It’s common at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa

Eddie Crawford - Store Manager 

While conducting my regular manager’s Success Rally at Surf-n-Sea on Sunday morning, the manager, Eddie Crawford shared a very interesting story with us. He said that he received a call from a local bank, American Savings (he thought). He said that a very pleasant woman told him that they were doing an Economic Outlook Survey, and asked him if he would answer a few questions. One of the initial questions was, “Looking ahead to 2008 do you anticipate sales to be the same as last year, down 10%, or down 20%?” Eddie laughed and asked, “Where’s the up option?” Eddie said that she was taken back by his reply and said, “Nobody is answering like that”. A few minutes later she asked about staffing; “Do you plan to maintain the staff you have, cut back by 10% or cut back by 20%?” Eddie again asked, “What about increasing it, that’s what we want to do?” She said, “Oh, I forgot, I’m talking to the optimist”.
Surf-n-Sea survived the Gulf War in 1991. When “911″ hit it was business as usual at Surf-n-Sea while others placed “Going Out Of Business” signs in their windows. When there were two major landslides shutting Haleiwa off from the rest of the island, sales kept right on climbing. Eddie has good cause for his optimism. January 2008 just closed with a huge increase over 2007. 

Success Rally
I have been meeting with the staff at Surf-n-Sea in Haleiwa for close to 15 years. I have seen (and even caused) many changes in that time frame. One of those changes has been an increase in sales that is close to 10 times from where it was. Another change required a willingness to get outside of their current comfort zone and embrace my system of Pro-Active, No Pressure Selling.

“Aloha”
Salespeople began greeting customers and attending my monthly Success Rallies. Next was a willingness to provide all new employees with their own copy of my book Retail Selling Made Easy. The Morning Report then came along, and Surf-n-Sea was one of the very first companies in Hawaii to get it, even in its initial raw form.

What Recession?

As rumors about a recession begin to circulate in the retail community, my advice is to tune them out and become an optimist like Eddie Crawford, owner Joe Green and the pro-active staff at Surf-n-Sea. It’s Easy! You can do it too.

500 New Jobs in Hawaii

Nordstrom will be opening in Honolulu on March 7, and WILL BE hiring 500 new salespeople in a market where I continue to hear, “We can’t find people”. We have even had stores go out of business citing that as the reason. How will Nordstrom find those people, and where will they come from? They will find them right here under our noses and many of them will come from retailers already hurting for staff.

Think about how smart and clever this ad is:

Wanted:
Retail sales associate capable of earning more than $100,000 a year

Read the ad carefully and you will see that they are looking for ONE person CAPABLE of earning that money. They have already had 1,600 apply.
Nordstrom has 30,000 salespeople, and 123 (less than 1/2 of one percent) of them earned that amount of money last year. But the ad is factual as stated and hundreds, if not thousands of Honolulu salespeople will respond without analyzing the “fine print”. They WILL FIND the 500 salespeople they need to open that store on March 7.

Nordstrom has always been known for their generous commission plan. When “good old Liberty House” was here, those in the Nordstrom run shoe department were famous for their great service and also made the most money. It’s too bad that the rest of the company didn’t recognize the lesson in front of them. If so, they might still be here today. If Macy’s doesn’t wake up pretty soon we will be reading about their demise and hearing them blame Nordstrom in some way.

I read The Nordstrom Way by Robert Spector in the 70’s. That was before I had discovered retail myself. It was also at least 20 years before I had enough experience to write Retail Selling Made Easy. When I finished reading The Nordstrom Way, I contacted Robert and found him to be as EASY to talk to as being a customer in Nordstrom was. I am sure that many of those principles helped me form my Pro-Active, No-Pressure Selling System.

How big is your company handbook? Nordstrom’s employee “handbook” is printed on a paper card listing one rule: “Use your good judgment in all situations.”

That says it ALL! Welcome to town Nordstrom. You will be a great model for many others to follow, and a great excuse for some to fail.

Bill and Carolyn Pollack

While in Albuquerque this week I met with Bill and Carolyn and their staff. While there I was treated to a tour of the Relios Jewelry factory.

Kelly took about 125 photos of our tour, and in coming days I will show you some of the photos she took.

STRETCH

The part that amazed me the most was “stretch time”, where all employees get up from their work stations and stretch together. This is done twice a day, and it is led by a different employee each time.

They Care

I was touched by this dedication to the health and well being of the staff. I would like to see all companies consider such a routine.
Stand by for more great photos of Relios.

 All Smiles

I can always count on big smiles and great attitudes whenever meting a group of Brighton retailers. On this particular morning it was 7 degrees Fahrenheit outside and preparing to snow. We have thin blood in Hawaii, but Team Brighton can warm anybody up.

Craig Pettit

Craig kicked off the rally with a warm welcome and gave me a typical Brighton build up; Mahalo Craig. There is one Brighton Collectibles store at the Pavilion and another in Cherry Creek. A number of other people were present from other Brighton Collectibles stores in the Denver area.

The Way to Go

1-14-08 - I am off to Phoenix, Denver and Albuquerque to meet with Avila Retail salespeople and managers. Scroll to the bottom of this post and read up to see some of the neat people that I met in those places.

1-17-07 4 PM Rally Completed

1-17-07 2 PM Rally Completed

1-17-07 10 AM Rally Completed

1-17-07 I met Steve, the Denver GM

1-16-07 7:00 PM Checked in to Denver hotel - 6 Degrees Farenheit!

1-16-07 4:30 PM Flew from Phoenix to Denver

1-16-08 2:00 PM rally completed

1-16-08 11:00 AM Rally Completed

1-16-08 8:30 AM I am headed back to the Phoenix airport to start another series of Success Rallies with Avila Retail 

1-15-08 4:00 PM rally completed

1-15-08 2:00 PM rally completed

1-15-08 11:00 AM rally completed

1-15-08 9:30 AM I had a tour of the Avila Phoenix stores

Teresa Curl - “Da Boss” Overall

This was Guy’s First Day As Phoenix GM

Sukanya Has Run The Phoenix Show The Past 4 Years

I Met the Avila Management Staff in Phoenix 

1-15-08 8:30 AM I am headed back to the Phoenix airport to start a series of Success Rallies with Avila Retail

1-15-08 12:30 AM I just checked into my hotel in Phoenix

1-14-08 11:55 PM I have arrived at the airport in Phoenix

1-14-08 3:05 PM I am in seat 2A aboard Hawaiian Air to Phoenix

go! Lost $20 Million Bucks

“Clearly, we’re disappointed with our results”.
-Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of go!

Hey Jonathon; what did you expect? It’s called KARMA! To get a fair deal you have to play the game fair. I am a big believer in competition, and while someone once said that all is fair in love and war, that’s not the case with business.
As USA TODAY reported recently, bankruptcy judge Robert J. Farison ordered the operator of “go!” to pay Hawaiian Airlines $80 million for using confidential information it obtained from Hawaiian’s bankruptcy proceedings. Things got worse when they destroyed the documental proof of these misdoings.
Add another $20 million and you have to wonder, “How much longer can go! continue before they have to go?”

Great Customer Service

I recently downloaded Skype Pro on to my computer so that I can make unlimited long distance calls for a mere $3 per month. Upon testing it, I found that my desk top microphone had background noise that made for poor reception. I then ordered a $30 head set on line, and paid an added $20 bucks for overnight delivery. That was good for a few calls and then it stopped working. A few years ago that would have been the end of Skype for me, but I have grown to be a lot more patient. Upon testing I determined that the microphone in my head set was faulty. I didn’t want to wait for a new one, so I decided to try a different microphone from my digital recorder only to discover that the battery was dead. I headed over to Radio Shack to replace the battery.
I was greeted immediately upon entering the store and asked a few key questions. Joelle then led me to the battery that I needed, sold me a spare as well and upon listening to my story showed me a top of the line head set and microphone designed to work with Skype. I walked out happy having spent $90 plus.
I got back to my office and was thrilled with the performance of my new head set, but upon setting up my digital recorder I noticed the lapel clip was missing. I called Radio Shack. To my delight a human answered the phone.  I asked for Joelle. She had gone for the day, but Verra listened to my story, looked about for my clip and returned to say that she couldn’t find it, but if I came to the store they would give me a replacement lapel clip. I did and they did, all with a smile. I asked for the manager’s name and she gave me Rose Yu’s card. I was impressed. I’ll be back to Radio Shack.

New Name - Same Great Food

Lahaina Grill owner Jurg Munch made news recently when he dropped the name “David Paul” from his historic Lahaina restaurant. It’s sometimes difficult to book one of the restaurant’s 145 seats, and it is considered by many to be Maui’s prettiest, freestanding restaurant.

Lahaina Grill was originally established in 1990 in the historic Lahaina Inn. While the name has changed slightly, the wonderful food and atmosphere remain as good as always. This is THE PLACE to eat when on Maui. The awards and accolades received in the past 19 years speak to the quality of this fine dining restaurant in the little town of Lahaina:

February 1993 Three Stars - Mimi Sheraton, Condé Nast Traveler.
February 1994 Three Stars John Mariani, Food & Wine
November 1994 Four & ½ Stars John Heckathorn, HONOLULU Magazine
1997 and 1998 America’s Top Tables Gourmet readers’ poll
1997 and 1999 Ilima Award - Best Maui Restaurant, The Honolulu Advertiser readers’ poll
2005 and 2007 Readers Choice Award - Best Service, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine readers’ poll
2003, 2004 and 2007 Readers Choice Award - Best Overall Restaurant, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine readers’ poll
2006 Named Fodor’s Choice for Hawaii as World’s Top Establishment”

Jurg (left) Welcomes Mr. Excel founder and author Bill Jellen, and Wife MaryEllen. Jurg is a chef by trade originally from Switzerland, and keeps a close eye on the kitchen, but his duties in running the restaurant and acting as a “host extraordinaire” most evenings keep the chef’s apron off of him.

Who’s The Best?

As we go into this election year everyone is deciding who would make the best next president. I love to watch the posturing, hear the attacks and in general enjoy the show. But when it comes down to an opinion, I am reminded of something my wise Daddy told me, “In business, never talk about religion or politics”, so with that advice in mind, I will stop right here!

 5,000+ Autographs

The Hawaii faithful turned out in large numbers today to get Colt Brennan’s autograph on just about everything you can imagine. I had talked with Kent Untermann of Pictures Plus beforehand about getting an autographed copy of Success Made Easy into Colt’s hands wishing him success in his NFL bid. When I arrived at Kahala Mall there was a line stretching all of the way through the parking lot. About 5,000 people had paid $25 bucks (in advance) to get something autographed.
I spotted Kent handling the crowd. I waived at him holding up the book. He signaled me to pass it to him. I sailed it over the heads of the crowd and he handed it off to Colt; mission accomplished.

Easy $100
As I turned to walk away I was stopped by Ryan Stone of Pre-Paid Legal Services. He offered me $100 to toss his helmet to Kent to get it signed by Colt. I explained that the book I passed was mine that was going to Colt, not something for Colt to sign. We had a good laugh about that. As tempting as an easy $100 bucks sounded, I couldn’t bring myself to try that pass.

As I was leaving I saw the press interviewing a couple that had come to the event carrying signs encouraging June Jones to stay in Hawaii. I doubt seriously that these little signs could change his mind about taking the big bucks in Dallas.