4 More October Holiday Survival Tips



JCK’s 2012 Holiday Survival Guide is chock-full of tips from experts in marketing, social media, publicity, sales, and other critical areas of operations to get your business in shape for seasonal success.

Our editors were so inundated with advice for retailers that we couldn’t fit them all into the October issue. Here are four more that you and your business shouldn’t miss:

 

Staff

Acting Up

“About 90 days out, stores should begin regular sales training meetings with role playing. When salespeople do role playing, record it with a camera so people can see and hear their body language and their voice. Everyone should watch the videos together and then dissect, like a football coach would.”
—Ken Thoreson, president, Acumen Management Group

Sales

Survey Says

“Do a survey of some of your past customers. Ask them to score your performance across all the experiences they had with your store—finding the store, parking, storefront visuals, first impressions, salesperson first greetings, organization of your merchandise, trying the product on, pricing, customer service, sales rep knowledge. You need to understand, from the perspective of your customers, where you’re winning and where you’re losing business.”
—George Taylor, president, Beyond Feedback

Inventory

Good Measuring

“You have to have a really clear understanding of how much business you can do by category, so you make sure you have the right amount of inventory to line up. The day after Christmas you don’t want to have too much inventory and be dealing with payables. You want to hit high levels of sell-through in the Christmas season. November and December—that’s the whole story when it comes to selling jewelry.”
—Steve Pruitt, president, Blacks Retail

Marketing

Competitive Smarts

“Study your competition, look at their website, and look at what they have said and done in the past. What is their message? What are they trying to deliver to your customer? Make sure your website and message is unique—something that your competition isn’t doing.”
—Ken Thoreson, president, Acumen Management Group


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