Appendix I. Your job and Smart Retail
The book is written from the point of view of an enterprising store manager in a chain. That’s for the sake of clarity and expediency, but I know that retailers of all levels use the book, which is great. Here are a few thoughts on how to get the best from Smart Retail whatever your role in the business.
Store manager
Most of you who manage stores will be working for a chain. If that’s a small chain, you will have lots of opportunity to influence important aspects of the store. You may be able to persuade an owner to introduce new lines or to run certain promotions. If that’s the case, you can read this book as an owner.
You may instead be one manager out of a hundred, or out of six hundred for that matter. It can feel really hard sometimes to get your voice heard. Don’t let that hold you back—eventually people do notice—keep pushing yourself forward, build a strong team, and make sure key people understand why your store works as well as it does.
In particular, trust me on this: If you follow the “Team” section of the book closely, you will improve your store’s performance significantly. It’s the most powerful stuff in retail.
Store owner
You’re in a fantastic position; you’re able to vary any aspect of your business that you want to. You have free rein in this book. Sometimes you will need to spend money on your business, but I am a strong believer in the notion that many things you might need to do can be done at low cost—so it’s not all bad.
As is the case for the chain-store manager, all of the advice and ideas on people management can be applied directly for free, and are presented in a practical and obvious way. This means that either you or your managers can make a significant positive impact on the business right away without spending a penny, which is nice.
Team member
There are lots of different reasons why we go into retail: Let’s be honest, those reasons might include necessity and convenience. I reckon there’s a chance, though, that you might just be in it for something more: After all, you’ve bought a book on retail; you’re getting hooked by it. That makes you very important to me. This book is the tool that will help you to accelerate your retail career. Use it to make suggestions in team meetings; use it to develop your leadership skills and your retail instincts.
Many of the sections and chapters in Smart Retail deal with the fundamentals of retail: A good knowledge of these will make you very attractive to employers as you progress your career. To help you get the complete picture, it really is worth going through the whole book in order, front to back at least once. Sorry to sound a bit like your Dad.
As you read, try to consider things from a store manager’s point of view; by doing that, you will find it much easier to pitch your ideas to your actual manager. I’ve also built some of the action plans in a way that means you can easily adapt them to make great interview presentations. This is especially useful when you are chasing a promotion or applying for a job with a new team.
Assistant store manager (ASM)
You are the backbone of retail management: Without good ASMs many stores just do not work. I hope you are alongside a good manager. If you are, that person will value your input and it will be easy for you to make Smart Retail work your way. Luckily most of you will be working in good teams and for good people, so use this opportunity to make some positive noise. Make good use of the planning tools provided here and you will gain lots from Smart Retail.
Area/regional manager
As one of the few people in the company who spends time both in stores and with the senior management team, you are in a unique position. You have the opportunity to make a big impact on the overall success of the business.
It is a pressure role, and Smart Retail can help you to deliver ideas and strategies that keep your boss happy and that can help you to feel that you are actually moving the business forward. You are one of the audiences that I put most thought into when constructing the book—have a long think hard about introducing the ideas in the “Team” section especially. You’ve also got a good opportunity to use Smart Retail to benchmark the way your business operates.
Central functions (marketing, sales operations, administration, and so on)
If you started your retail career in a shop, at the worksite, then you’ll enjoy reading Smart Retail. Many of the stories and ideas will bring back some, hopefully, good memories. Other sections could well act as useful updates to your experience.
If you have never worked in a shop, then this is the best look into in-store reality you could ever hope for. No matter how good your marketing consultancy, there is no substitute for a proper understanding of what life in-store is really like. Smart Retail will give you that.
If you’re the type who feels a study visit to the local street-market is beneath you, then this book is not for you. On the other hand, if you are desperate to find effective ways to gain new competitive advantage, to improve customer experiences, or to build better teams, then this may just prove to be the best money you’ll ever invest.
Notes for all readers
Above all, Smart Retail is a practical proposition. You don’t have to read the whole thing or slavishly follow directions like they were the ingredients and instructions for making a cake or something. Just pick out that one thing today that you can make a difference to, then another tomorrow, and another the day after. Before very long, you will find that these baby steps have begun to add up to a significant journey of change and improvement.