The gravitas and DNA of our retail business coldly and or warmly defined is a profitable sale of goods to the final, ultimate consumer.
A retail in-store experience can be torridly and artfully better defined through a congressed spirit of giving called “consumer generosity.” Not just simonizing coupons, special sales, drive-period promotions and/or paper rewards but rather, one-to-one ambient care and generosity for a consumer’s happiness. After all, who can resist generosity? Who can resist happiness? Who cannot be grateful for a brand, for a product, for a retailer who makes them happy: who delivers generous service, support and smiles before and after the sale?
Amplified generosity across many in-store touch points can be a major profit generator “right after their first purchase or when their service needs begin,” as per survey results published by ClickFox. And according to a study from Thunderhead.com, 25 percent of customers would switch to a different provider (brand) on the basis of just a single negative experience. One in five would never re-establish trust in a provider after a significant negative experience. It is axiomatic, based upon this research, that consumers define retail brand leadership in mere seconds. Of course, in our hyper-social-networking lives, consumers also promulgate their positive or perfidious definition of a retail brand experience across the clouds instantaneously.
Brand salesmanship is smartly projected and illuminated through display, packaging and associated brand value.
Many times, the very best in-store salesman becomes the product and packaging itself. But always, caring-and-sharing selling must be the life blood of retail store employees regardless of their position. Retail sales failure defines and motivates an opportunity for brand/product leadership to motivate consumer generosity in highly expensive, profit discounted ways.
Retailing of course is also highly competitive, a daily rough-and-tumble business. Seasonal results can run hot or cold, but must always run on offering best brands, products, prices, locations and generous personal services. Retail is primarily about selling. It is all about leadership salesmanship at the last three feet of the sale. It’s all about warranting superior brand value, brand experience: brand proposition. It is all about creating kinetic boomerang store traffic. Aggregated, the catalyzed retail opportunity ensures consumer loyalty and increased store traffic. The following 7 principles declare loudly that retail generosity begets profitable generosity for both sides of the aisle:
Be Care-FULL: care about your customers and they in turn will be care-FULL about your retail brand. Be motivated in-store care-fully with every customer by defining and measuring the kilter of a store associate’s engagement score and expectations for competitive greatness.
Hire thy Heroes: find them, invest in them through the very best in sales training, personal development and retail selling tools. If you build it, with best of breed human capital, they will come back kinetically and that’s called highly profitable “boomerang retailing.”
Sell Brand-Generosity: which sells, warrants and defines your retail brand promise and advantages: garners, protracts and accelerates store traffic ahead. Selling brand generosity along with your goods and services offers caring and sharing emotional and sustainable good-will capital to ensure a next visit and many more.
In-Store Waiting Time: for consumers creates lost opportunities, rusty cash registers causing the highly dreaded profit avoidance business. Speed of help, support and transactions is speed to greater profitability.
Be The Reason: make clear through actions and conviction through every in-store touch point why you exist, why you matter, why they should care about you, your brand, your future in their busy, socially charged, “choice not chance” filled buying lives. Being the right reason is always the right construct to success.
Be Social: social is not about digital strength. Social engagements are about relevant strength. Be highly consumer relevant, to be highly valued in your in-store and cloud based engagements. Remember, it’s not about pushing your agenda, it’s about pulling their agenda, their dreams.
Sell the Dream Not The Reality: The reality is they wish to purchase a new television. The dream to be sold is not the cold plastic of a new TV rather the dream to be sold is about watching and experiencing the SuperBowl or an epic movie in their living room.
Remember, engage and amplify these 7 principles to be care-FULL to win. Always be care-FULLY generous to consumers and they in turn will always be care-FULLY generous to your retail brand, your store traffic, your profitable sell-through: your entire retail franchise.
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