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Author: Phil Wrzesinski

Tell Your Customers What You Stand Against

It is easier to rally a crowd against something than for something. Just ask any political campaign manager what really moves the needle.

The same works in business advertising, too. Tell the people what you are against and watch a flock of like-minded people come see you. Tell the world why you don’t agree with your competitor’s world view and everyone who feels the same way will pay attention. Compare and contrast. Tell them what you won’t do.

Peter Reynolds, VP of Sales of Janod Toys did a presentation for my staff last night and put up this graphic.

It is a perfect contrast of Mass Market stores versus Specialty Stores.

MASS                                     SPECIALTY
More for Less                          Less is More
Promote Low Prices                  Promote Benefits and Features
Emphasize Quantity                  Emphasize Quality
Create Wants                             Fulfill Needs
Good Toys are Hot/Licensed       Good Toys are Basic
Toys are Possessions                 Toys are Tools
Toys are Consumables                Toys are Investments
Toys Entertain & Distract           Toys Involve & Empower
Toys Promote Imitation              Toys Promote Creativity
Toys Promote Conformity           Toys Promote Uniqueness
The Toy Directs the Play             The Child Directs the Play

There is a whole year of what-we-stand-against advertisement messages in that above list. Do you see it?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS When people talk about what they stand for, it is usually in generalities – world peace, strong economy, health. When people talk about what they stand against, it is more often specifics – low pay for… discrimination against… injustice for… The power is in the details.

9 Ways to Draw Traffic With Only $400 a Month

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.

  1. You could rent a bouncy house and run it in your parking lot every Saturday.
  2. You could run a customer survey poll in your store and donate that money to the charity your customers vote on every month.
  3. You could give away eighty $5 gift certificates to people who have never been in your store.
  4. You could buy an espresso machine and give away free espressos every day.
  5. You could have your customers help you invest it in the stock market and track each investment on a big board in the store with proceeds going to a local charity.
  6. You could use it to send eight $50 gift baskets to your top customers each month.
  7. You could use it to hire a valet parking service for your busy days.
  8. You could use it to host classes and meetings at your store.
  9. You could use it to pay top-level local entertainers to perform at your store.

Don’t be limited by your media choices for getting the word out. There are far more options than just online, broadcast, print and billboard. There are as many ways to draw a crowd as your mind can conceive when you let it get creative.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS My favorite is #2. Just imagine all the charities sending their people in to your store to stack the vote each month.

Lose the Battle to Win the War

We all have those unreasonable customers. Ones that want to bring an item back months after they bought it, not in resell-able condition. Ones that demand money back without a receipt or they will flame you on Yelp. Ones that want you to do something that your stated policies say you don’t clearly do.

You could take a page from Best Buy and fire those customers. You could be like the Soup Nazi on The Seinfeld Show – no soup for you!!

Here is another approach I want you to consider.

Kill ’em with kindness. Break your policy and do what they ask. Bend the rules and give them what they want. Do it with a HUGE smile on your face, sincerity in your heart, and genuine concern for their needs.

“I’m really sorry that item didn’t work out for you. Yes, I can see why your husband would cut it in half. We’d be happy to take it back. Would you like to pick something else out? Maybe I can offer a couple suggestions of items that might work better? No? Okay, here is a refund. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help you out in the future.”

It might sting a little bit. You might lose some money on that particular transaction. But don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

When you kill these customers with kindness, a few things could happen.

They might not notice and continue to be a thorn in your side.
But your other customers noticed. They didn’t get the whole story of what was going on with the customer. They didn’t see how unreasonable she was. But they did see how you reacted. They saw how you took incredible care of the customer. They saw how you had the customer’s back. They noticed how you were calm and friendly and respectful and helpful and caring.

They might become one of your best customers ever. 
I could regale you with many tales of unhappy customers we have turned into mega profit machines because we bent the rules a little. Heck, you can regale me with many of the same stories. In fact, retail is the only place I have actually seen true alchemy – turning lead weight into gold.

At a time when we are all screaming about how to draw more traffic, maybe firing our current customers isn’t always the best tactic.

As one anonymously brilliant person said… Your customers will get better when you do.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Never let short-term profits get in the way of your long-term goals. This strategy may “lose” you a battle or two, but you’ll win the war. Yes, it requires patience. Yes, it requires eating a little crow (but crow sprinkled with a helping of cold hard cash can be rather tasty sometimes). Yes, there will be customers who make you duck into your office for a few minutes. Yes, they got more than they deserved. Isn’t than the hallmark of incredible over-the-top customer service?

Putting Amazon and eCommerce Into Perspective

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 it was only 2.5% of all retail. In fact, if you take gasoline and groceries out of the mix, eCommerce only accounted for 8.8% of all retail dollars last year.  (see references below)

Think about that for a moment. All the hype about Amazon and the Internet, yet over 9 out of every 10 dollars spent in retail were spent in a brick & mortar store. Brick & mortar is so far from dead, that any report you hear otherwise should be discounted immediately.

Yeah, Wal-Mart is huge, too. Almost four times bigger than Amazon. In 2013, they did $279 billion in sales in the US. That was 9.2% of all retail – more than all of eCommerce!

But once again, that shows you there is still plenty of room for you to do business. Add up Wal-Mart and all of eCommerce and you still have 82% of the retail dollars going somewhere else. That’s almost $2.5 trillion dollars going somewhere else.

That somewhere else ought to be you and me. If we quit worrying so much about Amazon and Wal-Mart and the demise of the mom & pops and start focusing on making ourselves better, it will.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I used two sources for the numbers you see above. The first source here from emarketer.com claims that all retail was $4.5 trillion. But I felt that number was inflated by things like gasoline purchases and other non-eCommerce retail, so I also used the numbers from the US Census here to get a true product purchase number just over $3 trillion.

PPS And the number from Amazon is their total sales, not just US sales, so their percentage of the US market may be a little bit lower.

Think Big to Draw Traffic

I was visiting a jewelry store in a sleepy northern Michigan town. The store used to be known for having a $32,000 diamond ring. Now those of you in a big city might think no big deal, but to this community, it would take the entire population pitching in $6 each to buy that ring.

People used to flock to the store to try it on.

After about ten years on display someone finally bought the ring a few years ago.

You would think that was a good thing. The store owner thought so at the time. But on the day I visited, she was lamenting how her business was down. Traffic wasn’t what it used to be. I asked her when it started. You all can probably guess – right after she sold the ring.

No ring, no draw.

Sometimes you have to take a little bit of your ad budget and put it toward buying something completely outrageous that you don’t expect to sell (but people will want to see.)

We do that all the time. Nothing better than hearing a customer say to someone shopping with her, “Oh you have to come over and see this!” You know she and her friend are going to be talking about it to others, too.

Some might look at a $32,000 diamond ring and say, “That’s pretty expensive advertising.” Unless you consider she got ten years of advertising from it, and then had someone refund the money back to her by buying it.

When you are looking to generate Word-of-Mouth advertising, you gotta give them something to talk about. A 32,000 piece puzzle that is almost eighteen feet long and over six feet wide and comes with its own hand cart is gonna make people talk.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I suggested she needed to buy another $32,000 ring or bigger. That was an investment in advertising that paid off big the first time and will pay off big again. There are a few tried and true ways to Generate Word of Mouth (click that hyperlink to download my FREE eBook on the topic). Over-the-top design including over-the-top products is one of those ways.

PPS I guess 32,000 is my lucky number today.

Your Frontline Staff are Your Ambassadors

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 training program today.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Hire for certain traits. Hire for people who want to represent you and your store. Hire people who already have the ambassador gene in their DNA. Then train them on all the rest.

Beating Amazon?? Win Your Customers’ Hearts

I just read an article from Entrepreneur.com called 5 Ways Your Small Business Can Topple Amazon This Holiday Season.

Usually I like what Entrepreneur has to say, but they got me this time. Shame on them. (Next time shame on me).

First, let’s start with the obvious… No small business is going to “Topple Amazon”. Not you. Not me. Not any of our friends.

Second, only two of the five tips were really tips. Two of them were just standard business procedures you should be doing regardless of who you are. And the last was “keep your chin up”.  As if just having a positive, Pollyanna attitude would keep my competition at bay. Sheesh. As far as I’m concerned they shorted me a tip just so that they could put an odd number in their headline.

As for Amazon? You shouldn’t worry about them at all. They are not your target. If you want to have the kind of holiday season you can take to the bank, you need to focus on one thing and one thing only – your current customer’s heart.

What is in her heart? What moves the needle for her emotionally? What solves her problems? What fulfills her needs?

Tim Miles and Co. gives you a great way to find this out here.

One simple truth of retail is this… If you take incredibly awesome care of your current customers, you don’t have to worry about what the competitors are doing. You only have to worry about how to continually raise your own bar.

Customers are going to shop where their needs are met – all of them. Make your store that store.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I’m not saying to ignore Amazon completely. You can always learn from them. In fact Entrepreneur.com redeemed themselves with this article here. Number two is spot on!

PPS Great Customer Service is giving your customer exactly what she expects every single time. You want to win her heart? You gotta take it one step further and give her more than what she expects. Do that and you won’t ever have to worry about the competition other than whether you want to move into their now empty space.

photo credit: Ben K Adams via photopin cc

It’s Not What You Say

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 did, too.

“Your chin, folks, put it on your chin.”

One of your biggest roles is Role Model.

Role Model for the way to treat guests. You are never too busy to ignore a guest. You always have the time to at least lead a guest over to one of your staff and say, “Let me introduce you to Ruth. Ruth is the expert on this and she can help you better than I can.”

Role Model for the kind of attitude you want in your store. When you act cheerful and upbeat, no matter how tired you are, your staff will try to match you. When you put a positive spin on negative situations, they will do the same. When you cut people down, they’ll cut people down. When you talk about customers behind their backs, your staff will do the same – sometimes out on the sales floor in earshot of other customers!

Role Model for the kind of behavior you expect of your staff. If you don’t go the extra mile, neither will they. If you show them appreciation for the work they do, they’ll show appreciation to your customers.

Your staff will rarely ever do more than you do, no matter how much you ask. It’s not what you say. It’s ___________   _______   _____ (fill in the blanks).

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Of course, first they have to be the kind of person that wants to do those things. Make sure you hire for the right character traits or they might not even raise the okay sign to their face in the first place.

Two Specialty Retail Truths

If you’ve been a specialty retailer for several years you know these two things will happen every year. Every. Single. Year.

  1. A vendor who used to be exclusively sold only in specialty stores will start selling to a big box category killer (like Home Depot, Office Depot, Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us) or a major discounter (like Target, K-Mart or Wal-Mart.)
  2. A product you sell will be advertised nationally and sold somewhere (online, in a discount club store or flash site) below cost.

Write these down, my friends. They will happen. So far, they have happened every single year this century and will happen every single year for the foreseeable future.

Now you know. Now there is no reason to go postal when it happens. You saw it coming.

Yeah, it gets emotional. We indie retailer are a passionate bunch and hurts when we get betrayed. But the smart retailers are not only expecting it, they are dealing with it in a cold-hearted, calculating manner deciding whether to cut and run or ride out the storm based on sales and profits, not emotions and surprise.

CUT AND RUN

Cut and run when the vendor sells out completely and gives all their product and support to the big guys.

Cut and run when the product gets turned into a commodity sold everywhere, while you are trying to be the cutting edge leader in your field.

Cut and run when the traffic it brings in because of its popularity no longer justifies the lost margins.

Cut and run when you have another company offering you the same items but with better terms.

RIDE IT OUT

Ride it out when the product still sells at the price you set.

Ride it out when it is just a small sample, and you’re carrying the whole shooting match. You’ll get referrals and eventually the big box will move on. Cherry-picked lines don’t often last long in the chains.

Ride it out when your model is built on selling the most popular items, but with better service and experience than your competitors.

Vendors make decisions based on numbers. You should, too. Especially since you saw it coming.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Sure, sometimes it hurts your bottom line. Sometimes it helps. You can focus on the negative, which is usually out of your control, or focus on what you can do. I find that the latter usually helps keep me fired up and moving forward.

Sometimes Second Place is the Winning Position

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 streets. They know the big chains. They visited the big chains. They purchased.

Your first thought is often one of dismay. Another sale lost to the big guy. Another customer shopping at my competitor. When you ask them what they are looking for and they tell you about buying something from another store, it is hard not to show your disappointment.
Except you shouldn’t be disappointed. You should be happy. Why?
First, they came into your store. Not everyone who shops the competition is coming through your door, too. But this customer did. Celebrate her! Here’s a deep dark secret… even your best customer has been to your competitor more than once.
Second, you now have access to a spy. Rather than change out of your uniform and take the time to go scout the competitor incognito, you have someone who just did that for you. And from the point of view of a customer, too (instead of your jaded, biased, store-owner mentality). Get her to talk about her experience and you’ll learn far more than if you went yourself.
Third, you have the easiest opening ever into discovering what the customer likes and wants.
When you find out a customer has been to another store, simply say, “That’s awesome! What did you see there that you liked?”
You’ve praised her, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve asked her expertise, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve listened intently, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve identified what rocks her world so that you can rock her world, too, which makes her feel good. 
You’ve gained valuable insight into both your customer’s mind and what your competitor is doing, which makes you feel good.
Sometimes being second can be a real winning proposition. You just have to look at the opportunity the right way.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Most importantly, if you listen closely, your customer just told you how you can treat her better than your competitor, so you now have a blueprint to win her over. Sure, you may have lost the initial sale she made at the other place, but if you can win the rest, you can win her friends so that you’ll be first with them.