Phil Wrzesinski, Speaker, Author, Educator

Chapter 9 – Samples (continued) (Note: These are actual businesses that gave me permission to create ads for them using the principles from the first eight chapters. This is purely an exercise in showing you how to be more creative with your own advertising. You will find links at the… Read more

Chapter 8 – Make Your Customer the Star “Bad advertising is about you and your product. Good advertising is about your customer and their life.” – Roy H. Williams After watching Simon Sinek, you start wandering all over the net. You read some of the quotes from Roy H. Williams.… Read more

Chapter 6 – Speak to the Heart “Before you can take people where you want them to go, you have to meet them where they are.” – Roy H. Williams The workday is done, but not really. Your workday never seems to end. Owning your own business gives you a… Read more

Foreword Chapter 1 – Most Ads Suck Chapter 2 – It’s the Message, Not the Media Chapter 3 – Don’t Look or Sound Like an Ad Chapter 4 – Make Only One Point “Use half as many words and you’ll hit twice as hard.” – Roy H. Williams You finally… Read more

Foreword Chapter 1 – Most Ads Suck  Chapter 2 – It’s the Message, Not the Media “I’ve never met a business owner whose advertising failed because they were reaching the wrong people.” – Roy H. Williams The game ended late. You got home later. Your spouse has already rolled over… Read more

Foreword Who will use this book? Anyone who writes content to persuade including web content, ad copy, magazine articles, emails and newsletters, and even speeches. If you write to persuade, you’ll find this book relevant and useful. If you write to connect, you’ll find this book relevant and useful. If… Read more

Last night, while hunkered down watching TV, I was amazed at how quickly some brands have reacted to the current situation and revised their ads. It was refreshing. If you are doing any mass advertising (radio, TV, billboards, etc.), I’d like to suggest to you two things: Don’t stop or… Read more

My New Year’s Resolution is to get back to posting blogs regularly. Now with a Christmas Season under my belt in my new role, I have a little better handle on the time requirements of this job and should be able to fit some more writing into it. Here is the… Read more

I used to advertise the heck out of the fact Toy House had the largest selection of toys under one roof of any store in the area. In our heyday we had over twice the selection of a Toys R Us and five times the selection of the Walmarts, Targets,… Read more

The line didn’t seem that long. I’ve been in longer lines waiting for food. The menu showed three lunch options, likely for efficiency’s sake. I expected the line to move along quite rapidly. Twenty-five minutes later the line felt more like eternity. There was one line and two windows (which… Read more

Do you remember when the Sears Catalog was going to destroy all the Mom & Pop Retailers? Yeah, probably not. That was back in the early parts of the 20th century when you could even buy a house (IKEA-style) in the catalog and have it delivered right to your property.… Read more

Almost invariably when you compliment someone on the clothes or shoes they are wearing, they tell you the origin story of how they found that outfit. More often than not, you’ll also hear about the fabulous deal they got when they bought it. While deals and discounts are great for… Read more

My grandfather stole one of his best employees away from another job. The young high schooler was making 75 cents an hour. My grandfather offered him $1.05 to work at Toy House. He took it. I still recall the big grin on my grandfather’s face when he told me the… Read more

I snapped two pictures of signs recently. I probably could have taken several. Apparently proof-reading is a thing of the past. One sign I drive by regularly is on too busy of a road to safely snap the pic. It says “Comeing Soon.” I cringe every time I pass it.… Read more

I was talking with one of my sales reps earlier today when she reminded me of the most common phrase every salesperson hears (one I uttered several times) … “What have you got that’s new?” Every smart vendor knows they have to be showing new stuff all the time to… Read more

I love those signs that say, “Be yourself. Unless you can be a Unicorn. Then be a Unicorn.” (Substitute Batman for Unicorn for those who identify that way.) Be yourself is the best advice I could ever give to any business owner. Know your Core Values, what drives you in… Read more

I did a mash-up of two presentations at an event for the pet store industry last week. I took elements from Selling in a Showrooming World and Generating Word-of-Mouth and put them into a new presentation we called “Getting Internet Customers Back Into Your Store.” It worked. One of the… Read more

You know those little red numbers on your iPhone? The ones telling you how many unread emails and texts you might have? I hate those numbers. I am obsessed with getting rid of them. You should be, too. I know you’re already too busy. You barely have enough time to… Read more

Back in the 1990’s we had four big spiral notebooks on a table in the office. I’m talking huge, four-inch-wide, thick plastic covered, heavy-duty spiral notebooks. They contained our Inventory Sheets and tracked all the inventory in our store by vendor, item number, and price. My dad created these sheets.… Read more

I was unloading boxes of toys and trying to organize them on the shelves in our booth at Toy Fair. This is a new role for me. I’ve only ever seen these trade shows after everything is set up. I’ve never had to navigate the aisles filled with shipping crates,… Read more

Hi, my name is Phil and I’m a Detroit Lions fan. It was easy being a Lions fan when I was working retail. Every season we would buy into the hype, get all excited, and then somewhere down the line get our hopes dashed by catch that wasn’t a catch,… Read more

In two weeks the world of toys will be on display in New York City for the International Toy Fair. All the vendors will be there showing off their new products. Retailers from around the globe will be there to take a peak. New York City is a fun place… Read more

Right now the Weather app says it is minus ten degrees outside. The “real feel” is minus thirty-five. Thank goodness I don’t have any presentations or travel scheduled for today. My office is only a wall away from my bedroom. I’m going to work today. But if Toy House was… Read more

I remember the email clearly. Hit me like a ton of bricks. “Why aren’t you open later for the holidays?” We were open later for the holidays. It just didn’t say so on our Google profile. Nor did it say so on Facebook. Nor did it say so on our… Read more

Have you ever walked through a store, saw a display, and thought, “Wow! Someone would actually pay that much for that?” Of course you have. We all have. It is the internal pricing game we all play called … “How Much Would You Pay?” Unless you’re the only option in… Read more

One downside to being a speaker for the retail industry is that there aren’t a lot of speaking opportunities in December. (It is also an upside in that I had a lot more time around the holidays, but I digress.) With all that free time, I took on the project… Read more

I was in Target two days ago. They have a huge selection of swimsuits front and center. Tonight and tomorrow we’re going to get 3-5 inches of snow. Sunday is going to be 12 degrees Fahrenheit with a minus 5 windchill. Unless you’re going to Florida, no one in Michigan… Read more

My favorite class segment in the Jackson Retail Success Academy was always the Marketing and Advertising Segment. One portion of that segment was dedicated to Media, Myths, and Money. We would discuss all the various forms of media and how/when to use them properly. We also discussed several myths about… Read more

My favorite Smile Story was actually told to me by a customer, not my staff. Dawn had three grandchildren coming to visit her for five days. She wanted to have a different gift to give each child each day they were there. Fifteen gifts in all. Lakisha said, “I’m on… Read more

I told you yesterday what I would do if you hired me to look at your business. Thirty questions inside of five topics to figure out what bullets you need to fire to get your business to the next level. Since one of my Core Values is Helping Others, I’m… Read more

For a short period of time I was between bookkeepers. The job fell on my shoulders for a few months. While this was a godsend in one way because it helped me better understand the job and the skills necessary to do the job well, it also frustrated me because… Read more

When the recipe calls for 1 cup Vegetable Oil do you reach for a teaspoon? When it says 16 ounces Sour Cream do you grab a scale? Of course not. Sure, you can get close with those tools, but it won’t be as accurate nor as handy. Yet we do… Read more

I’ve been using a new auto shop for repairs for my vehicle. I met the owner a few months ago, liked him, and gave him some work. I was happy with the work and the price, so naturally, I called to get a quote on some new work. My buddy… Read more

In the summer of 1989 my parents did something quite unique for an independent, single-store retailer. They bought a fully-integrated IBM computer system including POS and inventory control. It was a state-of-the-art IBM AS/400 with three hard drives and almost a complete Megabyte of storage. The unit was larger than… Read more

This is it. Your final quick tip of what I sincerely hope was/is a wonderful holiday selling season. I will not be posting again until after Christmas, so Merry, Merry to you. Thank you for reading these posts and sharing your success stories with me. Here is tip #19 …… Read more

In an effort to keep you moving this busy season, these blog posts will be quick and simple. Here is tip #17 … GIVE YOUR STAFF A BREAK I know the tendency this time of year is to shorten lunch breaks and maximize your staff to handle the extra crush… Read more

You’re in the home stretch. The jolly old elf hits the skies one week from tonight. Here’s your quick tip #15 … PLAY WITH IT We’ve known this in the toy industry for decades. If you get a toy out to play, you’ll sell more of it. The clothing industry… Read more

In the interest of time, I’m keeping these posts short and sweet to quickly give you tips to make your season just a little bit better. Here is tip #13 … RELOAD THE PAPER The next two Saturdays will likely be the two busiest days of your year. One thing… Read more

Christmas is only two weeks away! This is a quick tip to fire up your staff for the final push. Here is tip #11 CATCH YOUR EMPLOYEES DOING SOMETHING RIGHT By now, if you trained them well, your newbies should be doing more right than wrong. Pay close attention to… Read more

This month’s blog posts are short and simple because you’re busy. They are also reminders of tips, techniques, and tools you can use to increase sales, increase profits, and increase customer delight. This tip does all three. Here is tip #9 EMPTY HER HANDS If you don’t have shopping carts… Read more

Of all the Christmas Quick Tips I will give you, this one will be the hardest to master and quite possibly the most rewarding when you and your team do master it … Here is tip #7 LEAD WITH THE BEST Your customer is looking for solutions. Yes, at this… Read more

Since your time is tight, now through December 21st I’m keeping these blog posts short and simple with tips, tools, and techniques that make a difference. Here is tip #5 START CLOSING AT CLOSING TIME  Not before. Yes, you’re tired. Yes, these are long days and you want to go… Read more

You’re busy. I’m busy. Our customers are busy. So in the interest of time, I’m keeping all the posts from now through Christmas short and sweet. Here is tip #3 SIGN THEM UP BEFORE CHECKOUT If you have a loyalty program, birthday club, or email list that you normally ask… Read more

It’s the busy season. You don’t have time for a lengthy blog with stories and explanations. So to make your life easier, now through December 21st I’m going to post simple, quick tips you can use and share with your staff to raise the bar for your customers. (Don’t ask… Read more

By now you’ve probably already seen this ad. You may love it. You may hate it. You may wonder what all the hype is about. You may wonder who the heck is John Lewis and why should you care? Since it is getting all the hype (and it made me… Read more

I read a quote the other day and it has stuck with me. I’ve been trying to figure out how to work it into a worthwhile post. The quote is from author William R. Inge. He says … “There are two kinds of fools. One says, ‘This is old, therefore… Read more

While I know I should probably avoid the drive-thru restaurants, I don’t. I go even though I don’t particularly like the drive-thrus. It isn’t the food. It is the experience, or more accurately the final moments of the experience. Two things happen far too often at the end of a… Read more

I am taking a class to work on my business. It is a class for startups, primarily, but the exercises will not only help me with my business as a speaker, writer, and business coach, they will help me help you become a better business. My instructor, Frances Schagen, has… Read more

I was looking at the Free Resources page on my website yesterday. There are nine eBooks on Marketing & Advertising, twelve on Customer Service, and five on Money. You can download any and all of them for free. No strings attached. No limits to how many or how often you… Read more

Sell “Play Value” That’s the first line of the business plan my grandfather wrote back in 1949 when he founded Toy House. I found his spiral notebook with the plan while looking for something else in the archives of the store. Page two outlined the possible names for the store… Read more

He drove from Windsor, Ontario to Jackson, MI on a Friday night. “We have a Graco car seat and were told you are the closest store to have the matching stroller. Do you happen to have it in stock?” “Yes, we have two different versions in that fabric. Which did… Read more

I actually did job interviews in a Halloween costume once. Okay, more than once. Several times, in fact, because the end of October was when I needed to start the hiring process. I’ve often wondered what an interviewee was thinking, sitting across the desk from a bird watcher, a king,… Read more

I remember the first presentation I saw about the power of online reviews. The speaker instructed us how to use our smartphones to take quick testimonials right on the sales floor whenever we had a happy customers. I looked at my notes from the presentation and read … “Get them… Read more

In 1988 Walmart opened their first Supercenter in Washington, Missouri. The Supercenter concept heralded Walmart’s entry into the highly-competitive, low-profit, huge cash flow, repeat-traffic driver grocery business. Two years later Walmart surpassed Sears in total sales to become the largest retailer in America. By 2004 Walmart was capturing one out… Read more

There is a group on Facebook for people who grew up in Jackson, MI. The posts are mostly, “Who remembers …?” so that former Jacksonians can reminisce about days long past. A recent post was about Toy House. A couple hundred people waxed nostalgic about visiting the original store in… Read more

I jumped the gun yesterday. I started talking to you about interview questions before we even discussed how to get the right applicants through your door in the first place. My bad. Did you know you can “pre-qualify” your applicants? No, I don’t mean by writing, “Only people with [… Read more

I’ve taken several versions of the Myers-Briggs test and so far they all have resulted in ENFP (The Campaigner). But my N score is fairly close to the S and my F is barely across the line from T. There are definitely moments in my life when I am more… Read more

Amazon wasn’t built for browsing. Oh sure, they have a fully-functional search engine, one of the most heavily used, but most people go there only when they know or have a darn good idea what they want. According to a study done late last year, Amazon was the top place… Read more

In the early stages of my running the baby department at Toy House one of our staple companies for car seats and strollers was Graco. They had several nice car seat and stroller combos in great fabrics. I even had a customer drive from Canada one night because we were… Read more

We offered a layaway program at Toy House. It was one of those services my grandfather thought would be helpful for customers buying toys. It was simple, too. Just pick out the toys you want, take them to the register, put down a 10% deposit, make a payment once a… Read more

You call a number. You get a recording, a menu of options. You listen to all the options before pressing two. Another menu. This time you press one. Now a recording offers you yet a third menu. You select three and a recorded voice comes on to say, “Please hold… Read more

There are two series of books that have influenced my business life directly. One is a series of five books I first read as a child and have re-read several times since, until the books are barely holding together. I have read them twice to my own sons and am… Read more

I was sitting in a conference center in Louisville, Kentucky for a presentation by Rick Segel in May 2009. Rick asked the crowd, “Raise your hand if your product selection sucks, if you just don’t have the goods people want.” No hands went up. Rick then said, “Raise your hand if your… Read more

I received the following question via email … “… based on your blog today, when is there ever a good enough ROI to justify advertising?” I understand the confusion. I did a math equation yesterday that showed how a $400 ad buy might not get the desired results for a… Read more

Do you feel beat up over price? Does the business news turn your stomach into knots as you read about department stores like Younker’s going out of business and Sears and Macy’s doing another round of closures? Does it make you cringe every time you hear that Dollar General has… Read more

When people ask me what was my favorite Christmas gift, I often answer my first guitar. I still have it—an Eterna EF-15 six-string acoustic guitar by Yamaha—hanging on the wall with my other guitars. I get a lot of joy from playing guitar. When I first got the guitar I… Read more

I love thought-provoking questions. Here is one I was asked recently … How do we bridge the gap between employees and corporate America? The question makes two assumptions; first that there is a gap, and second that the gap must be bridged. The first assumption, that there is a gap,… Read more

What is the difference between Free and $4,500? Give a business those options for training and most often they’ll choose Free, figuring, “at that price I ought to be able to make something work, and if it doesn’t, no biggie.” You aren’t going to spend $4,500 without knowing for sure… Read more

I have a file on my computer named SCHEDULE. It has every schedule I ever created for the Toy House staff dating back to the fall of 1996. That was the year my dad turned the hiring, training, and scheduling of the staff over to me. In 1997 I hired… Read more

Our realtor turned to us and said, “Now, where would you put your couch in this room?” Immediately we started mentally arranging the furniture in the house she was showing. By the time we had visualized the family room, kitchen, and office we were ready to write the offer. Visualization… Read more

I was a little harsh last week on a radio station for playing eighteen commercials in a row. I said they were purely paying lip service to their advertisers (their customers) by putting them into a block that long where it would be hard to stand out and be memorable.… Read more

Have you ever had a meal ruined by a kid at the next table? Half of the time you’re wondering why the parent doesn’t do something to fix the situation. The other half you’re wondering why the parent brought the child to this particular restaurant in the first place. Some… Read more

Often someone from my staff would enter my office and say, “I have an idea.” Often I would answer, “Great! Run with it!” “But don’t you want to hear it first?” “Is it consistent with our Core Values?” “Yes.” “Will it cost the company a lot of money?” “No.” “Run… Read more

For the past three weeks I have been making several drives from my home in Jackson to the Oakland County area for lunch. For those of you not in Michigan, Oakland County is one of the three counties (including Wayne and Macomb) that makes up the Greater Detroit Metropolitan area.… Read more

Ever have one of those moments where things just clicked for you and everything that was a little hazy before now came into focus? I feel blessed that I have had several of those moments in my life and business career. One of them happened in October 2006. I wrote… Read more

I was asked an interesting question yesterday morning at a Breakfast Business Boot Camp I’m doing in Oxford, MI. “How do you get past the moniker of this being a ‘business’ program to reach people who could use what you’re teaching but don’t see themselves as a ‘business’?” The question… Read more

When I was writing my new book Most Ads Suck I had a long internal debate about the word “Rules” versus the word “Principles.” There are six elements that the great ads incorporate to make them more effective. You don’t have to incorporate all six, but the more you use,… Read more

When Toys R Us closed their Times Square store at the end of 2015—the one with the giant T-Rex and the three-story Ferris wheel—the biggest reason given was the landlords raising the rent from $12 million a year to over $52 million a year. Yeah, that would be a hard… Read more

The one “service” my biggest competitor had that I didn’t was a Birthday Club. I wanted one for my customers. I already knew one thing I would do differently. That was the big Birthday Bell you got to ring when you came in to celebrate your birthday. What you probably… Read more

I need new tires for my vehicle. I’ve been through this process before. It used to be easy. I had a downtown Goodyear Tire place. I went there. Supported my fellow downtown business. They always took care of me. Knew me on a first-name basis. It was only two blocks… Read more

Last weekend YMCA Storer Camps celebrated 100 years of camping. I was there celebrating with over 834 of my closest friends. I’m not exaggerating when I say 834 of my closest friends. Many of them are people I haven’t yet met. But I know if and when I do meet… Read more

Some of you read them. Some of you don’t. I often get asked why each blog post has a Postscript (PS) or two. Postscripts are also called “afterthoughts.” In the case of my blog, I use them to reinforce different points made in the post, without clunking up the writing.… Read more

By now you’ve heard the buzz about the International House of Pancakes and their big announcement. They are changing their name from IHOP to IHOb. They made the announcement and asked us to guess what the “b” meant. The first answer by virtually everyone was “breakfast.” I could wrap my… Read more

I make a living teaching businesses how to raise the bar on their Customer Service. It is one of my favorite presentations that always gets rave reviews. In fact, I have several presentations built around the concept of how and why to offer better Customer Service. Yesterday I got an… Read more

I’ve been out at YMCA Storer Camps the last couple days teaching sailing again. This time, instead of teaching the kids, I’m just working with the staff to make sure everyone is on the same page for teaching the kids. While walking to the waterfront, one of the new instructors… Read more

My eyes always glazed over. Didn’t matter if it was Toy Fair, ASTRA, the All Baby & Child Expo (ABC), the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association (JPMA) Trade Show, or SuperZoo. By the end of the day my eyes were glassy, my pupils were dilated, and my senses were overloaded. One… Read more

Twenty-six years ago this week I was living in California working for the Orange County Public Schools teaching Outdoor Education at Camp Edwards in the mountains above San Bernardino. It was the last week of the school year, our last group of fifth and sixth graders up at camp. You… Read more

I saw the recipe online. It was from the legendary Paul Harvey so it had to be true, right? A simple concoction for eliminating mosquitoes in your backyard. Heck, I could even hear Paul’s distinctive voice in my head reading off the formula … “You take blue mouthwash, the minty… Read more

One of my favorite activities when I was a camp counselor was something we called a Dutch Auction. For the Dutch Auction, each kid in our cabin would take his pillow case and put ten items in that pillow case. With our collection of items we would head to the… Read more

It was seven years ago today that I returned to work after recovering from major throat surgery. I was looking at some posts I wrote during that time and came across one I wrote while lying in bed titled Convenience Versus Experience. The new buzzword in retail today is “experience.” Just… Read more

I heard someone argue that Memorial Day Weekend shouldn’t be about shopping and big sales at the mall. We need to be properly honoring our fallen soldiers. I also heard someone make the same argument about backyard BBQs and trips to the lake/ocean/river/woods. It isn’t about partying, it is about… Read more

You’re a retailer in the middle block of a three-block-long shopping neighborhood. The shops on the two outer blocks think it would be great to hold a street festival to draw traffic into the area. They want to close off your block and have food tents and other activities in… Read more

I installed a dishwasher today. It only took me four trips to the hardware store. The first one I cussed all the way there. I had to crank up the music to make the people in cars next to me think I was singing. The next three were my own… Read more

It had to be my most favorite conversation with a customer ever. It was sometime in the fall of 1994, one year after Toys R Us had opened in our city. “Phil, I have to tell you this. I went to Toys R Us last Christmas.” Yeah, they were the… Read more

“You are not a one hundred dollar bill. Not everyone is going to like you.” -Meg Cabot If you don’t already have a negative review online about your business, either you’re still too new to have any reviews or you just haven’t found where they posted it. No matter how… Read more

Occasionally I go back to my old blog posts to see how things have changed in retail. Sometimes I see how things have stayed the same. Here is something I wrote almost ten years ago on December 3, 2008 … The best stores have a staff that listens, that repeats… Read more

Sometimes it is easy to talk about the mistakes retailers make and simply caution you to not make those same mistakes. I’d like to share with you a story of an experience that went right. A long-time Toy House customer, my boys’ piano teacher, and dear friend Jen sent this to… Read more

I went to visit a fellow toy store owner in Cleveland. At that time Michael had three stores in the area. The store I visited was on the opposite spectrum of mine in terms of size. He had about 1,100 square feet of selling space. I had 16,000 square feet… Read more

I played the role of Father in The Nutcracker Suite on stage at the Michigan Theatre. I was in eighth grade. It was part of our LEAP class (Learning Experience for Academic Progress). It was a play more than a ballet, although we did have a dance troupe come in… Read more

Here are links to the recent posts on how to best use the different advertising media. Like I said before, all advertising works and all advertising doesn’t work. It depends on two factors, how you use the media and what you say (work on that last one first, then pick the… Read more

I remember the first time someone pitched me the idea of mobile marketing—sending texts out to customers to convince them to come into the store. Two things stood out from that meeting. First, they gave me a stat that said there were 4.5 billion smartphones in use on the planet.… Read more

Celebrity endorsements don’t work like they used to. Sure, some fanboys will buy a particular brand because their favorite star told them, but the general public knows these actors, athletes, and entertainers only promote the stuff they get paid to promote. We see right through the pay-to-say ploy and aren’t… Read more

I didn’t steal a bunch of candy. Oh, I could have. I bought some over-priced M&Ms at a candy shop on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. The checkout was at the back of the store in the most awkward place. I had to walk up a ramp, stand in a… Read more

I just got back from Chicago. Fabulous trip! I was hired to do a couple presentations for the Diamond Retailer Summit hosted by Diamond Comics Distributors. I did two talks—Selling in a Showrooming World and Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. I also got to do something new for… Read more

I remember the first year I was in charge of hiring seasonal employees for Toy House. I was ill-prepared. I had done no research into how to interview a candidate. Heck, I had only sat through three job interviews in my life on the other side of the desk. I… Read more

I used to sell advertising for a local magazine. Every Thursday, on my day off from Toy House, I would hit the streets talking local businesses into buying ads for a monthly magazine my ex-wife and I published called Kids in Common. We launched Kids in Common in 2000 as… Read more

I did something a little out of character for me last night. I made a political post on Facebook. I’ve made comments and joined political debates over the years, but I have never made a political post of my own. It was scary to hit that Post button. I had… Read more

You have to be older than me to remember Shopper’s Fair. That was the first store that, back in the early 1960’s, was going to put my grandfather out of business. They were gone before I was old enough to spend my first dime. I do, however, have memories of… Read more

You watched the Super Bowl for the ads, didn’t you? That’s the trendy thing today. Whether you root for (or against) one of the teams in the game, you tune in mostly to see the ads. I have actually seen Super Bowl Parties where everyone gets a scorecard to rate… Read more

A couple nights ago as I was climbing into bed I got an email from my friend, Phil. He owns the brewpub where I frequently play guitar. He was sent a script proposal for a television ad and wanted my opinion. I read it and told him not to run… Read more

I was tagged seventeen times on Facebook last week about Toys R Us pending liquidation, wondering if I had seen the news. Friends, I write a blog about retail. I do workshops for retailers. I am a presenter at the upcoming American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA). I subscribe to… Read more

“Who are you trying to reach?” That’s pretty much the opening salvo in every advertising salesperson’s repertoire. Give them your answer and voila! “That’s exactly our listeners/viewers/readers!” Then they show you some study that “proves” their advertising works. Westwood One, a major radio company with stations across the US, commissioned a… Read more

A few years ago I went to lunch with a fellow toy store owner. I had wanted to see his store, so we made plans for me to visit and then go get lunch. Since we were in his town, I left it up to him to pick a place… Read more

I went for a walk/jog down the Falling Waters Trail a couple days ago. It was sunny and in the mid-50’s. My dog, Samantha, and I enjoyed getting out of the house. There is something about those early spring days when you get that sense of renewal, that rebirth of… Read more

(Note: this is a continuation from the blog post “Why Have a Meeting in the First Place?”) Back in 2011, after seeing me do the presentation Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget at the 2010 Michigan Downtown Conference, I had a corporate sponsor sending me to do the same… Read more

I had just finished doing a presentation on Customer Service for a team of volunteers and staff at a non-profit organization. We had discussed the different types of “customers” and how to recognize them. We talked about their different expectations and how to meet and exceed those expectations. We laughed… Read more

I always planned my staff meetings by finishing the following sentence: This will be a successful meeting if … This will be a successful meeting if we learn how to become better listeners. This will be a successful meeting if we learn about new products. This will be a successful… Read more

Many conference organizers have detailed instructions for their speakers. It makes sense since often those conferences will have a mix of professional speakers and members of their organization who have never done presentations like this. On more than one occasion I have seen instructions to, “ask the attendees to write… Read more

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” On the other hand, Steve Jobs said, “It’s only by saying ‘No’ that you can concentrate on the things that are really… Read more

Once a month I pick up my six-string and head to The Poison Frog Brewery to entertain the folks. I’m not all that great of a guitar player. No one is wowed by my prowess on the strings. I’m more like George from Sultans of Swing. I know (almost) all… Read more

I once won five pounds of bacon. It was a naming contest. First prize was an Apple iPad. Second prize was five pounds of bacon. Since I primarily use my iPad as an expensive alarm clock and to play FreeCell, this was one contest I was happy to take second… Read more

Whether you agree with yesterday’s post about giving good people back to society or not, you will likely agree with this statement … You want the best staff your payroll and training budget will allow. (Surprisingly, many chain retailers at the mall don’t act like they agree with that statement.… Read more

Back in the early 1990’s I ran a wilderness trip program out at YMCA Storer Camps. I had a team of trip leaders who would plot out backpacking, biking, rock climbing, and canoeing trips around the Midwest and Ontario. One of the planning stages for the trip leaders was to… Read more

When I was a kid, I loved riddles. I especially loved the gotcha riddles where if you didn’t pay attention to everything you were sure to get it wrong. One of my early favorites was, “What weighs more? A pound of feathers or a pound of gold?” Once I learned… Read more

I hope someday to be world famous. I could almost say that I already am world famous. I do have a follower in Russia. I have another in Serbia and one in Austria. I have a couple followers from the southern hemisphere. I have shipped my Hiring and the Potter’s… Read more

Long distance runners and long distance swimmers know that somewhere in the middle of the race is where you separate the pros from the amateurs. The amateurs have either gone out too fast and really start to feel it in those middle miles, or their minds start to wander and… Read more

You’ve heard the phrase Pay it Forward. Someone does something nice for you, and instead of doing something nice back, you do something nice for someone else. I have several things I need to pay forward in my life, including one act of generosity that happened this fall. I love… Read more

One of the phone calls I dreaded most while running Toy House would happen occasionally on my lunch hour. I’d look down at my cellphone and see “Toy House” was calling. It rarely was a “problem.” My staff knew exactly how I liked problems to be handled. The phone call I… Read more

Long before there was ever Cyber Monday, there was Letdown Monday. You worked incredibly hard gearing up for Black Friday (and now Small Business Saturday). You planned events, did marketing, trained the staff, decorated the store, and had a nice busy weekend. Then Monday hits and you wonder where all… Read more

I walked into a large chain furniture store. There was a line of salespeople waiting to pounce on anyone walking through the door. It reminded me of the scene in L.A. Story where Steve Martin’s character was waiting in line to use an ATM while another line of muggers waited… Read more

I was going to title this It Isn’t the Thought That Counts or maybe The Road to Retail Ruin is Paved With Good Intentions. You’ll see why momentarily. Back in 1993 I had to do something incredibly hard. I had to put a dog down. It was our first dog,… Read more

In 1990 I wrote a description of Team Building practices to help my facilitators understand the process when working with our groups. My program at YMCA Storer Camps utilized low and high ropes course initiatives and rock climbing to foster team building. The goal of every group was to get… Read more

This past Saturday was Neighborhood Toy Store Day (NTSD). Locally-owned, independent toy stores all around the country celebrated being local and special by having toy demonstrations and special events in their stores. Many of their top vendors supplied them with freebies and demos and raffle items. We always tied the… Read more

Whoever had the idea of hosting the International Toy Fair in New York City every February ought to be shot! Oh, sure, NYC is a FABULOUS city to visit. I love going there! But February??? Last year the temps were in the 60’s. Unfortunately I missed last year. I was… Read more

Last night my son wanted to read to me a paper he had written for Eleventh Grade Honors English. The paper was a review of an essay they had read. In Ian’s paper he had to show examples of the different styles of persuasion the author had used in his… Read more

Seth Godin talked about this in his blog today. I wrote about it back in 2009. You know this adage … A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Your chain is your staff. Your chain is the level of customer service your team can bring to the… Read more

Back in 2005 I started working on a plan. Our store had two major bottlenecks for traffic that made it hard for customers to navigate the store during peak times. Those bottlenecks also made it hard for the staff to navigate, especially with a cart full of merchandise to replenish… Read more

Every time I’m at the cash register I get asked the same question and it is driving me nuts! I cringe when I hear it. It is driving me to the point of almost wanting to use the self-serve registers (which I hate with an equal passion to hearing this… Read more

My favorite sled is heading into its nineteenth year of service. I got it the year Parker was born. It is an ugly orange plastic sled with no fancy features. It isn’t eye-catching or sleek in design. It isn’t decked out with racing stripes or shiny vinyl that makes you… Read more

I was in Orlando for a trade show a few years back. I met up with some friends and the five of us headed to a steakhouse for dinner. It was one of those meals you talk about forever. I could start with the off-menu ordering of a 20oz Filet… Read more

I was thumbing through some boxes of Toy House memorabilia in my basement and came across samples of some of the flyers and brochures we handed out in the store. They were all tri-fold flyers and they all had one panel that was exactly the same on each of them.… Read more

We all meet interesting people from time to time. For one year I had a person enter my life that gave me a world’s worth of perspective. At the time he was the store manager of one of the big-box discounters in town. While our sons shared activities together, he… Read more

The one thing I hate about having my house for sale is all the stuff I have boxed up to make the house less cluttered. There are 9 boxes filled with my books sitting on shelves in the basement. Many of those books I have read more than once. A… Read more

In a couple nights I take the stage again at The Poison Frog Brewery with my guitar and harps to have a little fun. I’m playing at least once a month and having the time of my life. (I think the audience is enjoying it, too. Of course, the more… Read more

We didn’t have a hierarchical structure at Toy House. While my dad was still there I did have the mantle of Vice President, but that was mostly to satisfy corporate rules. We didn’t have a manager or assistant managers or department heads. The closest thing we had to any kind… Read more

As a speaker I am constantly submitting my talks to conferences in an attempt to get hired. I am also looking at their websites to see what kinds of talks they hosted at their last conference. Time and time again they have speakers talking about how to advertise on social… Read more

If you ever stopped by my office at Toy House, you saw the frying pans on the wall behind my head. Each one had a hole right through the bottom of the pan. Target practice? Nope. Just one big solitary spike sticking straight up out of a board, upon which… Read more

David M. Bailey, one of my favorite inspirational artists, wrote a song called The Hard Way with powerful lyrics … They say the hard way is the only way we ever learn a thing After everything I’ve learned I’d say they’re right Sometimes it takes a thief to steal inside… Read more

I gave you my resume. Now let’s talk about you and what you might need. If you are a Small Business Owner … You wear many hats, some better than others. Your choices are simple. A) Learn all the skills you need on your own. B) Hire someone else to… Read more

I admit it. I fall for click-bait headlines all the time. I saw one recently about the Columbus, OH based discount closeout chain Big Lots! that said, “Discounter Opens ‘Store of the Future’ “. Yeah, I had to see this. The article went on to say how they had changed… Read more

You have some time to kill before your next appointment. You pull into the parking lot of one of your favorite stores at 9:17am. You know they don’t open until 9:30am. It says so right on the door. That’s okay. You’ll sit and wait. You look up from your phone… Read more

By now you have all heard about Toys R Us (TRU) filing bankruptcy. I have been personally tagged several times on Facebook linking to articles about the bankruptcy (a couple former staff members have even hinted I should reopen Toy House now.) Here are some things you need to know.… Read more

When my dad retired in 2005 his biggest concern for me was what was my plan. He’s a football fan just like I am. We’ve heard coaches time and time again talk about their Game Plan for beating their opponent. We had a new opponent that had just opened in… Read more

Back in the early 80’s my dad encountered a customer in our LEGO aisle. She had a notebook and was writing down prices on some of the LEGO sets we carried. “I’m taking notes because my son’s birthday is coming up.” Apparently that birthday never happened because every week she… Read more

Hey Michigan peeps! What if I told you that the State of Michigan would pay for you and your store manager to enroll in a Jackson Retail Success Academy™ style program in your area? Rather than you driving all the way here to take the class on your dime, I would do… Read more

This is the year of confessions. I’ve told you I don’t like cleaning up and filing things away. I’ve admitted I only went to the University of Michigan to get football tickets. As much as it pains me to be one, I’ve even admitted I’m a Detroit Lions fan. I… Read more

The salesman said something that has stuck in my head for over two decades. “Most people only buy one dining room set in their lifetime. If you buy it right, you have something that is passed down through the generations.” He was right. My aunt is still using the table… Read more

My son wrote an amazing car ad right off the top of his head. He did it in response to the boring-to-downright-excruciatingly-bad car ads we were seeing while watching football over the weekend. You know the kind of car ad I’m talking about. It starts with a close up of… Read more

Ever have one of those amazing meals you just have to tell everyone about? I’ve been blessed to have had several. One took place in New York City. I was there for Toy Fair several years ago when a sales rep invited me to dinner. It was a Danny Meyer… Read more

Today I signed the papers to list my house for sale. I did this a little over a year ago, had the house listed for a year without a single offer. I took it off the market at the end of July, put in a lot of work on little… Read more

I just finished painting the master bedroom and upstairs hallway. They look fabulous if I do say so myself. There is a definite feeling of satisfaction when you’ve finished painting a room and can see it looking fresh and new. Painting, however, is not my favorite thing to do. I… Read more

Every July for our Summer Fun Sale we would mark down thousands of old, slow-selling, discontinued merchandise to ridiculously low prices to move out that merchandise, generate some cash, and get ready for the upcoming holiday season. With close to a million dollars in inventory, the process was quite tedious… Read more

George Whalin was the last guy you wanted sitting next to you on an airplane. George was a retail consultant and public speaker (and one of my inspirations). George loved retail. A vacation to him meant a trip to The Grand Bazaar in Turkey followed by a trip to their… Read more

There is an old story of two managers discussing staff training. The first manager objects to training saying, “What if we train them and they leave?” The second manager replies, “What if we don’t train them and they stay?” My friends, knowing I write this blog, send me examples of… Read more

I kept my email address from Toy House. I kept it partly because I have so much history with that address I didn’t want to lose, partly because so many people have it and still use it to get a hold of me, and partly because I don’t really like… Read more

There is a scheduling myth I have heard for many years, and although on the surface it seems to make sense, I don’t think it is in the best long-term interest of your store. The myth is that you should schedule your best sales people for your peak hours and… Read more

“Have you ever noticed that everyone wants to be normal but no one wants to be average?” -Roy H. Williams Did you hear the one about the statistician that drowned in a river with an average depth of three feet? In business, everyone wants to know the averages, the average… Read more

My buddy, Sean, owns a toy store in Cary, North Carolina called Science Safari. I am sharing his story as he posted it on FB … “Weird occurrence… It’s happened twice in the last week. I certainly don’t mind, but I’ve never seen it in 30 years of retail nor… Read more

Chaos: noun /’kā-äs/ : behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions (thank you, Google) Chaos is a system too complex for the average observer to see any order. I hated to file things away. Just not my thing. I would let stacks of… Read more

(Note: this is a longer post than usual. Set yourself some time to give it a good read and bookmark it so that you can come back to it as necessary.) You’re the Jack-of-all-Trades. You’re at least mildly competent at all aspects of your job. Like you, your store is… Read more

Have you ever had that “Cheers!” moment where you walked into a place and everyone shouted your name? I’ve been blessed to have it happen to me several times. It never gets old. Never. In fact, it is one of the better feelings on this planet. I know when I… Read more

Happy 4th of July! If you worked for me at Toy House, today would be a paid holiday. Same with New Year’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We only had two unpaid days we were closed—the Sundays before Memorial and Labor Day. Nine closed days, seven… Read more

My buddy was at a conference recently and the presenter for his breakout session had a major typo in big bold letters at the top of one of his opening slides. My buddy couldn’t resist. He took a photo of this typo—and I’m talking not just a single letter but… Read more

My buddy Lenny and I were having a conversation last night at the industry party for the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) event in Philadelphia. Lenny sells toys, specifically one of my favorite companies — Marky Sparky. Lenny and Mark(y) were regaling the story of being at a different toy… Read more

In a recent post I talked about how my hometown of Jackson, Michigan was once called “Central City” because of the railroad industry back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The name most people my age knew was the unofficial title of “Prison City”. One reader reminded me that… Read more

I was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan. I have spent 44 of my 50 years living in Jackson. Back in the late 1800’s Jackson was known as “Central City” because it was the hub to all the rail lines that ran through Michigan. As the railroad died out, Jackson… Read more

One of the segments of the SPOTLIGHT ON MARKETING & ADVERTISING workshop coming up Tuesday, June 20th focuses on the many different media you can use to market & advertise your business and their respective strengths and weaknesses. It dawned on me that I have used many different forms of media… Read more

I play guitar and sing in a local brew pub called The Poison Frog. At a recent gig I played an old camp song. Afterward, Phil Wilcox, the owner and master brewer, asked if I would do an entire “campfire” theme one night. Following the advice of Teddy Roosevelt who… Read more

Here is the the third chapter from my new book MOST ADS SUCK (But Yours Won’t). (Please follow the previous link to my Indiegogo Campaign to pre-order the book.) The first two chapters deal with the big revelations that Most Ads Suck and The Message Is More Important Than the… Read more

Here is your chance to learn the equivalent of a degree in advertising in just one night. As one MBA professor told me after sampling the material, “No one is teaching this stuff even at our level, and it needs to be learned!” If you are a small business owner,… Read more

I promised you some excerpts from my new book MOST ADS SUCK (But Yours Won’t). Like all good books, the best place to start is the beginning. Here is the Foreword … Foreword Who will use this book? Anyone who writes content to persuade including web content, ad copy, magazine… Read more

My boys and I saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earlier this evening. We are Marvel Studios junkies. Even the bad ones were good enough for us. I’ve always been fascinated by super heroes, especially their powers and how they use them. I am firm believer that we all… Read more

Click-bait, right? Not at all. My new book, Most Ads Suck, will change lives for the better. Here’s how … Before we go further, if you accept the premise that most ads do in fact suck, then you will accept the premise that most independent business owners will have sucky ads.… Read more

Back on April 3, 2015 I wrote a blog about an idea that had been swimming around my brain for my next book. It was going to be about how to write more creative and interesting advertising copy. I was already presenting on the topic. My Making Your Ads More… Read more

I was having a conversation this morning when the light bulb went on. I was asked by someone considering enrolling in the SPOTLIGHT ON MANAGERIAL SUCCESS workshop this Wednesday (it is not too late to sign up) whether he would learn anything useful since he “wasn’t a retail store manager.”… Read more

If you’re still sitting on the fence about signing up for next Wednesday’s SPOTLIGHT ON MANAGERIAL SUCCESS workshop, here are a few questions to ask yourself. Do you manage a team of three or more people? Do you feel that your team is not working up to their best potential?… Read more

Overheard in a shoe store the other day… Customer: “Ma’am, do you have this style shoe in a brown?” Clerk: “I don’t know what we have or don’t have. I just work here.” My first thought when I heard this was, “You won’t be working here for long with that… Read more

I took over the hiring of employees at Toy House in the fall of 1995. My dad never really liked the job. I quickly found out why. We would hire 10 or more seasonal employees every fall and try to train them up to our customers’ expectations in just a… Read more

My father is 100% Polish. My mother is mostly English. For about three straight years, however, I was Italian. Everyone called me Phil Pepperoni. No it wasn’t because of my fondness for a certain doughy, saucy, meaty culinary delight. No it wasn’t because I was extra cheesy (okay maybe a little).… Read more

If you know me well, you know I’m a Wolverine. Been one since the day my grandfather took me to The Big House at seven years old. It was the only university I applied to attend. If you know the University of Michigan and follow their football team, you’ve heard the… Read more

My trip through the malls recently has me wondering… Where is the true breakdown in the staff training? You can start with the store managers since ultimately they are responsible for training the frontline staff, but that begs the question. Are those managers properly trained to be a store manager? In a… Read more

You know why you need to teach classes in your store. Here are the six steps you take to create a class that draws traffic, builds excitement, gains you followers, sets you up as the expert, and makes people want to buy from you. Determine which product(s) you sell that takes… Read more

I went down to the basement this Sunday to turn on some lights and make sure it was presentable for a house showing in three hours. It wasn’t. At the bottom of the stairs I encountered a huge puddle of water and a steady drip, drip, drip from the floorboards… Read more

I had a Hinkley Donut this morning. My favorite is chocolate frosted cinnamon, but I could eat any of about a dozen of their different donuts with equal pleasure. Those of you in Jackson know what I mean. In a statewide competition Hinkley’s Bakery won Best Donuts in Michigan (if they… Read more

You’re not going to do it yourself. You’re too busy. You have ordering and managing your inventory, hiring and training your staff, processing all the paperwork, creating and executing an advertising campaign, and all the other stuff like merchandising, selling, and even cleaning the bathroom on your to-do list. The last… Read more

Here is another gem I found buried in a file, long forgotten. My grandfather and founder of Toy House, Mayor Philip H. Conley, penned these words in June 1969, two months before hiring my dad as his new manager. I don’t know if this was penned to put his thoughts… Read more

I went to a networking event a couple nights ago. I knew walking in that the likelihood of picking up a high-paying speaking gig from this event was incredibly low. In fact, the idea that I would be able to pick up any speaking gigs from this event never really… Read more

The downside to writing a job description for each position on your staff is that you can never remember to list everything that position needs to do. Something will eventually get left off the list. Or if you do remember everything, the list is so long no one reads it,… Read more

People don’t buy products. They buy feelings. You aren’t selling toys or pet supplies or carpeting. You’re selling joy, contentment, pride, satisfaction. You’re selling the way someone feels after she makes the purchase. You’re selling the heart. For you, every day is Valentine’s Day. How would your business change if instead… Read more

Google the question, “How often should you send your email newsletter?” and you’ll get a plethora of answers. According to my inbox, Lands End seems to think the answer is several times a day. For others it is daily. One report that actually surveyed US adults is suggesting weekly or monthly.… Read more

If you’re a BBQ lover in the Detroit area, you recognize this door. Behind it is the tantalizing flavors of smoked meats, refreshing liquids from the Great Beer State, and an aroma that pleasantly stays in your nostrils for hours. You know it as Slow’s BBQ. In fact, you take… Read more

Have you ever asked, “How much?” and you could tell the person selling you believed the price was too high? They usually start with something like, “Before I tell you the price, let me tell you all you get.” They might as well say, “I’m afraid to tell you how much… Read more

We’ve all heard the phrase KISS – keep it simple, stupid. We’ve also been exposed to Occam’s Razor – the simpler explanation is most likely the better one. But still, as business owners, we forget that and build our own man-made obstacles to make our lives harder. For example, I went… Read more

Besides writing this blog and doing workshops and seminars and presentations, I have a few hobbies. One is singing and playing guitar. Tonight I get to perform in front of tens of people at the Poison Frog Brewery. I’ll be performing songs I’ve played hundreds of times in the last… Read more

Here is another treasure I found while cleaning out old folders and files. I can tell since this is in cursive that I wrote this in the mid-90’s. I went back and forth between cursive and Small Caps in my notes for many years until switching to Small Caps almost… Read more

Lately everyone has been talking about the 1%. In politics that might be the ultra-rich. You either are them, hate them, or on your way to becoming them. In retail the 1% I want to talk about is your unsaleable merchandise. We ended our closing with only 1% of our inventory… Read more

Let’s get the elephant out of the room right away. How can I write a blog about being a successful retailer when I closed my retail store? I can sum that up in three words… Location. Location. Location. Yes, we were having a tough time with cash flow. That’s the… Read more

Align yourself with charity. Pick one or two local organizations (or more if you’re up to it) that you feel strongly about. Do something special for them. Help them out. Be their friend and ally. You’ll both benefit from the friendship. This is a picture of the Cascades Humane Society… Read more

(Warning: this post contains math. Proceed with caution.) “We lose a dollar on each one we sell, but we make it up in volume.” Yeah, we all know that isn’t right, but there is a mistaken belief that if you lower your prices, you can easily make up the lower… Read more

I just spent several days in Las Vegas for the ABC Expo, the largest trade show for the juvenile product industry. Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (btw, they mean the money you gamble stays in Vegas). NO BEER FOR PHIL One thing that didn’t happen in… Read more

I was speaking about the power of networking to a group of baby product sellers. One of them pointed out that he had never seen a pregnant person at a networking event. That pretty much sums up what most people get wrong about networking. Raise your hand if you know… Read more

Let’s face the truth. Forecasting for your busy season is the single hardest decision you make if you are an independent retailer. As much as we all would like our purchasing to be just right, every year we seem to buy either too much or too little. Since you’re likely to… Read more

Back in the 90’s we started a direct mail newsletter for Toy House. We sent out a mailing every other month. Conventional Wisdom at the time said we needed to include a coupon with each mailing to help us “track the effectiveness” of the mailing. So we included a $20… Read more

Legend has it the day before Disney Land opened, Walt and crew arrived to do a walk-through. Upon entering the gates, Walt immediately kneeled down at the front of the park. His entourage was curious as he begged them to kneel with him. Once everyone was kneeling, he explained that… Read more

(Note: this post has been edited)Video is HUGE. Go look at your news feed in Facebook and count what percentage of posts are videos.Pretty high, isn’t it?If you aren’t using videos – Vine, YouTube, iPhone videos loaded to Facebook, etc. – then you might not be reaching all the people… Read more

You just got some free merchandise from one of your favorite vendors. It was a low cost item that you didn’t sell anyway. You want to give them away to your customers.Do you give them away free, no strings attached, or do you only give them away free with a… Read more

Social media is where it is at!Social media is DEAD!Social media is FREE!Social media has NO ROI!Businesses are expanding because of social media!Businesses are wasting their money on social media!SOCIAL MEDIA, social media, social media, BLAH blah blah.Everyone has an opinion on whether Social Media is helping businesses grow or… Read more

(Note: I submitted this to Wizard Academy for a project where they asked business leaders what our two to three secrets are that have helped us succeed. My three secrets are these three questions…)I have been told that I have an uncanny knack for taking difficult ideas & concepts and… Read more

I came across this sign while delivering some baby furniture the other day.Three lessons…Never let your high school drop out make your signs. Always have an educated person proof read your signs before you put them up. Don’t trust spell-check.Enjoy your weekend smile.-Phil Wrzesinskiwww.PhilsForum.comPS Had the flavor been Spinach Souffle, I might… Read more

Back in 1962, Everett Rogers introduced us to the Diffusion of Innovations that shows how people enter the market for any given idea, product or service. There are five groups of people who look at new ideas and products distinctively different. The percentages shown are consistent across the board in… Read more

Have you downloaded the free eBook Making Your Ads Memorable? Getting people to listen/read/see and remember you is the first step in advertising. Getting them to take action is the second step. Most people fail on the first step and then wonder why the second step never happened.The guide is fairly straightforward… Read more

Everyone wants a discount. Everyone wants a deal. Everyone wants a coupon. Or so you might be led to believe.One of my employees went to a fast food restaurant and said, “I’d like a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”The employee answered, “The drink isn’t included with that.”She… Read more

Your brain has a gatekeeper. His name is Broca. He protects your brain from all the boring, mundane and predictable in the world.Roy H. Williams, aka, The Wizard of Ads, was the first person to introduce me to Broca. Most advertisements fail because Broca saw them coming a mile away.… Read more

(Update 5/3/17: The book is almost finished. But I need your help to get it off the ground. Please go to my indiegogo campaign and make a donation and I’ll send you a signed copy the day I pick up the books from the printer.)   It is time to… Read more

Your customers have incredible power. They can take your business down overnight. One unchecked and unanswered complaint, one un-refuted accusation, one video of something you did wrong going viral, and you’re gone.Just ask Paula Dean.It didn’t use to be this way. You used to have all the power. You controlled… Read more

I haven’t written in almost a month. I got distracted. It happens.This blog isn’t my first job. Technically it ranks around four or five or maybe six. I have my family and Toy House up there at the top. I have my Daddy Class at the local hospital. I have… Read more

Late night infomercials have done more to harm the trust relationship between retailers and customers than almost anything else out there.You’ve seen the shows where the person claims to be the expert on something, but you have a hard time believing them because they are also trying to sell you… Read more

This Thursday, 1/29/15 is National Puzzle Day. Being a toy store that sells thousands of puzzles, that is a big deal to us. Naturally, we are going to celebrate it and I’m going to promote it via Facebook.But I violated one of my golden rules for getting around the Facebook… Read more

I’ve plowed my parking lot clean. I’ve held open the front door for my customer. I’ve greeted her with a genuine hello and thanks for coming in. I’ve avoided the dreaded Can I help you? phrase.Those are the easy obstacles to remove.The biggest obstacle is a lack of trust. A… Read more

Our front doors suck.Okay, they could be worse. They could be something other than glass, heavier than hell, and hard to hold open. At least you can see through them into and out of the store, and most of the kids can push them to get in.There used to be… Read more

Try to describe in as complete detail as possible the typical experience your customer has in your store. Be as specific as you can from her parking spot through the front door all the way through checkout.Take your time. This is an important exercise. You can even do this with… Read more

Everyone is lamenting the death of free posts for your company on Facebook. For the third time in the last year or so, even Facebook has said that if you want to play, you better be prepared to pay.Maybe you have already seen your organic reach plummet and are already… Read more

There was a house on the next block that gave out full size candy – Milky Ways, Snickers, Butterfingers and M&M’s. My friend Peter and I spent one Halloween changing into multiple costumes and running up the street to that house at least five times.There was another house on the… Read more

What if I told you that you could market your business to 6,000 customers and instead of costing you a penny, you would actually get paid $328 to do it?What if I told you that you would also get valuable market data from that promotion?What if I told you that… Read more

A fellow store owner was contemplating an advertising deal offered to her from Yelp that was going to cost about $400 per month. That got me thinking about what different things you could do to draw traffic with $400/month.You could rent a bouncy house and run it in your parking… Read more

It is about that time of year when you start hearing all the news about Amazon and Wal-Mart and low prices and discounts and the death of mom & pop shop retailers.Yeah, Amazon is huge. In 2013, they did $75.4 billion in sales. That was 28.6% of all US eCommerce!But… Read more

Seth Godin nailed it today.“Would you send the clerk on aisle 7 to speak to a head of state or vital partner on behalf of your company? Because that’s what he’s doing right now.”If you cannot answer a resounding Yes! to Seth’s question, you need to re-think your hiring and… Read more

Rick Segel stood in front of us and said, “Sixty-second manager training…”“Everyone take your finger and thumb and make the ‘okay’ sign. Now place that circle right against your chin. Put it right there on your chin.”At the same time Rick placed his own okay sign firmly against his cheek.We… Read more

If you’re an indie retailer, quite often you get customers in your store that have already shopped (and even bought from) the competition. They know the big chains thanks to multi-million dollar ad campaigns. They know the big chains from the huge signs over the giant buildings on the busiest… Read more

I’m reading a fascinating book called The Man Who Wore Mismatched Socks about an indie brewing company in England fighting against the big corporate brewery who is trying to buy out and destroy all the competition.Sound familiar?In the book, the current head of the indie brewery says something profound…“As you… Read more

One final thought from my trip to Walt Disney World…I took two teenage boys to the land of pink princesses, Frozen queens, and fairy tales come true. I took two roller coaster freaks who think Cedar Point (a mere 2.2 hour drive from us) is the Mecca of amusement parks… Read more

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom averages around 47,000 visitors a day. Everything about the park, however, is designed to make one person feel special, not 47,000. Let me explain.There were four young children on my left. My family sat to my right. We were all parked on the curb halfway… Read more

The New York Times did an interview piece with fashion icon Michael Kors and famous restaurateur Danny Meyer. (You can read the whole interview here.)Danny summed up great customer service in one line…“Great hospitality is taking however we three felt before we came here and making us feel a little… Read more

I have been bombarded with companies selling me on the merits and benefits of Mobile Marketing. The main focus is sending out texts with coupons and deals to people in the vicinity. Some of these companies are offering me packages less than $20/week. Others want me to commit to thousands… Read more

Someone tagged the railroad bridge at the end of our block.It says, “An army of sheep lead [sic] by lions will always defeat an army of lions lead [sic] by sheep.”All four cars at the light praised me when I took this picture, thinking that I was going to report it… Read more

I hadn’t washed my car in weeks. When it was sunny, I didn’t have the time. When I had the time, it was raining. I finally got it done two days ago.As I was toweling off a few last sprinkles, I felt a little extra bounce in my step. There… Read more

Your store just isn’t that important. You aren’t creating hundreds/thousands of jobs at one time. You aren’t attracting tens of thousands of people into town all at once. You aren’t creating multi-millions of dollars of economic impact. You aren’t raising tens of thousands of dollars for charity.The news media isn’t… Read more

Would you treat your customer with kindness right up until the end and then kick them in the face after they gave you their money?No, of course you wouldn’t. Yet you do.Would you tell your customers – Don’t come around here… We don’t want you… We’re all about ourselves, not… Read more

There is an article floating around about Team Building Gone Bad.As a business owner, you’ve heard about Team Building – doing activities to help bring the team closer together and increase communication, cooperation, and trust. You’ve probably thought about doing something with your own staff.Before you do, do me (and… Read more

I was just at Bob & Sue Negen’s Whizbang Training Retail Success Summit and Bob talked about trying to achieve the Perfect Sale.There are two Perfect Sales out there. From your point of view and from the customer’s point of view.From your point of view…You sold them everything you possibly could,… Read more

Some like to rip theirs off quickly in the heat of the moment.  Others run their fingers down the seam, taking it off slowly savoring every second.  Pulses quicken, breathing deepens, the anticipation is almost agonizing.  Usually it’s the teddies, occasionally polka dots.  Always there is a smile.  There’s nothing… Read more

You have a front line staff. You pay them to work with the customers and sell your products. Sometimes they get it right and make more money for the business. Sometimes they leave dollars on the table.All this year I have worked with my staff on how to raise the… Read more

Could you stand up to the microphone at a poetry slam and read your radio ads?How fast would you be booed off the stage?I read fourteen of my radio ads the other night. One after the other. Didn’t get booed. Lots of snapping of the fingers (the way you applaud… Read more

Roy H. Williams told you that to get Word-of-Mouth you have to do one of three things…Over-the-top DesignOver-the-top Customer ServiceOver-the-top GenerosityThis falls into that first category.Huge kudos to Kristina Smith, who made all the signs (that’s her in the photo). Notice that we positioned this so that when you take… Read more

Yesterday’s blog was an example of what not to do. Today is the kind of review you get when the front line staff knows how to make an experience wonderful…“We’re always impressed with customer service at the Toy House, but yesterday was over the top. Our family was there because… Read more

We all know Customer Service is our calling card. It is our path to success. It is the one thing where we can excel far greater than our competitors and kick their asses to the curb.But how do you change the culture of your store to make Shareworthy Customer Service… Read more

I have a Money Tree sitting on my desk. It promises me that if I give it sunlight, water it, and praise it, I will get money as if it grew on trees.I don’t know.I have twelve other “Money Trees” in the store. They are named Ruth, Erica, Lakisha, Kristina,… Read more

Your job is simple – to persuade.Persuade the best people to work for you.Persuade those people to do more for you than they thought possible.Persuade your vendors to give you good terms for the best products.Persuade your customers to visit you in droves.Persuade them to part with their hard-earned dollars.Persuade… Read more

“At the end of the day you’ll get nothing for nothing.” -Les MiserablesI’m on the planning committee for a new street festival that will happen this summer in downtown Jackson. It’s a big one. Artists, Musicians, Restaurateurs, Local Brewers and Wineries, a Color Run and more.Some of the merchants on… Read more

Question number one: What can you teach?Make a list right now. Jot it down on a napkin. Tell it to Siri. What topic(s) do you know enough about that you feel you could teach it to someone who knows nothing?Write. Down. Everything.I can teach…How to tie a shoeHow to squash… Read more

This year I am leading my sales staff to water. Fortunately, they are not horses. They are drinking it up.At our monthly team meeting I am breaking down the sales process into small, drinkable chunks.In February we talked about Being Accessible. Customers don’t like to approach a crowd of employees,… Read more

Winter is finally giving way to that other season – Construction. Orange cones are popping up everywhere.And shortly after that, if you’re a downtown business, you’ll probably be facing Festival Season – that time of year when the city shuts down the street for a car cruise or an art… Read more

“The fool speaks, the wise [business]man listens.” -African ProverbHere is one tip to increase your business this year. Are you listening?Be a better listener.What your customer is saying is extremely important. Over-the-top important. It is the center of her universe and the whole reason she is in your store trying… Read more

This year I have had three totally different Facebook Posts that stood out among the rest.The first was this…Can you all help me out? I need to hype up our JUST FOR FUN SALE that starts this Thursday 9:30am to 6pm.Hundreds of great toys, hobby and baby products at deep discounts… Read more

A friend of mine is going through a change with her business. She opted out of a franchise agreement and is now going independent.She had a momentary bout of panic when the franchise webpage listed her store as “closed”. She wasn’t closed. She was open. Just doing business under a… Read more

This article from RetailCustomerExperience.com should be required reading of anyone working indie retail.We all get told at one point or another, “Your price is too high!“This article gives you clear responses that that anyone can use to handle such a situation.(Reader’s Digest version for those lazy people who don’t want… Read more

Tonight is the Super Bowl. Half of the talk will be about the game. Half of the talk will be about the advertising.Everyone who spent the $4 million for a commercial to air tonight is hoping for one thing – Talk.Good or bad.Just talk about the ad. Please.We will be… Read more

(Warning: This post includes math. If you wish to stick your head in the sand and stay away from all things math, do so now.)This is a big question at the end of the year for pretty much all retailers, especially us seasonal retailers. We’re flush with cash from the… Read more

There are many different metrics you need to measure to determine the health of your business. Two of the biggest are Profits and Cash Flow. If both of those are good, your business is probably doing well.But that doesn’t mean you don’t look at other numbers, too. That would be… Read more

In these final days, the most common phrase spoken by retail employees everywhere is…“No, we don’t have that.” Or its cousin, “No, we’re out of stock.”Make sure in tomorrow morning’s huddle that you remind you staff that there is a better response…“Let me show you what I do have.”Learn to… Read more

“You’ve ruined my Christmas!”We’ve all heard it. You can’t be a retailer with 4th quarter traffic without hearing that a few times. The problem is that we often let that statement ruin our own Christmas.Why do we give it so much weight?Why do we let one customer ruin our day,… Read more

Starting today, the guys are hitting the stores. We are last-second shoppers by nature. Ladies shop fifty two weeks a year. The men? Ten days tops. Although I won’t speak for all guys, here are three things you should do to maximize their transactions.Limit their choices. Guys don’t want to… Read more

This video is a great summation of many of the ideas and thoughts I have shared with you. I want you to watch it and think about the Transactional vs Relational Customer. I want you to watch it and think about the importance of knowing and showing your Values. I… Read more

They call us Brick & Mortar stores. Physical locations where you go to pick out and pick up your goods.But many stores are simply Brick stores – no mortar. Those are the stores being Showroomed.Bricks are the products. Bricks are the items you choose to put into your store. Bricks… Read more

Do you know the real goal of each transaction? To earn the Next Transaction.Unless you’re closing the store and selling off your inventory, you’re going to need that next transaction, and the one after that, and the one after that, and so on.You always need one eye on the horizon,… Read more

You still have time to pull this off. Christmas is still 48 days away. Do something Over-the-Top for your customers this season.Is parking a problem for your store? Offer Free Valet Parking. Get some young motivated drivers to move the cars to the distant lot (hire the local cross-country team… Read more

No, I’m not Santa (although some people in Jackson might disagree).The list I am making is the list of traits my seasonal staff needs to have. Things like…A willingness to learnKnowledge of toysKnowledge of play and play valueAbility to do mathAbility to work on a computerA strong, confident voiceFriendlinessProblem SolverCan… Read more

I bought people talking about my store for only $418.This next project cost about the same – and I didn’t have to pay for it!!Candy Chang started a project down in New Orleans by turning sheets of plywood into interactive works of art by asking people to finish this sentence… Read more

I finished the stage, well at least the main part of it. We still have some decorations to complete, but the stage was up, the curtain was in place, people were using it.Something didn’t look quite right to my eye.This morning my wife made a suggestion. She was absolutely right.… Read more

I attended a reunion for former staff at YMCA Storer Camps last weekend. One of the events was celebrating 75 years of their horse program including 50 years of a dedicated ranch just for would-be wranglers.Tom Brown brought out a horse named Zach. Zach was 29 years old and had… Read more

Do you and your employees wear name tags? Are they hidden down at the belt level or on a lanyard so that they turn backwards hiding your name?If your employees cannot be easily identified by name, you are missing one more chance to delight your customers.It is one thing to… Read more

I had a vendor recently ask me to offer their items at 25% off for a month. They would split the difference of the sale off the wholesale price (12.5% discount on the cost). They figured this would be a big enough deal to drive a lot of traffic.On the… Read more

You can lead a horse to water…My friend, Rick, is a successful dentist with a wonderful practice. He has learned some principles along the way that he shares with other dentists. Good stuff, too, that makes a difference in their practices.My friend, Chris, is an amazing visual artist. He is… Read more

One of my employees bought a new house. She got bombarded with the typical mail a new home owner gets. Tons of offers for phone and Internet and cable services. She received close to a dozen offers from one particular company for her cable and Internet.She finally decided to talk… Read more

I gave you four inexpensive ways to make your store look fresh.Here are three more things you can do that might cost a little more, but will definitely freshen up the place.Do a Wholesale Change of Fixtures. Move them around. Change the directions. Change the locations. Keep in mind things… Read more

One speed does not fit all in the retail world. Some shopping trips are quick hitters, kinda like guerrilla warfare – get in, get out, move on. Some are slow, easy strolls. A time for browsing, a time for gabbing, a time for pondering (a time for grabbing?).And even within… Read more

“Tell more stories!” they shouted at you. “Stories sell!” they exclaimed. “It’s the best way to market yourself!” they bellowed. After the ringing in your ears faded, you said, “Okay, I have stories to tell.” You start telling them. But deep in the back of your mind, where you let… Read more

“The mind uses logic to justify what the heart has already decided.” -Roy H. WilliamsThe best way to get into the customer’s mind is through her heart. Tell stories. Share values. Speak to the emotions.On the flip side, however, the best way to hold yourself back is to make business… Read more

I don’t sell toys. I sell Play Value.I don’t sell baby products. I sell Peace of Mind, Safety, and Love.I don’t sell books. I sell Imagination, Travel, and Dreams.I don’t sell hobby products. I sell Creation.So why would I be advertising toys, baby products, books and hobbies when I should… Read more

We all remember that scene in Ghostbusters where Bill Murray’s character comes in contact with a ghost in a hotel. A nasty little creature that leaves his character covered in icky goo.I had that feeling last week. It started out harmless. A photo shoot for our church for the new directory.… Read more

My wife likes sharing. Put her in a room full of other women and it isn’t a gabfest. It’s a sharefest. Right now, with two teenage boys, it is all about college and college prep. Every uncovered secret gets spread. At last Friday’s football game, while she and the ladies… Read more

Jeff Foxworthy cracks a wonderful joke about a financial planner who advises that you take half your earnings and shove them under a mattress and the other half down to the track and bet it on the dog “who does his business just before the start of the race.”You laugh… Read more

“Where do you get your inspiration for the ads you run on the radio?”“Where do you get the creativity for the ads you run on the radio?”I doubt a week goes by where I am not asked at least one of those questions.My stock response is that’s the fun part… Read more

I’m meeting with my US Congressman Tim Walberg in two weeks. He agreed to hold a round table discussion for retailers to talk about the Marketplace Fairness Act and other topics.(Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 8am at the Chamber office for all my local peeps reading this – please join me)A… Read more

No one signed up for my June Business Boot Camp on Retail Math. (Well, okay, a couple people did, but not enough for the Chamber to make it a go.)I think I know why.Retail Math is scary. So many numbers and ratios and calculations. So much confusion over terminology. Is… Read more

I recently did a workshop in Jacksonville, Florida for PRO on Customer Service. We started with a 45 minute presentation on Generating Word-of-Mouth.Most people think of Word-of-Mouth as a form of Advertising & Marketing, not Customer Service. They would be correct.But…The easiest way to get Word-of-Mouth is to offer over-the-top,… Read more

I am digging through old archives of our store. One of the Core Values of our business is Nostalgia. We are putting together a display of old pictures and old advertisements from the 1950’s and 1960’s.Tim Miles wrote a great post on whether or not you should use how long… Read more

The most common complaint about television and radio is that there are too many ads. If that was really true, Satellite radio and premium TV would have killed advertising-sponsored broadcast media. They haven’t and it doesn’t look like they will.But the complaint still sits there and begs the question… Is… Read more

This Thursday we are having our one and only big sales event of the year. We call it the Summer Fun Sale. My buddy, Randy, calls it the Make It Go Away Sale. Yes, it is a clearance sale where we mark all the slow moving merchandise, the dogs, down… Read more

I ran into Molly on a Saturday morning at the bank.“Phil, we’re having tours of our new building this summer. What are you doing this Tuesday at 5:30?”Molly runs the Center for Family Health, a healthcare facility for Jackson that is especially helpful for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured patients in… Read more

Take two bottles of perfume. Pour out half the perfume in each bottle. Now fill one of the bottles the rest of the way with water. Leave the other bottle with only perfume.Which perfume is more potent and powerful?Take a 60-second radio ad. Cut out all the black and unnecessary… Read more

The rains have been pouring down here at my store. Last night the river crested to the highest I have seen it in over 20 years. It touched the back corner of the building.My wife reported that all of our potted plants at home were swimming in their pots.That’s not… Read more

When a lioness approaches a herd of zebras, she searches for the stragglers, the loners, the ones who have strayed too far away. She isn’t attacking the whole herd. There is safety in numbers and the zebras know it.When a flock of birds flies in formation, they can fly farther… Read more

I freely admit it. I am not an overly organized guy. I hate filing papers away. I would rather just push it aside for later.We all know later never seems to come.Back in 1998 I moved into the office I currently occupy. Before then I had a desk on the… Read more

Do you ever look for the Win-Win scenario?You win, the customer wins?They got their problems solved and the product they needed at a fair price, you got the sale and the smile and the long-term relationship.You win, the vendor wins?You got the product you needed at a margin you can… Read more

I plopped down in the back seat next to a newborn baby. Cute little thing. Eyes still closed to the world.The new mama sat on the other side of the seat and asked, “Do we have the straps on right?”They had been in last week to get help installing the… Read more

I was at a trade show for the baby industry last week. One of those smaller shows with limited vendors and limited hours. My agenda was packed. One of my main vendors went out of business earlier this year and I was searching for a replacement. I had to budget… Read more

What did we do twenty years ago when we wanted information on a certain product we were considering?Anyone remember?There was Consumer Reports. There were other magazines that might have done a review or two. There were your friends and family – a much smaller circle before Facebook helped us all… Read more

One of my vendors did a survey of retailers to get ideas how they could service us better. I told them that there were really only four questions my buyers ask about a vendor before placing an order.Do I like the product enough to want to sell it?Would my customer… Read more

How much product knowledge is enough product knowledge? Simple. Ask yourself…What does the customer what to know?Then make a list for each product.The customer wants to know (in no particular order)…How much does it cost?Where was it made?What materials is it made out of?Why it will solve her problem?What makes… Read more

The season is almost over and you’re out of a lot of things. Do you make that Last Buy?This is a question that haunts all retailers.If you don’t make the buy, you run the risk of not having what the customer wants which means you lose the sales and you… Read more

Eleanor Roosevelt said,Great minds discuss ideas;Average minds discuss events;Small minds discuss people.I did a workshop on Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend. After the presentation, I had each table plan a training for their staff. At many of the tables the attendees were discussing ideas and getting excited about sharing… Read more

Have you ever done something for a customer and been disappointed by her reaction?I mean, something really nice, quite special and unexpected, yet she didn’t respond in kind? She didn’t say thank you or decide to buy more, or promise to bring all her friends back to shop with you?She… Read more

When you were in school you either hated the smartest kid in the class or you were the smartest kid in the class. No other options.Now that you’re older, there are three options.You hate that personYou are that personYou seek out that personI hope you’ve moved past number one to… Read more

I stopped to get gas while on the road today.  The back window of our van gets dirty quickly and the small wiper only creates a partial arc of viewing.I grabbed the squeegee and went to work. First impressions, I knew I was in trouble.  You know that fabric around… Read more

I just watched an interesting TEDTalk about Why Videos Go Viral from Kevin Allocca, a YouTube Trendwatcher (yes, he watches YouTube videos as a profession).He explains there are three things that make a video go viral.TastemakersParticipationUnexpectednessThe same three things are true of your advertisements.TASTEMAKERSIf someone of importance takes note of… Read more

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. His blog is one of the first I read every day. (He posts Every. Single. Day. and it is usually something quite thought-provoking.)I’m stealing this from Seth, via the good Doctor Rick Wilson, who writes it this way.Delight peopleSolve their (interesting) problemsThe more… Read more

I posted that JC Penney was struggling because it was losing in all five of the main drivers of traffic… Price, Product, Convenience, Trust and Delight.  Let’s look at each one of them separately.DELIGHTDelight is probably both the easiest and most difficult of all the drivers to own. Easy because so few companies even try to own it.… Read more

I posted that JC Penney was struggling because it was losing in all five of the main drivers of traffic… Price, Product, Convenience, Trust and Delight.  Let’s look at each one of them separately.TRUSTTrust is earned. You don’t get it automatically. Trust is earned one transaction at a time.  Trust is fragile, too. Trust earned over… Read more

My dear friend Dr. Rick Wilson, DMD posted an incredibly simple thought that many of us forget.To steal his line… Are we in the business to “get new customers” or “meet someone new and make a difference for them?”One helps the short-term and costs a lot, one helps the long-term… Read more

I posted that JC Penney was struggling because it was losing in all five of the main drivers of traffic… Price, Product, Convenience, Trust and Delight.  Let’s look at each one of them separately.PRICEThere are two pricing schemes that can work to own Price as a driver of traffic –… Read more

(Warning: there are enough bullets in this post for the Zombie Apocalypse. You may want to save it in your favorites just in case…)I sat through a webinar today on advertising. The hosts (whose names shall be withheld to protect the ignorant innocent) said there are three types of customers:Frequent… Read more

For some reason, I have found myself recommending the same three books over and over the past couple weeks. So before anyone else asks, here are those three books.Why We Buy by Paco Underhill – Buy this book if you want to be better at merchandising your store. Buy this… Read more

All through the 80’s, 90’s and even the early 00’s specialty independent retailers had the misfortune of competing with the big box stores like Home Depot, Toys R Us, Michael’s, etc. These Category Killers and the discounters like Wal-Mart, Target and K-Mart forced a dramatic shift in the marketplace.No longer… Read more

I’ve often used some form of the quote, “What gets measured, gets managed.”  If you don’t measure what you’re doing, you don’t know if it is improving or getting worse.Last week, I was reminded of a simple change in that statement that raises it to brand new heights.What gets measured… Read more

Christmas is over. The dust has settled. The inventory is counted. The phones are ringing. Sales Reps are invading, loaded down with 2013 catalogs, samples, and stories.Some of us dread this. Some of us look upon our sales reps as a whole different breed of creature designed to suck the… Read more

I’ve written about Open-to-Buy programs for Independent Retailers and how difficult they are to manage.For those of you who have also struggled with the OTB’s and want a simpler, more intuitive way to manage inventory and cash, here is a plan you can follow…First, understand that the ultimate goal is… Read more

I’ve been telling you all this for years. Price is not the only thing. Convenience trumps price both in the store and more importantly online, too!Here’s the proof.Quoting the article…Continuum’s 2012 Service Design Report looked at data from more than 1,000 consumers across the country and uncovered the top reasons they… Read more

I posted my top ten most viewed posts in 2012.In all fairness and just for fun, here are the bottom ten – the ten least viewed posts (although I like to think they were just missed.)Read on if you dare…10. From the Mouth of Babes – Two great lessons on… Read more

Does it frost you that people shopping online are significantly more willing to trust an anonymous customer “review” than what your well-trained sales staff might say about a particular product?According to Nielsen, although 92% of people surveyed will trust word-of-mouth from friends and relatives, online reviews are close behind at… Read more

They are tearing down the hotel across the street. We have a front-row seat for the destruction as a crane takes it down piece by piece.This is not the first hotel to be torn down in that general vicinity. I watched the previous one be exploded and dropped to the… Read more

This is our number one request from phone callers.How late are you open?Most people don’t know our hours in the first place. Plus, they expect that we will have longer hours for the holidays.How late are you open?It is an easy question to answer when you are open and already… Read more

This is the time of year when the customers outnumber the staff. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because extra traffic means extra sales. Bad because you cannot give each customer the time they need to maximize those extra sales and you often lose a… Read more

One thing that used to drive me crazy in retail was when we had just finished with a huge rush of customers, finally got a moment to breathe, and at that exact moment my father would walk out, see us standing around and yell at us to get busy since… Read more

You should go to Austin, Texas at the end of January. Really, you should. It will be more than worth your while.On Tuesday and Wednesday, January 29th and 30th, I’m teaching a new class about Shareworthy Customer Service at the 21st Century Business School known as Wizard Academy with a… Read more

Rarely does a month go by that I don’t have my store mentioned in the local newspaper, on local radio, or local TV. Heck, rarely does a week go by, especially during the holidays, that I don’t get some complimentary coverage for something we are doing.I don’t think it is… Read more

Another toy store owner was interviewed recently for a local news story on shopping local. The interview was great. The store looked great. The troubling part was a simple comment made by the anchor after the interview was done.She said, “The mom and pop stores, sometimes they don’t have flexible… Read more

My wife is frustrated (and thankfully, it is not my fault). She used to love going to JC Penney. Well, love might be a strong word for someone who finds shopping a chore. But now she finds that JCP rarely makes it on her list. And she is not alone.… Read more

We changed the dates on the Shareworthy Customer Service class that Tim Miles and I will be teaching at Wizard Academy.The new dates are now Tuesday and Wednesday, January 29-30, 2013. Plan on being there.  It will be the best investment you make in your business next year.-Phil Wrzesinskiwww.PhilsForum.comPS  What… Read more

I’ve written about Wizard of Ads partner – the incomparable Professor Tim Miles.He wrote the e-book on Shareworthy Customer Service. He also wrote a book called Good Company. He’s tall. He’s smart. He makes up (really cool) words. And he knows more about how to improve your Customer Service than… Read more

Greatest (biggest, best…) ever!As soon as you hear it, you dismiss it.  You’ve been burned too many times.  If it sounds too good to be true, you know it probably isn’t. Hype is dead.  Hype has been laid to rest.  People aren’t buying it anymore.If your advertising campaign is built… Read more

“The reason history must repeat itself is because we pay so little attention to it the first time.” -Blackie SherrodGo back in time to the early 1940’s.  What was happening?  Easy question… World War II. Go back another 80 years to the 1860’s.  What was happening?  Another easy question… The… Read more

Last night I went to a Band Parent Meeting for my freshman trumpet player.  The band instructor set up the cafeteria so that he could teach a class and let the parents see how he teaches.  It was a fascinating glimpse into the world of musical instruction.At one point the… Read more

I just finished reading a fascinating study done by Forbes on Middle Market Companies (click here to get the study – yes, you need to give your email to them, their rules, not mine.)In spite of the economy, middle market companies are growing and they are creating jobs.One telling statistic… Read more

When you smile, the simple act of your muscles pulling the lips upward sends a signal to your brain.  Your brain begins releasing Endorphins that lower your stress.  It also sends a signal to your brain to release Serotonin, which boosts your immune system, gives you energy, and makes you… Read more

My son is a freshman on the cross country team.  He needs to do running on his own over the weekend (which, of course, means running with dad).  Time got away from us and the sun was setting on our weekend.  We decided to go to the middle school where… Read more

We all have been showroomed.  The customer comes in, looks at your stuff, then leaves the store only to order the same items online.  Heck, maybe you have done some showrooming yourself.I had a customer who came in, asked our opinion about car seats, had us show her how they… Read more

About 40% of the population are going to vote Democratic in the next election no matter what.  Another 40% are going to vote Republican no matter what.  Their minds cannot be changed.  These people are easy to identify.  They are the ones posting sound bites and article links all over… Read more

I attended my sister-in-law’s wedding last Saturday out in sunny San Diego and have some random thoughts for retailers from my weekend trip.Hide the BackroomThe lovely couple did all of their own planning for this backyard wedding including doing all the food themselves (with the help of their families).  I… Read more

Mudslinging and politics seem to go hand in hand.  You’ve read enough articles about how effective negative campaigning is for political contests that you realize it isn’t going away any time soon.Some of you have even wondered if it will work for your store.It won’t.Here is why…When it is a… Read more

In case you need more proof that not every customer shops on price, a new study on Back-to-School shopping by WSL/Strategic Retail shows that only 26% of customers are chasing BTS price promotions to do their shopping.Instead they are shopping based on Convenience.  Seventy five percent are going to stores… Read more

My friend, Cynthia Compton, owns 4 Kids Books and Toys near Indianapolis.  Her store, as many toy stores do, offers to host birthday parties.  The kids come in, do crafts and activities, have fun and (hopefully) spend some money in the store.  Yes, there is a fee the birthday family must… Read more

When you hear a sales clerk say they can’t because “it’s our policy” don’t you just want to throttle them?Cinda Baxter of The 3/50 Project wrote a wonderful blog on exactly that topic and called those the three worst words to say to a customer, based on an experience that… Read more

Of course they are experts!  You trained them to be experts.  Here is an easy way to prove to your customers that your staff are experts.I saw this at The Harvard Book Store.  Each staff member made a recommendation including a little card with a reason why they suggested that… Read more

Take two magnets and push them together.  See how well they connect.  If they are strong enough, one can actually attract the other one to it.Now turn one magnet around.  See how it pushes the other magnet away? Magnets are governed by universal laws of physics.  The stronger the magnet’s… Read more

In June 2011 we launched a generous Birthday Club.  We offered our customers a $10 gift certificate on their birthday and a chance to ring the Birthday Bell – a thirty-two pound brass bell hanging on a pole in the middle of our store.We were looking for three things from… Read more

There is a lot of furor over President Obama’s statement,“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.”I know when I first read it, it made my blood boil.  Then I stopped, took a deep breath and went looking for the complete quote to see… Read more

I had a buyer who insisted that he had to keep 24 pieces of a particular item in stock.  It was a “must have” item, he told me time and time again.  Fortunately, we have a POS system that tracks the sales of these “must haves”.  In the previous 18… Read more

Do this math.  It is easy.  If you have a POS system worth a damn, it is really easy.On the first of every month run a report that shows you your total Inventory at Cost that you have on hand.  Write it down.  Put it in a spreadsheet.  Just collect… Read more

What would you do with 60 copies of the book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art?Would you use them to prop up a table leg or two that is out of balance?  Would you use them as a door stop to keep the… Read more

Your customers know a lot.  You know that.  They often know as much about your products as you do, and usually way more than the part-time neighborhood kid you hired to answer phones and wrap gifts.Where did they get that info?From that most informative and reliable source… say it all… Read more

I was watching my new favorite Reality TV Show last night – The Shark Tank. Entrepreneurs with dreams go before five filthy rich people like NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and QVC celebrity inventor Lori Greiner to make a pitch for money to help them launch a new product… Read more

It is 100 degrees out there.  Maybe if you live in Phoenix, that is no big deal.  But in Michigan that is a scorcher.  Easy to just want to phone it in.  No energy to do what you need to do.It is middle of winter, the Christmas season well behind… Read more

It is so much easier to lower expectations than it is to raise them.  So much easier to complain that Obamacare will cost too much, the Republicans will cut too much, the stock market will be too volatile, the economy isn’t growing fast enough, our local government is holding us… Read more

I just received my Profit Survey back from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA).  Every other year they have toy stores submit their financials to help us see what the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss might be for a typical indie toy store.  It is a fascinating document… Read more

Don’t you love it when the keynote speaker tells you to do three things and you’re already doing them?I had that experience last Wednesday at the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy. Our closing speaker was Barbara Glanz.  You might remember her from the YouTube inspirational customer service video Johnny the Bagger.  Barbara talked… Read more

At the panel discussion at the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) this past week, we discussed the concept of working ON versus working IN your business.  To clarify the concepts I asked the audience to define which of the following were IN and which were ON.  The results were… Read more

I just finished reading an amazing book, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer.  His was not the first book, but simply the most recent to dispel the notion of brainstorming, how it has been proven to be one of the least effective methods of creativity.I admit, I was a brainstorming junkie.  As… Read more

For the last 2 hours my 13-year-old son and I have been on a search of a raincoat.  We live in Michigan, one of the top ten states for # of rainy days per year.  All we wanted was a simple raincoat with a hood, size adult small.We went to… Read more

Have a different way of doing things?  Don’t make your customers guess.  Tell them right up front.  Here is how we do things.  Put it on a sign.  Put it in a brochure, flier, or even a simple handout.  Make sure every employee tells it to every customer.  Never assume… Read more

I have been asked to apply for a position on an advisory board for a new retail organization.  Part of the application process includes a questionnaire.  I am stuck on the last question…Without regard for funding, what is one area of concentration or program you would implement today to help… Read more

Speaking of what to do while waiting…I took this picture in the stall of the men’s bathroom at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. (sorry for the poor cellphone quality of the pic)There were animal poop and pee facts in every stall.  (Did you know a blue whale can hold over… Read more

You are not in business to make pennies.  You are in business to make dollars, lots of them, over a long period of time.So why are you getting so upset at the customer who didn’t come in right away to use to the free gift certificate you gave her?  Why… Read more

I told you about the book I wrote for the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association called Financials You Can Understand: Building Blocks for Successful Toy Stores.The book is finished, published and available for purchase. Here is what the editors wrote about the book…“After reading this book you will know and… Read more

Back in 2008 I interviewed my grandfather, Phil Conley, who, along with my grandmother Esther, founded Toy House, Inc. back in 1949.  Check out this exchange about Customer Service and return policies…Phil Wrzesinski: But, as far as the competition, did you give them [competitors] as much mind or did you… Read more

Here is another excerpt from my book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art.If you buy 60 books, one full carton, at the regular price of $1200, I will travel at my own expense to see you* and give you four hours of my… Read more

Let me tell you a cautionary tale, one you probably already know…Your company has some burdens, costs of doing business where you live.  Could be property taxes, licenses, etc.  Mandated costs that you have a legal obligation to pay.  You price your product to make sure you cover those costs, but even… Read more

You know YOUR customers.  You know their demographics, maybe even their psychographics.  You know their shopping habits.  You know their likes and dislikes.  You talk about YOUR customers lovingly. But they aren’t YOURS.  Even the evangelists.Yes, they support you.  Yes, they spread the word about you.  Yes, they defend your… Read more

(I know you know someone who could use this.  Please share it with that person.)My book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art comes packed 60 books to the carton.  What would you do if you had 60 of these books?  Do you know… Read more

One of my staff came up to me… “Phil, I have an idea…”Great!  Run with it!Don’t you want to hear it, first?No.  I trust you.  Just tell me when you’re ready to launch.I could have taken a number of different approaches to this. I could have…Patiently listened to the idea,… Read more

Today I…Balanced the store’s checkbookRan Sales Reports by departmentMeasured GMROI by departmentRan current Balance SheetRan Profit & Loss for the month and year-to-dateSat down with my buyers to make sure we were on trackMonitored Cash Flow*I’m not bragging.  I’m not even saying I liked doing any of those things. I… Read more

I was doing my presentation Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! yesterday, talking about how to deal with unhappy customers.  Someone brought up the question…“But what if there is a problem with the product and the manufacturer won’t back you up?”I answered that I have taken a loss on products… Read more

Maybe I am biased.  My sales reps are for the most part pretty good.  Maybe it is because I am a big account in this territory.  Maybe it is because we just have good reps in our area.  Maybe I am just lucky.  But I get frustrated when I hear… Read more

I don’t think I know any toy store owners who didn’t like the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.  It immediately made my top 5 list of all-time favorite movies.For me, the beauty was in the name of his store which described what he sold… Read more

There is a blog in my blog roll that you regulars may have noticed did not have an update for the last several months – until two days ago.Michele Miller took a break to reinvent herself – something I think all businesses need to do from time to time to… Read more

We went out to eat last Friday at one of our regular eateries while on vacation.  Things had changed.  The spot where we usually sat was now occupied by two empty pool tables.  Other seating areas had been replaced with over-stuffed chairs. The capacity sign from the county said 139… Read more

Two employees.  One a veteran of 24 years.  The other a relative newcomer starting her third year of employment.  Both thinkers.  Passionate to a fault.  Loyal beyond expectation.  Hard workers who more than earn their pay.A manager’s dream, right?Except when they butt heads.The newcomer came to me because she was… Read more

I tried something new and I learned two things.First, you should try something new more often.  It becomes less scary the more you do it and is rarely as hard as it seems.Second, you can cut a sixty-minute presentation down to twenty minutes and still get the crowd fired up.Let… Read more

Every month at our staff meetings we have time carved out for “Smile Stories” – moments when you made the customer smile in a memorable way.  The staff keep notes throughout the month of their favorite stories just so they have something to share.  Some even take notes of the… Read more

No matter how good you think you are, someone is better.  No matter how strong you think your customer service is, someone is offering more.  No matter how good you think your staff is trained, someone is trained better.  No matter how well you think you merchandise your store, someone… Read more

Christmas season is the time for most retailers to offer the widest selection possible. We broaden our selection. We increase the choices. We try extra stuff that we think we can sell that time of year.The problem, however, is when we get into the off-season and start re-stocking the store.… Read more

Newton’s second law states simply that Force = Mass x Acceleration.That law is accepted as fact. It is a Universal law. That means it applies to everything. Including your business.Force = Mass x AccelerationImpact = Size of idea (mass) x Speed at which it is delivered (acceleration)If you have a… Read more

(Full disclosure: I have no idea where this story originated. I think it came from Roy H. Williams or one of his Wizard Partners because it sounds like something they would say. If anyone knows where this story started, please let me know.)The ad committee met to discuss the new… Read more

Did 2011 go the way you wanted?Do you want 2012 to be better?Here are two things you can work on right now that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, but will make a difference.BEAT YOUR CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONSYour customer has a set of expectations of how she will be… Read more

I have not been blogging as much as usual. Sorry about that. You would think that with the hectic Christmas season behind me I would have more time.Wrong.I have been busier than ever.One of those projects that has kept me busy is that I was asked by the American Specialty… Read more

I don’t like making New Year’s resolutions.I resolve to lose weight, pay off debt, exercise more, eat healthy, save money, go to sleep earlier…The moment you stop, you fail. I prefer success.So instead of resolutions destined to fail, I like to take a moment to define what success will look… Read more

Two numbers every retailer should track are Number of Transactions and Average $ per Transaction. (Yes, if you know the first number then you can calculate the second).Number of transactions is simply how many times you rang up someone on your register. Did that number go up or down? If… Read more

Seth Godin pointed out something the toy industry has known for a few years…There is no singular HOT toy to drive in the traffic. Hasn’t really been one since the first Tickle Me Elmo back in 1997. Oh, sure, there have been some hard-to-find items, a few crazes here and… Read more

My favorite gas station just changed all their pumps to Pre-Pay. The clerk told me it was a corporate decision. She had no choice in the matter. She also told me that she had been getting flak all day long for it. She did not like it. Neither did the… Read more

I love December!The statistical anomalies are so much fun.Most businesses look at their sales in comparison to last year. And most businesses compare Thursdays to Thursdays, Fridays to Fridays, etc. This comparison works great right up until December 1st.As you know, you only get 24 days in December prior to… Read more

The reports in the media for Black Friday have a lot of good things to say. Sales up 7% Traffic up 5% More buyers, more sales, economy must be good.But as we all know, statistics can be misleading. For instance, Black Friday used to be from 4am to 12pm –… Read more

Just to finish up the subject of motivating your employees…We have all heard the phrase… The customer doesn’t care how much you know until she knows how much you care.Same can be said of your staff.You should care how they are doing. You should ask what you can do to… Read more

“If only I can get my staff to work as hard as me, it will be a great season.”Have you said this? Heard it? Thought it?You are not alone. Every small business owner has the dream of hiring hard working employees that do the work so you don’t have to.… Read more

Most independent retailers fully understand the impact of a customer coming into your store, browsing all the aisles, asking questions, getting information, then walking out and buying the item online.We know how that action, beyond killing your own business, is also eroding the local workforce, the local tax base, and… Read more

You’re hiring. You need applicants. What do you require those applicants to fill out?Some have a basic paper application.Some have a lengthy questionnaire.Some have an online application. Some require a resume.While each have their merits, I am still a fan of the basic paper application. Resumes, in my opinion, can… Read more

Yes, I said it. Go ahead and crucify me. But I stand behind it 100%.The #1 person in your company is your frontline staff. You take care of them, they will take care of the customer. You don’t take care of them, they won’t take care of the customer. Plain… Read more

I was on a bus full of rowdy kids with a brand new leader sitting in the front seat. In a voice slightly above a whisper, the leader said, “If you can hear my voice, touch your nose with your thumb.” About five kids nearby put their thumbs on their… Read more

As a toy retailer everyone expects that my busy season is December. They would be wrong.December is the store’s busy season. My busy season is right now. Here is my October To-Do List:Place all my orders for product I expect to sell in December. If I wait too much longer,… Read more

Laughter truly is the best medicine.Laughter decreases stress hormones.Laughter decreases the risk for heart disease.Laughter oxygenates the cells and helps fight cancer.Laughter boosts serotonin levels which helps your mood.Laughter releases interleukins that boost your immune system.Laughter releases endorphins that can even cause temporary pain relief.Laughter works your core muscles, which… Read more

My son is thirteen. He downloads Apple iPod/iPad/iPhone manuals for “light reading”. His favorite thing at the library is the latest edition of Mac World Magazine. His email address is applenerd@_ _ _. This past summer he taught the teachers in his school district how to use their shiny new… Read more

You think your return policy is quite liberal. Somebody still tries to take advantage of you.You think your layaway policy is quite liberal. Somebody still tries to take advantage of you.You think your giftwrapping policy is quite liberal. Somebody still tries to take advantage of you.No matter what wonderful, friendly,… Read more

Many of you are putting out classified ads looking for help that read like this…Help Wanted: Seasonal employees needed. Apply in person at The Store. Short, sweet, and cheap. How do you think your application pool would change if your classified looked like this?Help Wanted: Are you a friendly person… Read more

As you prepare your advertising for the holiday season, here is one thing you can do to make your campaign work better.Make only one point in your ad.That’s it. One point. No more.The truth is, most people will neither hear nor see your ad. They are so bombarded with advertising… Read more

Why do I write these blogs? Why do I create presentations? Why do I write and publish eBooks that I give away for free?To help you succeed.Sure, that’s what I say. But even then, you are thinking in the back of your mind that there must be something in it… Read more

I’m working on a project that would be a comprehensive guide for all those funky financial terms with which our accountants bombard us at the end of each fiscal year.I wrote a simple explanation that I published here (free download). This new guide will be in far more detail.The question… Read more

I’ve been beating the Customer Service drum for a few weeks now. It is the one biggest advantages we specialty store owners have over our competition.Every now and then I see stores who get it right.Every now and then I see reminders of how far we still need to go.Just… Read more

As you hire and train your seasonal staff this fall, there is one thing I want you to contemplate…When do you throw your new staff to the wolves?I was in Office Depot yesterday and the name tag of the guy at checkout said “trainee”. I looked around and he was… Read more

Just read an interesting article on a discussion board (sorry, don’t have the source link) about the new wave in retailing. Interesting because it talks about how big-box stores are downsizing to meet the needs of the new shoppers. Interesting because it talks about how today’s shoppers (now being called… Read more

Do you remember the last time you laughed while shopping? Of course you do. Those experiences are memorable. Those moments are what make shopping fun. The store that brings you those memories will easily be your favorite store. It has to be someone. Might as well be you. Bob Phibbs… Read more