Valuable GROUP Insights

by Danny Summers

If you have been into the flow of information within The Group this year, you know, overall sales year-to-date have been tracking about -5% down from 2023. While early weeks teased us with solid increases, some of the biggest spring weeks just did not keep pace with those same weeks of 2023, and that created the overall deficit we see today. By the way, those same big spring weeks where we fell short, we saw our Weather Rating reflecting downturns. Remember, we have always blamed the weather, but with our new Weather Rating we now have actual data to back it up.

But the sales at -5% is Total Group Average. All the Group Centers that participate in the Weekly Department Review (WDR) can login to The Group WebSystem and begin to explore in greater detail how the average develops, and much more importantly, who is well above the average!

Tim Quebedeaux said during The Fall Event 2024, "Who wants to just be average? That's not what we should be striving for!"

This is precisely why we look at our Best Practices Centers and now our Best of Best Centers from the Annual P&L Study. It is also why we created the new Best of Category Awards in 2024.

But what about the WDR data for tracking weekly and year-to-date results? I believe many of our reporting Centers are not fully utilizing some of our dynamic report charts to explore who is well above average. Last Friday, just after the Week 44 WDR results came out, I logged into The Group WebSystem to see which Group Centers are well above average.

Here's how to see to for yourself... WDR Menu + WDR Resources submenu and then select Individual Garden Center Summary. This shows all reporting Centers for the week. Then, click on the far right column heading, such as %Inc/Dec YTD Rev. This changes the sort from alpha by-company to highest percentages.

After a few clicks, you'll see what I found in The Big Three... Sales-Transaction Counts-Average Sale:

• 17% of Reporting Centers are reporting Year-to-Date INCREASES.
• 14% are Reporting Transaction Count GAINS.
• 40% are Reporting Average Sales GAINS.

You might think the majority of these Reporting Centers showing gains are in the western regions, due to their 2023 spring challenges. But while some are in the west, there are Centers in every other region. Here's a pretty amazing observation...

There are multiple Reporting Centers in each KPI in double-digit gains!

How are they doing it?

We should be exploring each of these Centers' "secret sauce!" It is easy to grab a couple of the top performing Centers' names, jump back to your My Landing Page, and do a quick contact lookup... just select Group Search - People.

The Group is a community built around sharing at a unique level, whether through our 12+ eLists, our WDR or P&L Study, or peer-to-peer direct conversations.

I believe spending a little time each week, connecting with the top performing Centers (both YTD and for the weekly stats), can provide real benefits for your Center...

Truly Valuable GROUP Insights!

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, Sid Raisch, John Kennedy, Jean Seawright, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!