ARTICLES BY TONY GATTARI

The recession has thrown the sales and marketing strategies of business owners and leaders into disarray Customers have become more hesitant to buy, sales teams are struggling to get deals over the line, and the marketing budget isn’t looking as healthy as it used to

If you want to test out your growth potential, then simply ask yourself whether you have the ability to significantly scale your operations Scalability is not simply selling more into a large marketplace - it requires you to scale up every part of your business, from procurement through conversion to final product sales and support

Businesses all over the world are trying to do more with less as marketing budgets are slashed in these tougher economic times But with a nose for a bargain and a little know-how from the experts, it is possible to extract good value from a shrinking budget

When economic hard-times hit, one measure more than any other separates the business survivors from those that fall by the way – cash-flow In boom times, many business owners naturally turn their focus to measurements like sales and profit, but when things slow down it is cash-flow that is the key test of business health

Too often we are pumping our brains with unhelpful procrastination and punishment scripts that paralyse us into inaction It's easy to get into a habit of programming ourselves with reluctance, paralysis and self-defeating thoughts

In my experience of working with over 110 businesses around the world over many years, I have been amazed at how often we are called in because the business owner has problems with staff or customers or suppliers or the market Invariably our first meeting with an owner is dominated by the owner telling us all the problems he is facing and how everyone is against him

ONE OF OUR clients in the retail industry admitted to us one of the worst sins –they stopped marketing the business The business had some staff issues and the owner ended up spending most of his time in the operations part of his business

JOHN OWNED a sporting goods business selling equipment to sporting clubs John owned the business for over 20 years, and had the same clubs purchasing from him, year after year

A FRIEND OF MINE tells the story of an amazing salesperson who worked with him at a barbeque retailer Barbeques are usually an emotional purchase for males

THE GOOD OL’ DAYS Don’t we all wish we could go back to a time when things were so simple

REMEMBER WHEN you were in primary school Your mother would sometimes give you a dollar to buy extra goodies from the canteen

IN MY EXPERIENCE advising businesses, I’ve seen many retail owners and managers struggle with giving honest constructive feedback to their employees Let me clarify that… they struggle giving honest constructive feedback to poor performing employees

IMAGINE A SOCCER coach assigning positions for each of the players He pins up the positions on a team sheet

LET’S SAY YOU handed your bank account details to a chronic gambler How well would you sleep at night

SALES ARE DOWN, so what do retailers do – they have a sale, or they go out and aggressively advertise Why

IN THIS COLUMN I want to review five simple retail strategies that will give you quick results Conversion rate improvement One of the commonly missed opportunities is in the area of conversion rates

THE FOLLOWING five principles of good retailing are not revolutionary They are timehonoured and have been proven by the experiences of many successful business and retail entrepreneurs

IMAGINE A TAKE AWAY shop around the corner that makes the most amazing hamburgers The buns are so big they can carry a large meat patty, lashings of bacon, melted cheese, salad and condiments

IN THIS MONTH’S column I want to focus on two tales which reinforce the truth that the most important retail strategy that will allow your business to prosper is your business attitude Be careful to protect your mind during these challenging times

THE OFFICE FURNITURE industry is extremely competitive Some businesses treat the purchase as non-essential to the business, and always try to get the lowest price possible

AS RETAILERS and managers most of us have grown up with the business concept that the customer is always right That is garbage

I HAVE NEVER been skydiving Maybe because I fear that the parachute will not open and I land face first into the ground

A SHOPKEEPER needs a full-time sales assistant to replace a long-serving employee who has decided to retire So she places an advertisement in the front window “FULL TIME SALES ASSISTANT REQUIRED – APPLY WITHIN” Being in a strip mall location, the shopkeeper receives around four applications from people who pass by the shop

THERE IS A SPORTING goods retailer that has been in operation for almost 30 years It started from humble beginnings in a small shop on a main road, in a suburb that had a large amount of families, who were keen on their sport

ONE OF THE MAIN areas where retailers feel that they fall down is in generating leads One of our clients was down in sales for two years in a row, and thought that their problem was either a decline in the market, or that they were not pro-active enough in generating traffic through the doors