Traditionally, flooring retail has been a function of opening, merchandising, staffing, promoting and selling "inside the box" (your store). For years that was a successful strategy for many reasons and the marketplace rewarded that strategy. But many retailers today see shrinking same-store traffic, sales, return on advertising, margins and profits, even in the face of ever-increasing product prices to the consumer. There is a multitude of questions as to why this is happening. But the real question is "what to do about it?" The captain of the ill-fated "Titanic" could have cared less about what caused the iceberg, how it got there, who was responsible for the iceberg or how long the iceberg would last. All the captain cared about is how to fix the hole in the boat (we all know how that worker out).

Fortunately, you can avoid the icy waters of the marketplace "North Atlantic" by building a culture within your company of thinking, or more importantly "SELLING Outside Your Box". "Selling Outside Your Box", or "SOYB" for short, is the process of rethinking and retooling your retail sales processes (easy), salespeople's habits (hard) and your own paradigms (dang near impossible) to include selling activities that occur "outside the box". These "outside" activities fall into two main categories, 1.) Closing and, 2.) Opening. Simple right? Let's explore the two categories.

The first "SOYB" category is "Closing" customers who came into your store and did not buy. While there is a huge disparity between "reported" closing ratios and "actual" ones, for the purpose of our presentation, we will say that twice as many customers who you paid to have come into your store don't buy from you as do buy from you (average closing ratio for retailers who track is between 30% and 35%). And actual statistics from "live" selling floors show that only about ten percent (10%) of the customers who walk out without buying ever come back and buy from you. Left as it is, it is the single, largest contributing factor to the decreased profitability of today's flooring retailer.

The good news (ok, GREAT news) is that there is a solution for that. Closing just 25% of the 66% who walk out and don't buy from you can yield an increase in sales per salesperson of almost 50%. Incredible? Not really. You KNOW in your heart-of-hearts you should be getting more from your sales efforts, but can't quite put your finger on why or how. You know that twenty-five years ago good salespeople were writing and shipping the about same monthly numbers as salespeople today. And products were easily HALF of what they cost today (I may be from Stone Mountain, GA but even we knew half as much traffic yields half as much sales). And there is no "magic dust" (ads, brands or products) that will bring that traffic and sales back. But it can be offset by "SOYB".

The second "SOYB" (remember "Selling Outside Your Box") category is "Opening" business relationships that can buy from your retail salespeople over and over again. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we called these "repeat" customers (hard surface sales, while initially "profitable", have easily doubled the flooring replacement cycle). So, in order to offset ever-decreasing traffic and 'Big Box-induced" margin pressures, retail salespeople need to be trained and supported as to how to build these relationships without sacrificing floor time or retail sales (yes it can be done). There are actually ten (10) of these "Opening" opportunities that every retail salesperson, who is not writing and shipping $100,000 a month in retail sales, should be trained and managed to exploit. But, you are thinking, every week I have a sales meeting (you do right?) and tell my salespeople they need to prospect and develop outside business and they don't do it. Imagine that.

This seems like a good place for a gratuitous, yet relevant story. When my oldest daughter was in middle school she was struggling mightily with algebra. She had always made the Honor Role previously, so as her father (manager) I attributed her low grade to a lack of motivation and some newly-learned "slacker" habits. I took it upon myself to have a meeting with her regarding her performance. After ten minutes or so of telling her how disappointed I was, how important her education was and how failing was not an option, I decreed that her algebra grade was going to have to improve drastically, and if it didn't, there would be serious, yet undefined, repercussions and consequences (I never said I was a perfect father/manager).

When I finally finished my managerial motivational speech (which she later labeled a "tirade"), I managed to come up for air and asked, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself young lady?" With tears in her eyes, my daughter whom I loved (still do) more than life, looked up at me and brought me lower-than-low with one word...."how?"

How? HOW!! What do you mean how? You are smart girl, have books and teachers and study hall, you simply HAVE to study more and work harder and IMPROVE....PERIOD!! HOW?? Well, honey Dad can't tell you how exactly, because that's not my job and I am not sure myself (algebra obviously being a genetic family nemesis). You are the student...it's YOUR job to figure it out. I am just the dad who reads the report card. You figure it out.

Seem harsh? Maybe. Yet, I have told that story innumerable times over the years and found that I have many fellow members of the "do-as-dad-says-and-without-my-participation" club (Yes, the acronym for that club IS D.A.D.S.A.W.I.M.P.). Years later I experienced a profound sense of déjà-vu while sitting in a sales meeting where we were told as a group by our "manager" that we needed to expand our sales through the development of additional market channels with no tools, resources or training to accomplish the task. We were to "figure" it out. It was OUR job, it's what we were hired and paid to do and we should just know how to do it. Sound familiar? And we wonder why our daughters, I mean salespeople, don't sell more.

OK back to "SOYB". At this point one of three things has happened:

1.) You gave up on this article long ago and aren't reading this anyway

2.) Are thinking this guy has way too much time on his hands

3.) Are thinking this guy has way too much time on his hands, but he may have something here.

If you are part of the group from #3, then we can help you accomplish the three things (processes, habits and paradigms) that you need to accomplish in order to incorporate and benefit from "Selling Outside Your Box" (SOYB). All you have to do is call (404) 822-1841 and ask to speak to "Bad Dad". If you do call I will promise you a couple of things. First, I probably won't answer because I am almost always on the phone. Next, if you do call and leave me a brief (please) message, I WILL call you back. And finally, I promise that if you call that it won't be the most boring, unproductive call you ever make or take. And it just may improve your daughter's grades....I mean your salespeople's sales.....a lot.

Wishing you S.O.Y.B.E.A.N.S for the New Year,

Paul Trau

aka "Bad Dad"

(404) 822-1841

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P.S.-- S.O.Y.B.E.A.N.S. = "Selling Outside Your Box Earns Additional New Sales"

P.S.S.-- My co-manager (daughter's mom) suggested that we enroll our daughter in professional tutoring (training) to answer the question of "how?". Imagine that. You train and support someone to do something and they actually can do it better and more consistently. Honor Roll status restored....who knew?

P.S.S.—Please don’t write me and tell me that I “mixed my metaphors, dangled my participles or incorrectly conjugated my verbs”. I do it all the time and enjoy it immensely.