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The 4-Step Sales Strategy Every Independent Retailer Needs · The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices

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  This episode comes with a companion free download.
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  Head over to resilientretailclub.com/strategy
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  to get our free guide in creating a sales strategy for your business.
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  Have you ever had one of those weeks where sales are quiet and you
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  immediately start questioning everything?
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  Maybe you wonder if people have stopped buying, if your marketing isn't working,
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  or you've somehow lost your touch.
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  The reality is that most independent retailers get this all the time.
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  They have quiet times and busy times, and it can feel really random.
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  The issue is if you don't have a plan, every day can feel like a roller coaster.
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  Today, I want to share a simple framework I've used with hundreds
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  of retailers to move from reactive to proactive when it comes to sales.
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  So sales genuinely can feel really unpredictable, and every single
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  retailer that I've worked with, including ones all the way up to the
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  multi-billion-dollar businesses, they all have quiet days versus busy days.
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  The only difference really is that in the really big retailers, they
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  have so many stores and so many different sales channels that the
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  inconsistency tends to get smoothed out.
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  But if it's just you and you have one store or one website or just a
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  handful of sales channels, it can feel really difficult, and it can be one
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  of the biggest confidence killers.
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  It can be a real emotional roller coaster.
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  If you've got a good week, you feel like you've cracked it, and
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  if you've got a bad week, you feel like everything is falling apart.
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  So having a sales strategy, it doesn't eliminate quiet periods entirely.
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  But what it does do is help you understand what's happening and what to do next.
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  So I'm going to walk you through in this episode the four steps that you need to
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  take in order to create your sales plan.
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  So step number one is to set an actual sales goal.
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  Imagine if you were entering into an archery competition or maybe
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  you were just messing around and trying out for the first time.
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  Could you hit your target if nobody told you where it was or what it was?
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  Yet that's exactly how many retailers approach sales.
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  If you were looking at an actual, real, physical target, you of course would want
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  to know what it was and where it was.
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  But many people go into running their business without an actual plan.
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  People sometimes don't want to set targets because they're worried
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  about missing them, but a target isn't there to make you feel bad.
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  It's there to help you make decisions.
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  In terms of how you actually set yourself a sales target, you can start by
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  looking at your last 12 months of sales and then review your recent run rate.
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  So your run rate is how you're currently performing against the year, usually
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  by looking about the last 12 weeks versus the same period last year.
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  So for example, if you took £40,000 last year and you're currently 20% up
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  on the year, you might expect to end up taking £48,000 this year because
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  that is your historical data plus your run rate combined together at 20% up
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  to give you £48,000. So this can help you start with a realistic forecast.
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  Important note, this number doesn't have to be perfect.
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  I just quickly pulled that example together.
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  You may feel like you really need to delve in and spend ages and ages
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  setting this number in your business, but the truth is you probably don't.
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  You just need to get a sense of what seems realistic.
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  It's just there to help give you a guide, an idea to understand where it's
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  likely that your business is going.
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  And the number should feel exciting, but achievable.
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  Some people do this exercise, and they realise that their number against
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  the year means that if they apply it to last year's, it seems like a huge
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  number that they couldn't possibly hit, and it feels overwhelming.
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  For other people, they realise that their current run rate against the year
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  is not so good, and if they want to really hit their goals for the year,
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  they have to see a big improvement.
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  So both of those examples, you may decide not to just do that simple
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  calculation by looking at your sales last year plus your run rate.
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  You may actually decide to pick a different number that feels more
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  in line with what you want to do.
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  It feels exciting, but not unachievable.
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  So most retailers tend to either set themselves wildly optimistic goals that
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  they don't actually have any concrete plan in order to how to hit them, or
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  alternatively, many of them end up not setting goals at all.
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  So the sweet spot sits somewhere in the middle.
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  Set yourself a goal.
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  Don't spend forever coming up with it.
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  Set something that seems realistic that you feel excited about going for, but
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  doesn't feel completely unachievable.
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  Once you've set yourself a yearly goal, and obviously we're partly through the
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  year here, so you can look at the next 12 months, or you could just look at
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  what you think you're going to take for the rest of this year, including what
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  you've already taken in the first six months.
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  The yearly target, it can feel too big and too far away, and it's often better
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  if you break it down into milestones.
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  This could be as simple as breaking it down to what you think
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  you're going to take every month.
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  But ultimately, for me, the best sales plan, if I'm working
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  with a client, is to end up with a sales plan by month, by channel.
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  So that is what do you think you're going to take on your website?
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  What do you think you're going to take on your store, or per
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  store if you have more than one?
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  What do you think you're going to take on Etsy?
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  What wholesale sales do you think you're going to sell?
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  How much do you think you're going to take through markets and events?
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  And then what other channels apply to your business?
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  I've worked with people who have up to 15 or 16 different
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  channels if they're selling across lots of different marketplaces
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  and in lots of different ways.
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  Or you might just have one, you might just sell in your store, or
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  you might just sell on your website.
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  It is going to be as simple or as complex as your business is.
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  But if you do sell across multiple channels, I do recommend that you set
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  yourself targets per channel because that will help you really understand
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  what's going on, what's doing better than expected, and what's maybe not doing as
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  well. The hidden benefit of looking at your sales by month is that you start
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  to see the rhythm of your business.
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  You see how cyclical it is.
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  Retail, it varies a lot from month to month.
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  It varies a lot by season.
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  But you should start seeing year on year, the longer you run your business, that
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  these patterns will actually repeat.
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  So for example, February is a month where a lot of people end up feeling the pinch.
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  They feel panicked.
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  They've come off the back of busy sales all the way through the fourth quarter,
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  sometimes into January, especially if you've got a clearance sale going on.
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  But then in February you get that quiet time.
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  So many retailers think that there's something wrong, think that they've done
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  something wrong, feel like they've really messed up, where in fact February is just
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  a quiet month for many, many businesses.
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  So understanding that seasonality reduces your stress dramatically and
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  you can instead think about what kind of big tasks you could do in February
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  to move the business forward for the rest of the year instead of stressing
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  about the fact that the business is quiet. So then the third step. So first
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  step is to set your goal for the year.
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  Second step is to set your goal by your month and by your channel.
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  Step three is to create a trading calendar.
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  And so a trading calendar is something that helps you break down what
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  activities you need to do to support your targets once you have them.
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  Otherwise, you're just hoping that sales happen.
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  So you build yourself your 12-month sales view by channel and by month,
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  and then you need to look at what's actually going to support that.
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  So the best trading calendar combines everything that's happening in your
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  business from external events to product launches, to your own promotions
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  to understand what's going on.
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  And the way that I would suggest that you do it, you can either
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  do it by week or by month.
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  You would go through and for each one you would ask yourself,
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  what are the key retail events that are happening in this month?
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  So in other words, that could be something like Valentine's Day or
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  Mother's Day, it could be Christmas.
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  But what are the key holidays or purchasing reasons that your customers
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  will have in this particular month?
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  What are your seasonal moments?
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  What seasonal things would you expect?
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  For example, do you always get a big spike in the summer because everyone's
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  getting ready to go to festivals?
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  When are you going to do promotions?
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  So do you always do a Black Friday deal, for example, or do you run
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  your sale in specific months?
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  And what product launches might you have?
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  So an example might be in January, you know that the key driver's
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  going to be your clearance sale.
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  In February, you have got Valentine's Day coming up.
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  In March, in the UK, you have Mother's Day, and then Easter in April, a summer
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  launch in May, and so on and so forth.
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  Once you have mapped out your 12 months like this, you are able to
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  start seeing where there are gaps.
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  Where are you overloaded with lots of different messages?
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  Do you have times where you're doing a sale, but it's also a key
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  selling period for your customer?
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  Are you celebrating your business birthday with a discount, but it's
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  also the launch of brand-new products?
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  The mapping out of your trading calendar across the entire year allows you to
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  see where there are too many messages, but then equally, where are there gaps?
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  Are there months where there are no real reasons for customers to buy?
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  And if that is the case, then you need to make up your own campaigns.
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  I think one of my least favourite terms is the term picky
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  bits, but I was admiring the fact that M&S decided that the 27th of June or something
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  like that was National Picky Bits Day, which they've totally made up, but it's
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  given them a reason and something to talk about with their customer and something
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  to hang their promotions together around.
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  So if M&S can make up National Picky Bits Day, you can make
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  something up for your business too.
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  So have a think about what it might be and what message you want
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  to pass on to your customer to get them to think about buying.
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  And there may be other ones that are really relevant for your business.
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  It could be Fairtrade Fortnight.
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  It could be National Independent Bookshop Day.
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  Who knows what it is?
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  But look for those reasons for you to tie into something
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  topical in your calendar or some reason for people to buy from you.
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  Your sales strategy and your marketing strategy should be connected.
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  The trading calendar becomes the bridge between those two things.
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  You may also, for example, see that you have got product launches, key
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  product launches, that that really becomes your entire marketing strategy.
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  If you have enough new product coming in, you don't need to invent these
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  other reasons for people to buy.
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  The reason that they'll buy is that you've got something new to offer them.
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  It's not about being more creative, it's often about just being more prepared.
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  And if the idea of planning your year out in advance makes you feel absolutely
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  sick to your stomach, and for some people they can't bear it, even if you just put
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  the skeleton into place without trying to put too much detail, it allows you to
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  be spontaneous and to come up with new ideas and different perspectives closer
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  to the time, even though you haven't…
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  You don't have to map it all out.
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  You don't have to get all of the detail right.
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  But you just have to know each month, and ideally each week, what it is
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  that you're going to be talking about.
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  It also won't take as long as you think to map out a whole year.
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  It sounds like such a long job, but once you sit down, you could probably
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  do it in an hour to an hour and a half.
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  And the other really important thing to remember is that although retailers,
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  as I said, retail is very seasonal, it shifts a lot throughout the year,
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  then year on year it should be similar.
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  So if you've done it once, then you can no doubt whip the same trading
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  calendar out each year and just update the months instead of having to start
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  from scratch each time. And then the fourth part is to track what matters.
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  So as I spoke about in last week's podcast, there's already more information
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  in Shopify than you will ever use.
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  So it's not about creating more reports or getting more analytic tools.
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  It's just about tracking on a regular basis how your sales are doing.
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  On a weekly basis, you could track your sales by channel, your
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  year-on-year performance, your progress against your target.
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  You can also make yourself a note, this is really useful, to understand what was
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  happening in your business at the time.
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  For example, depending on the retailer that I worked for, we would find that
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  the World Cup could either be a sales driver because people wanting to go
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  out and escape from the football, or it could, for some retailers, it was
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  a real sales impact because everyone was just too absorbed in the football
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  to think about going shopping.
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  So depending on the year, depending on the tournament, depending on
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  the type of retailer that you are, something as big as the World Cup
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  may have impact on your sales.
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  So make sure you're making a note of that on a weekly basis because this
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  time next year when you come back and look at your sales, you'll wonder
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  what happened, what was different.
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  And if you don't have that noted down, then it can be hard to piece it back
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  together because we do forget a lot.
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  Yes, you can look back at your diary, at your calendar, but it's much easier
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  to just simply make a note of your sales each week and to note anything major,
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  whether that's weather-related or big events happening in the world, or simply
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  something that you did in your business so that you've got context for
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  what your sales performance was when you're looking at it in the future.
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  And then on a monthly basis, have a look at your sales versus your target.
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  Take a look at your sales versus last year.
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  Take a look at things like your conversion rate, your average order value, and your
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  returning customer rate to help you keep an idea of how your sales are doing
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  each month. Future you will be grateful for having these notes and this context.
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  And looking at these things on a monthly basis can make sure that
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  you keep moving it in the right direction.
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  So for example, if you're keeping an eye on something like your average order
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  value and you're doing work to improve that, you're trying different things
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  to increase your average order value, if you track it once a month,
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  you'll be able to really understand whether or not it's
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  working, whether you're actually making progress towards your goal.
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  So retail will never be completely predictable.
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  There will always be peaks and troughs.
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  The goal isn't about having better forecasting.
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  It's about making better decisions.
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  So in terms of your four-step plan to setting yourself a sales strategy,
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  create a sales plan, number one.
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  Number two, create monthly targets by channel.
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  Number three, build yourself a trading calendar.
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  Number four, track and review consistently.
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  So a lot of the time people think there is a magic answer when it comes to growing
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  sales, but usually what moves the needle is having a simple repeatable system.
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  And then also if you have it all mapped out like this, it will help you when
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  your confidence does take a knock.
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  If you're having a wobble, if you've got it all mapped out, you know what
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  your next steps are, then you're able to move forward and do what needs to
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  be done as opposed to feeling stuck and not knowing what to do or feeling very
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  reactive thinking, "Right, well, sales weren't great this week, so maybe I'm
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  just terrible at this," instead of being able to say, "Okay, well, I've got a plan.
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  I've got a new campaign coming up next week.
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  I've got new products that I'm launching.
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  I know what I'm talking about," and having that real clarity of vision in
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  terms of what you need to do, where you need to go, and the actions that
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  you need to take to get yourself there.
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  So ask yourself now which of these four steps is missing from
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  your business right now, and pick one and implement it this week.
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  And if you want a clear, simple guide to creating a simple sales
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  strategy for your business,
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  head over to resilientretailclub.com/strategy
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  and download our free guide today.
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  That is resilientretailclub.com/strategy, and get our little simple guide to setting
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  up a sales strategy for your business.
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  Thank you so much for listening.
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  See you next week.