Taking Stock

From time to time, I find it necessary to stop, step back and consider what we are doing and where we are going. What initially prompted (forced) me to take that step back a while ago and look at things was busy-ness. I was busy about many things in the store, busy about responsibilities in other parts of the ministry, busy about career and so many other things and not quite as busy as needed as a husband and father of three-and that too is full time work.

When we begin to do work, especially in ministry, we can become overwhelmed with a self-imposed “higher calling” that begins to take on a form of bondage that ultimately leads to burnout, a lack of creativity and faded passion.

Merry Christmas!

May God’s love and grace surround you and your family this Christmas season and have a very happy and prosperous new year from all of us here at KVI!

Merry Christmas,
David McIntyre
KVI Consulting

Planning To Win

How much do you value your time?  The easy answer to that question can be found in observing how you spend it.  As retailers, we spend a lot of time working in our stores instead of on them. Consequently, the things that need to happen don’t because they are sacrificed for the “now” at the expense of the future. The reason we tend to find ourselves so wrapped up in so many time-draining works is because we really never started with some type of a plan.  So what was the first thing you did?  You started doing. Doing this and doing that, researching this, finding a vendor for that, trying to please and/or appease people.  Instantly, everyone and everything needed your attention. What you needed was a plan.

What’s In YOUR Future?

How much of what happens in your business (life) is actually planned?  Is where you are today where you planned to be, or is it a nice surprise?  People spend more time planning a two week vacation then they do the other 50 weeks of the year.  The vacation is great but the rest of the year, well, it’s less than victorious.  It stands to reason that we get the results we plan for and when we don’t plan, well, we get those results as well.  Success will not just happen, we have a part to play.

Wayward Retailers

This morning (Saturday) I took a drive around town to see what things looked like on the Saturday after black Friday… It was empty. Typically several stores are open early on Saturday for more sales and incentives but this year it looked like no one was even trying. As a retail consultant I watch this weekend closely because I know what it means to so many retailers. At the beginning of this holiday season I was very optimistic despite the economic reports and remained that way until yesterday. Here’s what changed my outlook – retailers as a whole are not providing any real drive for consumers. I would like to go on record first by saying that I am not a fan or advocate of heavy, endless discounting. Especially in church stores. We must remain competitive without creating a discount culture among our customers. The moment you do, you will be hard pressed to reverse this perception and ultimately it will cost you financially. That said the biggest consumer complaints I have heard were:

1. There’s nothing really all that exciting to buy and

2. there are no real deals out here.

While I am fully aware of the current state of our economy and it’s impact on peoples spending. I am not convinced that consumers are not going to spend money. A National Retail Federation Survey from October identified that consumers will be focusing their spending on their immediate families and less on friends and decor this year. In addition the study indicates that consumers planned to spend about the same as last year on their spouse and children. This is a significant thought because many retailers should expect to see flat or slightly fluctuating sales not large swings one way or the other. So as retailers we have to put the right bait on our fishing poles. Unfortunately, few stores (with some exceptions) failed to bait the hook well. However knowing what i know about the media and how things will be portrayed in the news, the headline is very likely to read “Consumers hold on to their wallets this holiday season” or “Fears about the economy cause consumers to stay home. Yet, i am sure when I see the reports over the next few days it will show an increase in holiday spending over last year. As retailers, if we are going to succeed in the retail landscape we have to be smarter than this. We have to get the consumer in for a special deal(s) and expose them to all of the other great stuff in your store.   With that, I predict that Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target will be the big winners for this Black Friday and the losers will include the likes of Circuit City, The Office stores (MAX and Depot) and Department stores. Somewhere in the middle will be Old Navy, Best Buy and Toys R US. Now how about your store? How did you do this weekend? How were your sales this year compared to last year? Drop us a note and let us know.

P.s.

Don’t forget about Cyber Monday, black Friday for the on-line retailers.

David

Back to Basics

When things get tough, the economy is impacting your sales, or you are limited by ministry factors in what you are able to do, the guerilla church bookstore manager knows that he or she needs to follow Guerilla Tactic #4 Get Back to Basics (you can learn tactics 1-3 by clicking here).

The basics are the collection of things your store does day in and day out that make things work. For some, this may include a certain way of handling special orders that your customers have come to trust such as your highly anticipated annual Christmas catalog or bible imprinting services. Think of these things as your foundation. Every well built home requires a strong, firm foundation. Without one, the building will fall. If you have laid the foundation of good sales practices such as understanding when to implement a sale or knowing percentages/dollar amounts that motivate shoppers to purchase, then you can see long term success at sales and discounting. Does that mean some of your sales won’t do as well as others?

Guerilla Tactics of the Church Bookstore Manager

As many of you know, running a church bookstore is no small feat.  In fact, I believe that working at Borders Books was a cake-walk comparatively. Not being backed up by a big marketing machine and lack of established policy and procedures like I had at Borders forced me to go guerilla.  I, as you do, had to tackle some rather large challenges without the benefit of a sufficient support staff, money and, quite frankly, a less-than-understanding leadership.  They don’t lack understanding due to insincerity but rather an ignorance of what it truly takes to run a successful retail operation in the church and a fear of crossing the line between proper selling and turning the church lobby into a marketplace.

I use the term “guerilla” similar to the approach that Jay Conrad Levinson outlined in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing. For our case, I will define guerilla as the unconventional methods and tactics required to overcome the often unexpected obstacles of running a chuch bookstore. So, I want to give you a few quick guerilla tactics that you can use in your store.

Surviving and Thriving in Economic Uncertainty Pt.1: Work Your Core Inventory

Today’s economy has produced a great deal of fear and anxiety. Recent reports from Retail Forward and other industry groups are already warning of slow holiday sales as some consumers are indicating that they will pull back on spending for the holidays. Add to that the cost of gas and retailers everywhere are asking “How can I survive in these economic times?” This series of articles will help you to answer just that question and show you how you could actually thrive during this time.

The first area we are going to look at is your core inventory.

Work your core inventory

I know that you may have heard a lot about core inventory especially if you have been involved with the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) or the Church Bookstore Network. In case you have not, in a nutshell, your core inventory is the collection of the best-selling and highest-turning products that you carry. Usually this follows the 80/20 rule. In this case, twenty percent of your products account for eighty percent of your sales. Core inventory is vital during good times and absolutely crucial during slow sales seasons. Why?

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