Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

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 rea...

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 th...

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 ge...

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...

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...

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...

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 doo...

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...

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...

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 c...

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....

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...

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 jew...

Are you a salesperson in a retail store? Well, today I'm talking about how do you feel about selling your more expensive merchandise. A lot of times that when I'm doing sales consulting, or I'm doing a training with a group of stores, I find that there's a lot of people who actually feel like they're being a fraud. They know how much something costs, and they feel bad about going through and charg...

You know, if you're trying to close a sale, one of the hardest things is just presenting too many options. You know it yourself, if you get overwhelmed, suddenly work is what shopping feels like and you shut down. You're like, oh, I've seen too much. I just have to leave. I'll come back. Except you don't come back. You'll probably go to some other retailer who doesn't make it feel that way. What I...

Yesterday I was talking about employees and associates who just want to vomit useless fact after useless fact on people. They're typically kind of, an engineer or an analytical background and they think that the facts are what is going to make the sale. And today's tip for you is, that you always want to lead with what the product does for the customer after you've talked to them. You don't want t...

Have you ever met somebody that you just can't get along with, whether they're interviewing for a job or a shopper or even a colleague? We all have, and there's other people that really do well with you and really like them. We've all had that as well. Well, I think that there is a awful lot to personality styles. In fact, today I want you to Google my personality quiz, so Retail Doctor personalit...

Have you ever been thanked by a vendor or by a store that you did business with? It's pretty powerful. I have a pond that I had cleaned out a while ago and they sent me a handwritten thank you and told me how great the pond was and made one more suggestion of something we could do, maybe next year when we have it cleaned out. And that really stuck with me, because I go back to them over and over a...

Do you ever wonder how valuable your employees are to you? A lot of people do. They don't really know exactly what the metrics are, and I always say, "Look at the units per sales." That's the #1 way I look at it. That's the tip I'm talking about today because add-ons are the most cost-effective ways to lift your retail sales, means you sell the first item, and then the employee shows something tha...

Do you ever go to a movie without looking at a review? I don't. I always want to know that and shoppers are no different now. They're looking at all kinds of reviews whether it's product reviews, brand reviews or even in your individual store. Whether you're big or small, you need to get those reviews and you need to be timely in talking to people. So today, I'm just talking about making the time...

You know, over on my blog, retaildoc.com/blog, I probably have a thousand articles, and a lot of times they're in response to people asking me, "How do I greet a customer?" and "What's the best way to approach a customer?" And I'm always surprised by that because if you just looked at what's going on, you wouldn't do those bad habits. "Hi, can I help you find something? You have a budget? Looking...

I love a busy store, don't you? Time just goes by. Everything works well. But one of the challenges we have is some of our employees don't know how to make it faster or shorter depending on the number of people. And what I'm talking about today is that the length of time with a shopper has to diminish the busier the store is. So what I want you to think about, today, is role play with one of your...

Can you imagine if you were in school and you turned in a big term paper and you got it back with no grade or comments? How would you feel? Kind of deflated, right? Well, that's what happens with an awful lot of employees. They never hear that they did anything good or bad because we've gotten rid of employee reviews. Most employees, especially millennials, want to know how they're doing. It isn't...

As the Retail Doctor, people often ask me, "How can I get more people into my store? How do I attract more shoppers?" And while it's good to attract shoppers, you better know your conversion rate, because just getting more people in the door isn't the begin all and end all. It's how do you convert those lookers into buyers? When you look around at how different types of businesses have made a diff...

You know, returns are at an all-time high in online and it doesn't look like they're going away. In fact, online shoppers, I think, can return up to 30, 40, even 50% depending on your category. But what about in your own stores? What's your return policy? If you have one that's archaic and you have it up at the register, and it's like, "No returns without this, this, this, and this," then it's a "...