“Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it may sound at first.”— William McKnight, 3M
Friday: Big Money Small Change
Ring…Ring… – it’s 7:28am, who on earth? Yep. My dad was calling. It’s one of the perks of a family business, “Hi dad…” – no hello, no how’s it going… just, “Where is the life caulk?”
This was the good part of the conversation. Incase you’re wondering, Life Caulk is a brand of waterproof sealant for boats, our guys in the repair shop we’re looking for some.
My conversation continued into…
Where is the life caulk?
Is it in a box?
Where is the box?
What else is in the box?
I’m like… “Dad there is no box… if the life caulk is not next to the silicone seal, we are out” – oh my, it’s like I killed his cat… (that was a joke, he doesn’t have a cat and doesn’t like cats) – but he went totally deep end about being out of life caulk.
End result. I reorganized and re merchandised our store in May and he still is not comfortable in it… but he does like the increase in sales, well if there’s life caulk! haha
For 20 years we had the same products displayed in our store. It was a product mix geared toward weekend warriors that fix boats. Well, our main foot traffic no longer does this. 20 years ago we had 6 pontoon boats for rent, now we have 15. 20 years ago we didn’t have a boat club, now we have 60 members. We have many more people that are not boat owners and rather are visitors of our area.
This change has brought us into souvenirs! (While keeping life caulk)
The photo on the left is from late June. I took the photo on the right yesterday… look there are empty spaces!!! There’s no more stock “in back”. The reason this is exciting is because it really is big money from a small change. All we did was realize our foot traffic changed and then we purchased products they desired!
It’s time to take a look at what you’re doing and evaluate if it makes sense in your current situation. You may be offering a product that no longer matches your customer base… take a minute and analyze this.
Who are your customers and what do they want? Apparently at 7:28 am they want life caulk! UGHHHH ok, I’m done.
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