Presentation for Crossville Sales Team in Nashville, TN.
Trends: what are they? Where do they come from? Why do they matter? These are some of the questions we are going to answer in this presentation because understanding, and applying consumer trends and insights in general and color trends in particular is and will forever be a holy grail to business and marketing professionals. Trends come from consumers needs, wants and desires and any business today is, well, ‘in the business’ of unlocking those needs, wants and desires and thrive along the way.

Learn how to spot a trend, trends life cycle - from idea, to ubiquity to eventually bust - and then learn how to capitalize on them at their peak moment.

Panel Discussion at the 2018 Coverings Tile, Stone & Flooring Conference.
What metrics should a distributor be tracking? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) to best help you manage your business? Join our panel of leading distributors in this discussion of distribution best practices. From financial to inventory to customer management, how do these relationships affect the overall health of your business? Come share and gain tips for improving quality, service and overall operational efficiency.

Learning Objectives:

- Understand opportunities in distribution by learning from experienced owners of successful companies
- Take real-life examples of successful companies and develop strategies for their own companies
- Question and analyze actual strategies to determine what would be best for your own company
- Interact with fellow distributors to learn new ways of doing business

Presentation at the 2018 Coverings Tile, Stone & Flooring Conference.
Yes, you can have too much of a good thing! Inventory, it is said, can either help or hurt you, and too much inventory generally tends to end up hurting rather than helping. We could go back in time and simply reduce the order that we placed last year (hopefully not longer) and that would solve the problem. Time machines however have not been invented yet, so we are faced with the reality of addressing excess stock in more creative ways. And how about intentionally buying someone else's overstocks? An anathema? Not anymore. It is often true that one person’s mistake is another person’s opportunity and that what you may not be able to sell or even give away may be in high demand somewhere else and vice versa.

This session will look at both challenges and opportunity with slow moving inventory and will highlight the many ways to maximize the return on selling overstocks and strategies for buying someone else's problems. If you have too much excess inventory and/or you are looking for a way to increase your margins this is your chance to learn how to do it.

Learning Objectives:

- Fully understand the cost of too much inventory and the impact on the overall business
- Take concrete action on overstocked items by marking them down or using other tactics
- Compute the cost of a markdown on the financial performance of the company
- Compute the maintained margin of an item as well as the GMROII that it contributes

Do you think you know what your customers really need, want and desire? Is that a great product that will change their life? A great price? Compassionate and professional service?

If only it were that simple! Yes, they do need all of these things. In fact, you have been providing them all along. But something is still missing and that is why sales and profits are not what they used to be. Yes, healthcare policy changes, competition and other external factors play a part here. But that’s only half of the story and the solution must be found somewhere else. It is called: inspiration. Inspiration to change, to adapt, to dare to stand out, and to think of different ways of running your business.

Because, only businesses that dare to change, to try different approaches and to be unique can thrive today and in the future. With so much choice out there and sometimes less money in their pockets, consumers don’t like to feel that they’ve wasted their time, money or effort on anything that is not brilliant or worthwhile. Learn how to deliver the 'brilliant and worthwhile' by creating the right store environment and displays; carrying the right product at the right price - NOT the lowest! - and in the right assortments; asking the customer the right questions and exceeding their many expectations; hiring the right team and training; motivating and developing them right; analyzing their performance and productivity measures and developing plans to improve their numbers; deploying the right marketing tactics - including social; and finally availing yourself of the right technologies to gain operational efficiencies and deeper customer relationships.

Join us for an eye opening and inspiring journey into the new consumer's expectations and how you can exceed them. Leave the session with at least ten resolutions that will help guide you in your quest for customer relevance and better profits.

Presentation at the 2017 Brazil Ceramic Tile Experience Conference in San Antonio, TX.
Amazon and other retail titans are posing ever growing challenges to manufactures, distributors and specialty retailers all over the world. Price cuts have been for years the panic button used by most to maintain relevance and ensure a future. All to the detriment of businesses that have found out the hard way that low prices mean loss of profitability and a threat to their survival. So, what else can be done to combat convenience, low price, never ending assortment of products which make up the offering of the amazons of the world? Or, to train consumers to look at us differently than just a showroom? A lot! Because what online businesses will never be able to fully realize is the personalized and exceptional experience that consumers are starting to rediscover and miss and that only specialty retail can deliver. And yes, that includes coming up with pricing strategies that resonate with consumers without  bankrupting your business. As well, it means embracing showrooming but learning the smart ways to capitalize on those customers’ visits. 

Presentation at the 2017 Appliance Connexion Conference in Santa Monica, CA.
There’s no way around it—retail has had a very tough time and the number of stores that closed down in the last year alone and continuing this year is in the tens of thousands. Why so much bad news, so fast? There are many reasons for this and this training will review them, one by one, so that they can work as a cautionary tale for all of us who are intent on continuing to thrive. One reason in particular, deserves all our attention: the Amazon influence and their ‘Buy N Large’ ambitions, to borrow from Wall-E, the movie about a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarking on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind (well worth seeing). Buy N Large is the satirical megacorporation that provided for every conceivable aspect of human existence…kind of like what we are witnessing with Amazon.

What to do about them? A lot indeed. Apple, Best Buy, U.K.-based Dixons Carphone, Ace Hardware, IKEA, Wal-Mart and quite a number of other retailers have plenty of ideas how to deal with Amazon’s competition and are doing it with respectable success. And so, are plenty of independents who know that to get to their customer’s heart and wallet today is about creating frictionless experiences and bringing theater into their store. Now, the question is: Can you?

Retailers have seen a lot in the last decade or so. First, customers started demanding lower and lower prices, then deals every day, then instant free delivery and no cost returns, and now, they are only coming to a store if we can deliver them an outstanding experience.

Experiential retailing has been around for a long time but it has reached new heights lately blurring the the lines between residential/personal and retail, hospitality and retail, and physical and digital (some call it 'category convergence').

New concepts, an amalgam of traditional services, convenience and new options, are supposed to help traditional retailers compete with the rise of online shopping. ‘By offering services like hair salons, bike repair shops, and restaurants, stores are becoming one-stop-shopping giving customers an experience they can't purchase with a click of their mouse’ explains Urban Outfitters Marketing Manager Tracy McGinnis. Urban Outfitters, Bonobos, Warby Parker, Nordstrom, Restoration Hardware are just a few examples of retailers focusing on “experience/lifestyle retail” as you have not seen before.

As we always say, customers shop horizontally and the new experiences customers are having at these stores are raising the bar for everyone else.

In this presentation you are going to learn what you need to do to meet consumers’ new experience expectations by coming on an exciting journey with us where we are going to explore trends that you need to watch and embrace. Here is a taste of them (note: we update and change them monthly):

- A new definition of competition: industry game changers
- A new definition of shopping: mobile and online imperatives
- New retail channels: social retail outlets
- Caring for Generation Z: your plan for the future
- Caring for Generation Y: the most difficult customers
- A new definition of store: merchantenment, retailtenment
- Slow shopping: tapping into US consumers' preference for experiences
- In store technology that customers really care about
- Deliver me now: anyway possible
- IoT: to gain operational efficiencies and deeper customer relationships
- Low price no more: you need a point of difference and price is not it

What makes a great leader? A deep understanding of psychology. But no, you don’t need a degree in the science of the mind and have studied all the behavioral theories but rather you need to understand a few fundamental truths about what motivates people's actions and perceptions.

Because you can teach people how to do things right – the correct behaviors – but unless they are motivated, they are not going to do them just because you asked. Learn to be an effective leader by understanding your people’s motivation, needs and competency levels.

There’s no way around it—retail has had a very tough time and the number of stores that closed down in the last year alone and continuing this year is in the tens of thousands.

Why so much bad news, so fast? There are many reasons for this and this training will review them, one by one, so that they can work as a cautionary tale for all of us who are intent on continuing to thrive. One reason in particular, deserves all our attention: the Amazon influence and their ‘Buy N Large’ ambitions, to borrow from Wall-E, the movie about a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarking on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind (well worth seeing). Buy N Large is the satirical megacorporation that provided for every conceivable aspect of human existence…kind of like what we are witnessing with Amazon.

What to do about them? A lot indeed.

Apple, Best Buy, U.K.-based Dixons Carphone, Ace Hardware, IKEA, Wal-Mart and quite a number of other retailers have plenty of ideas how to deal with Amazon’s competition and are doing it with respectable success. And so, are plenty of independents who know that to get to their customer’s heart and wallet today is about creating frictionless experiences and bringing theater into their store.

Now, the question is: Can you?

We have seen the past. We were not impressed. Too many store closures and while most were predictable (Sears, to name one) and expected (we have known for years that we are overmalled and overstored in the U.S.), others could have been averted and were the result of poor planning for the future.

What about the future? What's in store for the future and how companies that have been able to weather the storm can continue to thrive in a world of constant and rapid evolution and a customer who is becoming more and more fickle, demanding and …well, disloyal?

Learn in this session what the future of retail is going to look like so that you can prepare for it. Knowledge is power and knowing what's next will empower you to do make the right decisions.

Some trends we are going to talk about:

The digital divide is gone. Physical stores are acquitting digital companies and vice versa. Data is gained digitally, relationships are built in the store

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and will grow both as a way to better engage the consumer and to improve store and web operations

Showrooming is no longer a bad word but code for 'come for the services and the experience' and complete the experience at our online store

Conversational commerce replacing mobile commerce Why? It is fast, easy and convenient

Delivering unique customer experiences and reducing customers' pain points still the only way to your customer's wallet

Delivery now … as in 15 minutes

Unusual partnerships and collaborations - Ace Hardware and The Grommet? Heidi Klum and Alid? How strange is that?

And then, the subscription and rental models, digital currency, 3D printing ….

There's enough to get your head spinning …with ideas for this year and the next.

Learning how to negotiate effectively has always been a goal and a topic that companies have been wanting for years. So, why is it becoming a new imperative for business leaders and operators today and in the future? Because, marketing is getting more and more competitive and the options available to us to run our business more effectively and profitably are becoming less and less which makes the ability to negotiate better deals even more important.

Whether it is with landlords - and we know that store closures of the last couple of years hurt them too and made them hungry for good alternatives - with vendors - challenged more and more by the Amazons of the world - with employees - when retaining the best ones is more and more important to stay relevant and it all comes down to negotiating the best deal with them - and, of course, customers - the most challenging of all - advanced negotiation skills are one of the key weapons to success.

This workshop will cover:
Ten personality traits of top negotiators
Ten common negotiation mistakes
Negotiation space and how to use it
Psychological factors impacting a negotiation
Communication issues that help or hurt a negotiation
Negotiation styles, why they are so important to identify
Emotional ploys that can be used against you
Cultural factors and power techniques
Key components of a negotiation - deadlines, concessions, terms, deadlocks
Telephone and email negotiations
Four tactics that will increase your ability by at least double!
Action plan

Training can be offered as a 60-minute, 4-hour or 3-day workshop.

What if your retailers could hear an expert talk about what can make retail thrive moving forward and provide examples from your and other industries to help them better understand who is doing what and the results they are getting? AND what if your retailers could at the same time hear from their peers - other retailers like them - tell their success story and all the challenges they had and how they overcame them? That is the format of our most successful learning workshop with associations at conferences nationally and internationally.

Together we pick the topics - a set of retail best practices that we want to address. We create our own intro session on those practices from our research and knowledge of the best of the best examples in the market. We then help select the retail panelists who will build on our content and topics. We coach them. We prepare their materials. We train them to tell their compelling story and then we let them share that with the rest of the audience. And then the audience gets a run at asking questions to ensure they leave the conference with plenty of ideas and life examples of those ideas at work. Plus, they leave with lots of new friends and a better connected network of business leaders.

PS: You will be amazed at how powerful your retailers' stories can be and how these story tellers love to share their wins.