Keep Score
Sometime in the 80’s I read Chuck Cooradt’s book The Game of Work and it clarified what I have been feeling my whole life.
Work can be fun, and when you think of it as a fun game everything changes.
What do games all have in common? Right; some form of scorekeeping. Coonradt say’s, “We watch the score while the game’s in progress so we can change behavior to win BEFORE the time runs out.”
When I was first exposed to retail I was shocked at how many businesses tallied up the totals at the end of the month, or even worse 20 days into the following month in order to calculate percentage rent.
Keep score day by day, or even better hour by hour. You will have more fun and make more money as well.

Times Do Change
When I saw this video of 50 firemen and a helicopter rescuing a German Sheppard from the Los Angeles River, memories flooded back. As a boy growing up in Downey, not too far from the City of Vernon, I remember it as “slaughter town.” Twenty-seven slaughterhouses lined Vernon Avenue from Soto Street to Downey Road. You could hear animals screaming and the morning death stench flowed all of the way to the freeway going into LA.

Gotcha!
When I saw fireman Joe St. Georges finally reach the dog and grab him, my eyes teared up. The dog was viciously biting him as he fought to save its life. It’s hard to think that this was happening in that same town where animal life was so abused on a daily basis. As a curious pre-teenager I ventured into one of those slaughter houses one day, and saw awful things I will never forget. These were not people who would go out of their way, let alone risk their own lives to save the life of a dog they didn’t know.
We have come a long way, baby!

Great Name
The dog was nicknamed Vernon, and he is recovering nicely in a Downey Shelter. Joe too is recovering after a trip to the hospital with serious bites on his hand and arm. He was unable to both muzzle and save Vernon, He opted for the latter. I understand there are 20 people lined up to adopt Vernon should his rightful owner not show up. If I lived there I would be in that line. I would also go visit Joe with a bottle of fine wine. I hope the other 20 do.

Unless you work at McDonald’s, chances are the answer is, “No.”
The 20% 20% 60% Rule of Retail say’s, “20% of the people who come into your store WILL buy something regardless of what you say or do. 20% will NOT buy anything regardless of what you say or do. 60% WILL buy or NOT buy depending TOTALLY upon what you say and do.” When you reach that 60 you get 80.
Obviously the percentages will vary slightly depending upon your product. The “WILL BUY” percentage will be a higher in a convenience store than in a high end jewelry store, art gallery or furniture store, but the principle is the same.
The person that is face-to-face with the customer plays a bigger role in the buying decision than anyone else in the chain of events leading up to the customer entering the store.
It’s sad to see a great location with great fixtures; fabulous marketing and great merchandise at fair prices fail due to poor service. It happens every day!
Anyone can sell to the first 20%, and no one can sell to the second 20%. To capture more of that 60% be sure that customers are greeted in a sincere manner, given the information that they need to make intelligent buying decisions, and aided in making those decisions.

Start Fast - Finish Strong!
That’s the key. A strong finish without the fast start can amount to hitting goal at the last minute. That’s better than missing it, but it is better to do as one of my clients preaches, “Kill the Goal!”
To Kill the Goal, a fast start is crucial.
GO!!!

I’m Mad as Hell and…

I am often reminded of my father’s two rules of business:

1. The customer is always right.
2. When that is not the case, refer to rule number 1.

I was reminded of these rules recently when reading an article in Advertising Age. The publication reported findings from a recent report by the research firm Yankelovich titled “Consumers in Control”.

Some of the interesting stats were:

82% of those interviewed said it was important to speak with a live person, with more than one in four (27%) indicating they’d even be willing to pay extra to have one.

75% believe businesses care more about selling existing products than coming up with what they want, up from 58% in 2004.

62% feel that service people don’t care much about their needs, up from 52% since 2004.

71% said they would walk out of a store even if it offered exactly what they were seeking if treated badly.

People are not only taking their business elsewhere, but also lashing out online. Blogs and YouTube have enabled more consumers to voice their distaste.

The article ended with this sobering comment; “If you get stained by bad customer service, it’s really hard to turn that around.” 

Keep that stain off of your business!

It Makes You Better
I walk around Ala Moana Beach Park and Magic Island just about every morning. I make it a point to time myself on my iPhone. As I was “walking” this morning I saw myself gaining on an elderly Japanese man “running” up ahead of me. I picked up my pace and caught up with him. As I passed him by (walking) I saw him give me a concerned look.
Within a few minutes he ran past me, looking back with a smile on his face. I picked up my pace a bit more, but couldn’t seem to gain on him. I noticed that he kept looking back at me, and the gap between us got wider and wider until he was out sight. At that point I felt myself slow down a bit; however upon the completion of my walk I saw that I had one of my best times yet around the park. I suspect that he did too.

It’s Motivating
This experience got me thinking about the power of competition. Here we were two men that don’t know each other, both out for our morning excercise. There was no race underway, no prize at the finish line, no one else was watching, and no words were spoken. However we both got in a better workout because of the subtle competition that was created. From my side the motivation was the pride of walking faster than someone running. From his side it was the humiliation of having a “walker” pass him by.

When You Compete You Win
Whether it’s walking around the park or selling in a store, spirited competion will make you better. In a race or sales contest there’s only one number one, but everyone that competes is a winner. If you are in ninth place and catching up with number one seems impossible, set your sights on number 8, then 7 and so forth. You will be better off than if you are content with where you are.