When's the last time you updated your employee handbook? Now, I know it sounds old school, but there are a lot of set-and-forget moments that are mistakes in retail and the employee handbook is a great one. We have to revise our policies from “This is going to get you fired if you fail a drug test,” and “This is going to get you fired.” I think what we need to make sure we add and for you to look at today is, “What gets you rewarded? What gets you promotion? How do you go through and ask for a raise? Who gets a raise? How do you get a bonus?” All of those detail should be in there as well because when you set up an employee guardrail, like keep the drugs out, that's fine, but it doesn't really balance “What gets me rewarded? How do I succeed?” Today I want you to go and take a look at your employee handbook and set it up so that they know not only what gets them fired, but also what gets them a raise.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Well, it’s the second day of a new year, and I want you to keep focused on selling. What can you do for Shoppers? What do I mean by that? Quite simply, people are still in a holiday mood and they probably didn't get everything they wanted. If they're in your store, it's a good likelihood they're buying for themselves. This week is really about dealing with a residual “I didn't get this…” Now, you just have to help them find it, help them fit in, help them purchase it, and more importantly, have fun while you're doing it because it's a new year.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hey, thanks for listening in today. It’s January 1st, 2020. It is a day filled with possibilities like a new a hill full of snow and you are in the sled as a five- or six-year-old child. So many possibilities. Did you hit your goal did you miss it for last year? That's fine if you didn’t hit it because I want you to think of the possibilities in 2020. Use your choice muscle today to envision a great 2020. Happy New Year.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Well, it's New Year's Eve today and the year is officially over this afternoon. So, pat yourself on the back, take a look, and say, "We did a great job." It doesn't matter, whatever has gone on, today is the day that your body, your mind, and all your efforts should start shutting down and saying, "A job well done." So, take stock, rest. Tonight, you're going to go out and party, that's fine. Just let your mind stop planning and enjoy the end of the year.

Okay. It's only a couple of more days until the end of the year. So today I want you to prepare for the possibilities and that means to take down your holiday decorations, and that means all those signs, all those Holly themed PLPs that you might have, all of it. 

It's time to start cleaning that out because the season is really over and clean it up. And you know what? You'll find a renewed sense of order. And also you'll be able to repackage some items in different ways and make new displays so that you're actually encouraging more selling instead of looking like you are shot through from having such a successful holiday season.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

You have to sell what you have today. Yeah, that's right. So what you have, look, the reality is your inventory has had a cannon shot through it, and you're going to be out of an awful lot of items. And the problem is that so many of your employees will say, well, we're out of it. We're out of it. And the goal is to sell what you have. 

Look, brick and mortar is about immediate gratification. So maybe you don't have that exact model, but you might ask them, would you be interested in something maybe the same or better? And when they say yes, then it's your chance to sell what you have. And that's the most important thing that we don't want to end up having a lot of clearance items in January. Demand is still strong. So sell what you have in stock today.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Well, it's the last Saturday of the year. How exciting is this? Well, you better be prepared for returns cause they're going to happen and this is your last Saturday of the year to get ahead of those. So today what I want you to be thinking about is how do I return every return into a sale? That's right. How do I boomerang it back from I want my money back to getting them to buy something? And it starts at the register, right? When someone comes up and they say, I want to return this, you say- you know we have a sale on right now. Everything is 20% off. 

If that's what you're doing and your money actually goes farther, why don't I just leave this here? And you could take a look around. At least you're taking a step forward. But the worst thing you can do is let your employees just go like here's your money back and try to get out of the store as quick as possible. And of course, there's going to be some people won't have a receipt and you'll have to offer a gift card. But your goal is to turn every shopper from, I want to return this to, I'll take this and this and turn it into a sale. That's how you end up making your numbers.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Are you boring your shoppers? You know? And a lot of times I go through and I'm buying something in a brick and mortar store and an employee pretty much can only tell me what is on the box or what's on a sign. And if you really want to increase your sales, you have to understand that selling is inspiring, but also educating. 

And the worst thing you can do is to go through and tell them something they already know or they can see for themselves. So make sure that today, a couple of days after Christmas, people's wallets are open, but make something surprising or think of something else that they could do with a product. That maybe, you know, because you've been talking to your customers for so long, or maybe together you come up with something new. But your goal is to get them to start thinking, what if I could? And that's going to happen by telling them or inspiring them with something they didn't know.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

Hey, it's the day after Christmas, how exciting. The fun continues and the time will pass quickly. You're going to be getting a lot of returns today. And here's my secret tip. A lot of people bought items before Christmas at full price, but after Christmas you probably have a sale going on, and when somebody goes to return something, it's usually the gift who's getting the return. So in addition to just asking if you can exchange it for something, you might say, well, you know, your money is going to go further today because we're having a sale and I can hold this while you look around and you'll actually be getting more for your money. Try that because returns can be turning into purchases if you just keep the right attitude.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!

So yesterday I talked about being a hero to the men who are still just now coming into your store. But I want you today on Christmas Eve to be the hero. And that means you're going to let somebody go home early and you're going to be responsible for closing the shop down. So many times people go through and they say, you have to stay here till five and ultimately it's dead. You know, the traffic falls off in most stores starting at about two. And if you're still open till five or six, don't close early because a lot of big sales can happen. Last moments, just make sure that you take the initiative to take on that responsibility and be a hero to your employees today.

If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to [email protected]. Thanks for listening!