Category: Leadership

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 16, 2012

Someone Always Does it Better

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 merchandises theirs better. No matter how many awards you win, someone is doing what you do better (but just hasn’t been discovered by the judges).

So let me ask you. Are you seeking out those retailers who do what you do better than you? Are you learning from their ideas? Are you copying their best practices?
Are you using their lessons to find better ways to do what you do?

You should.

Phil Tripp of Tripp’s Auto Shop & Collision Center was a panelist for the Jackson Retail Success Academy. He runs one of the biggest body shops in the area doing far more business than the industry average. Yet he had just returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest to meet another body shop owner who had found a way to do even more business.

Phil figured if someone was highly successful doing something different from him, it was worth the investment to go visit and learn.

How much of your training budget is spent on your staff? More importantly, how much is spent on you?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The opening paragraph is something I remind myself all the time. I love learning new “best practices” and trying to see how we can implement them in the store. Some fit, some do not, but that doesn’t stop me from looking for ways to improve. I hope you are doing the same.

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.

March 6, 2012

Do it Until it is Easy

I have always been pretty good at understanding Advertising. The stuff I have learned from Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads, just makes total sense to me.

I have always had a knack for teaching and training the staff. Once I created my own system for hiring, I’ve been sought out as a guru for Hiring and Training seminars.

I have always been pretty good at understanding how to better manage your Inventory. My seminars on this topic have been some of the highest rated talks I have given.

My Achilles heel has been the Financials. Oh, I know ’em. Have to when you run a business like mine. But knowing them and understanding them has been two different things.

Until last night…

I gave my first ever presentation on Understanding the Financials of a Retail Business to a group of business owners. Like me, they all considered their grasp of the accounting side of business to be their weakest. But in less than 90 minutes they all understood how to read a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement . More importantly, they figured out how to use both of those reports to budget, manage cash flow and inventory, and make mid-year corrections.

How did I do it? How did I take something difficult and make it understandable? The same way a professional golfer masters a new shot. I worked at it. For me that meant writing a book about it.

Last fall the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association asked if I would write a book to help other toy retailers understand their financials. I said, “Yes!” and got busy figuring out how to do it. The book will be ready by June and can be purchased from ASTRA.

More importantly, however, the process taught me that I can take something hard and make it easy. I just have to work at it. Better yet, last night the business owners in the room unanimously agreed that I had accomplished my goal – to help them understand their financials, too. That made the work all the more worthwhile.

You can do it, too. Just keep doing the hard stuff until it becomes easy. Surprisingly, for most of us that learning curve is pretty quick. Getting started is the only real challenge.

-Phil Wrzesinski

www.PhilsForum.com

PS I am currently reworking my eBook on this topic and hope to publish the new one soon. It is an overly simplified version of the ASTRA book. I’ll let you know here when I get it done. If you want more details, advanced ideas, and a comparison to toy industry averages, you will want to purchase the book. Check with the ASTRA office. I think they are taking pre-orders now.

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.

January 9, 2012

This Will Be a Succesful Year If…

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 like.

Finish the following statement:

This will be a successful year if…

…if I get to be in business next year
…if I book 6 new speaking engagements
…if I publish a new book
…if I average 100 readers per blog post

The difference between doing it this way and resolutions is that you are focusing on the goal, the end result, instead of just the method. If the method you are using does not help you reach your goal or is unsustainable then you can try new methods.

You get to keep working on that goal from any angle you choose.

Like everyone else, I encourage you to write it down. Go get a blank piece of paper and write across the top “This will be a successful year if…” and start filling in the rest.

You can make categories – Personal, Professional, Individual, Family, Financial, Social – if you want. Just be sure to jot something down for each.

Once you have done that, start strategizing the How. Start brainstorming the What. Start piecing together the Who and the Where.

The When is right now. Define your success and you have a better chance of reaching it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For those of you who have already downloaded my free eBook Staff Meetings Everyone Wants to Attend, you recognize that this is the same statement I use when planning those meetings. In fact, it is written right across the top of my Staff Meeting Planner Worksheet. And my clients know I ask the same question of them. How will we define success? How will you?

December 15, 2011

Be the “Hot” in Your Category

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 there, but nothing like the way people went bonkers over that furry red guy that vibrated and laughed. They stood in long lines, got into fist-fights, paid hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to get one.

Those days are over. And that is good news for you.

The traffic still craves direction and guidance. The traffic still wants to know where to go and what to buy. The traffic is still looking for something Hot.

So instead of the Hot item, be the Hot store.

You do this by being innovative.

Are you in a downtown location with limited parking? Offer free valet service. Are you in a winter weather environment? Offer coat check and coffee or hot cocoa. Are you in a category that requires special knowledge? Offer classes and tutorials. Do you get a lot of out-of-town traffic? Offer local maps to interesting sites, fabulous restaurants and other great shops in your area.

Rotate your merchandise regularly. Make fun and surprising displays that get people to talk about you and want to see what you are doing.

You do this by being iconic.

You know that every woman in the room pays extra attention to the package wrapped in the turquoise blue. Tiffany owns that color. What can you own?

You do this by being fun.

Smiling and saying hello makes people happy. Genuinely having fun gets those happy people to talk about you. You could play guessing games. You could have quick polls and sign-in books. You could run contests. You could have giveaways. Just make sure you hire fun people.

Regardless of what the media tries to promote, there is no hot toy anymore. Only hot stores. Be one of them.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It is no longer about Customer Service. It is all about Customer Experience. The better the experience, the more people will want to have that experience.

December 11, 2011

Someone Is Lying to Me

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 customers.

But somebody at the home office thinks that pissing off customers and upsetting the employees is a necessary way to do business.

The part I really do not understand is that every time the general public complains about price-fixing in gasoline, we are told by these gas stations that they do not make any money on the gas, only the soda and snacks they sell inside the store.

Yet, they just gave me an excuse to not have to set foot in the store again. I just swipe my card at the pump, get my gas, and go. Probably will be good for my diet. Probably will not be good for their bottom line.

So either they are having a rash of drive-aways or they really are making money on the gas. I think we would have heard about the former. Somebody is lying to me.

But it begs the question we all should ask about our business. Where do we make the money? And are we setting up barriers to our customers that keep them from giving us that money?

I think that second question is the driving force behind this corporate decision.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you should put your best, most profitable merchandise in the best location in the store. Start there and build everything else around that focal point. That is the number one rule to merchandising. For more rules and thoughts on merchandising, download my FREE eBook Merchandising Made Easy.

November 11, 2011

How Much You Care

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 make their job better. You should know what is going on in their lives.

I was talking to someone whose boss did not acknowledge her when her father-in-law died. Do you think she’s going to the mat for him? Would you?

Care for them and they will take care of your business.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS At the very least you better celebrate their birthdays. Think about it like this. They are going to celebrate it with or without you. Better the former than the latter.