About Retail

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Hiring Digital Retail Furniture Employees

This article was originally published in the June 7, 2010 issue of Furniture World:

Have you ever read about a time when people believed the world was flat? Or when it was thought the sun revolved around the earth? Sure you have. Well, just as accepted truth about our physical world changes, so do our notions about doing business. In fact, the business landscape is littered with the carcasses of people who were certain they knew the truth… right up until the day they found out that they didn’t!

So that your furniture business doesn’t end up on that trash heap of out dated truths, you should take some time, before it is too late, to review the kinds of people you hire.

Since I started in the furniture industry in the good ole’ days of the late 1980s, we’ve been driven by “pull marketing.” Pull marketing tells the consumer what they need in a force-fed, cutely-packaged, polished storyline. Pull marketing is the way that most furniture retailers find their way into their customer’s wallets, and it hasn’t changed much since the days when companies such as Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and GM perfected the craft of top-down control of the message. When delivered effectively, pull marketing even became part of the fabric of culture. Most of us wanted “to teach the world to sing” or make summertime complete with “baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.”

The era of pull marketing has come to a screeching halt. It’s no longer enough to design a furniture collection, build it, bring it to market with a slick ad campaign, sell it to retailers and ultimately deliver it to customer’s homes. A decade after 9/11, the introduction of the DVR and satellite radio, the die has been cast on a different tomorrow. Consumers will tell you what they want, thank you very much, and they’ll tell the world on their blog and Facebook while they’re at it. Your customer wants to have a dialog, not be spoon fed answers to questions they’re not asking. They want to control the conversation and tell you what they want in new product development.

People have changed, consumption has changed, technology has changed, but – most importantly – what is cool has changed. So, have you changed?

Tomorrow’s leading companies are changing hiring criteria and measurements of performance. In the book “Inbound Marketing,” Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah suggest a framework they titled “DARC” for hiring and developing savvy employees:

D = Hire Digital Citizens A = Hire for Analytical Chops R = Hire for Web Reach C = Hire Content Creators

DIGITAL CITIZENS

Some people can build a boat in their basement, while many can’t even hammer a nail without uttering a few cuss words. Some people are just born handy. Think of the online digital world the same way: some people get it, some people don’t. If you’re one of the people who doesn’t get it – and you know you don’t get it – but you want to hire people who do, here are some questions you can ask:

• Do you text? Do you have email on your cell phone? What else do you use your phone for?

• Do you have a laptop?

• What RSS reader do you use? Can you show it to me?

• What blogs do you read?

• Do you rank first for your name in Google?

• Do you use Delicious? Can you show it to me?

• Do you have a blog? Can you show it to me?

• Do you use Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn?

• When was the last time you updated your profile?

• Do you have a channel on YouTube? Can you show it to me?

If your prospective hire gives you a distant gaze or mumbles, “I was planning on setting that up,” then you don’t have a digital citizen on your hands. It is not easy to fake these attributes. People either live online or they don’t. As an employer, it is imperative that you know what these questions mean and how to find their answers.

ANALYTICAL CHOPS

The great thing about the age of inbound marketing is that everything is completely measureable. No longer do you have to guess how a customer found your store: you can discover whether they searched a specific phrase on Google or linked to you from another site. You can finally find the answer to the old conundrum, “I know I’m wasting half my marketing budget, but I’m just not sure which half.”

To realize the benefits of all this information, your company will need to collect and analyze lots of data. This means that when you bring on new hires, you should consider hiring folks with some real chops. It’s difficult to figure out if someone is analytical from a standard interview, so to test for it: ask your interviewees to bring their favorite spreadsheet. Stop laughing. I’m not even kidding about the importance of getting digital analytical minds on your team.

WEB REACH

I remember the excitement I felt when we hired a $1,000,000 writer from the retail furniture store down the street – and he brought his Rolodex compiled from nearly twenty years of selling.

Today the Rolodex has been replaced by web reach, cultivating a personal network of blog subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections within the industry through the web.

At the recent High Point Market, a supplier executive told me about a recent new hire. He said, “We are having the best market in our history because she knows everyone.” When you hire someone with their own blog, Twitter feed, Facebook account, and LinkedIn account, you automatically extends your corporate reach and open up potential new sales.

This is another area that is difficult to quantify in a typical interview. Determining the personal web reach of an individual may take a little time and research. Halligan and Shah suggest asking pointed questions when you are both in front of a computer during the interview. It may seem crazy, but at least part of the interview should include a session where you and the interviewee are online together.

Here are some questions the authors suggest you may want to use during this process:

• How many subscribers do you have on your blog?

• Do you talk about our industry on your blog or only about personal matters?

• How many Facebook followers do you have?

• Do you talk about our industry on your Facebook account?

• How many LinkedIn followers do you have?

• How many Twitter followers do you have?

• Do you talk about our industry on your Twitter account?

Web reach is hard to acquire and is very valuable. Compare your prospect’s web reach to that of other candidates and to your company’s own reach to see if you can gain potential new business by bringing this person on board. ?Most furniture organizations underestimate these assets. Becoming skilled at evaluating an individual’s reach allows you to snap up some high-quality talent that is undervalued in the marketplace. The time horizon for getting the best of these folks is short, because eventually, all companies must figure this out or they will continue to fall further and further behind.

CONTENT CREATORS

Be on the lookout for content creators to proliferate your website, company blog, social profiles with what the authors of “Inbound Marketing” describe as “remarkable content that spreads virally in the social media sphere, attracts links from other sites, and drives up your rankings in Google.” Salespeople who update your Facebook with design trends, sales managers who blog customer success stories and warehouse managers who Tweet new arrivals can change your business from sleepy, small-town positioning to a hip, relevant and authentic mentality almost overnight.

Test applicants by paying them $75 to write a blog article for you. Measure the effectiveness of the article by seeing how many links it attracts, how many views it gets, and how many comments it receives relative to other blog content you have produced.

Inbound Marketing also points to another interesting skill to have in-house: someone who can create remarkable video content for you. If you want to stick your toe in the water with video, you could hire an intern from a local university majoring in film or use someone internally with basic technical skills and a Mac. Because YouTube is now the second most searched portal on the internet, video is more important than ever. With an inexpensive Flip Video camera you can create content galore. Here are interview questions to pose to video content creators:

• Have you posted your videos to YouTube? Can I see them?

• Do you have a YouTube channel?

• How much traffic does your YouTube channel attract?

• Do people comment on your YouTube videos?

• How many subscribers do you have on YouTube?

Many of today’s current employees are so steeped in the traditions and skill-sets of outbound thinking that it can be difficult – but not impossible – to teach them new skills. Here are some action steps you can take right now with your current staff to increase your company’s inbound marketing:

• Find out who uses Facebook and Twitter for their personal use, and ask them to create a strategy to develop a Facebook page and Twitter account for your business. Find step-by-step instructions at imagineretailer.com social-media.

• Read 3-4 industry blogs daily to keep ahead of news and also to see how others are using this media.

• Use Google tracker to see what is being said about your business and the industry as a whole.

• Add Inbound Marketing and other books like Open Brand to your reading list.

• Join a local internet club or attend an inexpensive training session such as WordCamp to develop your skill set.

In the business world of inbound marketing and communication, the ideal employee is a four tooled player: a digital citizen who is analytical, has a web reach, and can create stand out content. Employees who are “digital citizens” will shine more brightly than your more experienced veterans, regardless of position. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the warehouse manager, the staff accountant, buyers, or the sales staff.

Online skills are no longer a luxury; they are a must-have if your organization is to move forward.

Posted in About Retail | 1 Comment

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

What Gets Measured Gets Done

“What gets measured gets done,” said Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric.

Welch often credited much of his success during his 30 plus years at the helm of GE to hiring and evaluation of his employees. It is said that he spent as much as 50 percent of his time on talent acquisition, evaluation, and development using four criteria he called the 4 E’s of leadership, as reported in the book Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

The 4 E’s of Leadership

Energy—Individuals with energy love to “go, go, go.” Boundlessly active, they arrive every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy people move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world.
Energizers—These people know how to spark others to perform. They cast a vision and get people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get others excited about a cause or crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right, but are quick to accept responsibility when things go wrong.
Edge—People with edge are competitive types. They know how to make really difficult decisions, such as hiring, firing, and promoting, and don’t allow the degree of difficulty to stand in their way.
Execute—This is the key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other “E’s” are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are very different. They convert energy and edge into action and results.

Jack Welch spent much of his time recruiting talent, evaluating performance, and developing performance using his 4E’s. This process and these ideas can help you develop the right framework and criteria to evaluate current employee performance and future development of your team.

Tags: Edge, Energizers, Energy, Execute, GE, Inbound Marketing, Jack Welch
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Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

Utilizing SEO: Strategy

Part 3 of 3

Beyond technology, here are three principles to remember when planning and executing an SEO campaign:

Flow

Remember, the reason you are trying to get your website to the top of the first page is because you want people to come to the site and look at your content, then buy what your selling. Don’t get so involved in SEO that you junk-up your site with links and keywords beyond the user’s ability to read the page. Balance your site design your site between bots and people. Don’t lose your users for the sale of search engines. Remember, bounce rate (the time your users spend on your site) is a part of SEO as well.

Patience is a virtue

SEO campaigns are not for instant gratification junkies. Give your site about three months to sink in. Check your analytics, watch to see how the site is doing and adjust accordingly. Keep your efforts simple; make a minimal amount of changes so that you can accurately see what works and what doesn’t.

Updates

Stay on top of things. Keep an eye on the search engine guidelines to ensure your SEO is always up to date. The last thing you want is for your long sought efforts to slowly wash down the drain as technology advances.

By applying different techniques used to achieve organic search results, you’ll find online marketing to be a cost-effective, simple solution to promoting your business and products.

Part 1 of this 3-part series explained why SEO is the new normal and how companies can budget for search engine optimization campaigns. Part 2 defined a Glossary of Key SEO Terms. This article was published in its entirety in the March 2010 issue of Western Retailer magazine, a publication of the WHFA.

Tags: Advertising, furniture advertising, Marketing, SEO, Stretegy
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Friday, February 5th, 2010

Utilizing SEO: Why and How?

seo001

Part 1 of 3

Used to be, the company with the biggest Yellow Page ad won the local search wars. Businesses vied for newspaper ads above the fold, billboards at prime intersections, drive time radio and prime time TV.

Now, when print media is experiencing cutbacks, layoffs, and declining readership, it comes as no surprise that businesses are turning to online marketing alternatives to reach customers. Where many print media companies require a minimum commitment to display an ad over so many issues, website space and domain names can be purchased for low annual fees. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising on sites like Google and Yahoo allows site owners to set their own budgets and targets when setting up campaigns.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the new normal for businesses looking to compete in the 21st century. Once a niche product, SEO will continue to gain ground into the near future. According to the “Search Marketing Trends: Back to Basics” report from eMarketer, $1.5 billion was spent on Search Engine Optimization in 2008 – a number that is expected to increase 153% to $3.8 billion by 2013. (Source: Brafton.com)

seo chart

Taking even a fraction of money from your radio or print budget and setting it aside for online strategies can have a profound effect on the visibility of your business. Be sure to research the best SEO companies to determine what services are offered and which company is suited to meet your needs.

Part 1 of this 3-part series explains why SEO is the new normal and how companies can budget for search engine optimization campaigns. Subscribe to receive Part 2, SEO Glossary, and Part 3, SEO Strategy. This article was published in its entirety in the March 2010 issue of Western Retailer magazine, a publication of the WHFA.

Tags: Ad Budget, Advertising, furniture advertising, SEO, Yellow Pages
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Thursday, December 10th, 2009

“What you are trying to accomplish?”

Technology has changed the retail world like nothing that has happened in the last 100 years. The same thing has happened in publishing, where 60,000 jobs have been lost in just over eight years. David Carr of the New York Times recently explained in an article entitled The Fall and Rise of Media: “Those of us who covered media were told for years that the sky was falling, and nothing happened. And then it did. Great big chunks of the sky gave way and magazines tumbled — Gourmet!? — that seemed as if they were as solid as the skyline itself.”

Sound familiar? Who ever thought Heilig-Meyers would fall, or Sears Homeline!?

Carr paints a crystal clear picture I see daily when dealing with the young people in my life. “I come across another one who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery,” he wrote. “The next wave is not just knocking on doors, but seeking to knock them down.”

BJ Fogg The next wave of marketers know about a scientific discipline called “Persuasion Technology” that holds enormous possibilities where the old paradigms of mass advertising no longer apply. BJ Fogg from Stanford University,the leading expert in the field takes a scientific approach to studying Persuasion Technology by conducting experiments, comparing different conditions to see which approach is the most persuasive. Fogg made-up the term “Captology” to denote the study of computer mediated persuasion, which he defines as “changing people’s behavior.” He identified 35 different types of behavioral change and mapped them in what he calls the “Behavior Grid.”

This type of information is the reason we spend as much time asking, “What you are trying to accomplish?”

Is your internet partner suggesting a “build it and they will come” kind of plan is all you really need? Let us know how that’s working out for you a few months down the road. In the meantime, we’ll be studying scientifically proven methods to persuade your customers.

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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda?

Just because something can be done, should we do it?

“Science can tell us how to do something, but it cannot tell us whether we should do it. To explore that question, we must step outside the narrow range of science’s purely technical questions, and look at the full human context and consequences of what we are doing.”

“The Scientist and the Poet,” by Paul A. Cantor in New Atlantis

Analytics So what does this have to do with the price of tea in China or with anything in the retail business world? Simply everything. Today we have the ability to track people moving from Palestine to Israel with satellites from space. I assure you we can also track the movement and click of every person who stops by on your website. We can see where they went, how long they stayed, where they paused, how deeply they moved into the content, when they exited. We can test one layout over another to see which one provides the best ROI. The list could go on.

Here is the point: Do you believe you have the right to collect data on your website visitors and then contact this person without their permission? In my business right now I’m coming up against web design and media companies that are telling retailers and vendors that this is a good idea. I think NOT.

Bryan and Jeff Eisenberg have been writing and teaching about these ethical issues for several years. In their 10/8/2009 not-to-miss-links they provide insightful information about the importance of data above the fold, and how to better use Google Analytics, and wonderful history of social media. There is little doubt that technology today can do lots of things to drive your business, but the changing formula doesn’t necessarily answer all the questions.

In the ancient writings of the Old Testament we can find the direction for making decisions today. A great King around two-thousand years ago said; “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from evil.” I think he was talking about the ideas of transparency, honesty, morality, and truthfulness for all times not just during his time on earth.

It might also be true that we live in an age when adding faith and philosophy makes the formula even more flammable in the minds of many.

What do you think?

Posted in About Retail | 2 Comments

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Living on the Top Line

Strategy is a word few people truly understand. The military uses intelligence to determine how to approach a problem – how to think about it. In his new book Living On The Top Line, Joe Capillo uses the best research and intelligence available for the furniture industry to tell what the lady (Ms. Jones) says she wants, and what’s keeping her from getting it.

topline Joe describes what he calls the new retail reality that includes how Ms. Jones chooses to engage with the furniture industry. He explains the importance of creating an online presence and the necessity of a seamless relationship from the web to the store – particularly for local independents.

Joe also tackles the difficulties of bringing fundamental change that will truly stick and transform organizations into a high-performance company. The process he describes is “effective and remembered by everyone I ever used it with,” according to Joe. It’s a great way to hold any decision-making meeting among managers (or anyone else for that matter), so that everyone feels involved and can see the structure of the final outcome.

Because Joe addresses the challenges of change and strategy, you will understand his teaching on how to structure a selling system – deliberate things your employees do when dealing with your customers – around this information. He advises owners to not leave their fortunes and futures up to other people whose agenda may or may not match their own.

Joe explains his fundamental principle that our business is not, and never has been, about furniture – it is about rooms, homes, and families. Therefore, by addressing these concerns, true connection between a retailer and a consumer is established. But, the “retailer” is the salesperson – who usually faces the consumer all alone, one-on-one, with no “team,” no manager, no owner.

This point-or-contact is the moment of truth for all furniture retailers. Joe takes the reader through a complete explanation of room planning, in-home selling, etc. This interaction leads to stronger consumer relationships for the relational types, and perhaps even for the transactional buyer when dealing with a relational type of product that can require a lot of consultation and advice.

Finally, he talks the management of all this stuff – particularly the people. Managing the range of performance in larger groups is not understood by most owners and managers, according to Joe, who also says retailers don’t know enough about their businesses until they know the number of customers who come through their doors. He addresses all the metrics in detail and explains how to use them in daily management.

Operating metrics you don’t use to manage are useless, but you can’t forget the people side, so Joe’s theory of one-to-one management is to bring people to their goals – to bring them beyond the limits they place on themselves by letting the past dictate the future.

That’s how to live on the top line! Buy this book. Contact Joe.

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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Do you get personal?

Over 17 years ago, 1111111111 Bruce Springsteen belted out,

“You might need something to hold on to, when all the answers, they don’t amount to much, somebody that you could just to talk to, and a little of that human touch baby, in a world without pity.”

Today more than then we are all desirous of a human touch. Most fast, efficient online transactions are completely lacking human contact. The customer is shocked when you provide a truly personal online experience.

Does your site get personal with your customers?

Call first time customers within a day of their order. Ask them for feedback and thank them for their support.
Ditch the boring executive bios. Post profiles from the rank and file, the people who actually interact with your customers on a daily basis. Profiles remind your customers they are buying from people, not some corporation.
Answer the phones yourself. Tell customers who you are and get their feedback first hand. You will hang up with loads of new ideas.
Give to a worthy cause. Make sure you communicate specifically the people who benefit from your donations, so customers feel the connection.
Include a picture of each customer service representative in their email signatures. Make it easy to remember they are dealing with real, caring people.
Listen and respond to your customers via Facebook and Twitter. Don’t create social media outlets if you’re truly just looking for another way to push you offers down the throats of your online friends.
Start blogging.

Have you ever been shocked by a company “getting personal” with you? Share your experience.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Web Strategy | 1 Comment

Monday, October 19th, 2009

You can’t reason your way out of this

left-brain-right-brain

Ah, the good old days! Fact is, the furniture industry was successful in the 1950’s and the 1970’s and 1990’s. But “nothing fails like success,” says Gerald Nachman, cultural historian and founder of www.thecolumnist.com. Financial success turned our industry into a left-brain culture. Left-brain cultures are good at preserving old paradigms and programs, what Harvard Business Professor Clayton Christensen calls “sustaining technology.”

This works well when an industry is hitting on all cylinders. But when they slump, as is happening in furniture right now, left-brain cultures fail. In this industry’s case, we have tried to innovate by building lines that look exactly the same only cheaper because we believe the customer is only interested in price. Marketing departments scream louder and louder about unsustainable credit offers, and now we are trying to make cheap computers and bad bicycle give-a-ways the reason Ms. Jones should visit our stores. Leaders won’t implement technology, claiming the customer will not be interested in fully using it, and the result is bland brands and slow growth or dying retailers.

In his 2005 bestseller, A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink says, “The future belongs to designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers—creative and empathetic right-brain thinkers” who exhibit “the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative.” In every industry there must be right-brain thinkers. They’ll need promoted and will play a part in upending existing paradigms.

The cold reality is that left-brain cultures are a liability when it comes to innovation. These cultures are not bad—they’re simply not equipped to move forward. Left-brain cultures rearrange existing programs; they rarely allow systemic change. They claim today’s situations is really the same as it ever was.

3+2-5 is not an innovative way of saying 5-3-2. The sum remains the same: zero.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Generations, Web Strategy | Leave Comment

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail

hammer The last time paid newspaper circulation in the United States was at its current level, a new house was selling for $4,600, a gallon of gas was 15 cents and the average annual wage was $2,400. Oppenheimer’s Little Boy and Fat Man were about to bring World War II to an end. Clearly a lot has changed in the past sixty-four years.

Unfortunately, furniture marketing is stuck in this mid-20^th century fantasy land. Print media is still the dominant media choice for family-owned and family-run furniture companies. According to the 2009 ABTV industry watch report, the Top 25 sources experienced an average drop in sales of 10.4% last year.

According to this same report, “Marketing holds the hope for revival.” This is a scary proposition, because as the report points out, “In furniture companies, of course, marketing has traditionally been weak.” It goes on to say, “Even dire circumstances have not induced furniture companies to try to learn from other consumer goods sectors” (page 15).

Marketing in today’s environment is confusing and difficult. Retailers and suppliers alike are trying to find enough consumer money to keep the lights on. Marketing professionals are paddling beyond control to learn and implement emerging media in a way that benefits their clients. At the same time, even the studies are confusing and conflicting. An example is a recent NAA (Newspaper Association of America) report stating these glowing claims:

First quarter traffic to newspaper Web sites was reported as 73.3 million unique visitors (average per month) by Nielsen.
That’s 43.6 percent of all U. S. internet users, up 10.5 percent versus the same time last year.
Page views grew from 3.1 billion per month in last year’s first quarter, to 3.5 billion in 2009.
NAA CEO John Sturm suggests these point to “digital success.”

But if we look at each of these “glowing” results in some context clearly the picture is not so rosy! Consider this information about the other side of the statistics:

The top three news destinations on the Web (MSNBC, CNN and Yahoo!News) each drew more than half the unique visitors of the entire newspaper industry in March. Year-over-year, MSNBC grew 9 percent, CNN 4 percent, and Yahoo!News 16 percent.
Yahoo! News alone gained 5.2 million unique visitors in March, or nearly 70 percent of the gain of the entire newspaper industry.
Newspaper page views at 3.5 billion per month are less than one percent of total U.S. page views (386 billion in February).
Time spent on newspaper sites in February, 43 minutes, 9 seconds per month per NAA/Nielsen, compares with total time online of 61 hours, 11 minutes and 56 seconds per U.S. person. This means newspaper sites get the attention of the U.S. online audience just 1.2 percent of the time.
The total U.S. online audience (what Nielsen calls the “active digital media universe”) in February was 167 million individuals. As NAA does note, 43.6 percent of that audience visited a newspaper web site, but given that newspaper site traffic works out to only about 1.6 page views per reader per day, many of the newspaper site unique viewers are clearly represent one-time-only traffic.

This information is easily found with only a small amount of time and research. As the leader of your privately owned and mostly family run businesses, why there is NOT audible dull noise leading to an ear drum busting roar of insistence on getting best advice for every area of your media strategy?

The conclusion of the ABTV report and my point are exactly the same: “The furniture industry needs to reject the old formulas that no longer get results, to replace the old dogmas that have lost their meaning, to refuse to settle for mediocrity, and to insist on world-class performance. It’s the only way to survive.”

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