Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

When Should You Hire As a Retailer? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Are you one of those retailers that waits until you absolutely need someone before you hire? I'm here to tell you that's not the way to do it.You should always be hiring. That's #1 today, but also, what are you saying when you go out to try to find new employees? One of the things that we do is we throw up the now hiring sign. And you know what? That's just not very engaging, and if you're looking for better employees, you better have better signs.And one that I always liked that I used to use was, "Because your boyfriend will eventually ask for gas money." And then, "Now hiring extra shifts." And the goal with that was to get somebody who had a sense of humor and also to say that we are adding shifts, not that we are desperate.So today, I want you to think about to get better employees, A, use better signs, and B, always be hiring.

What's the Best Way to Greet Customers In Retail? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

When I do in-person retail sales training I am always shocked by the number of people who go through and think that, "How are you today," is a proper greeting. It's not. Because invariably you are hoping that customers are going to say, "Fine, and you," and they're going to say fine. That's just a place holder for an interaction. It's not good. And what even worse, if you say, "Hi, how are you today?" "Oh, you know, I've got this blister on my heel, and it's starting to bleed into my shoe." You don't want to hear it.
And so do you really want your customers to be putting up a false front when they are greeting you? No, you don't. So why ask it? It's a placeholder. And look, what's going to happen is their phone is about to go off any second, and you're not going to have that chance to develop that relationship again. So instead of asking lame things like, "How are you today," because no one cares how you're doing, don't ask it. Instead, just simply say, "Good morning," "Good afternoon," or, "Good evening."

Scheduling Your Sales Team Based on Retail Sales | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Hey, today is a quick tip about scheduling. I just think it's really important that instead of you scheduling whoever is available on certain days, that you award hours on their ability to make sales. Doesn't mean that they're been with you a long time or a short time, can they do more? Here's a simple test. Can they juggle multiple shoppers while you're on the sales floor? If they can, they are much more valuable to you than the one person that knows all of the ins and outs of a product because what happens is that one person can only affect one sale maybe in 15 minutes, whereas somebody can juggle sales might be able to affect three or four or five sales in 15 minutes, and that's what grows your retail sales. So award your hours on the ability to juggle customers, not just their ability to work a schedule or their product knowledge.
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!

No, The Customer Isn’t Always Right, Especially In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you ever hear that old adage, "The customer is always right?" Yeah, they aren't always right. Anybody that works in sales worth their salt, especially when a retail store knows that, you know what? Customers can actually lie to you. They'll tell you they have no need after they just told you they had a need. They can tell you they have no money even though they do have money. What we want to do is to don't believe them when they first say that because when they're in your store, they have a need. They knew what something costs because they probably already started their search online. Just understand that they might be liars and that you've just got to get around that.
Making sure that when someone says, "I don't have the money for it," you can say, "Well if this took away that problem for you, would you be willing to take it home with you today?" "Well, yeah, maybe I would." You want to get them out of being able to say, I have no need or no money, because those are the oldest ways to push somebody away from selling. The good people push past that, usually with some kind of humor, and get the sale. Again, when somebody says they don't need your product, you have to not believe them if you really want to grow your retail sales today.
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!

Using Video for Social Media In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Today, I'm talking about social media. Now, a lot of us have cameras on our phones that can do an awful lot. And we do an awful lot of video and video is really important if you're talking about social media.
The one place I find that so many retailers lack though, is they want to go through and take a video of them, and their store. Look at the fun we're having, come down here. And that's not really fun if you think about the person that might be viewing it is behind a ... they work at a call center all day, and they're seeing you having a great time. That doesn't make it really that fun.
So, to grow followers, and to make sales, make content about their struggles. That's what shows that you're a real friend. When you make your social media about your shoppers, and not about yourself, you're going through and becoming their trusted advisor, and then they're like, "Hey, this person is really great." And they share those videos with others. If you just make it all about you though, it's kind of like being that boring guest at a party, that just drones on and on about them. You want to move away from them.
So, to get more followers, and make more sales, make your content about their struggles and how you fix that, versus about you and what you just got in to your store.
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!

Using Comparison and Contrast In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you sell items that are worth more than a few bucks? Well, you know a lot of times we have multiple products like that in our stores. And, I find that sometimes your employees have trouble selling them, because they see both of them as the same. And the key, and what I want you to think about today is, there's always differences, and the great salesperson is able to compare and contrast. And that ability to close a sale rests on your employee's ability to make the complex simple, by being able to compare and contrast your similar products.
So today what I want you to do is, and if you're a retail salesperson you can do this on your own, find two similar products, and then I want you to sell them both equally. There's no bad or good. You could go this way with the red, you could go this way with the green, and make it the same. And then I want you to go through and sell one over the other. So, I'm going to try to sell the red one over the green one. So that means you're going to come up with a few things that the green can't do, or it lacks. Or it's not as convenient, and then do the same thing and try to sell the green versus the red.
And what that does is it builds your muscle to compare and contrast. You have to be able to hold both of those equally, because there are people that if you presented both equally, you're going to overwhelm them. They really want to know, well, what would you do? And you don't want to do that just by price, you want to be able to compare and contrast based on what you heard in the sale. That's your tip today.
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!

When Should I Let Go of Old Merchandise as a Retailer? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

You know, we have so many people listening to these flash briefings every day that some are really big, some are really small, but the consistent problem everybody has trouble with is when is it time to let go of old merchandise? You know, old merchandise is like old milk. It doesn't get better with age, and it's kind of a fine line between holding onto something because it might have value and getting rid of it. The key for me is, and what I would like you to think about is find a line or a group of products that's gathering dusk and not selling.
You can find this first through your POS or you could find it first just by looking at your retail store and what the products are, whether at the bottom, or the top, or something in the back. Then just get a plan to get rid of it. Old merchandise doesn't get better, so here it is, let's say in September, and there's merchandise left over from 4th of July. It's not going to magically get better, even at 70% off, because people moved on. So clear out the products that aren't selling, that's your money selling there, and replace it with something new. Because again, old merchandise is like old milk. It just doesn't get better with age.
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!

Be Willing to Take Risks to Make a Retail Sale | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Often times when I'm coaching a younger sales person, I'll ask them if they noticed why the sale went off the rails. And frequently they'll say, "Oh, the customer just had no need for it," or, "It was too expensive." That's kind of a loser's limp because we really had looked at what was going on in the sale early on, the customer or the shopper’s arms were folded over. They weren't looking at the associate in the eyes.
In fact, their arms might've been crossed and their feet, which basically is a big barrier that says, "I don't want anything you're selling," so to turn a sale around, you've got to be willing to take a risk. And one of the ones I always like to do, particularly if I'm waiting on a couple or something, is one is really working with you. And another one really isn't, and just say, "Hey, excuse me, did I do something to offend you?"
And they'll say, "Oh no, why?" And I said, "Well, it doesn't seem like you're really engaged like whoever the person next to you is." And they'll say, "Oh, I was really worried about my daughter." Or, "I've been waiting for a text from my work," or any number of things, and then they're back in touch with you and you frequently will make the sale. But if you're not willing to risk it, then you just let those bad things stay in the sale. Then there's no way you can close that.
So even if you're waiting on an individual, if something goes off the rails, you can certainly say, "Excuse me, did I say something wrong?” And they'll say, "What do you mean?" And I say, "Oh, it doesn't seem like you're as engaged as you were at the beginning," and they'll say the same thing to you and then you can move on. So my message to you today is to turn a sale around. You've got to be willing to risk 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!

Setting Goals for Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Have you set a goal for your store for the day? I hope so. Goals are what lead us to the future.
A lot of times, without a goal, the day is kind of rambling. You don't really know what's most important. I can tell you that in retail right now, the most important thing is that shopper who left their house through snow, sleet, rain, you name it. They actually went through traffic. They tried to find a parking space. They did. They rolled the dice to walk into your brick-and-mortar store.
If we respect that, then we understand that, "Okay, so my goal is to increase my conversion rate. My goal is to get the number of items per sale up. My goal is to go through and sell so much per hour."
When you give those goals to your employees, they understand that, "Oh, that's our real job, is to sell the merchandise, not to clean it and not to rearrange it."
Without a goal, you've got nothing pulling you into the future. That's what I find really works particularly with younger staff, is they need to see this something better. It's more fun if we do this, rather than let their mind wander, and of course it's going to go to Facebook or WhatsApp or you name it.
So, today, set a goal for yourself and, more importantly, set a goal for your crew.
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!

How to Unlearn Bad Habits as a Retailer | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Today, I want you to imagine taking a pitcher of water and pouring it into a glass that's already full. What happens? All the water spills out. So today, I'm talking about how do you train people? And one of the things we tend to forget is you have to unlearn the bad habits, right? So you pretty much have to make a space for new training to take place. Because what you're crew needs to have happen is to extinguish their bad habits, right? So if all they can say is, “Hi. Can I help you find something? Can I help you find something? Can I help you find something," you need to extinguish that before they'll ever be able to accept just saying, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening.
Because a lot of times I'll go through and I'll train people to say that and then they'll be frustrated. The employees don't say it on the floor because what do they do? They go back to what the brain has always done. And that's human nature. We'll go back to whatever the habit is. So to build a new habit, just understand that your crew needs to unlearn whatever the bad habit is before you'll make space for new training.
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!