Category: Influence

March 17, 2012

David Beats Goliath (Again)

March Madness is a great reminder that even when the deck is stacked against you, you can win.

In the first full round of competition in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, ten of the thirty two games were won by the underdog. 31.3% for you statisticians.

The more telling stat is this…

100% did it by out-hustling their competition. They did it by doing what they do best, to the best of their ability, and by wanting it more than their competitor.

Some could not match up size-wise. Others did not have the depth. Some lacked the overall talent. A few even needed a lucky break or two. Gee, sounds a lot like independent retailers. Size of store, depth of product, lack of educational business training.

Yet independent retailers are slaying Goliaths all over the place, even without a lucky break or two. They do it by playing up their strengths. You don’t need a deep product mix, just a few great options. You don’t need a huge store, just a talent for merchandising it well. You don’t need an MBA, just an understanding of how to relate to others and build relationships.

More importantly, you don’t need to beat Goliath to win. You only need to accomplish three things:

Keep the cash flowing
Show a profit
Make a living

Do those and you get to raise all the championship banners you want.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Not doing all of those three things, yet? Do not despair. Sometimes all you need is some coaching to push you in the right direction. For those of you who are self-coached, check out Freebies section of my website. There are plenty of Goliath-beating tools you can download for free. For those wanting a little more, contact me. Sometimes the fix is easier than you imagined.

March 14, 2012

What I Learned in an Exit Interview

You know what an Exit Interview is.

I hire a large group of seasonal employees each year. At the end of the season I sit down with each one to discuss their experience. What did they like? What was a challenge? How well did they feel prepared? Did the veterans on the staff help them? What did they learn about us? What did they learn about themselves? What will they take away from the experience?

At the end of this past Christmas season I sat down with eight seasonal employees near the end of their experience and received some incredible insight into the store, the training program, and the current staff. (It is amazing how much more they are willing to share when they are leaving than when they are still employed.)

The common thread through all the interviews was the same.
The regular staff was extremely helpful in wanting the new people to succeed.
They wanted to help. They wanted to teach. They wanted the newbies to succeed, to feel like they were part of the team.

That was the watershed moment when I knew we were doing something right.

Just as I teach in my book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art,
I hire purely for character traits and then teach those people how to work in my store.

The traits I hire? Helpful, Friendly, Team Player, Problem Solver, Success Oriented.

Looks like I found them.

Would you like to find the right people for your team, too? Buy the book. It works.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Hiring is seventy-five percent of the battle. If you do not get the right people to start, it won’t matter how well you train them. But if you have the right people, you still need to get them to the next level. Before you plan your next staff meeting, download this free eBook – Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend. It will take your staff trainings to a whole new level.

January 16, 2012

Lessons from MLK Quotes

If you have seen my live presentations, you know I love great quotes. I love quotes that make you think, quotes that teach you a lesson, quotes that give you perspective.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. that relate to our type of business.

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

We all have customers who try to take advantage of us. It is easy to want to feel bitter about them or react by creating programs or policies to deter them. Unfortunately, those changes always come across as bitter or anti-customer. Do not succumb to those feelings. Accept that some people will act that way. Treat them well anyway. You never know what they are thinking and how you just might make a difference in their lives through your kindness.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

The pretty much epitomizes the mindset you need to be a successful retailer. Have faith in your abilities. Have faith in your business model. Have faith to take risks even when you do not see the outcome clearly because you will never see the outcome completely clearly. The only outcome that is clear as a bell is that nothing good will happen if you do nothing at all.

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Embrace your tough customers. Embrace your unhappy customers. Say, “I’m sorry,” when someone is unhappy with your business. If they are unhappy, there is something you did wrong. Apologize, accept that you were wrong somewhere, and then make it right. Love those tough customers and instead of writing bad things about you on Yelp, they will become your most loyal supporters.

“Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.”

Put yourself in the service of others – both your customers and especially your employees – and they will lead you to greatness. The best training you can offer your staff is to role model the behavior you expect of them. Your staff will never care more than you so you need to care more than they have seen. They will never work harder than you, so you have to work hard (smart) enough that your staff’s lesser efforts are more than your customers expect.

“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.”

The one mistake we often make is believing that once the next problem is solved, it will all be smooth sailing. If you wish to succeed, you need to be prepared to meet each problem head on. One way you do that is by furthering your education, furthering your own personal growth as a leader, as a retailer. You will never not have problems, but you can overcome them more easily the more you prepare yourself.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

–Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you are looking for a way to grow your retail business and are in the Jackson area, next Monday starts the fifth year of the Jackson Retail Success Academy. Contact me to find out how you can get signed up.

PPS If you are not in the Jackson area, but are interested in the contents of the Jackson Retail Success Academy, I offer a two-day workshop that includes all of the best content from that class in two jam-packed days. Contact me for pricing and booking information.

October 18, 2011

Community Involvement Pays Off

You have already been asked to sponsor seven walks, three golf outings, two spaghetti dinners, a pancake breakfast, and forty-five silent auctions.

Every non-profit thinks your pockets are lined with gold.

And they all promise the same thing. “We’ll put your logo on our t-shirt. Thousands of people will see you.”

Yeah, right.

The only people who see the logo on a charity event t-shirt are other charity event planners looking for potential suckers, I mean, sponsors. No one has ever made a purchasing decision because of a logo she saw on a t-shirt.

But that does not mean you should not be involved in the community and involved in helping out your local non-profits. You HAVE to get involved. If you do not support your local charities then you cannot call yourself a local store.

Here are two ways you can be involved in your community, support local non-profits, and still remain profitable.

First, give out gift certificates freely. For any local non-profit fundraising event, offer a $20 gift card. You are not out anything unless the card is redeemed and most customers will spend more than the amount of the gift card. Think of it as a customer-acquisition expense. It makes the non-profit feel supported and it gets your name out there in a way that guarantees you some return on your investment.

Second, for those groups who want money, not gift cards, hold a special day just for them. Tell them to pick a day that they can promote to all their followers. On that day you promise to donate to them 5% of whatever sales they bring you. Now the burden is on them to advertise your business for you. Yet look at what you get…

Publicity for doing something good for the non-profit.

A fixed return on your charitable donation.

Exposure to a whole new group of people.

Stature as a community supporter.

We have done this for different groups for a number of years. It is always a feel-good day, which gives an added benefit to your staff. They get fired up about it, too.

So get involved in your community. They need you and you need them. Pat their back. They will pat yours in return.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS You can even have multiple non-profits on the same day. Our DDA is doing that with all the downtown businesses on Saturday, November 19 (National America Unchained Day) with fifty non-profits signed up.

October 11, 2011

Being an Expert is Easy, Sharing is (not) Hard

You already are an expert.

According to the famous physicist, Neils Bohr, “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.”

I take a more liberal approach.

An expert is someone who knows more than me on a given topic.

Most of your customers would agree. If you know more about a topic than they do, you are an expert to them. If it is a topic of which they would like to learn more, they will seek you out.

So accept the fact that you are an expert. The next step is to learn to share that expertise.

Here is a three-step process for learning how to share your expertise well:

Boil down your ideas into two or three main points. Make them simple points that are easy to remember. Label each point with some catchy phrase or title.

Find evidence to support each point. Reports, quotes, examples and especially anecdotes all work well for this.

Choose products you sell to help make your points. Your products bring the points closer to home, help establish your position as the expert (you are walking the walk), and connect your expertise to your store.

Once you have done those three things, you can then choose the platform(s) you wish to use to share. Here are just some options you can use:

Facebook – The plus side is that you can use pictures, the downside is that you have to be brief and to the point.

Email Newsletters – A little more room to make your point.

Your Website – Give yourself a page on yor website just for sharing your expertise. It helps brand you as the expert in your field for your locals, and helps build trust with non-locals who have never heard of you till they clicked you in a search.

A Blog – WordPress and Google have blogs you can set up for free in seconds.

Youtube – Another free service, you can even post your videos to Facebook, your website and your blog.

Press Releases – Pass your information along to journalists and bloggers. Let them promote your expertise.

Speaking Engagements – Your local service groups (Lions Club, Rotary, Exchange Club, Kiwanis, etc) are always looking for speakers. Plus, most towns have women’s clubs, mother’s clubs, networking clubs, etc.

Classes in your store – Probably the easiest of all. Clear out a space in the store. Announce the topic and time. Share.

There are plenty of opportunities to share what you know. And share, you must. Sharing builds trust with your customers. Sharing makes your customers smarter and more loyal. Sharing creates opportunities to reach out to potential new customers.

Be the expert you already are. Be it willingly and generously. To paraphrase Carl Rogers, Who you are is good enough, if only you would be it openly.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Afraid to speak in public? Start simple. Practice your presentations by first giving them to your staff – a friendly crowd. First, you empower them with that knowledge so they can be experts, too. Second, they will be forgiving of your mistakes, but also quick to point them out, which will help you improve. Third, because of the familiarity, you will be less nervous.

October 8, 2011

Is Your Staff Laughing?

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 promotes better spinal alignment.

Laughter also strengthens relationships. Someone who is laughing and smiling immediately looks more “attractive”. The key part of that phrase is “attract”. Smiles and laughter “attract” other people. You know this. You would much rather approach a person who is smiling than someone who is frowning.

Laughter opens the mind, too. People who laugh are more willing to listen, more willing to see things from other points of view, more willing to engage with other people.

So to recap… People who laugh are healthier, happier, more attractive, more engaging and more approachable. People who laugh are more open-minded and listen better.

Sound like the perfect sales staff?

Encourage and foster laughing in your staff and not only will they see benefits, so will your business.

We have three rules of laughter on the sales floor.

Laughter has to be inclusive. If you are laughing at instead of with, then it has to stop.

There are no inside jokes. If it isn’t funny to everyone, it doesn’t belong on the sales floor.

Appropriate laughter should be encouraged at all times.

Not only is laughter good, it fits into our Core Value of Having Fun and our mission – We’re here to make you smile.

So I leave you with this one final thought…

There was a captain sailing on the sea during a battle. His servant came up to him and the captain said, “Bring me my red shirt.”

So, the servant did as the captain said.

After the battle the servant came up to the captain and said, “Why did you say bring me my red shirt?”

The captain said, “Well if I got shot the crew wouldn’t see the blood and be demoralized.”

The next day the servant came up to the captain and said, “There are 50 ships on the horizon.”

The captain said, “Bring me my brown pants.”

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One way to encourage laughter is to play. Have game nights with your staff or join a sports league like softball or bowling. Another way is to have a joke session at your next meeting. Whatever it takes, set up a culture where appropriate laughter is the norm.

August 3, 2011

What Gets Measured?

We had a meeting of downtown business leaders to share our “one big thing”, that one nugget of truth that helps us be successful. Local businessman Bob Smith said…

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

Frances Schagen, who helped me with the eBook Reading Your Financial Statement, had a more positive spin on the same message…

“What gets measured gets done.”

What are you measuring?

I looked at my web stats for http://www.philsforum.com/ to see from where I got my traffic, to see which documents were downloaded, to see which eBooks were most popular this week.

I was surprised that my newest eBook – Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! – was only fourth on the list of eBooks downloaded for the week. Apparently more people were interested in Inventory Management, Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend, and Understanding Your Brand.

Usually when I announce a new eBook, it dominates the downloads for the first week.

Now I need to read into the tea leaves from this data and decide one of three things:

People are not interested in the new eBook on customer service.

People are not aware of the new eBook on customer service.

The other eBooks are more important to my readers than customer service.

Since I track these numbers regularly, I have some understanding that the Inventory Management downloads this week have been unusually high. This is a good thing. I also know that the Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! downloads have been weaker than a typical launch.

But previous posts on Customer Service have been some of my most popular posts (I know this because I measured it.) Therefore, the most likely answer to why the new eBook was not tops in downloads is a combination of #2 and #3.

Which means that my message in the launch of the eBook needs to be tweaked…

I just wrote a new eBook that you can download for FREE that will help you raise the bar of your customer service so high your competition will not even be in the conversation!

It is called Customer Service: From Weak to WOW! and although you will hate me for some of the things I have written, and you will dismiss some of my advice out of your own denial, you will be thankful you downloaded it and shared it with your staff. More importantly, your customers will be thankful when you quit giving lip service to customer service and start WOWing your customers.

At only four pages, how can it be that good?

Download it and see for yourself. It’s FREE!

-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS Why do I give away so much for FREE? I want you to succeed. Period. That brings me lots of joy. Plus, I know that if you find it useful you’ll reprint it, re-tweet it, share it with others. Then even more of us independent retailers will see success. My goal is to raise the water level for all boats, even if I have to do it one harbor at a time.

PPS Of course, my other favorite thing is when I get hired to speak to groups of retailers. Giving information away like I do gets my name out there and helps establish me as an expert. The more you share what I say and the more you help me spread that influence, the more likely I get those opportunities. Thanks!

July 2, 2011

How Many Customers Can You Afford to Anger?

I’ve been following a handful of private conversations in my industries about how to treat customers who really aren’t our customers.

You know these people.

Bleeding You Blind
They find every loophole to get the most out of every transaction with you. They rarely shop at your store unless there is a discount or special going on. They always want more, trying to squeeze every penny out of your turnip. Rarely do you even know their names because they never come in until they need a donation or want to complain. They always want to use a coupon after it has expired, get a discount because the corner of the box is crushed, or complain about how they are a regular shopper at your store (even though no one on the staff has ever seen them) and should get a better deal.

These customers cost you money. They bleed your profit margins, take up your staff’s time, and keep you away from more profitable customers. They frustrate and anger you and bring down the entire store’s morale.

Best Buy took the approach years ago to fire these customers, send them to Circuit City.

What do you do?

Better yet, what should you do? Can you really afford to anger somebody in this economy? Are you big enough to take a PR hit because you wouldn’t put up with an unreasonable customer?

What I Do
I’m not Best Buy. I don’t believe I have the capital to purposefully anger any customers – even the customers I don’t like. Oh, I’ve done it a couple times. We all have. But more often than not I look at it this way… I get to choose whether I am nice to someone or not. And it doesn’t matter whether they are nice to me.

If I let someone use a coupon after it has expired, I am showing generosity.

If I give an extra discount because an item is crushed or the customer makes a fuss, I am being compassionate.

If I allow a customer to return an unopened item 10 months later, I am being helpful.

If I apologize to a customer for our failings even when she made the mistake, I am being understanding.

Generous, Compassionate, Helpful, Understanding. Yeah, I’d like to own those words in my customers’ eyes. Wouldn’t you?

The essence of Branding is simply…

Every single interaction a customer has with your business plus how they feel about it.

You cannot always control the interactions, but you can control the feelings by how you treat others. And don’t ever believe that your best customers are not watching. Fair or not, they will measure you not at your best, but at your worst.

So make your worst pretty darn good by treating even your worst customers pretty darn good. You might just turn one of them into your best customer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS Even if you do have to fire a customer, do it with kindness and respect. At the end of the day the one thing you always have left is your character.

March 14, 2011

Who’s Pulling You Up?

There is a wall between you and your goals. You need to get over that wall.

Your peers can help you by pushing you and propping you up. But they can only get you to the point where you can reach the top of the wall. (And if your wall is really tall, they might not even get you that close.)

From there you are on your own. To reach your goal you have to do the rest by yourself.

Unless you have someone on top of the wall ready to pull you up. Someone who has been there and done that. Someone who has already conquered the wall. Someone who already knows what you need to learn.

Have you identified that person (or persons) yet?

Anyone can set goals. Anyone can get their peers to cheer them on and support them in their quest, to push from the bottom. But without a hand from above, most of those people get stuck.

Who’s pulling you up?

Here are some of the people pulling me up…

Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads – I have read his books, attended his classes and followed his teachings. Much of my best work is because of what he has taught me about advertising and business in general. The starting point is the Monday Morning Memo and his books The Wizard of Ads Trilogy. (these are not affiliated links – just the best darn business books I have ever read)

George Whalin – George taught me so much about managing a business, about hiring & training employees, and about dreaming big. He has been a wonderful resource for all things retail.

Philip H. Conley – My grandfather and the founder of Toy House, Inc. His mantra is simple, “Plan for Success.” It has worked for him and I am making it work for me. I meet with him regularly for advice and always get exactly what I need. He did it first, he did it well, and what he did still works today. I couldn’t ask for a better mentor.

There are others, too. Many more than I can mention in one post. I am always on the hunt for the people above me that might be willing to lend a hand.

You need both; your peers and supporters pushing from the bottom, and those who can help you from above. Find them and you’ll scale every wall between you and your goals.

-Phil