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Selling Skills: Is the Need to Be Right Crippling Your Retail Sales?

I was exiting the Albany Airport parking lot, returning from a great weekend of retail sales training, when I noticed the three EZ pass exit lanes were closed, so I had to go to a cashier.

I drove up, put my ticket in the automated machine and the EZ pass light didn’t light up. The guy in the booth said, $36.00. I replied, “What about my EZ pass?”

A girl in the booth behind him piped up, “You don’t have one.”

As I reached to get it I said, “That’s ridiculous, of course…” But she cut me off. “Then you don’t have any money in it.” That really pissed me off ‘cause I knew Continue reading Selling Skills: Is the Need to Be Right Crippling Your Retail Sales? »

Retail Tip: It’s Not About How Neatly Your Merch Is Stacked

I walked into a fully stocked and displayed upscale retailer. There were four of us in the store but it seemed void of employees.

As I walked further into the store, I saw an employee enter the cash wrap area; she had a clipboard. As I looked at a display and its POP, I couldn’t find one of the items listed.

I got her attention, she came over over and I asked her my question. She simply replied, “Out.” With that, she returned to walking by every display making notes on her clipboard.

As I started to leave, I spotter her at the front of the store talking on a walkie talkie to someone about what merch to bring out. “Excuse me,” she said as she walked around me to another display that was missing one unit (on a display of about a dozen of the same thing.)

That’s when it it hit me that the big problem of not engaging with customers and gaining higher conversions stems from …

The people who are comfortable stacking merch have replaced the ones who are comfortable talking with customers.

That’s good news if they are your competitor but bad news if you are the ones trying to drive sales in your store. Continue reading Retail Tip: It’s Not About How Neatly Your Merch Is Stacked »

7 Things You Must Do To Develop and Train Teenage Employees

Yesterday I shared an important story on the teenage mind, how there are two different neural and psychological systems that interact to turn children into adults. Over the past generation, the developmental timing of these two systems has changed and researchers have discovered that experience is what shapes the brain, not schooling.

As long as they are given real responsibilities with a mentor, teenagers are able to mitigate the effects of the onset of puberty at a younger age and go on to become successful adults.

I interviewed Scott Reed, who has owned his successful Chick-Fil-A franchise for 23 years in Marietta, GA for this post. His restaurant is known across town for its immaculate interior and manicured exterior. Scott’s outlook about who he hires and where he focuses his training time provides clues for any retailer working with teenagers. Continue reading 7 Things You Must Do To Develop and Train Teenage Employees »

Teenagers Have Changed: Here’s What It Will Take For Them To Succeed In Retail

In the Wall Street Journal article, What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind? Alison Gopnik takes an in-depth look at two trends affecting the maturation of teenagers.

She has found puberty is kicking in earlier and earlier, and that teenagers are taking on adult roles later and later.

She says in part, “In the past, to become a good gatherer or hunter, cook or caregiver, you would actually practice gathering, hunting, cooking and taking care of children all through middle childhood and early adolescence.

But you’d do all that under expert adult supervision and in the protected world of childhood, where you would have experienced the impact of your inevitable failures and learned from them.” Continue reading Teenagers Have Changed: Here’s What It Will Take For Them To Succeed In Retail »

How Long Can Target Get Away With It?

Is there a quicker way to turn people off from shopping in bricks and mortar stores?

Target stores launched their limited-edition Jason Wu for Target line this past weekend. Monday’s news wasn’t how affordable this up-and-coming designer’s clothes were or how fashionable they were.

No, the news was that Target sold out in hours. According to investorplace.com, “Just 24 hours after the midnight unveiling, 12,000 items were on eBay, some already having sold for three to eight times their retail prices at Target.” Continue reading How Long Can Target Get Away With It? »