Is it Hawaii, or Have Things Changed at Nordstrom?

The headline in Tuesday’s Honolulu Advertiser said, “Sales Fall, Jobs Cut after big opening”. The article went on to say, “Hawaii’s first full-line Nordstrom department store opened at Ala Moana Center with a bang two months ago. But since then sales have fizzled somewhat and led to job cuts. They laid off 30 employees in the last month or so because of softer sales, following the abrupt shutdowns of major Hawaii carriers Aloha Airlines on March 31 and ATA Airlines on April 2.”

I am getting a bit tired of hearing that Aloha and ATA shutdowns are at the root of retailer problems. I doubt if the typical ATA traveler coming to Hawaii would be shopping at Nordstrom anyway. I think that the downturn in sales is due more to the dissapointing service we are seeing in the store.

“Since the opening, 70 other employees have quit for personal reasons or were fired for not meeting Nordstrom performance standards.” I hope that includes some of the ones that I have encountered in the store.

While I have heard some rave reviews, I have heard many more stories about a lack of expected service. Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe their rush to hire so many people in a tight job market resulted in some “bad hires”, but whatever the reason I think that Nordstrom needs to point the finger back at themselves, and not at Aloha or ATA Airlines.

Prior to the opening of Nordstrom, I went on record as saying that stores like Macy’s would be in big trouble because of the customer service ways at Nordstrom. Since the opening I have had numerous people tell me about being ignored while shopping there. I recently travelled all floors along with a visiting client from the mainland and we were never spoken to. We left looking at each other amazed. That same day my client spent $8,400 for a Burka bag at Hermes where he got service.

I hesitate to reveal this little secret, but I now park in the covered Nordstom garage whenever going to Ala Moana. This means walking through Nordstrom on my way. In countless trips I have only had two encounters with salespeople and both were terrific. One resulted in the purchase of a $350 pair of sun glasses, and the other was close to $400 for some men’s shorts and t-shirts in the casual department. The problem here is that on both occassions I was the pro-active one engaging the salesperson. Once I started it, the service was terrific and I bought more than I intended to.

Know It Well

While meeting with the sales staff at Avila Retail in Albuquerque last month I described the importance of telling your customers the “W’s” about your store; WHO you are; WHAT you are, WHAT you sell, and WHERE it is in the store. Doing this breaks down barriers, makes the “trust sale” and gives the customer direction.
To be prepared, you must have it memorized and practiced to the point that you can deliver it as if it were the 1st time you ever did.
I was delighted this morning to get a call and follow up e-mail from Bob Shank in Albuquerque wanting “my take” on this memo he is sending to his sales staff. I think he say’s it very well.
Do You Have Your Elevator Speech Ready?
By Bob Shank

Do you remember the last time you rode in an elevator? If there was someone riding with you, nine chances out of ten you had some sort of conversation. You probably told them a little bit about yourself; such as where you’re from, what you do, and why you’re in town. Now think about the length of the ride. It was probably no more than a minute or two, tops. This conversation is called your “Elevator Speech”. Now think about a short, to the point “Elevator Speech” that you can use when you “TELL” (Step 4) your customers about your store. In Retail Selling Made Easy, Ron says “Tell your customers who you are, what you are, what you sell and where it is in a pro-active, no-pressure manner. Pro-Active, No Pressure Selling enables you to make the most of your time with customers while enabling you to effectively use the 9 Steps to Sales City. Good luck to you all and remember . . . keep riding those elevators!

Friday, May 7, 2008

We are proud to announce that two Success Dynamics clients received the “Best 2008 New Commercial Development” award at the 2008 Kukulu Hale Awards Presented by National Association of Industrial & Office Properties (NAIOP). This is a very prestigeuos award as it includes competition on a national scale.

The Honolulu Design Center won the best New Commercial Development Project out of seven other projects greater than 40,000 square feet.

The Wedding Ring Shop took best in it’s category for a New Commercial Development less than 40,000 square feet.

Serve It - Deserve It!
“Keep The Change” is a phraze that used to be heard before the advent of the ever present “tip jar”. Dropping your money into a jar crammed with dollar bills is not as rewarding as putting it into the hand of a person giving you great sevice. It can also lead to some stupid behavior.
While in a Starbuck’s the other day, the clerk handed me a cup of coffee and said, “That will be $2.03 “. I paused for a minute considering how much of my 97 cent change I wanted to put in the tip jar. The clerk then reached into the tip jar, saying, “That’’s okay, I have it here” and took out the 3 cents, leaving me with no change to put in the tip jar. That act really devalued the intention of someone before me. I also thought it was a dumb (although nice) enough move to not warrant a full dollar tip, as I now had no change to drop into the tip jar. I had to wonder how often that happens.

“Here you go”
Then there was that coffee place on Maui where I ordered a medium size cup of coffee and was handed an empty cup. I played dumb and said, “No, I wanted it full.” Being even dumber than I was acting, she said, “Oh, you have to get it yourself, over there”, pointing across the room to four large pots of coffee to choose from. I asked, “What’s this tip jar for?” She didn’t quite know how to react.

I’d also like a real cup when sitting in a coffee shop. Sorry about the “Andy Rooney attitude” here, but I am still a big fan of service, and when I get it, I am about as big of tipper as you will see anywhere.

…Sell More

Selling comes down to a verbal exchange between two people. Understanding what flows between two people is the best way to improve your selling results.

The single most important exchange of information takes place between the salesperson and the customer. This is where decisions are made that have the greatest impact on your company’s cash flow.

It’s pretty simple actually; it all comes down to talking and listening. Too many times the salesperson thinks that the talking part is most important. It makes no difference how smooth your delivery is if the reception is closed. 

People think faster than they listen. If your customer is talking at a faster rate than you are listening, you may fail to hear some very important information. Salespeople, intent on making the sale sometimes start thinking about their responses before the customer finishes talking. Missing one key point from your customer could easily cost you a sale.

You will enjoy more selling success by concentrating more on what your customer is saying than what you want to say back. Listening when you want to talk can be difficult if it is not your habit.

Developing good listening skills is like establishing any other habit. Practice makes perfect, but you need to be certain that you are practicing the right way, not the wrong way. Practice this at home and in your social activities so that when you find yourself with a customer it will come more natural.

Keep your ego in your back pocket and let the customer talk. Your time will come, and when it does, your presentation will more likely be on target than if you jump in assuming that you know what the customer is about to say. Remember also that non verbal communication is revealing as well. Watch as you listen to pick up on small body language messages that can keep you in synch with your customer’s thinking.

And always remember that selling is for the customer more than you. Your customers are most likely to have what they buy from you much longer than you will have the money they give you.

Nice Setting
Conducting Success Rallies at Surf-n-Sea on the 1st Monday evening of the month (tonight) is always a real treat.

Goal Setting
Joe, Eddie and I go over the numbers and set the goals.

Happy Sells!
This team shows up happy, eats the pizza, soaks up the information and then goes out there and sets records.
April was another record month and they are on the way to a record year.

Born 12-19-1951
Died 4-16-2008

Hawaiians have a way of saying goodbye to their deceased beloved unlike any other place in the world. A gathering of family and friends on the beach, a sunset sail, words from a Kahuna, the scattering of ashes into the blue pacific, the tossing in of flowers, (and in this case some beer and rum) folowed by the women in Don’s life taking a last swim with him, and then capping it off with dinner for all at the exclusive Outrigger Canoe Club. He had to have loved it all.

If you knew Don these pictures speak for themselves. If you didn’t know Donald Benjamin Olson, you missed out on someone special.

Aloha Don, we will all see you again someday. And, God Bless Kulani Fernandez for the 25 years of devoted love and understanding she gave to Don while here on this earth.

Micro-Manage Your Success
Six long (very long) years have gone by since President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and announced, (and I quote verbatim), “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.”
 
3,924 members of the U.S. military have died since that staement. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since that declaration and millions have been displaced from their homes. And there are currently more U.S. troops in Iraq than there were when the U.S. invaded with a contingent of other coalition forces.

This Blog post is not about politics or the war in Iraq; that’s just a great example of a self serving, pre-mature declaration of success. This message is about getting a job done, and done right. We would all like to declare victory early. Managers often times think they have achieved a mission as soon as they have delegated it to someone to do. When delegating a task, the arm of responsibility remains connected to the delegator. YOUR JOB is not done until THE JOB is done.

When you ask someone to do something, you need to check and see if it was done, on time and right! You cannot “ass/u/me” you did the job when you delegated it.

Some may call this “micro-management”; I consider that an over used term for “management”. Another well used expression is “You must inspect what you expect”. Not doing so can lead to failure and embarrasment.