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Episodes
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Did you know email is still the most efficient way you can address your former customers? It is. And yet, are your subject lines compelling? Maybe not. The easy way for you to do it is to add first names to the subject lines. Now, a lot of programs can do this automatically, you wouldn't do this on your own, but anything you can do to make that subject line stand out is going to help you.
Another way to do it is to go down to your local drugstore, or somewhere that carries magazines, take five or six men's and women's magazines, take them home, rip the covers off, and then look at those headlines and say, "could I steal one of these?" Because they've done the hard work to find what somebody finds compelling? Then put that as your subject line, mix it up a little bit. Beyond that, you can also add emojis. I know those little hearts and those little faces can add as much as five to 10% and open rates, and let's face it, if they don't open the email, then what good is it? It's kind of like that tree falls in the woods, does anybody hear it? That's your idea today. Are your subject lines compelling?
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 Jan 23, 2020
Thursday Jan 23, 2020
Have you been in that creepy back room of yours yet? Recently I talked about cleaning your store and a lot of people leave the back room on its own. They become this dumping ground for sloppiness and leftovers and broken fixtures that you don't even carry anymore. But God forbid, maybe I'll be able to use them someday. And so we just leave all that stuff up or we throw it up on top of each other, which makes it harder and harder to organize your stock room. So today I want you to go into your back room and realize that you could do Marie Kondo and does this give you joy or not? Then get rid of it if it doesn't, but old fixtures, old boxes, those need to go and stock that should be returned to vendors needs to go. And if it's brand new merch it's not going to sell it all in that back room. So find a place, if you can, to at least get it on the sales floor or even up above the overstock. But make no mistakes, it's time to clean up that back room.
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 Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Soon, you're college students, if they haven't already, are going to be going back to school who have helped you during the holidays, and I don't want you to be left high and dry. So today, I want you to think about looking for new hires. January is a slow month, and those college students that were wonderful will leave pretty quickly to get back to school. So wherever you see somebody at a coffee house or a restaurant, or you get good customer service, say, "Hey, I'm hiring. If you ever want to get some extra hours, I'd love for you to come down and talk to me," and hand them your business card.
Some people feel really shy about that, but you know what? If you've had a good experience, it makes it much more likely, A, that they're going to come back and B... to your business for the interview, but B, you know already that they're doing a lot of things right. So again, the January month is slow and realize that the mind goes before the body, so even people who stay... Might be time to upgrade your crew, so look for the new hires.
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 Jan 21, 2020
Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
When you were a kid, did you have somebody get upset at you for not cleaning your room? Today, I want you to think about, is your store really clean. And I mean the bathroom, I mean under the racks, I mean the windows of all the scotch tape there from the holidays, you name it because a clean store makes all the difference. One of the ways I always start new employees is to train them on how to clean the bathroom. I know that sounds really bad, but here's the thing. Everybody uses it. If they use it and they clean it, then they respect it, and then you also don't have a system of, "Oh well, we don't clean the bathroom, we're prima donnas or we don't have to sort or take out or any number of things." Quite simply, then everybody understands that we're all responsible for the store's cleanliness. Today again, everyone respects cleaning, when they're a part of it.
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!
Monday Jan 20, 2020
Monday Jan 20, 2020
January is the start of a lot of things and including convention season. So a lot of times people say, "well, what products should I carry?" And before you head off to any show, you want to go through and have an analysis of your 2019 sales. You want to look at your top 10 categories, your top 10 vendors within those categories, and then you're out of stocks, and the ones that you had to put on markdown. The more you know about your merchandise and how it performed last year, the easier it will be for you to say no when someone runs up and says, "Oh, you just have to get this." Or your manager says, "Oh, these are so cute, we should buy them." Because without a plan, you fail. And you fail the plan, you fail. So only carry products that turn at least twice a year.
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 Jan 19, 2020
Sunday Jan 19, 2020
Well, if it's January, it must be a donation season. This is the time when all the nonprofits come to you to look to be that benevolent person who will give them something for their silent auction or their raffle or something else. And those can become quite a pain unless you're a big organization because, in big organizations, they just refer them to a central office. When you only have a few stores or it's just you, I would suggest at this time of the year, create a budget of what you'll do for community outreach.
And I encourage you to also come up with one type of nonprofit you'll support. So whether that's kid's education or maybe it's going to be cancer or maybe it's going to be literacy or homelessness. There's a million things and then say, and we've chosen to donate to nonprofits that are supporting that mission. And that helps you then to whittle those donations down, but also base it on fact.
And then, when you do this, you keep track of those donation requests as if they were a line item. And you find that, oh, I have a limit, and people understand, and you don't get caught in that way that someone says, well, can't you just give us $10 for this? Or $20 like that? And by the way, when you're being solicited for donations, make sure that you've seen these people before because when you get a solicitation from one of your best customers, you should go out of your way to make them happy.
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 Jan 18, 2020
Saturday Jan 18, 2020
What do you do when someone stops and asks you how's business? I hear it from independent retailers that when they try to answer their customers or employees or somebody that they may not know as well, they'll say, "Oh, it's okay." Then they'll say, "Well, are you really struggling with Amazon? How do you keep going?" It's almost like they want you to say how it sucks to be you.
Today, I just want you to look at your own response to those questions. Whether it's customers or vendors, while they ask, don't tell, because positivity is what attracts people. So look at your own way you're talking to people about your job, about your profession, and instead of going to the negative, just remember you've got a choice muscle and you can use it.
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 Jan 17, 2020
Friday Jan 17, 2020
Are you in the dark? Yeah, your business. You know, lighting is one of the most cost-effective things you can do. I find that lighting has come down so much with LEDs and so many new ways you can do it. To light under shelves and you can come up with all kinds of ways that don't cost an awful lot and far as power. And so today, I just want you to look around your store, look at the dark areas, and then look at some of your competitors. Certainly, go look at newer retail concepts, even all the way to newer Verizon or AT&T stores, or to CVS or Rite Aid or Walmart or some of the other ones that have newer stores. And look at how we've been lighting up the aisles in the last few years. Then take that and say, "Maybe I should call an electrician". And then when you do that, then you can light up the aisles and shelves. Because people are attracted by light and dark and dingy stores, telegraph: "There's nothing new going on here".
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 Jan 16, 2020
Thursday Jan 16, 2020
Are you or your employees selling from their own wallets? What do I mean by that? Well, you know, when I was in Denver not that long ago and I was walking down the street, and I saw this sign that said, "Men who use this, report thicker hair," and I said, "I want that." So I walked into the salon and there's a young woman right there. I go, "I want that." And she goes, "It's really expensive." And I said, "Do I look homeless or something? Why did you say that?" She goes, "Well, I just want you to know it's really expensive."
I'm still scratching my head, thinking, "Why is this the first thing that this young woman says to me?" This woman comes down and she goes, "Can I help you with something?" I said, "Yeah, I wanted to buy this and all she could say was the cost of it." And the woman, without breaking a beat, said, "Well, she just wants you to know it's really expensive. We don't sell a lot because a lot of people think it's so expensive." I couldn't believe it.
I use that story a lot in my keynote speeches, and if you want to find out more about me, you can go to retaildoc.come, but that's a classic example of trying to sell from someone who doesn't believe it's worth the money. She wasn't bald or balding like an older guy like I am, so she didn't see the value of it. And the problem with that is when your employees are selling from their own wallets, they're essentially trying to sell from the bottom up. Like, "This is all you need. This will do just as well," and the problem with that is, they never get a chance to say, "Oh, we also have this one what makes it easier," or, "We have this which is more convenient." The customer, of course, says, "Oh, well then I'll take it."
And the employee feels they did the job, the problem is your premium merch sits. So I don't want that for you today, so take a look at your own attitude about your products, and especially your employees'.
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 Jan 15, 2020
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Are you not paying enough? That's right. Are you not paying enough as a retailer? What do I mean by that? Well, are you paying minimum wage and then expecting employees to just be grateful that they have a job with you? Or maybe you're nickel and diming your website. You know, there's your brother whose daughter's friend who went to college has a buddy who can create your website or your social media on a dime. Or maybe you've gone with the vendor who can give you the best deal and not necessarily the ones that are going to sell the fastest.
Look, my quick message for you today is don't step over dollars to save a few cents. You're going to have to pay if you want people to be able to really do the job for you. If you really want to have a great website, it costs a lot of money, but it's the number one way that people find you.
So that's all today. Just make sure that you're not nickel and diming yourself out of business.
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!