Do you have an Elinor on your sales team? You know, the one who screams, “That was my sale!” The one who makes everyone miserable. The one who has to say to the salesperson while the customer is at the register, “I greeted them,” or “Oh you came back after you talked to your husband.” They have to put the other person in their place like Ms. Burkett attempted to do to Mr. Williams.
I think what will distance viewers is to realize they don’t have the kind of money to pour into their business for new fixtures, signage, plasma screens, registers and computers. And really, who needs to scan a barcode for a one-off shop that has very limited skus? We’re talking a shop for chocolate dipped strawberries here.
High standards each and every day ensure the right employees do the right things. Training new employees to 100% and then making them work for managers who don’t run the shifts up to high standards is spinning your company’s wheels and lowering the brand perception in customers’ eyes. That means it destroys profits. There’s only one way to avoid that: an ongoing program of mystery shops.
Of course kids don’t want to pick up a family business making $40,000 a year! Would you? They are looking for prosperity, for profits, for the good life – not a job pulling in less than a Starbucks manager.
This problem extends into management when we don’t write people up for being late, rudeness or their inability to perform the job. Thinking like an employee cripples managers from doing their job as a merchant. We want to be “nice,” “liked,” “popular.” I had a boss one time say, “You’re only as good as your last sale.” Brutal. He was a merchant.
Want to really standout gift stores? How about videoing your customers as they select the perfect gift in your store. Next, encourage them to video the recipient unwrapping the gift and emailing the video back to you. Then combine them to make a YouTube video for your website, email newsletter and FaceBook fan page. You will have captured the joy of finding the perfect gift and the joy of receiving the perfect gift at your store. Brilliant!
Consider the difference between this store in Huntington Beach, CA and the one in Hudson, NY for Lindt chocolates. On the left is the one in Huntington Beach which features cards, Korbel champagne and Lindt chocolate.
HB CVS
HB CVS
And this one on the right, same display unit in Hudson low on product with competitors cheaper products at the bottom and beef jerky taped to the side.
When I was on MSNBC this week the question was asked, “What would you tell a person who wanted to start a new business but didn’t want to give up the safety of their day job?” Here’s my advice: If you have a plan, a talent and the drive – quit and follow your dream. Don’t listen to the siren song any longer. But also don’t think you can just quit without a plan and be successful.
As I understand it, a person could come into a retail business, promise free education benefits, health care and other things from the union if they just “sign up.” If a majority signed up, the retailer would be forced to demands by the union. Yeah, we saw how well that worked in the long run for GM and Chrysler, now they want to do to Main Street what they did to Detroit.
As we talked further, it seemed this would be much better at the premium product level. Joe agreed and told me about a BMW dealer in Germany using it to show customers exactly how they could customize their BMW. For them, there are actual samples of every leather on a card. Once the customer finds the exact shade they want, they place the card on the table, it reads and stores it.
