Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

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!

Yes, You Do Sell Hope as a Retailer | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

You know when I do sales training, I'll often ask individuals, "So, tell me what you sell?" And people will go through, and they'll tell me the specifics of "Oh, we sell electronics, or we sell speakers, or we sell apparel" et cetera. And I keep going through until invariably somebody realizes, "Well, no, what I really sell is hope." And that's exactly right. You know whoever is coming in your doors is coming in in a hopeful way. It's rare for somebody to go into a retail store and say, "Oh, I just got fired, and I'm having incredible losses. I want to come in and spend money." They don't.
So if you're just curious why today did she walk in the door? Why today did that guy come in here? And you think, "Oh, well, maybe he lost 50 pounds because he got on a diet or maybe he got a divorce, and he's going through and living a new life. He wants to get a new wardrobe," or a million things. But if you're just curious about them, you understand that people who are hopeful, who meet hopeful associates spend more. It's that simple. You sell hope whoever is coming in your doors. And as long as you keep that in your head you know what? You realize the party's in the aisles, it's not behind the counter.
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!

What to Do When You Can’t Make Any Sales In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

The other day, I was talking about those afternoon doldrums you can do, when it just feels like your feet are made out of lead. Well today, I'm going to talk about something kind of similar, which is those days when you feel you can't sell to anybody. You may have the best attitude, but for whatever reason, they're just not buying from you, and you have one, two, you have three, you have four, you have five... You have to suddenly realize, like, "Wow, there's a pattern here." So my tip for you today is, if you can't sell to several people in a row, and you know you should have, then go out and get out of the store.
You know, maybe you go for a walk down the mall, maybe you go outside, get some fresh air, but when shoppers won't bite, you have to look in the mirror at your energy level, and a companion to that is, when you're having a great day, that's the time you need to just really say, "Wow, what did I do? How does this feel? I have to memorize this feeling so I can call it up on those days when people aren't always buying from me," and the more often you can put that to use in your head and say, "But I know I can do this, and I'm not doing the basics that I always do," the more you'll turn around your retail sales. That's your tip for today. If you can't sell to everybody, get out of 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!

How to Overcome the Afternoon Lull as a Retailer | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you work during the days in retail stores? I can tell you those afternoons can log on and on. Shoppers don't typically come in in those afternoon hours, that two-to-four range and you can get kind of sleepy. And especially if you had a lot of carbs for lunch and the thing that I have found is that sleepy times means I have to go in the back and when I go in the back I'm going to throw imaginary basketball hoops because it gets my heart rate going and it takes me out of feeling like I just want to take a nap. And so my note for you today is to realize that activity changes the attitude. So if you're feeling sleepy, move your body. And I find it's not just a matter of going out for a walk, because that doesn't usually do it. I've got to jumpstart that. So consider throwing some imaginary basketball hoops in the back. Yeah, don't do this on the sales floor. And that will turn that lack of energy totally around.
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!

Dealing With Bitter Bettys and Bitter Bobs In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

I was in Chicago recently at one of my favorite little fast food salad places, and this one woman at the register was just in such a mood. Normally, they would take the salad and they would ask you about the dressing, and they would put the utensils in it, and put it in the bag. And when they rang me up, this young woman just put the bag on the counter, and I said, “Wow, it's such a bad day, you can't even put it in the bag, can you? And she's like, "What do you mean?" And I just took my piece and I left.
That's Bitter Betty, and there's an awful lot of Bitter Betty and Bitter Bobs out there. They hate retail, they hate their jobs, a million things happen to them and they kind of take it out on the shoppers, and people that are actually giving them money. And the important thing to realize is, the customer pays your paycheck. So do you have a Bitter Betty or a Bitter Bob? Attitude determines altitude and you can't settle for bad ones. Now sometimes you'll have somebody who's just having a tough time. It's a good time to say, "Hey, go take a walk, or get off the floor and do something meaningless."
But if you let it stay, that suddenly becomes the worldview of whoever works with them. And I'll tell you, after you get rid of that person, you will hear stories from shoppers who say, "I would never come back to your store because of the service I received". So today, I want you to look and say, do I have a Bitter Betty or a Bitter Bob on the floor? And if so, how am I going to have a counsel session with them, so that they understand that their attitude needs to be changed right away? And that may even an end up in a written warning. Because attitude is just as much as skill as anything else. That's your tip for 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!

How Do I Stop Theft as a Retailer? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

I one time had a friend who was the Head of Shrinkage for JC Penny. I asked her what was the most outrageous theft of products you'd seen in the store? She said, "I had a woman who had a comforter strapped to the inside of her thigh trying to walk out." I was like, "Wow, that's pretty amazing." I think a lot of us are surprised by what happens in shrink. Shrink is either shopper or employee theft. Unfortunately, most theft seems to come from within. I want you today, your tip today ,is to look at your trash before it goes out every now and then. Just see what what's going out there. Also make sure that your crew knows how to properly do receiving of items coming in, as well as returns. Shrink affects every retailer equally. And ultimately, if you don't do these tips, your bottom line suffers because you really don't understand how much is really going out.
That's the other thing is take an inventory by category every now and then, match it to your computer and you'll see what your shrink is. Some are very sophisticated and tell you exactly what's gone and others will just know units. But make no mistake, when there's a discrepancy, most often that's going to come from an error, either in incoming, returning or in employees actually taking out in the trash. Take a look on that and get a handle on your shrink.
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!

Why Your Associates Are the Biggest Factor In Boosting Retail Sales | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you know who can most juice your retail sales? That's right, it's your associates because they're the ones that are interfacing with the shopper. And yet, a lot of times I find managers have nothing to talk with their associates about other than put this over there, get that out, you need to do this and this and this. The problem with that is it feels like your a cog at work, and that's not fun.
So today my tip for you is to connect with one of your employees. Every employee and every shopper's going through something, whether that's a kid that's on rehab, there's a parent who has Alzheimer's. There's a million things people are going through trying to put on a good face to it. All we have to do is just take a moment to connect with them as a human being. I said it before, we're all just sitting around the campfire hoping somebody will listen to our story.
So for today, find one of your employees. Really connect, share something from yourself. And then make sure you do that each day with one employee. What you find is you have that lower turnover and that associates who are going through an awful lot find that they have something in common with you. Their loyalty will be higher. Their attitude will be higher. You know who benefits? Everybody does. That's your tip for 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!

Does Your Retail Crew Look Their Best? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Did you know the average person judges people with under five seconds whether they think that they're a person they can trust or like, and that usually comes down to the way that they are dressed? So I want you to today to look at your crew. Do they look like they take pride in their appearance? Now, no, they don't have to wear a suit and a tie. They don't have to wear a fancy dress with fancy jewels. But if they look like they just took out your uniform polo shirt out of a backpack and put it on two minutes before they were supposed to go on and it's all wrinkled or the styling of them looks off base, understand, your shoppers see that first. And when they look into your store and see people like that, if it doesn't look like them, got it, doesn't look like the shopper and it looks like this is a mismatch between the people working there and the people who are selling there, then likely they're going to either move on or they're not going to buy as much because they don't really trust that person.
And remember, people judge people quickly by the way they look, so make sure yours look their best. That means the shirt is ironed. It means it's cleaned regularly, not some old thing that they pull on that's got a crust behind their counter. It means that they're going to dress up to be looking their best, even in a casual environment, because ultimately, they have to take pride in their appearance because it shows how much pride they have in working in your retail 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!