Recognizing Retail

The retail store is quickly becoming a profitable and popular place for selling, displaying and educating customers about our products and services. Many of us have moved from an off-the-highway warehouse location to one much more visible to our customers. The home medical products store in a strip shopping center or small building is now becoming an integral part of the local community or town retail center. But what does that mean for our sales strategy?

While your referral sources are familiar with your respiratory program and vast array of rehabilitation products, they may not be familiar with your store. They may have seen your sign from the highway or noticed your location on the way to work, but are they familiar with all you offer?

Because many salespeople may not receive commission for retail sales, their interest in the store is often limited. Because other product lines are a major source of revenue for many companies, some salespeople may forget to talk about the retail store.

It’s time to give the retail store some extra recognition. So what can we do and where do we begin? How about considering these ideas:

• Review all existing marketing materials Take a look at all of your existing brochures to make sure you have noted that your corporate address is not only an office location but a retail store as well. Some people may think it is only a place where you store equipment and not a location for customers to take an up-close look at the products you sell.
• Schedule a referral source open house Plan an open house and invite all of your professional referral sources to come by and take a look. Plan the open house for more than one day; just in case some people cannot make it one day, they may show up on another.
• Mail a newsletter announcement Create a one-page newsletter or announcement letting people know about your retail location. Do a direct mailing to your important referral sources, then visit their offices to make sure they have received the notice. Outline your major product lines and invite the referral source to share this information with your patients. Ask if you can leave additional announcements for them to give to patients.
• Host an educational program at the store Develop an educational program (with CEUs if possible) and invite different professional groups to come to the store and take a class.
• Schedule a customer open house Send a notice and post announcements in your store of your next open house. You may want to offer free blood pressure testing or even make arrangements with a local hospital or clinic to provide cholesterol testing.
• Create a press release Create a press release that you can share with your local newspaper. Make sure you have detailed your location, major products and store hours. Keep it short and simple, but inviting. Let potential customers know you carry products that make life easier and allow people with any type of physical challenge to pursue more productive lives.
• Send out personal invitations Write a personal invitation to all of your accounts to come by and visit. Make them aware that you have a large number of interesting products and you would be eager to provide them a brief tour of your location.
• Use meeting space for community groups If you have a meeting room or location in your store that can hold a certain number of people, consider inviting a group (e.g., the Better Breathers from the American Lung Association), to hold regular meetings at your location. There may be a social work group or case managers association looking for a regular meeting place in an easy-to-reach location.

Retail stores provide a new dimension to your sales operation, and they need a new and creative marketing approach. While the history of our industry has usually had us taking products and information out to our customers, getting the customer to come to us is a challenge and expense we need to consider.

If we think just having the store in the right location is enough in our efforts to get attention, we are probably wrong. Consider these suggestions to create an increase in the traffic in your store and, of course, some additional revenues. It will be worth the effort.

Louis Feuer is president of Dynamic Seminars & Consulting Inc. and the founder and director of the DSC Teleconference Series, a teleconference training program. He can be reached at www.DynamicSeminars.com or by phone at 954/435-8182.