When we started this shops series, we wanted to share inside secrets that aren’t as obvious to most distributors building shops. For example, you’re a pro at merchandising, so you already know how to create cool merch for a shop, but you might not know how to qualify the best shop opportunities or unique ways to price your shop, or the #1 secret to the most successful shops.
Likewise, today’s idea is one that even the most seasoned pros rarely do, and yet it’s one of the most powerful things you can do to unlock future profit and more store opportunities.
Most shops are initially created to achieve one specific objective.
Example: A client calls you to set up a shop to help them simplify a problem: “We have a new logo we’re rolling out and we want to get everyone excited about the rebrand, can you create a shop to gift each of our 700 employees with some cool apparel?”
So, you build your customer a shop solution with great merch, a cool design, and functional simplicity. The store works like a charm and in 30 days, you’ve helped inspire an entire company about the new brand with the new gear. Mission accomplished. On to the next project! You cruise to the next new order …. without realizing you’re leaving a wake of money behind you from that experience.
How?
You forgot one simple thing. When you built that shop for your customer, did you set up a meeting with your client post-op, to review your amazing success? (Hang with me here, because it sounds so simple, but like the best sales tactics, success is found -not in the knowing- but the doing).
You were so focused on getting everything done under deadline, and sometimes so focused on fixing the problems that went wrong, that you forgot to celebrate with your customer what went right!
In fact, by ignoring this simple tactic of a client review and post-op, you failed to help reinforce one key point for future profitability: how amazing you are at building strategic, successful solutions.
A post-op conversation also helps clarify your success. With almost any store, you can guarantee that something will go wrong. Using our example of the rebranding shop for 700 employees, something likely went wrong: someone got the wrong shirt, or the wrong size, or maybe someone’s order was overlooked. When this happens, it provides a feedback channel to your client and most often, they are only aware of the problems!
We once had a client with a shop that spent around $150,000 in annual sales. In one particular quarter, we had a few high profile problems that caused heightened tension with our customer. The client called a meeting to review “all of the problems going on with the store.” When we showed up, we were armed with data and success stories from all of the transactions on the shop, not just the problems. When the client realized we had a few hundred transactions in one quarter and only four problems, they suddenly had context: “everything” wasn’t going wrong, in fact, we had a 98% success rate! The client just didn’t have context because they were tuned into the one feedback channel of problems instead of the most important feedback channel: success.
Additionally, the reason this heightened tension can sometimes exist with a shop is that, typically, a shop is a very high-profile solution touching many people in the client’s organization, in short, a shop is a reflection on the brand and the individual buyer, your customer.
A study published by Google revealed that B2B buyers are 8x more likely to pay a premium for comparable products and services when personal value -not only business value- is present. In other words, solve a business problem and make your customer look good (in front of their bosses and peers) and your likelihood of doing more business with that customer is 8x as high. A post-op also helps remind your client what a great partnership you have and that you’ve got their back!
What should you review with your customer? A few ideas:
Review the purpose of your shop: Did you deliver on your promise?
Average order size
Percentage of participation
Turn-around time
Most popular products; least popular products
Anecdotal success stories and end-user feedback
Areas for improvement; strengths, lessons learned
Not only does a post-op conversation help reinforce the success of your program, it also helps discover future opportunities. This is the kind of dialogue you can have with your customer after a successful shop:
Ms. Customer - We built this shop to solve one problem, but did you know we can build multiple shops, or expand your shop to solve a variety of challenges? Employee onboarding kits, sales incentives, budget control, branding control, holiday gifts - the list of opportunities can go on and on. What other type of branding or strategic solutions are you facing in the next 6-12 months?
Shops are now as simple to set up as presentations and as such, can be considered to solve multiple problems, even with simple, one-off shop solutions.
(By the way, this post-op review process is not just good for shop customers, but for all customers).
Finally, not only does a post-op with clients reinforce your value and uncover more opportunities, but we all know that the fastest way to future sales is with the current clients who love you. That successful rebranding store that you just completed for your client, have you shared that success story with your other clients? Cross-pollinating your best practices among all your clients capitalizes on the new skill you now have creating shops.
This simple tactic of a post-op reinforces the value of what you do and puts you in a strategic seat as you look ahead with the customer for future opportunities.
commonsku has three amazingly simple types of shops to fit your needs, a Marketing Shop, Pop Up Shop, and a Company Shop, for more information, check out our shop options here.
