Looking back on my career, the best advice I ever received was from business guru Brian Tracy back in the early 90s. He said, “If you want to be the best at anything, study it for 60 minutes a day. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years, you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.”

In recent years, independent natural health retailers have been engaging with a new kind of shopper: The All-Knowing Consumer. Armed with all the latest product and pricing information the internet has to offer, including customer reviews and ratings, along with countless online opinions about the ideal foods or best natural medicines to take, The All-Knowing Consumer comes to your store, ready to battle.

There is a lot of good information on how to properly merchandise a store, build displays that move product, category manage to increase margins, and keep a store clean and organized for consumers to navigate.

Did you know that mass market stores spend most of their marketing dollars on inside-the-store promotions, aka merchandising?

That said, merchandising actually starts outside the store. The store sign, lighting, parking, window displays, sandwich boards, entryway, posters, and such contribute to the feeling the prospective customer gets to either come in to shop or walk/drive by.

In my previous article, I began to talk about the two ways to grow a business:

• create new customers

• sell more to your current customer base

 To grow further, I recommend you first establish an emotional connection among the people who work in the business.

 The emotional tone of your business—the sales floor ‘vibe’—is determined by the connection the owner, management, and team share. 

There are only two ways to increase sales:

• Attract more customers.

• Sell more to your current customer base.

Simple to say! Harder to remember.