Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category

1. Change your displays monthly . Holidays and seasons only last so long, and promotional goods have a short shelf life. Display new arrivals first. If you ordered merchandise meant to go together, keep it together. You don’t want its first appearance to be diluted. Later, the few items that may be left can be grouped with new arrivals to give them a new look. If you ordered holiday candles form one vendor, mugs from another, and teas form another, wait for them all to arrive. Don’t put the candles out first as a sole item and lose the potential add-on-sale.

2. Don’t choose to display prominently products the customer already needs ; those are what they are coming in for. A customer responds to things they want. So don’t display the cheap hand mixer when the fancy KitchenAid is what every Emeril wannabe desires. Just because they need a mixer, doesn’t mean they won’t treat themselves to the expensive model if it is displayed well.

3. Look for one thing that makes a group . All of one product works well in a grocery store, but it is little more than warehousing the items in a retail store. Display by product use – all items related to brewing and drinking tea, for example. Or display by color — the strongest color combinations to attract attention in retail are red, white, and black. Try related or contrasting colors. Our eyes quickly get the point and move on, so never make a monochromatic display.

4. Start with the display area closest to the front door and put your newest and most expensive items in the spotlight. Be sure to have several levels of height and enough products so that the customer can pick up and touch without having to totally dismantle your display. Don’t ever put up a sign that says DO NOT TOUCH — even in a glass store. You might as well put up a sign that says DO NOT BUY. Displays are supposed to get messed up.

5. Find a totally unrelated item and put it in your display . It serves as a prop, its only purpose to grab your customer’s attention. Add a stuffed toy pig to complete your Kitchenaid display. It is not necessary to add a prop to every display, but the idea should always be there.

6. Light your display like it’s showtime. Adjust overheard lighting. If you have particularly dark display with no way to highlight it from above, consider moving it to an existing light source or light form below with small spot lights. Remember, light makes the merchandise pop.

7. Add a few well-placed, well-worded signs . Make sure they are short and easy to read. If your customers are mostly seniors, make it easy on them by using larger fonts. Handwritten signs with markers are okay for a kid’s lemonade stand, but anywhere else they tend to look amateurish.

8. Move existing displays around in the store when new merchandise comes in. Since the fairly new products will still be selling, switch your displays two weeks after their arrival. Move one display from the front to the middle of the store and the other from the middle to the back.

9. Monitor your computer printouts and inventory levels weekly . If something really takes off, be prepared to reorder immediately. If you have sold through your inventory and you have no back stock, change the display to something you have plenty of. If something doesn’t sell, try moving the same display to another location before giving up on it.

10. Make sure all of your stock is priced . No one wants to have to ask how much something is.

One of the things I typically do when I take on a new client is to discontinue any discount programs. In fact, I often raise their prices. One owner was skeptical of such an idea; after all, any money in the register was money in his jeans. I told him that if we say we are a boutique or a gourmet coffee house, there is a perception of something special, a premium location or gourmet product offered. Once it is discounted, the cachet of the product is cheapened. The competitive edge is gone.

Untrained marketers who say we need to do something always go the easy let’s discount way. It takes very little imagination and since everybody else does it, they assume it must work. Anyone can be a discount whore; it takes no brains or skill. There is no forethought. No magic or relationship results. And once you do it, you’re often condemned to repeating it.

I will admit that certain coupons can bring in business much like spot sales can boost your numbers. The problem is that you are in dangerous waters; the icebergs are numerous.

Here are seven reasons coupons don’t work:

• Coupons are looked at as an ongoing effort. In effect, they become the whole marketing plan.
• By the time you factor in your time in creating them, printing them, distributing them and factoring in the actual discounting itself, you have a very expensive promotion.
• You have taught the customer that your product is not worth what you priced it at.
• The people who found you through coupons will wait for your next one.
• You are rewarding people who have no relationship to the success of your business.
• Your sales staff will keep a copy of the coupon to offer to their own customers or friends.
• If your regular customers who have supported you find out someone who’s never been there is getting a better deal than they are, they just might not return.

That’s precisely what happened at a local restaurant in Long Beach where a group of us went for a birthday celebration. Located in an old craftsman house with antiques and a wood-burning fireplace, this was a great place to enjoy a great meal. We had ordered wine before dinner, enjoyed fabulous entrees and saved room for their signature desserts.

When the couple at the table next to us paid their check with a 50 percent off coupon, the owner must have been tipped off. He went to their table and sat down. We overheard him talk about his participation in the 50 percent off Entertainment Book. He said that he valued the Entertainment Book because it brought in customers who had never tried him before. He told them the story of his business, how he and his wife built it and how many years he’d been there. The coupon bearers told him they were from Pacoima, about an hour’s drive from the restaurant and that they would never have come without the coupon. He smiled, wished them well and said he looked forward to seeing them again.

I was incensed! We lived in the neighborhood. We’d gone there for years, paid top dollar and received no special recognition. How did we feel? Who was more important? Here we had paid full price as usual and the people next to us who had no relationship paid half-price. I haven’t been back since.

Cut your prices repeatedly and you’d better cut your staff because profit is what suffers.

1. Change your displays monthly

You’ve got to keep your customers guessing – a little, anyway. Every couple of weeks move displays around to keep them from getting stale – and certainly move them when new merchandise comes in. Since the fairly new products will still be selling, switch your displays two weeks after their arrival. Move one display from the front to the middle of the store and another display from the middle to the back.

2. Try a little tenderness

In merchandising, as in life, the best things are things you want, not what you need. So give your customer that as well. Put the fanciest, newest, most expensive, dream-worthy items in the most prominent place in your store. Be sure to have several levels of height and enough products so that the customer can pick up and touch these desired items without having to totally dismantle your beautiful display.

3. Never, never, never, EVER build a monochromatic display.

Generally speaking, group items by product use or two or three colors – you’re looking for the one thing that makes it a group. Unless you run a grocery store, your grouping shouldn’t e entirely made up of one product. That’s warehousing, not merchandising. You can create a display by product sue, such as all items related to brewing and drinking tea, for example. Or display but color but make sure you use another strong color to pop out against the one. Think white and red or red and black. Avoid monochrome displays because, although possibly chic, human eyes quickly get the point and move on – frequently without buying.

4. Don’t ever put up a sign that says DO NOT TOUCH.

Don’t even do that in a glass store! Why? Because you might as well be putting up a sign that says DO NOT BUY. Displays are supposed to get messed up. Think of your displays like your kitchen table – nobody’s eating if there are never any crumbs. Don’t fear customer interaction with your goods; just make sure to straighten up constantly.

5. Trust in lagniappes.

Lagniappe – pronounced lon-yop – is the New Orleans term for “little surprise.” A merchandising lagniappe would be a totally unrelated item used as a fun prop, such as a soup bowl with a sweater collection, or a stuffed animal with your kitchenware display. While adding a prop to every display is overkill, the possibilities should always be in the back of your mind.

6. Light up your display like it’s a meteor shower.

You’ll probably have to adjust overhead lighting to do this. But if you have a particularly dark display with no way to highlight it from above, consider moving it to an existing light source or light from below with small portable spot lights. Remember, proper lighting can make your merchandise seem wondrous.

7. Put tags on everything.

You know how much you hate asking how much something is? Your customers are just like you, so make sure all of your stock is priced. No one wants to have to ask a clerk how much something costs.

Ever wander into a store, spot something you really like, start imaging how it would look in your home and just as you’re about to turn over the price tag, a clerk comes up and tells you how expensive it is? At that moment, your dreams and excitement were probably squashed and the practical side, “you don’t really need this” took over. How did that feel?

Think it was harder or easier to make a buying decision after that?

When people walk into your lighting showroom, they will naturally want to start imaging how their home would look with new lighting options. You’ll see it when they stop at one particular display and ask about shade options. You’ll see it when they continue to play with the controller or run their finger across the finish of the base.

You’ll also hear that practical side when they say how they really don’t need anything fancy; it’s just for the bedroom or “some day”. Great salespeople look at those opportunities to help the person indulge themselves.

Don’t spoil those dreams of the higher priced goods by talking about limitations, price or any other possible challenges. Let them dream.

Buying upscale lighting is more of an impulse than a need. Sure they want more light or light directed a certain way – but there are several inexpensive options. It is your job as a professional salesperson to help them make the upper end products a rational decision. While features and benefits, compare and contrast and even if you offer 0% financing all can help with making it a rational decision, the customer needs to believe they are worth it.

Ways to help you do this is based many times on the second part of the sale, the Window of Contact. If you saw someone drive up in Mercedes-Benz to your showroom and they said, “We have champagne tastes and beer budget”, you would know they probably have champagne tastes and champagne budgets. Selling them anything less will make A sale but not THE BEST sale.

When you follow their eyes, that’s where their hearts are. When you just follow their words, you may be leaving lots of money on the table. Money they would gladly have spent to see their home with the lighting options they fell in love with before the practical side said all they really needed was a fluorescent fixture.

Master the art of hearing with your eyes and you will be able to give the customer what they truly wanted in the first place, instead of settling for the practical. And guess who’ll benefit from using their eyes?
Good selling!

In the old days sales people knew how to be friendly because they were treated better in stores than they were on the street. Nowadays with reality TV where everyone sees others belittled and the sitcoms where everyone is a wisecracking cynic, everyone is seeing the worst behavior modeled. As a result, interacting with people has become harder and our sales associates have few positive role models to guide them. As a result, the art of being friendly has disappeared from most retail. Luckily, you who are reading this are not most retailers!

After a friendly greeting, it is up to the sales associate to look for something unique about the person standing in front of them. This second part of the sale is what I call the Windows of Contact™. Common windows of contact are jewelry, hairstyles, and clothing. You want to find something you like about them, compliment them and then find something in your experience to tell the customer about.

You begin by finding something you honestly like or notice about them – people will see through phoniness. For example, a woman walks into your store with a “Soccer Mom” T-shirt and two small children in tow. The obvious window is soccer so you might say, “Good afternoon, did they win today?” Or “Did you just come from a game?” Bonus points if you asked the children something about the game.

Then it would be up to you to speak from your own experience about soccer. Perhaps you played in school and could say, “I was goalie in college, I really loved it” Or “I’ve got two kids myself in soccer.” Or even “I never played soccer, my game was baseball.”

The second part of the sale lets you become familiar with each other and form a relationship. Otherwise, you become a robot where people are asked what they want, they fill out some forms and their products are delivered. Always remember we are in the people business, which means you must notice them and share something of yourself if you want to build loyalty. That loyalty pays off big when they talk to their friends about the nice people down at your store – something the big box can’t even think about having their customers say!

This information is based on Phibbs’ best selling book, You Can Compete, Double Sales Without Discounting.