I recently subscribed to a publication devoted entirely to Visual Merchandising and Store Designs for retail (actually its name and acronym is VMSD) and in its December issue that arrived last week, the cover story's headline was "FRESH AIR." You can see the front cover below right.
At first glance you have to ask yourself... "Are they selling plants or other things?"
Robert Hendrickson has pushed The Group for years now on some of the very best ways to tell your story and build that unique, emotional connection with the customer. This is the extreme opposite of selling by price and certainly much more effective than selling by the old standard of "feature and benefit" marketing.
We have the schedule set, speakers and sessions are in place, our hotel is ready for your reservations, and we have our registration now open and ready for you!
New for 2018: We have taken what we learned the last several years about Group peer-sharing and combined it with each presentation. We are calling it Peer-to-Peer (P2P). Each major session will follow this pattern. First the featured speaker will share his or her presentation. Then, we will have P2P Tabletalks on the subject, followed with the best ideas of P2P as well as Q&A with the speaker for collaboration and inspiration.
Several weeks ago you may remember I asked these questions:
The reason I asked was because I was reading comments from owners or managers who were having issues with seemingly unreasonable customers and it sounded like they were ready to say "Good Bye" to the customer(s). Before you ever get to the point of "firing a customer," I believe you need to have at least an idea of your answers to the above two questions. I understand sometimes you just can't please everyone and the answers to these questions can vary greatly, but this is a fundamental idea.
To begin, can we agree... Sharing is a function of Leaning!
I have an important announcement!
When Karen and I were at the new SNA Conference at MANTS last month, the Conference Chairman, Dr. Richard Olsen, Director of the US National Arboretum, suggested one of the roundtable topics of "sharing more of the story behind the plants." Obviously, when I heard this I immediately thought of Robert's constant encouragement. But how does this relate to the plants we sell or help us in the garden center?
Opening my emailbox this week and seeing a promotion from Tim Elbert's Four Seasons Nursery in Central Point Oregon gave me a flashback moment to last fall when there was a great discussion and swap of ideas (and important Do's and Don'ts). If you are a Group Client and were subscribed to GroupEs at the time, you may remember it.
Last week we explored two distinctly different types of owners and managers I see across garden center management today. Do you remember... the Gatekeeper manages by receiving all or most outside information and decides who in the organization needs to know what, who to distribute the information to, and who needs to know, on a limited basis. 
At the same time I hear numerous owners and managers saying these types of comments: I have to much to do. I have to much on my plate. I can't possibly do anything more. I am wore out. We work all the time. It's got to get easier.
In my position I get to observe a number of patterns in business management. And doing so, you see the real differences in how owners approach their business. There are some trends I want to highlight here and challenge you to assess where you are in your business management style. First, let's discuss two distinct types of owners or managers I see at work today.
The Gatekeeper manages by receiving all or most outside information and decide who in the organization needs to know what. Who to distribute the information to, who needs to know, on a limited basis. In my mind, the ultimate gatekeeper was this guy. When Dorothy and her unusual "team" approached the Emerald City gate at Oz, they were stopped by the Wizard. At that point, to get into the city, they had to get past The Wizard of Oz. This is a fitting comparison to what see in some businesses today.
I know when everyone first saw Shelburne Farms listed as part of our Tour Day at this year's Fall Event, they had to wonder "what does this have anything to do with garden centers?" Right?Karen and I had heard some details of how wonderful Shelburne is... just like "the cousins" property Biltmore Estate. But it wasn't until we went there for the first time, did we begin to understand its mission today:
"Our work focuses on education for sustainability. That’s learning that links knowledge, inquiry, and action to help students build a healthy future for their communities and the planet. There is something for learners of all ages at Shelburne Farms, with a focus on agricultural, environmental, and cultural topics."
"We had our 1st Annual Poultry Pageant today, We had 31 Hen enter the pageant, it turned out to be an awesome event. (Weren't sure how many were going to show up.) All ages from 5-6 years old to 75 or 80 year old. We also had many visitors to see the pageant. I have attached some of the pictures, check out our Facebook page for more.
We judge them in 3 categories, Miss Congeniality, Best Feathers and Talent. with best score was crown MISS HEN of Camden County, there was also a runner up. We also award 1st , 2nd, and 3rd Places in each category. All winner are on our Facebook page. All winner won prizes."
Since 1982, when KidsGardening launched the first school gardening grant, their driving mission at KidsGardening is the idea that every child deserves the opportunity to learn through the garden.
Today, many educators have shifted to place-based education - of which garden-based learning is a part. Place-based education is hands-on, real world learning that uses the local environment to help kids understand the natural world around them and their place in it. And we know there’s no better place to do that than in a garden.
On July 17th Steve Bailey released our Mid-Year Weekly Department Review (WDR) to those participating. While not all 102 centers participating in the 2017 program were able to report, it still provides a good view of how Spring from each region. Steve featured some of the graphs on the cover page and there were some real differences (ups and downs).
Overall, The Group is showing a modest increase in sales and average sale year to date with a slight negative on transaction counts. But there are a number of very strong positives. There's lots of great things to share around each center's successes and we hope the comments offered below by these Group members will help to give you ideas. We started this process looking at figures reported in the MidYear WDR, however many centers have continued to add to their positive numbers in July so the following figures shared are from Week 29 of the WDR.
As all of the Group Clients who participated in the Annual P&L Study for 2016 have received their own reports, Steve Bailey has shared some details for total Group results. One thing that stood out was Transaction Counts with the Best Practices/High Achievers (+4% when the Total Group was -1%).
So, under the heading of..."How Did They Do That?"... we have asked the question. You will be very interested in some of the answers they have shared.
Several weeks ago we began this series with several examples for building your social audience. This week, Botanical Interests' Brandon Coppin, Director of Social Media and Video Production, is sharing an infographic that outlines our social media strategy for gardeners along with two white papers shared here.
We started Goofy Garden with the hopes of creating a fun, engaging book that kids and adults could enjoy together. Our goal is to create a series of books, and eventually a series of products, that ignites a sense of creativity and wonder when it comes to gardening and getting outdoors.
