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Thursday Mar 19, 2020
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
Well, the good news is they’re considering a one-trillion-dollar ($1T) bailout for small businesses. How fast that will be doled out and how that will be implemented is still days and probably weeks away, but the good news is people are looking at how to help small businesses like you listening.
The other question comes up is "Do I close my store?" and I think you have to think about the advantages to both. Obviously, the #1 concern is the health of your employees and your community. We're being told in New York that all non-essential businesses should close and for some, that is a matter of looking at offering curbside delivery, for ramping up their online orders, and finding ways around the closing of the store. Other people are feeling like "I should close my store and have my employees go through and be on unemployment."
There are no easy choices here at all I think the important thing is whatever you do you have to be vetted so exactly what's going on. Some of the proposals people are making these can be retroactive to help you rehire people. So, I hope today you will at least consider there is a glimmer of hope and that the important thing is how we look at the challenges ahead is going to determine our leadership as a retailer for years to come.
Be careful as you're talking to people making sure that you're not overextending the crisis but also dealing fairly with it because the realities are most of us do not have big cash positions. The other thing I would suggest today is, if you haven't already, reach out to your local bank explain what's going on and get them to help you get a bridge loan.
I'll see you tomorrow on the Retail Today podcast with Bob Phibbs.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Today is Wednesday, March 18th, and today I want you to be thinking about nostalgia marketing. You know, during this time of crisis, it’s easy for us to feel bad about the future.
One thing that I think can help your customers feel normal with their circumstances is to ask them to share their favorite memory of shopping at your store. You can start off by doing a Facebook Live video talking about how your store has been around for generations, some of its heritage, and then invite them to share their favorite memories of a special time they visited your store.
If your store is too new for nostalgia, then you can certainly talk about starting your store and how excited you were. Then, you can remind them about the first time they experienced your store and get them to share.
Trying to find a new normal means getting in touch with things that were meaningful for us in the past.
That’s all I want you to do today is look at how you can market your store. It’s about connecting with your tribe in a new way. It’s not about giving them a discount or anything like that. It’s simply sharing a memory and then getting them to share a memory connected with your brand.
What I think you’ll find is that the support you’ll get from your customers will be overwhelming and reaffirm why you’ll continue being there for them.
That’s all I have for you today. Stay well and wash your damn hands.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Today is Tuesday March 17. St. Patrick’s day. We learned yesterday that new guidelines advise no gatherings of 10 or more people, the fed has slashed interest rates to 0, and Wall Street had another horrible day. While interest is coalescing around helping restaurants and small business, there are no firm plans yet.
America is split as to how leadership is doing on the virus; some cities are ghost towns while others are partying away. One thing is clear: we need to avoid going out in public to flatten the curve of virus spread. One less trip you make to the store, one more alcohol wipe you use around both your house and your business can make a difference.
Here’s what I recommend doing today as a retailer. If you have a personal service like amassage, haircut, etc. consider going to your clients instead of them coming to you. You could even do this regardless of what you sell. One-on-one you can still see people wash for 20 seconds, etc. I heard someone suggest do a Facebook live each morning showing your temperature to assure people at least you do not have a Fever. The important thing to do is look at how you can reassure people and still do some semblance of business.
If your business is closed or you are working from home, make sure to keep to a routine. Make a schedule and stick to it. Commit to certain blocks of time for learning, researching, and analyzing your business. Even if you have the kids home, sticking to a schedule can relieve some of the panic.
And don’t forget the front lines. Many employees are unable to take two weeks off yet are in contact with anxious customers. Make sure you thank them and be nice. This is a WE moment, not a ME moment.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Today is Tuesday March 17. St. Patrick’s day. We learned yesterday that new guidelines advise no gatherings of 10 or more people, the fed has slashed interest rates to 0, and Wall Street had another horrible day. While interest is coalescing around helping restaurants and small business, there are no firm plans yet.
America is split as to how leadership is doing on the virus; some cities are ghost towns while others are partying away. One thing is clear: we need to avoid going out in public to flatten the curve of virus spread. One less trip you make to the store, one more alcohol wipe you use around both your house and your business can make a difference.
Here’s what I recommend doing today as a retailer. If you have a personal service like amassage, haircut, etc. consider going to your clients instead of them coming to you. You could even do this regardless of what you sell. One-on-one you can still see people wash for 20 seconds, etc. I heard someone suggest do a Facebook live each morning showing your temperature to assure people at least you do not have a Fever. The important thing to do is look at how you can reassure people and still do some semblance of business.
If your business is closed or you are working from home, make sure to keep to a routine. Make a schedule and stick to it. Commit to certain blocks of time for learning, researching, and analyzing your business. Even if you have the kids home, sticking to a schedule can relieve some of the panic.
And don’t forget the front lines. Many employees are unable to take two weeks off yet are in contact with anxious customers. Make sure you thank them and be nice. This is a WE moment, not a ME moment.
Monday Mar 16, 2020
Monday Mar 16, 2020
Today is Monday, March 16th. I'm going to change things around today. You know, we're in a new retail environment. This last Thursday when Disneyland announced they were closing and all of the major sports franchises decided they were postponing indefinitely, and then on Friday came New York deciding that all Broadway theaters would close. And then Sunday, yesterday, I realized that the American Dream Mall, one of the newest malls in America, has decided to close for the next two weeks. And what that said to me was, we're in a new normal. So if you have decided that the coronavirus is not going to affect you, I can tell you it is.
Today I want you to be thinking about should you stay open or closed and how that affects your employees and your customers and making sure that it is really grounded in what's going on in the world. Because at the end of the day, retailers are there to support their customers and whether you know it or not, you're probably out of business anyway for the next two weeks because we're being told, "Do not gather in large gatherings and make sure that you self-hibernate basically." And so there's gotta be any demand for a lot of things.
So, I want you to think today about, "Well, if I'm not going to use that time in my store to wait on customers, what am I going to do instead?" Maybe you're going to actually go to your store and do FaceTime videos, so you can maybe wait on customers virtually and then bring your packages to them in the car. They use PayPal or something to pay for it. Maybe you're going to go through and look at a lot of other things, but in the next two weeks, each day, I'm going to give you specific topics that you can work on during this time of crisis to become a better retailer and to come out of this stronger than ever before.
I hope you'll tune in and tell your friends. And today, just consider that you already pretty much are closed due to low demand and consumer sentiment. What are you going to do for these next two weeks to get yourself ready when inevitably this starts to pass and we find a new normal in retail?
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Sunday Mar 15, 2020
Sunday Mar 15, 2020
Are you a salesperson in a retail store? Well, today I'm talking about how do you feel about selling your more expensive merchandise.
A lot of times that when I'm doing sales consulting, or I'm doing a training with a group of stores, I find that there's a lot of people who actually feel like they're being a fraud. They know how much something costs, and they feel bad about going through and charging as much money they do.
The problem is that when you feel that something is too expensive, you're going to go through and give that same feeling to the shopper. If you feel like a fraud, well you'll probably not sell much that isn't on sale. And so, today I want you to look at when you go through your merchandise, and you see something at the top end, do you feel like a fraud when you go to sell it?
And you need to work inside on your own feelings about that because maybe you feel it's not worth it. Well, you better find enough reasons why it is worth it or you'll never sell that product.
If you're a trainer, or you're going through... You're the retail store owner or manager, understand that that feeling like a fraud is leading to an awful lot lower average ticket because the associates could only sell what's on sale. They don't feel like anything is worth it. That's your role as a sales guide, is to go through and train them enough to understand that it's not about what you feel, it's about the shopper.
That's your tip for today. Look at how'd you feel when someone considers your most expensive item, and then make sure that you don't feel like a fraud and give that energy off to them.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Saturday Mar 14, 2020
Saturday Mar 14, 2020
You know, if you're trying to close a sale, one of the hardest things is just presenting too many options. You know it yourself, if you get overwhelmed, suddenly work is what shopping feels like and you shut down. You're like, oh, I've seen too much. I just have to leave. I'll come back. Except you don't come back. You'll probably go to some other retailer who doesn't make it feel that way. What I want you to do today is to look at curating down your products to a good, better, and best. Because too many choices leads to your shoppers saying, "I'll have to think about it." That's a good lesson you can work on with your employees as well, is for them to understand, oh, this is a good, better, and best alternative to someone who needs, I don't know, a new raincoat.
How do we present that? We always start with the best because that's the one that is probably more expensive due to the materials. What does that do? It's lighter weight or it repels water better, whatever that's going to be. If someone can't afford that, then you say, "Oh, I also have this version, but we lose the convenience of the lightweight. It's going to be a heavier, it's going to be a heavier cloth." Then if they say, "Oh, that's too much," and then you get down to something basic and then you're not trying to make that sound the same as the more expensive one. You're just showing all the things that they've lost. That's so different than what most people who are untrained do. They start off with the cheapest one and the customer says, "Okay, that's good enough for me." The problem with that is the more expensive merchandise sit.
Today I want you to curate down to a good, better, and best and role play so that they, your crew, understands too many choices leads to, "I'll think about it." You know what the problem with that is? They don't buy it from you. If that happens enough, you're not in business again.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Friday Mar 13, 2020
Friday Mar 13, 2020
Yesterday I was talking about employees and associates who just want to vomit useless fact after useless fact on people. They're typically kind of, an engineer or an analytical background and they think that the facts are what is going to make the sale.
And today's tip for you is, that you always want to lead with what the product does for the customer after you've talked to them. You don't want to talk about how much it cost, or just the facts.
Nobody buys based on just what the facts of what the product has. What they buy on, is what will work for them. And that's the key for you to think about today is. So, find your top five items, go over your crew with them, and then say, "What does this do?"
Now, that could be apparel. It's going to be more expensive, so it's not going to scratch your neck. It could be an appliance that goes through and it takes less water, or less energy. There's a million things that every retailer has that benefits the shopper, but if you're not looking at that and you think the product knowledge is your key more often than not you're just vomiting useless facts.
And frankly, all I need is three benefits and I'm going to buy it. So, today lead with what the product does, not what it cost, or the facts that it has.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Thursday Mar 12, 2020
Have you ever met somebody that you just can't get along with, whether they're interviewing for a job or a shopper or even a colleague? We all have, and there's other people that really do well with you and really like them. We've all had that as well. Well, I think that there is an awful lot to personality styles. In fact, today I want you to Google my personality quiz, so Retail Doctor personality quiz. You can take it and find out that there are people that are not like you. And the reason that's so important is if you understand what your typical characteristics are, the way you look at the world, and you understand that three-quarters of the world is not like you, then you can modify the way you talk to them.
For example, I'm a driver personality and I'm kind of a cut to the chase guy, which is fine, except that when I wait on analytical, an engineer or someone that's got more of a process they need, they have a hundred questions. I don't get mad at them. I just realize like, "Oh, so this person needs to hear more detail, that's fine." But if it's the other way around, if I have an analytical salesperson waiting on me and they want to just vomit useless information after useless information on me, I just want to slap them. It's like, "I got it, dude. It's the best. It does this, but has nothing to do with me."
So, today I just want you to Google my personality quiz, just the Retail Doctor personality quiz. You'll find it and then understand that your personality is different than 75% of your shoppers. And when you know that you can modify your way that you talk to them, rather than expecting them to do something different.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Have you ever been thanked by a vendor or by a store that you did business with? It's pretty powerful. I have a pond that I had cleaned out a while ago and they sent me a handwritten thank you and told me how great the pond was and made one more suggestion of something we could do, maybe next year when we have it cleaned out. And that really stuck with me, because I go back to them over and over again. And so today I want you to think about the power of sending thank yous because obviously you want to build the list, but your top 20 customers are most likely to move the needle of sales. So you can just thank them without any other offer. You don't have to give them 20% off this weekend or something else. Just simply doing that. And yeah, you can do it by a phone call, but a lot of people don't want to answer a phone, but taking the time to just do a handwritten thank you to your top 20 customers goes a long way.
So that's what I want you to do today, is just send one. Just find one of your best customers and send them a thank you with no expectation they're going to come in or buy something else for you, and the more specific you can be about that, their last purchase or something personal about them, the more it will help you. But again, word of mouth starts in these small moments, which you can control.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!