Make a Difference - Sweat the Small Stuff First

In 'Giuliani Leadership', Rudy Giuliani makes a very important point about how vital it is to make a visible difference, however simple and even ineffective that might seem. Yet how much can we do to affect positively businesses or organisations we lead and manage ourselves.

My background is in retail management - yes, running stores, from tiny ones you couldn't swing proverbial cat around in, to huge three floor jobs. Yet there are some guiding principles which, like Giuliani did for New York, that make a difference on a smaller scale. Guiding principles which make a huge, possibly unseen difference to your customers and no less so to your employees.

I'd like to suggest that, on basis of 20% of focus gives you 80% of return, acting in just two areas of fine detail will make all difference in a retail business.

As they say - 'Retail is Detail'

1. Presentation
   Making a difference in presentation of your store sets a tone for who you are as a business and for your customers, what they can expect from you. And this needs to come from you, leader of business and very clearly. Indicating what is acceptable in terms of how you display merchandise, how you use display materials, where your focus and priorities are is very important. As you provide lead, others will follow. If you do it in a positive, constructive, even coaching way, they will learn, deliver consistently and even generate their own ideas. Once established, this becomes a culture of 'the way we do things around here'.

   Presentation is perfection within constraints of what you are able to do. Focusing on what you can't do, for maybe want of financing, is a waste of time and energy. Time and energy that can be focused on fixing that which is within your influence, and those of your people. This can be your own version of 'Broken Windows' or graffiti analogy that Giuliani uses so well - applied locally by you.

   So, for me, 'Perfection in Presentation' is:-

   • Having products you sell available at all times for your customers
   • Being clean
   • Removing debris (like sticky residues from old showcards and stuff like that)
   • Making checkouts available for just that - taking cash quickly and not selling stuff
   • Reducing 'visual chaos', which is intimidating for those very people you are trying to get into buying mode - your customers
   • Experiencing experience - through visiting your own store as a customer and seeing just what catches your eye
   
   
   

Internet Marketing Mistakes that Traditional Business Owners make part 3

If Internet Marketing is important to you, third in a 7 part series is a must for Australian Business Owners.

The third mistake in Internet marketing is made by business owners who do not follow through with their online marketing with a simple follow through system. A great way to generate sales and exposure is by wowing your customer or lead through email capture.

If done correctly, using an autoresopnder, business owners can get an edge on their competition by using a tool that is available in Internet marketing world.

By simply capturing an email in a shop, car yard, on phone by a receptionist, networking, point of sale or using traditional Internet marketing methods, your brick and mortar business could see a sales surge by well thought out communication.

After capturing an email, you can use it to provide information to your client, promotions, hints and tips, gift certificates and much more, all by sending a simple email that costs nothing to send. This method has been used with Internet marketing for years, but rarely have traditional businesses seen true power and potential that can exist by simply following up with a client.