00:00.00
retailjosh
Welcome to the retail initiative podcast you are in for a treat. Let me actually hey Layne we're just gonna start over because my camera was super crooked. Welcome to the retail initiative podcast you are in for a treat today. My friend mentor. Honestly, like 1 of the people I've learned so much from Bob Neggan from wizbangng retail training is with us and we're going to dive into what does it look like to build an effective team. We touch on a ton of other retail topics. He is a wealth of information and I think that today. Ah, you're gonna learn so much. So if you're listening. We're gonna dive into the theme and then get right into it and if you're watching on Youtube let's get started right now.
00:43.32
retailjosh
All right! So here with me today is Bob Negan Bob thanks for being here.
00:59.75
Bob
Well Josh it is an honor. It's a pleasure. All that stuff.
01:04.12
retailjosh
Yes, so if you are a retailer and you don't know who Bob is um one I don't know what rock you're living under but gosh Bob you've been such an inspiration to me and so much of what I teach honestly.
01:12.60
Bob
A thought.
01:22.94
retailjosh
Um, has its roots in the things that you have taught. Um, but for those that don't know who you are um who is Bob what is Wizbang retail training tell us about yourself a little bit.
01:32.32
Bob
Sure? Well, thank you Josh! Um, and thank you for the nice words so when I in 1981 I was 23 years old so yes that does date me and I had just graduated from college and I didn't want to get a real job. You know college was good to be. And I had a new hobby and that hobby was kite flying and so like many of your listeners. You know I just I thought how hard can it be to run a successful retail store so I opened one of the world's first kite stores in mc andinaw city Michigan there's Michigan. There's mceninaw city.
02:09.57
retailjosh
He put his end up and he pointed to like the tip top for those of you listening. But.
02:11.50
Bob
And ah, yeah, ah, that's that's something that all michiganders. Do you know to to describe where you are on the map and you know like so many of your listeners I didn't have any real retail skills. In fact, I had no business skills at all. I had only two thousand dollars in cash but I wanted to build this business and so through trial and error and making lots of mistakes and figuring it out. Ah our business crew. So I hired my brother my younger brother steve. Halfway through the first season. So when I talk about we it was the 2 of us growing it and then about fourteen or fifteen years in I met susan and susan was a trained retail professional. I was a guy like most of the independent retailers we work with who just you know it was just entrepreneurial energy. It was trying things. It was working at things it was you know it was just going out there and hustling but then susan came you know we met and then she came to work for us and. Like I said she was trained in fact I remember josh clearly the moment where I thought oh my gosh somebody actually trained her how to do this right? Yeah, this isn't a figure it out as you go right? What do they say build the plane when you're in the air. That's what we were doing.
03:33.96
retailjosh
Ah, you aren't born with this.
03:42.27
Bob
And so that really when she came you know our business was good. It was growing. It had great energy. It had a great reputation on the street but it wasn't tight. It wasn't together and when we blended sort of all of those training all the training that she got from the department stores. With all of that sort of entrepreneur all of the entrepreneurial energy and lessons that Steve and I learned you know, just try through trial and error boy all of a sudden things went and it was really really a. Fun gratifying experience to finally have the store run the way it was supposed to run and then we learned how to sell yo-yos and I don't know if if people in your community know my yo-yo story but over the course of. Ah, couple of years. We sold several million dollars worth of Yoyo and yo-yo accessories we had 8 full time yo-yo professionals out on the road. We had a dozen kiosks in malls um, one week in December of Ninety Ninety nine we had a 200 and $ 60000 week in yo-yo sales. So you know we did lots of fun, interesting stuff. We did lots of fun, interesting stuff. Yeah, in fact I have I made a keynote of that experience and I'll share it with you. Josh.
04:52.72
retailjosh
Um, that is crazy gosh.
05:04.99
Bob
But you know it but it was a crazy wild experience and yeah, then after that my younger brother Steve came to me and said hey Bob you want to sell your share of the kite shop and I said yes because one of the things that I knew was that. I didn't want other retailers to have to go through all of the pain and trial and error that that I had gone through so Susan and I both left the mac and aw kit company my brother Steve still owns it and still runs it. It's still successful to this day. He runs it with my sister in law Allin and Susan and I started whiz bang retail training to give independent retailers the skills they need to run successful businesses and that's what we've been doing for the last twenty years is working with people like your. Clients and the listeners of your podcast. You know that is in small to midsize independent retail is our passion and I know it's yours too. So there's the there's the story of Wiz Bang Retail training
06:11.58
retailjosh
Gosh I Love it and honestly you know I've gotten to work with a ton of people within your community and the way that you serve is incredible. Ah, but we're not here just to talk about your story I think you have.
06:23.80
Bob
And 2
06:27.20
retailjosh
Um, what I want to do is like selfishly one because I love to learn from you and 2 I think it would serve my audience really Well I'd love to just kind of like pull out some advice and because I think that right now the challenges that retailers are facing is. More than ever I Think we're seeing people that are really Exhausted. They're struggling with hiring. They're these new sales channels that they don't used to not have to think about and now they have to think about. Um, what do you think like when you talk to those retailers.
06:53.95
Bob
Yep.
07:01.28
retailjosh
What do you typically see is kind of like is there a root issue behind that struggle right now or or what kind of advice are you giving to people that feel that way.
07:06.86
Bob
You know that's that that that's I love that idea of root issue Josh because here's what I know and so in our retail mastery system which is our flagship product. There's 11 skills. there's 11 modules and the reason that there's 11 modules is because as you grow a business. Every time when when you hit a certain level in your growth. The skills. You don't have create a crack in your foundation. So then the next step you know you you so you have to develop that set of skills to you know to compensate so really is what I love about being an entrepreneur. Is this idea of you're always building your skill set. That's the nature of growth getting better. So when you talk about what is the common thread. The common thread is ah a lack of skills and that's not a slam. You know so as you grow your business and as I grow my business. The nature of growth is to you have to pick up new skills. You know there's there's this idea of what day Marshall Goldsmith says what got you here won't get you there so it's ah you know business business growth isn't linear. It's It's messy messy messy messy messy and and I think that so when I say a lack of skills that is not pointing that is not being judgmental. That's just ah, sort of a fact so I'll share with you today I recorded a hot seat with Patty Zeller and we're going to be running it. Here in the next week or 2 on our wiz bang retailer' Facebook group page but she's a smart successful award winning merchant she's smart. She's you know she built an advertising agency before she built. Her pet store animal connections and she's frustrated because one of the big chains came and stole her manager and she's having a hard time getting people into apply so the hot seat was really, ah. There were 2 things that happened in this hot seat that applied to your question one was we had to go back and really look at her recruiting skills and she's doing so many things. Well so there's the skillset and there's the mindset and.
09:34.25
retailjosh
Um.
09:37.28
Bob
So She had most of the skill set we tweaked a couple of things we talked about a couple of things we had a couple of ideas. But really what patty wanted and and needed and by the end we got to was this idea of you know what. It's just business right? I'm throwing up my shoulders here. It's just business and when you look at to your question. What what is sort of that common mistake or or problem is this idea of when you have a. Problem or a frustration look at it as a data point a moment in time with a particular set of circumstances and then when you look at it objectively when you look at it critically then you'll start to see what skill. Needs to be developed So Every problem is an opportunity. Every problem is pointing to a skill. You need to learn So when I say lack of skills. That's really what's happening So right now. The world has changed.
10:31.66
retailjosh
Who.
10:47.97
Bob
And so now what independent retailers are doing is they're scrambling to develop new sets of skills. For instance, your service is a reaction to the fact that most people don't have the skills they need to create. Ah, successful ecommerce Experience. Patty didn't have the skills those recruiting skills she needed to you know to get people in the door and so there's this whole thing Omni experiential the skill of engaging in social selling the skill of creating content.
11:14.86
retailjosh
Um, you whom.
11:25.64
Bob
Skill of acquiring new customers. So whenever I do a hot seat I can almost always pretty quickly pinpoint What the problem is and the problem is okay, this is the problem. This is the skill you need to Learn. We can talk about it of course but understand that this is a. Hole in your skill set and it's probably creating some problems in your mindset and so let's just work that out so that was a long answer I Hope that was okay that I got a little windy.
11:52.20
retailjosh
Um, yeah, gosh. No that that was incredible. What I love about this idea. Um is what situations happen hiring issues covid you name it we we all have plenty of things. Um. And I think I learned this from Taylor Welch a traffic and funnels. But I've probably heard it from 10 other people as well is this idea of like the thing that you blame when you say hey I have this problem here's why that reason is what you give control to.
12:25.68
Bob
Right.
12:28.80
retailjosh
So my business isn't surviving right now because my stores close from a shutdown. Okay, well, what's the problem with that your business can't survive until your store reopens and the shutdown goes away your problem in your marriage is your spouse? Well what? then? what is the your marriages can't get better until your spouse improves. All these things.
12:42.55
Bob
Right? yeah.
12:46.89
retailjosh
But instead we could say like hey my Facebook ads don't work not because Facebook ads don't work or my agency's terrible or or whatever but my Facebook ads don't work because I haven't acquired the skill yet I haven't acquired the skill yet to do it? Um, but.
13:01.28
Bob
That's perfect.
13:06.80
retailjosh
Bob I know you and I know that there is something that people if they stop listening right now that they're gonna leave and they're gonna take the wrong point away because they maybe just heard me say that and they're gonna think I need to go buy a Facebook ads course and I need to learn how to do Facebook ads and so I can start doing all these things. Um.
13:22.99
Bob
Right.
13:25.81
retailjosh
What do you say? So retailers have limited time. They have limited resources. They can't do all all the things. Um, what's the difference between learning skills and like at some point they need to start delegating some of these skills out.
13:32.60
Bob
Right.
13:43.90
Bob
Um, sure.
13:45.74
retailjosh
They can't just continue to learn every single tactic. So what do you say like how do you coach someone through that situation.
13:50.30
Bob
Well so the the answer there is is pretty straightforward what I encourage people to do is to ask themselves. What do they love to do? What are they great at what makes them the most money. So I was talking to a client recently and somebody called in sick and she had to get on the floor and she sold like $3000 herself in 2 hours or something like that and she was like oh it's so much fun and you know that's how I was I loved being on the floor so when I was on the floor I was making us money you know there's a reason that the retail sales academy is hot because I was a hot salesperson if I can so modestly say you know I was cut. You know I mean but but there's this idea. So what do you love to do if you love marketing spend your time marketing. So what you're trying to do as a business owner is to really get clear on what you love to do? What makes your business money. What moves the needle in your business and then start peeling the rest off. You know we've had this conversation about dan sullivan wrote the book who not how and people have been talking about who not how for a long time before dan sullivan wrote a book about it. But if you're interested in this idea of who not how you know I would encourage you to read the book. But. So you you know? So to the example of facebook ads the idea of learning facebook ads and monitoring my stats I mean I would rather so poke myself in my hand with a fork than do that. You know it's just or when we talk about inventory management. Looking at those numbers and looking deeply into an analysis. That's not my thing I like I like the energy of being a retailer I like the energy of promotions in special events and that's if I when I had my retail store that's where the money got made. So what? you? what? you're trying to do is find people who love to do the things that you don't like to do and give that to them. So if ah if a bookkeeper costs $50 and you're not good at being a bookkeeper and you don't like keeping the books. And you're not keeping the books because you're not good at it and you don't like it. You know I guarantee you that if you have any kind of retail business at all and you love to sell you're going to make way more than $50 being on the floor and since we all have limited bandwidth.
16:36.65
Bob
Nature of the game is to say what can I give away and that Josh you know to our point of developing skills this delegation and leadership in creating structure in creating strategy. Those are all skills too. Those are higher level skills. But their important skills and as the retail owner starts to develop their their business and their their retail skills this is these are the sorts of things that happen.
17:06.40
retailjosh
Gosh I Love that and I am a firm firm firm believer that the most important thing that we can do as entrepreneurs or as people is focus on the questions that we're asking because when you ask really good Questions. You ask really good answers and I remember in my own business. Um I had a point where I was really struggling like I had a high turnover in this one position. It was really hard for me to hire and people would come in and then they would be here for like a month and it just wasn't working and I remember asking the question of like okay well I need to learn that thing Better. So I can train it better. And I Never it never hit me to ask the question like or do I have the skill set that I'm just not a very good leader I'm I'm not a good boss and and I need to develop that skill first. It was not a tactic that I need I had gotten to that point in my business that I could.
17:47.33
Bob
Um, right right.
18:00.67
retailjosh
Set set that like or step up a level and say how do I develop a leadership skill because that's what I'm missing I think it's so easy because when you first start your business. You know it is about learning Tactics you're learning your point of sales system. You're learning your website or whatever.
18:13.18
Bob
Right.
18:19.28
retailjosh
But at a certain point. The skills have to really go up a level and I think because you hit the nail on the head there. Um.
18:26.30
Bob
So so so let let's talk about something else. Real. Ah, let me talk about something that I'll get to a great great quote that I know you're going to absolutely love. So Susan and I created this model and you you and I both love models called the retailer's journey because you know how many. I mean I've been doing this for 20 years you know so 20 years as a retailer 20 years doing this so I've talked to a lot of retailers. So I think I well I know I've talked to enough retailers to spot patterns and so the retailer's journey people start out as shopkeepers. Bob Nagan owning a kite shop not knowing what the world he is doing is a shopkeeper very very tactical filled with stress not knowing what you're do doing trial and errors. But then the the object especially now in today's world of retail where. The information and the people are so readily available. The object is to get to the second stage which is what I call retail pro and that's when you have built in the systems. The processes the trainings you have built that sort of basic foundational set of skills. The third step is what we call entrepreneur is artist but you know we don't need to talk about that right now but you know to your point on our wizb ba retailers group. So if any of your listeners are listening to this and they aren't members of our Facebook group wizbang retailers I'd encourage them.
19:46.36
retailjosh
But.
19:58.33
Bob
To join but people are always looking for ideas I need an idea for this I Need an idea for that I needed an idea for that and the idea of I need an idea is typically very indicative that somebody is a shopkeeper you know I need an idea for.
20:11.60
retailjosh
Absolutely.
20:15.77
Bob
For traffic. No you need to be a better marketer so you know there's that whole thing. So but now I want to go back to this quote and then I'm I'm sorry if I'm if I'm talking too much. But so I was in a mastermind with a guy and his name is Chris Knight and we were having a conversation one night
20:19.58
retailjosh
Um, yeah.
20:35.80
Bob
And here's what he said to me and I want everyone who's listening to this to really kind of you know, maybe write it down and ponder it for a little bit because I really believe it holds a very very essential entrepreneurial truth he said Bob in the beginning of a business. The more you do the more you make but there you know and that's that's that's shopkeeper right? You're just grinding. You know you're just you know the more hours you work. You know it's it's just you're accumulating and he said but there comes a time when the more you think the more. You make and since you can't think and do at the same time that statement by itself is actually quite profound the secret to growing your business is to do less and think more.
21:28.76
retailjosh
So.
21:32.20
Bob
You know and and it just was yeah I was like Chris you get an a for that one buddy and you know and I've thought about that a lot because you know as as entrepreneurs you and I and all of your listeners as independent retailers. All of our clients. You know there's just this tendency.
21:39.78
retailjosh
Is.
21:52.19
Bob
To get into the weeds and I mean we it happens here at wizbank training even though we teach this stuff. The cobblers children have no shoes sometimes but you know that when when you're working Hard. You're doing a lot when you're in the weeds like that to your point. Sometimes it's hard to lift your head up and to be able to think about and ask the right questions to move your business forward in a meaningful way.
22:20.22
retailjosh
Absolutely gosh, youre um, yeah, that whole retailer's journey honestly of any framework you teach. That's my favorite and I I've kind of taken it and I do an adapted version related to e-commerce and. 1 of the things that I love to talk about is like hey well how do you level up? What does it look like to do that and I think one of if I could leave some advice with not with you Bob but with other people is the idea of saying like okay so you are a shopkeeper.
22:46.79
Bob
Um, right sure of course.
22:53.68
retailjosh
We're self-aware first off knowing where you are is great and one of the cool things about being a shopkeeper you know Bob you teach that the excitement is about product and I think that there's something cool that is like we just want to bottle that up and make that into a pill that we could take for the rest of our career because we sometimes it's easy. Have you ever met a retailer who's like ah. Hate clothes like you own a clothing store like yeah, but I just I don't enjoy this anymore. We we don't want to lose that. But what we can do is start to say look at someone a level ahead and even ask. Okay, what would they worry about in this situation. So when we talk about ecommerce. For example.
23:14.71
Bob
Yeah, right.
23:26.74
Bob
Yeah, that's a great idea.
23:32.87
retailjosh
It's really common that we'll talk about a feature on a site and the first question I'll get from a shopkeeper is what app does this what app does whatever it's a software question. Um, and the better question is say well. What would that pro retailer. What would that.
23:42.39
Bob
Yeah, yeah.
23:49.15
retailjosh
Um, professional, really ask? Well, they're going to obsess over their customer and they're going to think about okay in store we do this with our customer. What does that look like online like what is my customer experience there and then we back into tactics and we get to the apps we get to um to those things. So Bob I want to get back to some of what we were talking about earlier because I think that idea of who not how is really important and especially for a shopkeeper the entry level retailer. One of the things I hear so much is but I've hired I've brought I got the team in. They're difficult I have all these circumstances that are beyond easy and there's no one does it as well as I do no one you know, no one clean the blinds as well as I can clean the blinds um, and that's the real 1.
24:27.55
Bob
Um, sure right right? Ah, Ah, no one can sell like I do D I mean I see that all the time right? So that the the owner comes in and steps on all the salespeople. Steps on their toes and then they he he or she wonders why the salespeople are any good. Well it's because when you walk in, they get out of the way because that's what happens in that store. So yes, so go ahead I'm sorry.
24:56.94
retailjosh
No, but like what do you? How how do we? So for that person What does it look like to start to let your team do it knowing that you probably do it best that owner is the best salesperson. So what does that transition start to look like.
25:09.45
Bob
sure yes sure that's a great question. So the the first thing that I had to understand is that that idea between the difference in between leadership and management because I thought that leadership was. Enthusiasm. So as long as I was enthusiastic enough about everything that everyone would follow my lead and I thought if I asked nicely that everything would get done miraculously to the standards that I had buried deep inside my brain. And you know and that's just not how it works. In fact, if you're if if any of your listeners are taking notes here's something. That's really important to understand is that if you don't clearly communicate your standards. Your team members have no. No choice but to create standards of their own right? They they have to so really what I'm talking about here is the idea of management and I learned that retail management from both Susan and from Harry Friedman
26:06.20
retailjosh
1
26:20.28
Bob
And from getting on the floor and applying I mean those were the 2 main sort of my main mentors when it comes to learning things. But then you know then then you have Stephen Covey and you have all the you know the leadership books and things like that. But. The thing that really got me past what you're describing is understanding that management is about creating the processes the systems the training. It's about creating the infrastructure so that your people know what to do and then creating the infrastructure so that there is cause and effect so that it all becomes very mechanical. So you know so you build the training program. You have your nonnegotiable standards written in the language of behaviors rather than responsibilities and you have the training and people have signed off on the training. You know that they know and they know that you know that they know. But then when they violate those non-negotiable standards the disciplinary action process gets put into play. So the thing that it took me a long time to learn is that management is very very mechanical it's not emotional it's mechanical and so for people who have that problem. The answer is to get to work build the training programs understand how to write standards that are clear how to hold people accountable to them and you know that's really that is that that. That's the third skill that we learned at the Mac Andinaw Kite company the first skill we learned was marketing and that's because we needed to get people in the store. The second skill we learned was selling because we needed to make sure that we were converting as many people as possible because there weren't that many people. But then as we started to grow. We realized that we needed to learn how to become better managers and better leaders because we were bringing in people and they weren't doing the job that I that that we needed them to do so that whole idea of management leadership culture creation. Those are all skills.
28:46.86
retailjosh
Gosh I Love that it's you know because we hear the term scale so much. Um, and I love like even the order that you started to learn that because that management piece is really one of the until that is mastered scaling is impossible because I think.
29:02.10
Bob
Um, is chaos.
29:03.73
retailjosh
Mistake It's chaos because we mistake the word growth with scaling. There's growth which is like you're making more money this year than you were last year which is good. We can do that without mastering Management. You can get better at Sales. You can get better at marketing you keep getting just recycle those 2 and you're going to keep making. More money but to scale scale literally means like to take something that exists and like magnify it and if the picture you're magnifying isn't a pretty picture. Maybe let's make that worth like you always want to expand something that is worth expanding first because as soon as you open that like.
29:29.80
Bob
Right.
29:42.22
retailjosh
Ah, second location if you have not gotten management down. You can't jump between the sales floor at both locations.
29:47.75
Bob
You know so and so here's the story of the Mac Andinaw Kite company Josh so 2 brothers one store we did great 2 brothers two stores. We did great 2 brothers three stores we almost went broke. The first time right. Because we didn't you know I mean it's a different business and we didn't know how to do it in 1 of the I can't tell you how many people I have talked out of second locations. You know so here's what typically happens somebody a landlord from another town or another center comes in and it feels good to be wanted. Oh my gosh somebody wants us to come to charlevoy charlevoy Michigan's a great town you know and it's it's flattering after you've been working so hard but you have to know whether you know whether you've got the chops I mean. Is it are all of your operational pieces in place. Do you have a buyer. Are you know? do you have the structure so that you can leave you know and also the other question that I ask all the time is. You know how much more can we get out of the store you already have yes, it's romantic to open another location but I can walk into almost any retail store I know and find fifteen twenty percent growth just by looking around the store.
30:58.72
retailjosh
M.
31:14.91
Bob
Looking at what they're doing seeing how they're training their salespeople so I'd much rather see a business and if any of your listeners are thinking this way my advice to you and I think it's mirrors what you said earlier my advice to you is to ask yourself how tight are you? How good are you. And this is one of the reasons that the retail mastery system is such an important product for so many people because you don't know what you don't know I mean I didn't even know what assortment planning was till Susan came to work I was like what's assortment planning what's open to buy planning I'm like what what is all this stuff that you. Talking about. You know my my my thing was get out there and sell some stuff. That's how and so this idea of you have to really really become fundamentally sound before you start to open more stores before you start to really get outside your comfort zone. That's the way that you grow. Ah, successfully and with minimal stress to your point about scaling.
32:16.49
retailjosh
Yeah I love that and so one of the things that you talked about is the idea of like so when it comes to management that okay, what's that first step and it's okay, let's get going on training. Um, one of my favorite things that wizbeng has put together. Um.
32:24.43
Bob
Right.
32:35.69
retailjosh
And honestly like I would love if we could dive into it with some of my audience because I think it's a ah worthwhile thing to look at because I think this is an area where people really struggle is the retail sales Academy Plus um because when it comes to training even some of like the how tos I'm thinking of like all the.
32:45.21
Bob
Right.
32:54.44
retailjosh
Things taped on the side of walls and back rooms and all of that um tell me about or tell us about the retail sales sales Academy Plus like what does that do or retailers in helping develop that plan.
32:55.50
Bob
Ah.
33:01.22
Bob
Yeah, sure, right? Well and I appreciate you giving me a chance to talk about it so we've had the retail sales academy for about six years now and the retail sales academy is really the most customer focused. Retails specific selling system anywhere and you know it's been a great program. We have sheaths of digital testimonial since you can't have a sheath or a sheet of paper with a digital testimonial but you know I mean. We ah typically people immediately see between 10 and 15% increase in the average ticket just because they have skilled sales have salespeople and so it's been a great program for us. It's been a great program for our clients who use it. But 1 of the things that we recognized right away was people wanted to put their own training on it. They wanted to have it in 1 place and so that's what we did for the last year and a half we've been building this brand new. Platform called the retail sales academy plus so Josh do you have a hobby. Are you a golfer? are you a hunter or a fisherman or guitar. So Josh's music all right? So Josh's music
34:20.77
retailjosh
I Play guitar.
34:29.33
Bob
When you enroll in the retail sales academy plus now all of a sudden all of your frontline employees get get trained on how to sell the 6 steps to the perfect purchase. So I'll train your people how to sell on the floor. You know selling. But. Then you get to take all of the things that you need and that you know your people need and to create courses on the retail sales academy so you could have ah courses on the guitars we carry at Josh's music and then here's Josh with his tailor c 3 this is a 3 c three. It's one of my favorite guitars. This is why I like it. These are the benefits. These are the features when somebody asks you this you know, really training is the process of taking what's in here. And putting it someplace where everybody else has access to it. So it's not just product training. It's all the other stuff examples. What are your return policies. What are your philosophies. How do you count the money. You know one of the hallmarks of operational excellence is your bank breaks down to zero every night took me about 15 years to get it where every night it went down to 0 but you know that comes from teaching your people how to count the money the same way things like How do you turn off the alarm if it goes off accidentally all of this stuff that become annoyances that are perpetual annoyances in a business. They all can be easily put onto the platform you can create quizzes to make sure that you're. Team members know actually know what they were supposed to learn so now all of a sudden all of the training they need is right there in 1 place with full accounting full reporting and it's it's awesome. People are.
36:31.20
retailjosh
That's brilliant.
36:36.91
Bob
You know we're just bringing out. Ah it out of Beta and the people who have tested it and are trying it are loving it because it's solving a very very important problem.
36:46.97
retailjosh
I love it. So there's ah, an area where I am uniquely excited. So I believe like training is so difficult and especially because like you what ends up happening is an owner trains someone and then that person trains someone else and you know. All of a sudden you end up with an eighteen year old training another eighteen year old and there's like yeah, it's pretty easy around here like you just swing. It's like you know and then there Bob I love it was it you who said the roomba thing. Um.
37:10.26
Bob
Um, yeah.
37:15.88
Bob
Yeah, and that came from Jill Tech Yeah ah Roomba crew. So yeah, your your crew members come out from behind the counter go approach a customer and then when the customer says just looking the the roomba goes back and docks behind the counter. Yes.
37:31.46
retailjosh
I love it? Um, but my world I'm so much in the e-commerce side but we're only working with brick and Mor Retailers is you know we launch these beautiful sites and they're great and then I'll go two months later and despite all the training that we provided all the resources that we gave the site has images that are off and or it hasn't been updated one time but instead an owner can create a resource that's like hey here's our operational standards in store online on social media. This is how you run our brand and that idea of like I can finally be on a beach with an umbrella and a cup sipping something is like finally it's one of those things that creates that light at the end of the tunnel of okay this is how I could actually. Have a team and I will say to be serious about it and this is a big reason why I wouldn't have Bob on you because I really believe in this idea um is hiring is more difficult right now than ever. But the biggest part of hiring is keeping your really good people and the best way to keep really good people. Is to make them feel equipped. There's all these other pieces. But if people don't enjoy their job. They're not going to stay where they are and no one enjoys doing a job that they don't do well I think there is we think that people are lazy and people. But I think most people generally want to be good at what they do.
39:02.52
Bob
That's exactly right? You know so Josh you just hit it on the nose. The best recruiting strategy is a retention strategy because if you keep the people you have and you keep them happy and you make sure that they feel empowered that they feel listened to. They're having fun that you're giving them the skills they need to be successful. They're not going to leave so quickly right? it so it really I love what you said and this goes back to what we talked about at the very beginning of your show this idea of. You're trying to solve problems once and for all, it's not spray and pray you know spray to put out a fire and pray that it doesn't start again. You know you're just really, you're just methodically taking all of the things that you know need to happen on your floor. For your customers to have a successful experience and for your team members to have a ah successful experience and then you're just putting this on putting them on the retail sales academy plus and you have the ability to assign Lessons. So Josh you know so you have a problem. Let's just we'll just use the example of the alarm. So the alarm in Josh's music goes off in the middle of the day and nobody knows how to turn it off. You're the only guy who has you know. Ah, wherewithal or the knowledge or whatever it takes to turn off this ah this alarm so they end up tracking you down and you end up having to come to the store and it ruins your afternoon off. You know you get pulled off the golf course yadda yadda yadda you're annoed and so then this becomes the opportunity for Josh to make hey it's Josh this is how we turn off the alarm I got to put the phone there I mean it really is that simple hey it's Josh if you have a problem with the alarm if it goes off. These are the 3 steps that you take okay.
41:02.93
retailjosh
Aha.
41:10.50
Bob
Then you assign that lesson to all of your employees and the next time the alarm goes off they either know exactly how to do it or they know where to go you have solved the problem maybe not once and for all but you've gone a long ways towards solving it once and for all.
41:25.67
retailjosh
I Love it.
41:27.88
Bob
And this is how you know to your point about building a business that doesn't need you to be there all the time. This is how it happens you know we have clients 1 of our clients to Boston's in Illinois I think they said that the last time they looked they had 40 hours of trading. Not on the retail sales account but they have 40 hours of training. You know it's every time something happens. They just hey it's Andy right? So that is you know it's really a way to It's a perspective on.
41:56.52
retailjosh
Yeah, yeah.
42:06.85
Bob
Solving problems once and for all and taking these little annoyances and getting them off your plate.
42:11.34
retailjosh
Well, that's incredible. So for those of you that are curious and you want to learn more about it. The link is in the show notes if you're watching this on Youtube then we'll put the the link below. Um, so definitely check that out depending on when you're listening to this if you're listening to this. Um, before midjune I do just have to quickly throw in that please join us at the retail success summit. We're so excited Bob you're you have to forgive me that I have a brain part here on the dates. Um, awesome. So you have to join us.
42:44.52
Bob
June Thirteen and 14
42:50.55
retailjosh
At the retail success summit June thirteenth and fourteenth in Grand Rapids Michigan I'll be there. Crystal media will be there obviously Bob and we have gosh. You're so many incredible speakers. Ah so there's a link below please join us for that. Um, honestly, it's like the coolest event in retail. But I don't know why you I don't know why people haven't registered if you haven't yet. But honestly I'd love if you joined us there I'm excited to get back in person and seeing your faces again and and all of that so it should be fun.
43:08.40
Bob
Well thank you Josh right? yeah.
43:23.99
retailjosh
Um, but Bob thank you for being here. It was so good to have you.
43:26.16
Bob
Ah, well thought Josh it really truly has been an honor so always enjoy talking to you always enjoy learning from you too. So.
43:34.94
retailjosh
All right? Well thanks for being here and for those of you listening a huge request leave a review for the show. It's how we help other people find our content and yeah, show up in searches and all that so leave a review for us. Let us know how we're doing. And if you don't follow me at retail Josh shoot me a Dm. Let me know that you're enjoying the show and I appreciate you for listening I'll see you next week
