have met hold the opinion that as soon as a customer mentions things are cheaper on the internet, there is nowhere else to go. We know there is, do they know there is? That’s my point. Do they need help? How likely are people to buy top-end bikes
these days? A lower chance than if you show them to more people, rather than only to customers who can obviously afford them? Isn’t it the classic salesman’s numbers game? The more who see it the more will buy it – the salesman’s creed. Unless you sell from the top down rather than the bottom up, your average bike sale will stay right where it is. It is well known that sales people can get into the habit of always taking customers to the same set of bikes. They always sell, they do not come back and they are a safe sale. If customers start to be able to afford less,
the average bike sale will decrease and your net profitability with it. Times may well be approaching when you need to increase customer spend to increase profitability, two accessories going out the door when they only came in to buy one. I said in an earlier article that being open for business when people want you to be is also key. Two staff shifts working from 7.00am to 8.00pm might be a start. Yes, it’s revolutionary against what we do now, but it reminds me of a brilliant quote from a well-known and very successful marketing book written especially for smaller businesses: “There is nothing
more damaging to a growing business than is encapsulated in the
phrase: We’ve always done it like that.” What about reviewing ‘automatic
In a time of austerity where we have to start to think about fighting for business rather than just waiting for it to stroll through the door, we also have to start thinking about preparing the staff because the job they do for you is changing, writes Colin Rees...
“Do you change your window monthly to reflect things people might want, as opposed to sexy things the staff really like?”
Colin Rees
UK CONSUMERS as a group are being conditioned by austerity to no longer believe price tickets. The never-ending sales everywhere, the promotional marketing of the big retailers, are gradually having their conditioning effect. The fact that people have less to spend means that their appetite for something good does not diminish, but they don’t expect to have to pay the going rate any more. Setting a maximum level of discounts for staff to follow where there is no published policy will save you net profits especially if you use pound notes instead of the traditional percentages. In these pages, I have often put forward the
facts about the profits drain called ‘discounting’ and been bludgeoned afterwards with people saying it isn’t possible to run a bike shop and not give discounts. Even though I fervently believe anyone can give money away, it takes a properly trained, skilled person to resist, but I won’t take up the challenge here as I am on a different mission, one of suggesting to owners they may need to start preparing for a downturn and one area is internal/external staff training. For instance, how slick are your people at dealing with the internet objection? With people this Christmas having just spent five times as much this year online as they did last year, this is becoming a real issue especially as the staff I
14 BIKEBIZ MARCH
discounts’ such as the ten per cent off everything most bike shops provide without asking. Why do you do that? Discounts should only be given when you get something back. Do you change your window monthly to
reflect things people might want, as opposed to sexy things the staff really like? How many people actually stop and look at it? That’s the measure of whether it’s effective. How often do you stage late night open
evenings with promotional discounts off selected items, the classic blue cross sale day. Another sign of things changing is Homebase who have always had one day a month where everything in the store has ten per cent off. They just raised that to 15 per cent off to capture some market share. John Major staged the ‘back to basics’
campaign. If things really are going to get worse and last until 2018 as the Chancellor suggests, will you recognise when it happens to you, will your staff and your store be ready and equipped to handle it, will you get through January and February with nil cash flow? These times we are trading through might mean that survival depends on encouraging people into your store perhaps for the first time, changing attitudes and competing harder. Maybe the days of letting it come to you are tailing off? Help is at hand, people are around who can advise and suggest, but only an owner can recognise a trend that is seasonal against one that is inherent. Let’s all hope it doesn’t happen, but if it does, the business that is ready is the one that will survive. Colin Rees, bike trade sales trainer and management consultant Colinrees7@gmail.com; 07540 351 530