Retailers are experiencing tough times - put on the radio or TV and you
will be told this numerous times often within the same news program.
But, take a walk down the high street of any town and I suspect you
will see retailers who are enjoying the present economic climate whilst
others appear to believe that the recessionary news means a downturn
for every retailer in the marketplace.
It is a proven fact that in tough economic times, progressive retailers
use it as an opportunity to gain market share and develop strong
profitable businesses. This may be a deeper global recession than any
we have experienced in the last sixty years, but that could also mean
the opportunities are greater for those prepared to grasp them.
The first key to success is to accept that what worked last year will not work this year - you have to do things differently.
Change starts inside your business and inside your head. The attitude
of the owner is the first change to be made. In my own part of the
world, I have found an overall deterioration in customer service over
the last few months. The excuse last year for not training staff was
that Generation Y employees were fickle and not prepared to stay in a
job long enough. Therefore investing in training Generation Y was an
expensive exercise that could not be justified. It is now 2009 and
Generation Y are looking for stable jobs and are staying in the jobs
they have. This creates an opportunity to invest in them and train
them. Few businesses though appear to be taking this opportunity.
I came across one major retailer recently who told me that they now
carry out their pre-employment recruitment training online. They were
checking for personality using an online questionnaire. Now I can see
an opportunity in using online training for technical area of the job
and product knowledge, but when you believe you can check personality
online I have major doubts.
Smart Retailer Tip One: Invest in training in a downturn
You have the time to do so now, and your team have time to interact
with your customers. Now is the time when you need to increase the
average sale per customer as you may find your customer count has gone
down. To increase the sale you need team members who can interact with
the consumer in a positive way and who have the skills to increase the
average sale per customer.
It is important that you get the internal skills of your team improved
as the first priority. Your team are your front line in the battle to
grow your business. Once you are confident they have the skills the
next step is to ensure they want to stay with you in your business. One
system that needs to be put in place to achieve this is an empowerment
policy. In my presentations one of the most often asked questions is
how do you implement an empowerment policy that works? But, first
let’s go back a step. An empowerment policy gives people responsibility
for their actions with the customer. It makes them feel that they are
trusted by management to make decisions in front of the customer. This
empowerment makes them feel they belong in the organization.
One of the most frustrating things for a customer is to deal with sales
staff who are not empowered where every decision has to be made by the
owner. I discovered one business recently where the owner was quite
open with me. He told me that he could not trust anyone - he even took
the money at the till. How can this company grow to its full potential?
It cannot.
A simple and effective rule that I find that works is allowing anyone
in your team to make a financial decision in front of a customer to the
value of the average sale per customer. Where the financial decision is
higher than the average sale per customer then they have to pass that
query on to a designated team member. Most decisions that have to be
made in front of the customer are below the average sale per customer
and any team member should be trusted to make such decisions.
Smart Retailer Tip Two: Empower Your Team
Introduce an empowerment policy so that all your team feel that you
have confidence in them. When queries are thrown back to management
that are less than the average sale per customer, throw it back to the
team member and make them make the decision. Once you have implemented
this policy, you must support the team members with the decisions that
they make.
Take a look at your merchandising through your customers’ eyes. What do
your customers see? Yes, we have had a period when discounting has
been the norm for retailers, but smart retailers are now moving onto
other strategies to grow sales.
Consumers still want an experience when they go shopping. They will
still look for new items, best sellers and ideas. Are you promoting
your new products? Are you “bundling” products to offer a solution for
your customer? Time is a premium for many shoppers and they want you to
do their thinking for them. That means providing solutions and ideas as
an opportunity to grow sales
Make one of your team members responsible for promoting products by
having a signage strategy that works for customers. Consumers are not
looking for more choice, they are looking for more solutions and that
is an opportunity to grow sales
Smart Retailer Tip Three: Create New Promotions
Always ensure that you have a new product promotion on the shop floor.
Identify your best sellers for customers and provide at least three
solutions in store by bundling the correct products together. Silent
selling tools can grow sales. Not all customers want to engage with
your team. Some are keen to browse shop and discover for themselves,
but you still have to make their journey easy for them.
Finally, the best way to market your business is to develop marketing
strategies that work with your existing customers and let them spread
the message to other customers. This can be a low investment compared
to other marketing techniques, but have a higher return. Techniques to
use could include networking with other local retailers. For example,
the hairdresser in our town has started networking with the local
florist, coffee shop and delicatessen. All are offering an incentive to
consumers that shows they are working in partnership. Provide a perk
for customers that come to your store. Ben and Jerry Ice Cream stores
have a free cone day. The only challenge is as a consumer you do not
know which day of the month the free cone day will be on. Find out who
are the main tipsters in your community that can help grow your
business. Ladies hairdressers are one of the best tipsters in our
community.
Smart Retailer Tip Four: Review
Have another look at your marketing strategy and find out how you can
develop strategies that involve your customers to help you promote your
business. Look at the retailers around you and see if there are any
opportunities to carry our neighbour to neighbour marketing.
Retailers who are proactive now will be the stronger retailers when the
economies of the world improve. I am not saying it is going to be easy,
I am saying that you have to change tactics to grow your business in a
new environment.
John Stanley is a retail business coach, speaker and author. His
specialist areas are customer focused layout, customer focused
merchandising, customer focused marketing and branding, and customer
focused selling and service. Email John on
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or
visit his website www.johnstanley.cc.
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