my new Retailer’s Essential Sign Shop software and the grand prize winner will receive a complete library of all of my business building products.
• One more offer. I have decided to change my title to better reflect what I do. As opposed to calling my self a writer/speaker, I now call my self a Business Development Specialist. Having said that, what should my offer be? Again the winner here gets the complete library plus an hour of one-on-one telephone consulting.

Let’s have some fun! Click here to enter.