Never-Ins, and Building a Better Business

by Sid Raisch

DANGER: Now that things are slowing down, you’ve got more time to do things you shouldn’t do in the first place. You don’t have time for that.

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
-  Peter Drucker

Do we have a problem?

Do we and our associates have to work harder than we should all summer to care for inventory that shouldn’t be there to begin with, only to sell it at a discount?

What is the REAL problem?

Most of the time we think we’re fixing problems, but instead we’re fixing the symptoms of the problems we have and not fixing the actual problems that create symptoms. When we fix symptoms, history predictably repeats itself.

First, identify what the problem is not – the symptoms.

The problem isn’t the cost of watering, cost of discounts, or the cost of sales labor to sell stuff our customers proved they didn’t want, at a discount we can’t afford. You can work on fixing those all you want, but the problem that causes them will force you to have to fix them over and over because you can’t permanently fix a symptom.

Then, fix what the problem really is.

The problem is that we care for, discount, and sell inventory - that shouldn’t have been bought in the first place. Once we’ve made the mistake we can’t go back and fix this problem now; all we can do is deal with the symptoms and then make sure they don’t happen again. The best way to deal with excess merchandise is to learn and commit to this valuable mantra, The Merchant’s Mantra – “NEVER buy what you can’t sell before you have to pay for it!”  The way to prove you’ve learned this is to make a plan that won’t allow it to happen again. (The Plan – watch for this coming up in my next GROUPtalk article.

Fresh Product Sells

We’ve lived this. The products that have been sold this spring were fresh. Interesting concept isn’t it? It’s counterintuitive, but the best way to deal with the stuff that shouldn’t be there is to bring in small amounts of “Fresh from the Grower” plants to show customers you still know what you’re doing. Bring in only the right amount of the right things – those you know you can sell before you have to pay for them.

Clean Out the Crap

Anything you have left from spring that doesn’t look as good as what comes off the grower truck isn’t as good and for sure, isn’t “good enough”. You’ll waste precious time that should go into selling fresh product to your customers if you try to bring deteriorating plants to life. Just throw it in the dumpster without overthinking it, and don’t cry about it. Do it and get over it. The sale of fresh product at full prices will earn the margin dollars you need.

Okay – Convert SOME of the Crap to CASH

The key to this is to do it NOW, before you sink more money into it, and while you still have customer traffic. Mark it down and move it out. You’re going to need some crap-buying customers to do this. That may mean inviting people who are normally not your customer to take it away at a deal because your best customers have already PROVEN that they don’t want that garbage, I mean crap. Where would you go to get customers who buy crap? Your good customers may take some of it, but you may need more. Would you advertise in the garage sale section of the newspaper or on Craigslist? Would you call a liquidator?  Is there so much excess that it's necessary to rent a space at a flea market? Load it up and move it out! Load up carts and pallets, each with a grab-bag mix, and put a price on the whole pallet.

After we’ve fixed the real problem…

Once there is a good plan to not buy stuff that will not be there after we’ve paid for it, we can deal with small amounts of less than the best plants in due course of business with simple methods like a clearance section, red-tag sale, etc. Those tactics aren’t very effective when the customer traffic can’t absorb the crap mixed in with their purchase of fresh product.

Building a Better Business - You can’t have enough of this!

The #1 Principle to building a building or a business is the same – Build a high and dry foundation on solid bedrock.  The foundation of any business is repeat business from customers who value the way they are valued. Each customer is GOLDEN. We can’t get enough new customers to increase business if we fail to keep the one’s we already have. Loyalty programs do not create feelings of loyalty. Feelings of loyalty come from how we are treated as a customer. The process to keep one customer is the same as necessary to keep every other one. Let’s get out there and treat each customer as another solid block in our foundation because that is exactly who they are. Picture each customer as a trophy on the trophy shelf. They are to be prized, celebrated, valued, admired, and appreciated. Let’s do these things well enough that customers talk about it, inspiring others to come do business with us for the growth we will then have earned.

Sid