Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

How to Schedule for the Rush | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

We're coming into the busy season in retail and the one thing that I always see people struggle with is scheduling. They want to go through and they want to schedule for the task or whoever is convenient to work, but the key for you is to schedule for the rush. That means you need to look at your schedule and decide who are the doers and they want to just do tasks and who are the ones that are actually selling your merchandise and make sure that those who can sell are the ones that your shoppers are most likely to meet, not people who can just go through and fold something or arrange it or dust it. 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!

Do Your People Look Engaged? | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you know what good customer service looks like? You know, a lot of times when I walk around in various retail stores, I see managers who are managing tasks, but I don't think they really understand what great customer service looks like. And it's really quite simple: Do your people look engaged? Does the shopper look engaged? What does their body posture look like? And the other part of that is: Understand that customer service should have an end where the shopper takes action. Maybe they buy something or leave their information, but you just don't want people talking to other people. There has to be a goal.
So that's your tip today, to look around and see: Do your associates, do your shoppers, look engaged? And if not, well, you should probably get some retail sales training from a guy like me. 
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!

Attitude | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

I have a friend who went to Italy not that long ago, and when she got back I said, “How was the trip?” And she went on about how the bags all been lost at Kennedy and they were on the tarmac for four hours and she went on for what felt like five hours, it was probably just a few minutes, but I just said, “Did anything go well on your trip?” And then she said, “Oh, well, yes.” And she told me some of the sites that she saw. 
I think the challenge for all of us is we speak in the language of disappointment right now. We want to tell that story of how somebody got away with something or an online bandit stole their sale or somebody used a phone in your store and you lost a big sale. We have to change that idea that the only way we talk to people is in things that went wrong.
Your goal, especially when it comes to talking to both customers and employees, is to talk about being positive, to talk about things that went right, to talk about how somebody overcame something. That's how people get a feeling. That's what they want to go to. They want to go to your store to feel hopeful and they want to meet people that are positive and hopeful as well. And you know who that starts with? You're looking at them in the mirror. It’s you.
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!

Virtual Training | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you hate training employees? I know most people do. They feel like it's a time suck, or I have to say the same thing over and over again. Or worse, they have somebody trained who really didn't like retail or sales training and then they have somebody else that they trained, trained somebody else, and now you've got a copy of a copy from people who didn't really like training.
One way to get around that is to use online retail sales training. That way everybody gets the exact same message in bite-size forms and you can hold them accountable for it. I use SalesRX, which is my online virtual interactive courses because they stop an employee from being able to just watch a video to where they have to interact and think about things that they heard, and then you're able to roleplay it on the floor so that they get quick wins. 
Ultimately, you're trying to solve the problem of what do we do and how do we do it in such a way that you could hold employees accountable through mystery shops and through employee reviews?
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!

Feedback | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

We've talked a lot this month about retail sales training and holding employees accountable. One of the biggest skills that I think people miss is “How do I give feedback?” Because ultimately you would need to be able to give feedback that's both good and bad, right? So I always suggest first off that it's private. You don't ever want to get feedback like in front of other employees or customers. You want to do it somewhere off from everybody else to hear and then use the Oreo principle, which is start off with something good, then you've got something that may be bad or that they could do better, and then, you want to give them positive reinforcement to go with it.
So maybe you're going to start off with a goal. “This is what we wanted to do, but unfortunately, you're missing it. What I think you're doing is you're taking too much time with customers or you're hiding behind the racks or whatever it's going to be. But I know that you can do a good job of it because last week you are a #1 seller of whatever that product is.”
The important thing is to realize that feedback, both good and bad is the foundation of managing a team and why they probably call you boss.
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!

Hiring | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

I talk a lot about retail sales training and one of the things I find that really impacts is getting the right people into your store to begin with. A lot of us ask very nebulous questions, “What are your goals in five years?” All of that is in the future. What I always say is go back and find something they did in the past. One of the questions I like to ask when I'm interviewing somebody is “I want you to think back to the last retail job you have had. And I want you to think about a time when somebody came in to buy x, but you are able to sell them y.” And the reason that's so important is I want them to be able to compare and contrast because let's face it, you could go online and there's 140,000 SKUs for the one thing that somebody could look for.
The chances that you have that in your brick-and-mortar store might be pretty slim. However, if you can get them to compare and contrast it, then they could say something like, “Would you be interested in something the same or better?” A customer who drove all that way into your brick-and-mortar store would probably be open to it. But unless the employees can think on their feet, they're probably not going to be very good at boosting your sales. Your goal is to find out how they compare and contrast and then get them to think on their feet. And when you train them, that's how you build your brick-and-mortar 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!

Your List | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you have a loyalty program or an app or something like that? I hope so necause people who have joined your list voluntarily, whether they're a customer or someone's that familiar with you, is the cheapest way and cheapest group to whom you can advertise. But a lot of times we forget about it. We might have an email list, but maybe it's on your website and we don't really think about it.
So you want to think today about how you're going to grow that list because that list is your most valuable source of marketing information. Make sure you have a contest. Make sure you have your employees well set up to talk about the benefits of being on your reward program and make sure that they do it. Share those numbers every week in your weekly meeting because your goal is to brand shoppers buts so that anytime they want something they remember you. Once you have a list, you can reach out to them once a week or a couple times a week. You can find ways to connect with them so that they never forget you’re their favorite 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!

Reward Hours | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

When it comes to scheduling your employees, do you reward people who are able to get higher units per transaction, who are able to sell more per hour? I hope so because if you're just putting whoever can fill the shift, the chances are you're putting somebody like a race horse in the middle of a pasture, right? If it's not that busy and you have a great salesperson, you're squandering that. Likewise, if you have someone who's untrained or really just a clerk and you've got them on at your highest traffic times, they're probably costing you money because they're not upselling. They're not cross selling, they're not selling from the top down. They're simply clerking whatever somebody asks for. 
Today I want you to think about those who do what you want to do, who are selling the higher conversions, the higher dollars, they should get more hours, or if nothing else, they should get the most traffic times to be able to build your sales the best.
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!

Project, Not Product | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Are you looking to get higher sales? Then get out of the bad habit of asking somebody, “What can I help you find?” Because the more you are just like a product, you're just interested in that one product. The more you're basically a warehouse for other people. Look, people go online to buy an item, they go into a store to discover items. So the power is instead of finding out what the product is, they're looking for, what's their project today, what are they working on? You want the customer to tell you everything that they could about the situation they're using it or where they're using it or how they're using it. Then, you pretty much just start putting together in your mind the product list that would all go together.
So instead of asking somebody, “Can I help you find something?” and the guy says, “Oh, I'm looking for um, lumber for a lumber looking for two by fours.” You want me to say, “What's your project today?” And then you find out he's building a deck and when he's building a deck, what else does he need when he might need power equipment. There's a number of things you could add onto the sale, but if you just stay stuck in that one item, lumber, you're probably settling for crumbs when you could have the whole feast. So stop talking and get the shopper to tell you what the project is, not ask them what that one specific product is they came in for.
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!

Accountability | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Have you ever found yourself accountable for your actions? I know when we watched the Olympics, you know that's probably the ultimate accountability is when we see someone get the gold medal that they did it. They did all the things it took to be a champion, and yet when we come into our brick-and-mortar stores, a lot of times people don't want to hold employees accountable. They want to be their friend. “Let's go out and have a drink. Let's eat.” And the problem with that is, is that you're going to be the same as everybody else, but without accountability, things simply don't change.
So if you train people how to greet a customer, how to do top-down selling, how you want them to pass off a sale, how you want a sale, the finish, whatever that's going to be, you've got to hold them accountable and inspect what you expect. If you're really going to be the boss and move the needle of sales, because holding employees accountable for your training is what's going to grow your sales better than anything else you could do 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!