The thing I love about sales is that success is easy to spot and very difficult to fake. Every sales team I have ever worked with has consisted of successful sales reps who delivered results and unsuccessful reps who delivered excuses. Somehow the successful sales people produce month in, month out, completely unaffected by the [...]
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David Shear continues his series on the state of retail. Very mafia, right? Well, I don’t think the comparison is very far off. Retail sales require that you know the right people, and that everyone gets their share of the revenue. The people who sit on the top of the retail food chain are the [...]
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David Shear continues his series on the state of retail. Success in retail depends on your company’s current understanding of the overall retail landscape. You may have understood where retail was two years ago, you may have had your finger on the pulse in 2007, but the market isn’t what it was two years ago. [...]
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Circuit City shut its doors, office supply stores are reporting slow quarters, and consumers are staying home. The slow economy has reduced sales in just about every retail store. If your company is selling in the retail channel (or thinking about it), the news can be frightening. One year ago I could read the writing [...]
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Have you ever thought that running a business, especially a retail store, is a lot like dating? There you are in your store and in walks Mr. or Ms. “Right”, that ideal customer who simply loves your store and goes wild for your stuff. You have a great time and Mr. or Ms. Right leaves [...]
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Pop-up shops seem to be going mainstream this year. A Time.com story, Why Pop-Up Shops Are Hot, looks at this new retail business model. While pop-ups have had a dubious reputation in the past, of being fly-by-night outfits, they have recently been gaining respectability. The main indoor retail mall here in Eugene, Oregon has had [...]
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There’s an old story in the ad business about a man who ran a hot dog stand. He did really well selling his hot dogs. One day, a customer mentioned, while adding mustard to his hot dog, that he felt there was an economic downturn looming. The hot dog stand owner decided he’d better prepare [...]
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Kelly Spors had a nice story in The New York Times the other day, called “A Small Player Breaks Into Starbucks”. It’s a good story. It’s also accurate. I know, because in my early days of Palo Alto Software, we broke into the office stores, computer stores and superstores retail channels. And it was hard to do. [...]
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Troubling information today about the new ruling from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding the legislation on lead content, specifically as it pertains to items intended for children. Beginning February 10, 2009, all children’s products must meet a lead content limit of 600 parts per million (ppm). For those products manufactured after 2/10/09, manufacturers and importers [...]
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