23:10
Shivaram
How to increase sales during tough times…
When the going gets tough, you begin to wonder,
what is it that you can do, apart from hoping to get new customers.
Actually, there are quite a few things..
1. Inventory..
Reduce Fresh supply… Evaluate each and every purchase with an eagle eye. I am
often surprised, to find owner/retailer hand over this critical responsibility
to a few old and trusted employees. They are no doubt doing what they have been
doing for many years now.
New
Action:- Just ask a few questions when the next order is about to be released
and you will surely find orders, which you could avoid placing.
2. Check Inventory.. Check out the age ( less than
30 days, 90 days etc) of the different SKUs that you have, not just on display
but even those in your warehouses.
New Action :- Take a stock statement from your
computer and go out and physically check, if what the computerised statement which
is showing the stock, is actually available and is shown to you . You will be
surprised with the answers.
3. Identify..Best sellers …If you can do an
analysis of the best sellers in your store, then take out the top 20 % of the
best selling SKUs or say the top100 SKUs.
New Action :- Find out if those SKUs are in your
store..If you don’t have the knowledge to do that, ask us, we have a
specialised service for such analysis and reporting..
Both of us will be surprised, to find , how many of
such products which are your best sellers are in your store? Want to take a bet
?
4. Identify the non movers ! If the stock is in
your system as part of the highest age stock, ensure that those products cannot
be ordered at all ! ( See point 1 above).
New Action :- Brain storm, what all can be done to
recover what ever value is left in that “dead stock”.
5. What is
your average inventory value for the past few months. ? What was it last year ?
Do you think, you can maintain or improve the performance this year ?
New Action :- Take a training session for your
employees on the concept of inventory, inventory holding cost, stock turn and
ask for actions/ suggestions
Reward the best ideas and bigger rewards for
implementing them. Most Retailers give rewards for sales performance, but
rarely do employees get rewarded for inventory control.
Finally :- Try it out ! Inventory management is
still in your hands, Purchase is as always, mostly in your customer’s hands ! Selling skills count a lot, but that is for another learning blog in the future...
Oh, lest we forget, as this joke said, how about making a real effort in selling the inventory to the customers ? Really "Selling" the old fashion way face to face ? not displaying, not advertising,
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