What’s your story John Dory? | IR News

What’s your story John Dory?

Posted Date: 19/02/2012

By Dennis Price

Last week I wrote about metrics – and the importance of it. But metrics usually only tell what happened in the past and facilitates decision making based on the ceteris paribus assumption.

What about the future? What must you do today to secure your future?

The answer is almost the diametric opposite of ‘metrics’.

As a merchant you will succeed or fail by your ability to tell stories – on different levels.

1: The first and the most important is your proposition – which is your ‘meta-story.’ Your proposition is your product, your offer, your brand all wrapped up into ‘something you stand for’. This is a silent statement your business makes to the market. This is what the customers perceive when they see/think/interact with your business.

If this story is not clear, customers don’t care. If this story is not interesting/relevant/different – they won’t re-tell your story.

2: Visual Merchandising is about story telling. Every display tells a story. And a story is not a theme – so adding a few bales of straw and a cowboy hat does not make it a story. That is just interior decorating. (A series of 12 posts on the topic can be found here – or search on the site for visual merchandising for a host of others.)

Your display should communicate to the customer a message that is relevant to what the customer may need/want. Even a two metre high stack of baked beans without decorations tells a story.

3: Your customers’ experience (the whole journey) through your store must be a story worth sharing. This includes the presentation, but also the service, the selling and the ambience.

Especially important is your sales process. It should be Sell$mart – that is your staff should be equipped to use the principles of metaphorical selling that is based on the latest neuroscience research to help the customers relate positively the sales interaction. (A short series of posts on the topic can be found here.)

The retailer that sells to a customer by fulfilling an emotional need is the one that wins the game. (Functional needs must be met as well of course, but that is a given.)

In your ‘sales story’, authenticity and trust must always be the theme; but you can wrap the story in your own plot with your own character to create engaging stories that customers want to share in.

Advertising and promotions are obvious story-telling events and opportunities.

All of retail is about how define and then tell your story.

If customers relate to it, you have a business. And the opposite.

Have fun – be Retail$martTM

Dennis
Dr Dennis Price helps retailers and their retail supply chain to (re-)capture their entrepreneurial mojo with the right skills, strategies and systems to improve business performance.

(HT: This post was inspired by a twitter conversation instigated by @DoTheWoo and @DebraTemplar.)

Keywords: Dennis Price, differentiation

Comments:

Monday, February 20, 2012 by Dennis

Daniel
I am sure they will if they understand that a sales person saying something as simple as "that is our most popular item right now" is applying those techniques.

In case you were interested to know; the fact that a skill is based on the science of consumer behaviour does not necessarily mean it is complicated. But I guess you knew that; hence your comment

Monday, February 20, 2012 by Daniel

I'm sure everyone will be glad to hear that the future of Australian Retail depends on sales staff utilising the latest neuroscientific research (metaphorical selling).

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