Page 66 - Lighting Magazine February 2019

retail stratEgy
installed. By doing so, the customer will have a far be er experience and know that their business is important to you.
Redesign your customer acquisition process to develop a following that will channel them from suspect to prospect to customer to client. A sus- pect is a lead; a prospect may buy something from you, usually small; a customer may buy from you one or two times; but a client buys from you on a regular basis and sees you as their go-to source. You will make a lot more money from clients. Treating them as such, understanding them, and knowing where they are in the customer acquisi- tion process is key.
One of my part-time jobs is facilitating a CEO Mastermind group as well as coaching about 30 CEOs with their businesses. It’s really no more di cult than herding cats and then teaching them to swim. I highly recommend ge ing involved with a Mastermind group or peer advisory council and meeting regularly. One of the key points is trying not to be all things to all people and focusing on the narrowest of niches. We focus on being the best in the world in a speci c niche.
Now, you can change the size of the world you play in so that you truly can be the best and own a particular niche. Here is an example: Trying to be the largest lighting retailer in North America is unlikely, but becoming the largest lighting retailer of smart home lighting in Tampa, Florida is well within reach. The mission is to own a niche and become a recognized brand within it.
The next step is de ning the customer and fo- cusing on turning them into clients. In my previous article The Evolving Role of the Lighting Represen- tative, I mentioned that the retailer and the rep have the same mission: selling lighting to people.
be THe Go-To source
I recommend leveraging your relationships with the sales representatives to drive more retail sales. The reps can serve as a featured speaker for education/entertainment and may also be will- ing to share in the some of the costs or provide some sort of premium (small give-away) provided by one of their lines. The advantage of featuring the representative is that their presence creates a sense of urgency for the event and we all know people have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
If you say to your customer, “Come on down and see Lenny, he is our smart home expert and is
here every day from 9 to 5; that’s not very compel- ling. However, if you tell your customer, “We are hosting a fun and educational evening highlighting the seven most-common mistakes homeowners make when integrating smart home products. The speaker is Mr. Mighty Milliwa , a manufacturer’s representative and expert in the smart home. This is a limited event so please RSVP.” That is very persuasive to the consumer.
Additional themes for events include: Integrat- ing Voice Controls in the Home; Green Lighting Manufactured with Renewable Materials; Human Centric Lighting; Color Control for Function, Fun, and Entertainment; Lighting for the Solar- Powered Home, and Lighting for Speci c Areas (kitchen, media room, home o ce). These events can highlight a particular manufacturer or a new product. It is also possible to video the highlights of the program and feature them on the retailer’s website or social media. You may even wish to dabble outside of lighting and o er products such as power usage and monitoring equipment (check out products by Sense, Smappee, Neurio, Curb, Ecosime and Efergy).
offer perks THaT make you sTand ouT
Some retailers may also wish to o er a perfor- mance guarantee, such as “We guarantee that the products we provide you with will work together.”
Or retailers can commission the installation. A popular request among consumers today is “Do it for me.” People are willing to pay to have experts set things up and get them working. How many people never learned how to program a VCR but would have paid someone to show them how to do it? I remember the days of Blockbuster when customers would pay a fee for not rewinding their video rentals before returning them and instead having Blockbuster do it for them.
For those of us in the industry, se ing up a lighting control system may not be especially chal- lenging however, the customer may need help. I believe that o ering this service could be both a money-making and sales opportunity for the retailer. While visiting the customer’s home, the expert could mention, “Wow, I see you take a lot of pride in your garden. Have you ever considered landscape lighting? It would really highlight your garden as well as make your house look so much be er than others on this street.” Or “You have a beautiful dining room table! We have a new LED
62 enLIGHTenment Magazine | february 2019
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