Stop Reacting, Start Leading: 30 Days to Running Your Store With Intention
Quick question: are you running your store or is it running you?
Independent retail is hard. Between managing staff, serving customers, juggling vendors, watching cash flow, and trying to stay ahead of the market, most store owners and managers spend their days reacting: putting out fires instead of building the business they set out to create. The store has a way of taking over, and before long, it's running you instead of the other way around.
But the retailers who consistently outperform aren't just working harder. They're leading differently. They've made a fundamental shift from reactive operator to intentional store leader and it changes everything about how their teams show up, how their customers experience the store, and how consistently the business performs.
In this session, Dane Cohen welcomes retail leadership expert and author Rachel Williamson to share the practical, field-tested framework from her new book: a 30-day roadmap built on three decades of leading high-performing retail operations at some of the country's top brands. Rachel will walk you through the mindset shifts, daily habits, and leadership strategies that transform struggling stores into great ones.
In this session, you will learn:
Why "Lead Yourself First" is the foundation every high-performing store is built on and the habit most retail managers never develop.
How to make the mindset shift from reactive operator to intentional leader, even when your days feel completely out of your control.
The "Lead from the Sales Floor" method: why great stores are run from the floor with purpose, not from the back office with a to-do list.
How to build daily team rituals that create consistent, high-performing shifts, not just good days when everyone happens to be motivated.
A 30-day framework for transforming your store's culture and execution without having to overhaul everything at once.
Why strong leadership is the missing multiplier for every other strategy you're using to grow your retail business; from inventory to customer experience.
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30 Days to Running Great Stores - Webinar Transcript
Management One: Alright, open up our waiting room here, perfect. Hello, everyone! Thanks for joining us again today. You know, obviously. At Management One here, inventory management is usually top of mind. We understand one of the largest expenses for retailers is in your inventory, and maintaining those levels is a daily feat, but it's not the only thing that retailers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis, and What we wanted to accomplish here was really give you that operational footing to put your business and your mindset in the right frame. And… Before I turn it over to Dane here, I wanted to make sure and let everybody know just a couple of housekeeping items. Number one, we are recording this call, so we understand, again, retailers lead very busy lives. If you need to drop off, not to worry. We are going to send a recording of this out to you in just a bit. The other one is, this is live. We love hearing from you, the audience, so please, right down at the bottom. There's a Q&A button for you. Please use that to fire off any questions to us, and we can definitely handle those, either towards the end or maybe as they come up. So without further ado, I will turn it over to Mr. Dane Cohen to get things off and running.
Dane Cohen: Thank you, Nico. Okay, we got a good one for you today. We're gonna be talking with the one, the only, Rachel Williamson, and Rachel, has a ton of experience in the retail space, and has a fantastic book that we were, you know, Nico and I were just super attracted to, and I think just completely aligns with the ethos of Management One. 30 days… to running great stores. And so, with 30 years of experience in the retail biz, and working with brands like Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, Rachel's gonna bring a ton of experience to this conversation. Before we jump in, I just want to say, this is a live webinar. We want your feedback, we want your questions. I tried to kind of run through as we go and answer, you know, as the topics come up, or we'll save some for the end, but please be interactive. We want to hear from you. This is your time to kind of interact with the experts that we're bringing in, so please, use them for their knowledge. Rachel, how are you today?
Rachel Williamson: So good, how are you?
Dane Cohen: I'm doing well, I'm doing well. So, we're gonna jump in, and, you know, one of the reasons why I'm so excited to talk to you today is because I think that what gets lost a lot in, you know, kind of this modern era, and we want to talk about AI, and we want to talk about technology, and we want to talk about all the fancy bells and whistles, that I think a lot of times we lose sight of just… trust… Old school, great, brick-and-mortar retailing that is what has, you know, what independent retailers have thrived on for decades and decades, if not centuries. And so, I'm really excited to jump in with you. So, where I kind of want to start is, Nico, I believe you have a poll that is coming up. So, Nico, if you could release this poll. We want to hear from you about the challenges that are facing your store today. So, Nico is going to put that up. What are your top operational pain points? So, Rachel, we're going to let those answers roll in, and as we do, I'm going to kind of kick off with this question for you. You worked with some of the biggest retailers in the industry. Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, but you've also worked with a ton of independent and family-owned businesses. with such a variety of retailers that you've experienced, when a retailer comes to you, when they come and say, Rachel, we need your help! Where are the pain points usually sitting across, whether it's a billion-dollar retailer or a mom-and-pop shop? What's usually the core pain points that they're hitting up against?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, I mean, this isn't even gonna be a surprise to probably anybody on this call, but inconsistent store execution is probably the biggest challenge they face. It's like, well, it depends who's working on the floor, it depends, you know, which manager is working, to see what the output really is, what the customer experience really is, what KPIs they really drive, if they care about conversion or not. Like, it just… it's like a… it depends who's working. And gosh, when you're relying on personalities to determine what the outcome of your sales day is going to be, it's scary. And I was with… working with Bath & Body Works, I can tell you, I would tell them this all the time across 1,600 stores. You have today to maximize the customers who walk in your door today. And if you don't maximize them when the day is over, those are lost sales opportunities. And you just made making your sales numbers for the rest of the week, the month, the year, that much harder on yourself. You've lost Today, and so there's a thing about urgency to really capture and create this experience. There's this saying, and I don't know who originally said it, but it was, brands make a promise. And stores deliver it. Oftentimes. brand has created a brand promise, and the stores are not delivering it day in and day out. So, that's probably number one. We could go into lots of others that you guys had on your pain point list, they're all very real, but that's probably the biggest and most common.
Dane Cohen: So, I gotta tell you, the poll is closed, and what was the number one answer?
Rachel Williamson: inconsistent.
Dane Cohen: Assistant store execution.
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, and I see it looks like underdeveloped store leaders, that's a really big one, too, that I hear about, and it's often as sales tighten. With retailers, for whatever reason, you know, we all know that there are disruptors that have come across retail, and you name the year, and we'll tell you what the disruptor was, because they're pretty obvious. But the truth of the matter is, training is usually the first thing that gets trimmed when sales get soft. And so it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy of, I'm not doing enough volume, I've got to cut back on my training, but I'm not training, and so I'm not doing the volume, right? It's a vicious cycle. And so that is a very common one.
Dane Cohen: Well, and so, let's dig in here, because I like this, the underdeveloped store leaders. I like this, because, you know, as someone who ran stores myself, I know this is a very tricky one. And I think that for a, again, a small to mid-sized business, this is extremely tricky, because, you know, they don't have the luxury of having maybe stock people, and order entry people, and salespeople. A lot of the times, it's one person that has to do multiple… wear multiple hats. So, when someone is looking at hiring, right, what are the qualities they should be looking for in someone that they're looking to bring on, maybe in a more leadership level on their team?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, I will tell you, the first thing most people look for… we're not going to do another poll, because I just threw this out at you guys, and we didn't pre-talk about it, but Quite frankly, I'm just gonna say this. If we just hire for retail experience, we're probably gonna be super bummed with who we get, and that's what most of us want to do. Our gut is, well, if I can hire people like Dane and Rachel, who have worked in retail, like, their whole lives, that would be awesome. Well, if you hire us, it will be awesome, because you will love us. But not everybody is gonna fit that. Some people have experience, and you end up having to break bad habits and untrain things they learned from other retailers. So, lots of retail experience isn't always what we want to do, but it's what retailers lean on. What we really want to do is we want to hire people for personality, for character, for integrity, for passion. They love the customer. And when you hire someone who just cares about the people around them, don't fall for, I'm a people person. You gotta probe, you gotta make them give you examples of what they've done that demonstrates that. But when you can get people who love the customer and care, they'll just do it without you breathing down their neck. You know, they don't need to feel the hot breath of Rachel on them, going, there's someone over there, did you… have you caught them yet? Do you need me to get them? Because they've got passion, and they love it. And they want to do it. And that's what we need to be looking for. So it's… it's as much… yeah, if you've got a little bit of retail experience, sure. Will that be easier? Yes. But hiring is about asking the right questions and probing into competencies. And what are competencies? Competencies are those behaviors that help us understand, through evidence, what people are good at doing. And you gotta probe, you gotta make sure they give you an example. So if someone says, I am so good with people. That is awesome! I love to hear that! Here's what I want you to tell me next. Are you ready? Now I want you to give me an example of when you went above and beyond for a customer. I want you to tell me the situation, I want you to tell me what you did, and I want you to tell me the outcome. It's called SBO, Situation, Behavior Outcome. And that's how I teach people to interview and hire, because when you ask the right questions. you'll find the right people. It's when we just are like, you know, we wait until we have openings, and then we're a little desperate. And, you know, dating, when you're desperate.
Dane Cohen: Nope.
Rachel Williamson: books, does it?
Dane Cohen: Yeah, that… that is…
Rachel Williamson: I see that smirk. You've got a good story in there. We won't go there. But hiring when you're desperate…
Dane Cohen: another webinar. Exactly.
Rachel Williamson: Or just come on my podcast. But hiring when you're desperate is a lot like dating when you're desperate, right? It just doesn't work out. And so, there's some… components that I teach retailers to do around not only how to interview, but how to create bench. So if someone does, out of the blue, say, you know what, I decided to go back to school, and I'm gonna be leaving, oh, I wish you all the best. I'm going to bring someone else on board. Now you're going to go to your list. And it's got the list of people that you have been Charming, if you will, when you're going to get your coffee, or when you're in your favorite retail store in the mall. And you're gonna go and say to them, listen, I wasn't expecting this, but I got a little opportunity, and we should talk. If you're interested, you call me. So you've got that list of people, and you're never caught off guard. And boy, what a difference it makes.
Dane Cohen: And can I just give one other tip here, right? You could recruit anywhere. Especially if you're a local business, if you're on Main Street, if you're a pillar in your community. I mean, my dad was a retailer. I don't think there was one restaurant we ate out at where there was a great waiter that he didn't say at the end of the meal, have you ever worked in retail? You're such a great personality, you're so attentive to the customers, have you ever worked retailer… retail, because you really can be recruiting everywhere, so you don't just have to wait for someone to come to you, but when you post on Indeed, you know, you should always be out there, and, you know, your best player could be sitting right there in your community. Okay, so…
Rachel Williamson: Well, one thing, one thing, Dana, I'm gonna say… Gotta keep track, too. Now, you don't have to use an old-fashioned spreadsheet, I know y'all love your spreadsheets, but you could just put it in your phone, and go to your notes, or your reminders, or wherever, and put the restaurant you were at, or the coffee shop you were at, and the person you talked to, and say to them, I kinda like you, like, I feel like we need to get to know each other better. Okay, this isn't like a creepy dating thing, this is, like. I have a store, and I want you to work for me. Let's stay connected. Maybe they'll give you their phone number so you can text them. Maybe they'll give you an email. Or maybe you don't feel comfortable, and you know you're just gonna go back. But if you don't record it, my gosh, two weeks from now, when someone quits on you, you are not gonna remember, where was I when I met that guy that was so fabulous? So just please keep track. Okay, back to you, Dane.
Dane Cohen: Okay, so, and then another area in this that I just want to briefly mention, which I always have the toughest time with, is when your star salesperson cannot do anything operationally, or they won't, right? They think they're above it, because they're… and then you have this choice to make, because they're selling, like, you know, like, they're on fire when it comes to sales, but you say, hey, we just got some receiving in, can you go unpack? And it's like… Not me. So, when do you… where do you toe the line with that, between someone who's that kind of rock star in sales, but they're just not getting the company culture and really being able to… to kind of support in other areas?
Rachel Williamson: I think it goes back to when you're hiring, making sure you're super clear. A lot of small to mid-sized businesses don't have job descriptions, or they haven't done any role clarity work, where they can really help the associate understand, you know, I like to use the term Swiss Army knife, if anybody has one of those. You know, it's got, like, a spoon and a fork and a knife, and it's got all the screwdriver, it's got all these things. And so, I use that comparison when I'm like. talking to someone, I often help retail brands that I'm working with hire talent, and they'll observe me doing it, and I'll be like, listen. Do you happen to have a Swiss Army knife? Some, if they're young, are like, I don't even know what that is. And then some, you know, are like, yeah, I remember that, I had one when I was a Boy Scout, a Girl Scout, whatever. Okay, great. Now there's all those tools on there? Well, if you work for me. I'm gonna need you to be a little bit of a Swiss Army knife. I'm hiring you because I think you are going to be a rock star seller, but when there aren't customers, we're not going to just stand around on our phone. So there's gonna be other things you're gonna like to do. Give me a sense of what other things you might enjoy doing. And so, plant the seed. Have those conversations before you say, I do. Because really, when we're hiring people, we're getting into a life… why do I keep going to dating and marriage here?
Dane Cohen: Yeah, is something on your mind there?
Rachel Williamson: getting into this lifetime… and it's not a lifetime commitment, but sometimes we want it to be. You know, I just had a call with a client this morning, and she was talking about how her turnover has been, like, really minimal, and she's trying to figure out why. And I'm like, people are really clear on what it is they need to be doing. They're clear on your expectations, they love the culture you've created, and so they're sticking around. And so it pays off, and it really works. But it is a bit of a relationship, so invest that time. A lot of people say, I don't have the time to even be recruiting, or I don't have the time to… and to your point earlier, it's everywhere you are for your life. That should be on your mind. But if we don't intentionally plan for selecting, and talking, and then training our talent, we're a little bit doing this to ourselves, where we have that turnover, and we've got the tension of they're not the right people, or they're great at selling, but they don't want to do freight, they're a little bit prima donna. you know, that's not so good. Swiss Army Knife, that conversation helps every time.
Dane Cohen: Okay, and then my last question, and then we'll… because I like to talk about employees, I think that's something that's on a lot of people's minds, and, you know, how to recruit and get the right people and train them. What have you seen that really works at a store level to motivate? Is it commission pay? Is it, you know, getting them involved in company culture? Is it games and bonuses? Like, how do you, when you approach this, what are the kind of clear markers to be able to get people really immersed in that culture, and really want to. You know, be that… that hands-on player.
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, I mean, I wish there was a single answer to your question, and it's a great question, but there's not a single answer, because so many retail businesses are run so differently, the culture is so different. At a high level, though, I will tell you that Commission typically encourages an individual to drive results, but it doesn't always encourage the team to deliver results. So, I'm working with a client right now that's on a commission-based program that really needs to go away. That's using their term, because they're paying out top sellers a lot of money, but the stores are not necessarily making their results. So when you have a commission base, you have individual contributors who are driving incredible volume, but Everyone's doing it. The rest of the store is not necessarily making its numbers, and that's what I hear more times than not. What a brand can afford to pay out is when the store's making its numbers. Would you agree with that? Like, if my store is not making my numbers, I can't really afford to be paying individual contributors out. So when we have a team environment. a team incentive. We get everybody kind of pushing that flywheel in the same direction. We're getting momentum, we're moving, because everybody cares about every customer. So… What I encourage retailers to think about is. what is the team dynamic? If someone is… if only one person's working at a time, then that's a little bit different. They need to have buy-in into what the store needs to accomplish to be successful. But if you've got multiple people working. and they are bought in to what the store needs to achieve, and they're rewarded for working together to achieve it, you will… Be really amazed at the results that you get.
Dane Cohen: Okay, and so I want to go back to in-store execution a little bit, and I think there's two layers here, right? There's kind of the back end and the front end, so let's talk about the front of house first. And I like to think of this as, what is just an incredible retail experience? Like, when you walk in, you just know that you're kind of in the place, and I think that the probably the most famous one, whether you know it or not, is Cinnabon. Right? And that incredible experience right when you walk, whether you're at a kiosk, is that smell. Imagine if you walked over to a Cinnabon, and you didn't smell that smell of that fresh. baked cinnamon, right? It's the core of who they are. If you walked over and it smelled like… rotten bananas, you're not buying anything from that Cinnabon. So let's look at that at a retail level, right? Like a power retailer, a hardware store, whatever it is. What do you feel is kind of, how do you up the ante in terms of that customer-facing, to make sure, you know, how important is that then when they walk in, they're immersed or really experiencing, hey, I want to be here. This is someplace I want to be. How does that kind of come to life?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, again, it's… there's not a singular answer, every retailer's different, but let me boil it down to, what I believe to be true about the in-store experience. First, let's talk about what we must eradicate from our sales associates' lips. They must stop saying, Anything, let me know. Stop. It's not selling, operational, it's not helpful, and there's no way back from it. It comes across as friendly. What do customers say? They say, oh, thank you! But it's going to be really difficult. I mean, retail… we're not non-profit. We're trying to make money here, so the goal is to engage the customer in a really warm way, and oftentimes people are, you know, great at doing that. But then, they drop the ball when they say, well, I'm going to be over here folding, so if you need me, you just tell me. No, no! Introduce them to your favorite thing, to your favorite new delivery, to something. Give them an assignment. Give the customer a to-do. It's like, while you're looking around, I need you to look at these gorgeous cashmere sweaters that just came in, that are in the most luscious colors. I know you're gonna want every one of them, and look at them and see what you think. There's two fits. There's a classic fit, and there's a shrunken fit. I personally, I like the classic fit. It's what I have on right now. It hits in a good place, but listen, you look… And then I'm gonna check back on you, and I'm gonna see what your favorite color is, and maybe you'll want to go try on in a fitting room, and we'll get you started. Okay, so it's a conversation that allows you an entry point To talk to them again. When we say things like, if you need something, let me know, I'm over here. Well, if they don't ever let me know, how are you going back to them? So what I often hear is, you're doing okay? Okay, again, friendly, thank you, but not selling. And so, let's… engage the customer, again, with that to-do. I'm giving you an assignment. And I have retailer clients that say, I'm gonna use that. And they'll teach their associates to say to customers, alright, I'm giving you an assignment. We did markdowns today. There's a few little goodies back there. Make sure, before you leave today, you check that out. And then, as they're watching the customer moving from zone to zone in the store, little store, big store, doesn't matter, it gives you an in. did you find a markdown back there? Did you see that cute blue striped sweater? I love it so much. I've got one on holding the back. I'm buying it when I get off work today. Like, these are just ways that we're connecting with the customer, and then there's, you know, there's aspirational brands that are offering a sparkling water or a beverage of some sort. Again. If we can build connections with the customer, if we can build trust. If we can give them an assignment. And if… here's my fourth thing… If we can… Build that trust by just caring about who they are. Don't jump into salesy. salesy mode, never works, but just caring about who the customer is, and just, you know, mirror their response. If they feel like they're in a hurry, then you have urgency. If they're just meandering and moving at a slower pace, then you should meander and move at a slower pace with them. Mirror what the customer is putting off, and when you do that. they will be connecting with you and not even realize what you're doing. They won't realize why they're connecting with you, because they… you're mirroring them. Make sense?
Dane Cohen: Okay, so what is the phrase we are banning? I just want to make this crystal clear for everyone.
Rachel Williamson: No more, let me know if you need something.
Dane Cohen: Can I share a story with you?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah.
Dane Cohen: I do not have a green thumb, and I'm trying to, as you can see, I think it's behind me somewhere. My little plant, where is it?
Rachel Williamson: plant,
Dane Cohen: little plant. Over there? Yeah, little. I'm starting slow, but I was in a plant store, I bought some plants, and it was this gorgeous, you know, local nursery with plants and, you know, a whole kind of hardware section, and I bought 3 plants. And I said, what else do I need? Do I need… what sprays do I need? Fertilizer? And the… the salesperson said. Yeah, just go look over there in that section, let me know if you need any help.
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, it's no good.
Dane Cohen: You know what I walked out with? The three plants, and nothing else. I was ready to buy! I would have bought any… anything that you sold me at that time, I want to be the best plant father I could be, and now I just have plants that are looking kind of sad, so…
Rachel Williamson: And we… we should have an offline conversation, because I have a major green thumb, and I can help you keep those plants alive. But there are products you need, and I'll… I'll snap a picture of the one you need to get, and you need to squirt on the plant once a month. But there's a great example of a lost opportunity, and it sounds like they were very friendly. Right? They were nice, they were friendly. On the surface, didn't do anything wrong. But again, we're not non-profit people. We're trying to make a living here. overhead is high, rent is high, what have you, and so we need to teach our sales associates what it looks like. Not used car salesmen, not that there's anything wrong with selling used cars, but we all know what I mean by used car salesmen. We don't want pushy, we don't want salesy, we want warm, engaging, thoughtful people who Give the customer an assignment. and then revisits, you know, drops their task, goes back to them, and has a follow-up conversation about whatever it is they were talking about. conversation going.
Dane Cohen: And I think I'm walking away with two things here, the first being that so much of your in-store experience is based on the people whose faces are right there up front, right? And, you know.
Rachel Williamson: Absolutely.
Dane Cohen: I think you talked about some training and how training often falls by the wayside, but that is your first line of offense. When someone walks into your store, the experience starts with the people that they're seeing. And then from the kind of management one perspective, right, we know that costs are rising, right? We know that your operating expenses continue to rise, as does your payroll expenses. So your payroll expenses as a Percentage of sales needs to stay in line. So, those little differences, right, those little trainings, those, you know, understanding how to maximize a sale, they make a huge difference, because you have to always look at your payroll as a percentage of sales. So, super important there. Okay.
Rachel Williamson: And a lot of people don't, really quickly, let me tag on, a lot of people don't have a selling goal per hour.
Dane Cohen: Mmm.
Rachel Williamson: You know how much you're paying for that employee for the hour, and you know how much your store has to do, and I have my clients do the math on this, because sometimes they're like, I think I should just have, like, 4 or 5 people working. On Tuesday, why? What are they gonna do? They're gonna be on their phone, they're gonna be looking at each other? They're like, well, sometimes it's in flux. I'm like, well, let's just do the math. Does the math make sense? Math does not lie. And so, does the math make sense, and can you really afford to have that many people there? And they should have a sales goal. Because if they… they should be able to justify their presence in the store. You know, when I have store managers who… they're not the hiring people, they don't… They don't hire me. AirPods might have just died. Can you hear me?
Dane Cohen: I can.
Rachel Williamson: Okay, I don't know what that was about. But… They do need to be able to explain how much volume they're going to be able to do if they bring in those extra people. So, looking at that hourly rate is going to make a huge difference, and managers need to be thinking that way, and not just saying. I need more people. It's like, let's talk about that, let's do the math. So, very important thing to add on there.
Dane Cohen: Yeah, and just for Management One clients, something that I used to do, with my reporting, I used to bring my store team in on the inventory action report. So, that's a report that we have here at Management One. Anyone who is a client will know the inventory action report. And I used to really have them in on the sales goals that we're trying to achieve, because, you know, a store-level manager may just be looking at LY numbers, but we have a plan to hit, right? And that plan that Management One is providing, I want them to be bought in on that. So it can't just be at the buying level in the back office, we're bought in on the plan, but the store's not bought in on it. They need to come together. Okay, I want to talk about something that I think is very, relatable and palpable to a… retail business owner, and that is, and we saw it here, reactive versus intentional leadership, putting out fires all day. I think that there's a huge amount of weight that falls on the owner's plate. And a lot of times, they're the buyer. They are the, head salesperson. They're, you know, when the AC breaks, they're the ones that are figuring out how to fix it, right? You're wearing all these hats, and you're sometimes running around, putting out fires all day. how do you start building out systems, right? That seems sometimes the hardest thing to wrap your head around. What do you mean I gotta do systems or, you know, kind of keep up with certain tasks? And… I'm just trying to keep my head above water. How… what would you say to, you know, how do we start approaching this?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, I mean, this is something that we at Running Great Stores, that we help clients do, is we build a retail playbook, which helps them document every process and procedure, and their business, and how it operates, and it starts to simplify, how you train your people, and how you hold your people accountable. accountable, but I would say just start with the simplest thing, and that is a rhythm of business. What are the things that happen every day? What are the things that happen every week? What are the things that happen every month? And if you can start that, and you can track that, you can then begin, and you can just rattle top of mind, scratch on a piece of paper, it's fine. But then you can begin to say, you know, why am I spending time on this? Just because I've always done it, is it getting me anything? And really look at… how you can be intentional. Set your focus. Reinforce the things that matter the most, that build your business the most. And just create direction. Now, I'm sure most of your clients also have someone out on the sales floor who's helping them. Maybe they're a sales associate, maybe they're not a manager, but when you have one other person working with you, it's just so critical that you set the direction for the day, the week, the month. And that'll happen once you've really looked at your rhythm of business. Rhythm of business is just a simple way to say what you have to do every day to keep your business running, every week, every month. And so, once you've got your rhythm of business, then read your people in on it, just like you said. It's not just for the owner to know, you know, some of the math that Management One is putting together for them. Get the buy-in on their team. Again, the brand is making a promise. Your salespeople need to deliver on that promise, so there's a matter of information that they really need to be clued in on. But I…
Dane Cohen: And I love…
Rachel Williamson: But.
Dane Cohen: I love that you talk about a retailer as a brand, because I think that that's often overlooked, that you are a brand onto yourself. Right? You represent something. When your store is talked about, you wanted to evoke a very specific image, right? And if your image is, you know, I'm a great retailer with great customer service and great product, like you said, it has to live up to that each and every day.
Rachel Williamson: It does, and if we allow ourselves to be firefighters, to have oxygen tanks on, and just be running around, putting out fires, and fires come up, for sure. I don't have my head in the sand, I promise. But when you can set your focus for the day, set your focus for the week. and have your team aligned with what it is you're working on. It's gonna give… give you confidence to be able to go work on those other things you want, because you know what the mission is, and know how to go about executing it. And oftentimes what happens… I've got a client not that far from here, they're a single-store business, no online, and they do an unbelievable amount of volume. It kind of makes me chuckle, because I got the first call from them during COVID in 2020, when the governor shut down all retail. And it was right before Easter, and they had just received tons of inventory. No online store, how are we gonna sell this inventory? What am I gonna do? I'm gonna go bankrupt, whatever. And I remember talking to her, talking her off the ledge, and now her volume is, like, quadrupled over whatever it was, and it was because at that moment, she had to learn to think differently about her business. She no longer could do her business the way she'd always done it. And what I would encourage everybody listening today is you might be at a moment where you need to think differently about your business, and listen to some of the things Dane and I are talking about, be like, you know. I haven't thought about that. Maybe I need to think differently about my business, and then what doors will that open for me from a volume point of view, etc.
Dane Cohen: Yeah, and listen, if you're not thinking about that right now, it's such a changing industry. It always is, I mean, it's always evolving, but… you always have to be thinking about that. Okay, I'm gonna go a little lightning round here. Let's see if… I'll go toe-to-toe with you on this one. So… Alright. Let's see… let's see, if you could play ball here. We talked about the things that we're gonna do one day, one week, one month. let's pick what would be your sweet spot, right? What's one thing that must be done every day? What's one day? I'm happy to go first, if you…
Rachel Williamson: I'll go first. In case you try and steal mine. You have to have a sales plan. You have to have a sales plan for the day. If you don't have something you're shooting towards, you're never gonna make it.
Dane Cohen: Okay, I love it. Mine is, you have to follow an opening and closing checklist. It has to be done every day, you need an opening list that whoever's opening the store that day follows, and whoever's closing that store, and it's gotta be done each and every day, no exception.
Rachel Williamson: Amen, brother.
Dane Cohen: Okay, what's your once a week?
Rachel Williamson: Once a week. You have to walk the floor from windows to back of house with a clipboard in your hand and write down every single thing you see that needs to be fixed. And then work with the team to get it knocked out, so that you… I think you have to do it every day, but I'll be nice and say once a week. I don't want anyone to jump out of a window here from this call.
Dane Cohen: Alright, and I'm gonna pick up where you left on the once a day, I'm gonna say once a week, you have to review the week and see if you actually hit those planned sales. That's my once a week.
Rachel Williamson: Yes. And I'll tag on one more on that. You need to look at the specific KPIs where you're winning and losing, and you have to have… you have to talk to your team about behaviors that drive the KPI, and not just the KPI. Example, you can't go out and say to your team. Alright, we need to get conversion up. And they're like, okay, great, let's do it. Then I walk around, ask, excuse me, the salespeople. So, what are you gonna do to get conversion up? They're like, I don't know, I'm just, like, playing along, and, you know, I'm not sure what I should do. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna give you something. Are you ready? I want you to engage every customer. Now, what's that gonna look like? What are you gonna say? And that's when we break the, you're finding what you need, you know, let me know, whatever. But you have to tie behaviors to results. You have to tie behaviors to the KPI. You can't just chase a KPI. And lots of people don't do that.
Dane Cohen: Right, because we may have a conversion issue. we may have a, hey, our UPT, is down right now, units per transaction is down, we gotta bring that back up. That's gonna have a different strategy than a strategy to up conversion.
Rachel Williamson: Right, and by the way, if you're low traffic. you should be focused on UPTs, because you can spend more time with someone. You'll drive your average order value up. But if your store is swamped, you better be focused on conversion, man. You better be touch and go with every person, leaving them with a to-do, like, listen, we got a store full of people, what are you looking for today? Awesome. Well, we just got these in. This one's my favorite, but I'm gonna give you an assignment. I want you to take a look here. and tell me what's going in that Easter basket that you need for this weekend, and I'm gonna circle back with you, but I'm gonna go help some other people. Are we good? I'm Rachel. I'll be right back. And so it's touch and go.
Dane Cohen: Touch and go! Touch and go!
Rachel Williamson: Again, I can tell you, you tell me the metric, I'll tell you the behavior, but if we're not connecting the behavior, gosh, it's… super hard to see a result, and then I… you hear people say, we've tried everything, we can't get conversion up. And it's typically because it's just not quantifiable enough.
Dane Cohen: You know, one thing that… the classic example of, you know, just going on the units per transaction is, you know, a footwear store. You should not ever sell a pair of shoes, a sneaker, without a sock. Right? That's… that's the… it's the most, you know. it's the easiest add-on you'll ever have, and I would look. I would look, because if you're tracking things right, and people are going up to the register, and you're notating the salesperson, I would go up to a salesperson and say, hey, you sold a lot of sneakers this week. Not one sock. What's going on? Right? That's right. You want to talk about… you can't grow what you don't know. So…
Rachel Williamson: And by the way, oh, you can't grow what you don't know. That's really good. I love a little saying. But I will say, don't wait for the end of the week to realize that your salespeople aren't adding on the things. Like, that should become a daily thing at the end of that day. Leave a note for the opening manager, like, hey, you know where we fell down yesterday? We weren't doing this. So, and sometimes it's as easy. I'll say to sales associates in a store that I'm… that I'm supporting, I'll say, pick out your favorite item in the store. I'm like, alright, you got it? What is it? Do we have enough of them? Don't pick something that we're on our last one or two. Pick something we have enough inventory of. And then, sell it. I want you to introduce it to everybody you talk to today. And so then it just becomes like a fun competition, and it's just a good way to do it. It's a good way to get an hourly sales associate to have some fun. You might give them, you know, I travel with Starbucks gift cards, with Chick-fil-A gift cards, McDonald's gift cards, and it's like someone does something like that, and you see them getting excited, and I'm like, I love you so much. Here's a coffee on me. Right? It's very little things that we can do That drive the behavior, and what we recognize and what we reward gets repeated.
Dane Cohen: Yeah, and you know what, like, some of this stuff, right, I know that with all the seriousness out there, and with the tariffs, and the economic energy prices, like, this could seem like chopped liver, but this stuff is so important, like… It's more important.
Rachel Williamson: Max.
Dane Cohen: Right, and people want to have fun, and people that work retail, they're… they're passionate, and they're engaged, but they want to have some… you know, there should be fun in this, right?
Rachel Williamson: Hey, listen. But you don't even have to do gift cards. I mean, you could do food things. I travel around with those Peeps. Which I can't stand. I'm averse to all that sugar, but people love them. I'm in a store, I'm with a client, and there's a salesperson in there, and they were doing awesome, and I'm like. You like Peeps? They're like, oh, I haven't had peeps yet, and I'm like, I got Peeps for you. You sell 2 more of that bag, and you get this big box of Peeps. You know, they sold them, because they wanted the stupid $1.29 Peeps. But the truth of the matter is, it can be little things that make a big difference, it's just making it fun.
Dane Cohen: Alright, you heard it here first, folks. Peeps. Peeps. Okay, and then we'll, we'll wrap this up with the once a month. What are we doing once a month?
Rachel Williamson: Once a month, we've really got to audit the store, and what I mean by that, I don't like the word audit, but it is important. We've got to go through returns, we've got to be looking for loss prevention, potential challenges. You know, sometimes, really good people Make really bad choices, because there's an opportunity. And if you're not auditing your paperwork and making sure we're not seeing, potential theft issues, whether they're internal or external or paperwork errors, those are the 3 big things that are causing shrink, that are causing you to lose money. And when we don't spend time once a month auditing for those things, that's just money going right down the drain that there's no need to. And so, I help clients build out, like, almost just a checklist in its easiest term that they can do once a month that they're checking, from backroom inventory and organization, to supplies, to cash wrap, to fitting rooms, to, you know. all of it, but loss prevention is a big one. Once a month, you've got to be looking. And a good way to do it? Make a random call to a customer who made a return and ask how the experience was, and when they tell you, I wasn't in your store and I didn't make a return, you've just uncovered a potential issue in your store. And it happens more than you realize. In fact, there's a story in my new book about it that happened to me.
Dane Cohen: Listen, the number one cause of shrink is internal, so…
Rachel Williamson: It's internal, and it's… this… the person in the book, obviously, don't name them, but… they were my right hand. I mean, I was managing a huge volume store, and trusted him with everything, and didn't realize it until a lot had been gone, but he was robbing us blind. Now, it wasn't my own store, I worked for a big chain. But it just broke my heart. For a while, I couldn't even get close to people, because I was like, they're just gonna take advantage of me if I get close to them, and they're gonna steal from me. But we oftentimes have blinders on, and it's just a great way, and maybe it's not internal theft, but maybe it's paperwork errors. They're ringing something incorrectly. I've got a client right now, she's like. I don't want to do inventory, because it's always wrong. And I'm like, well, instead of saying, I don't want to do it, say, we really have to do it, because we've got to get to the root. I'm like, what's the root of the problem? She's like, I don't know. I'm like, well, I'll tell you what I think it is, but let's put money on it and see. Half the stuff in your store is not marked. That means a customer brings it up, they're looking on Shopify, and they're going, I think it's this, let's just ring it there. And now it's not that, and you've got not real shrink, but your inventory is a mess. So… It's like a thing, you gotta audit.
Dane Cohen: Audit. We love that. Okay. We are… I just want to make a little special announcement. We are giving away 3 free books today to attendees on the webinar. So, yeah, let's get a little plug. 30 days…
Rachel Williamson: my… it's number one best-selling book, 30 Days to Running Great Stores. Okay, so…
Dane Cohen: Expo… how… tell me about the 30-day concept.
Rachel Williamson: Oh, it's funny, because I've been working in retail for so long, And because… I've been consulting. For so long. I realized that no one has time to read some heavy, deep, big, long chapter book. They're never gonna get it done. They're gonna get the first couple of chapters, and then they're gonna set it down, and they're just gonna be doing other stuff, whatever. When you get home at night, you've been in retail all day, you're not reading a book at night. And so I decided what I would have loved my team to have when I was a district and regional. would have been something that was more bite-sized. And so I wrote a manuscript breaking the 30 most important things down into 30 days, and the publishers were going nuts over it. They're like, there's no book out there like this, we love it. And so you literally just read day one. It's a few pages. Time to take action is at the end of every day. Read it, go take that action in your store. That's it. Just stop there. Come back the next day, read the next day, take action. Do that for 30 days. You will be surprised at… The impact it's gonna have on your store.
Dane Cohen: Love it. And we just have someone… I just bought the book, Smiley Face.
Rachel Williamson: Thank you, Elizabeth Seitz, I love that. Robin, I love that it's a fast retail. Some of the… The feedback I've been getting from… so a lot of district managers and regionals are buying it, and they're having all their stores read it as a team, and they talk about it on their calls every week, and it's been really fun to see. But the feedback I'm getting from store managers is, I love that it's fast. I love that I can do it, I love that I can go apply it, and I can come back the next day and do something else. And some things might be harder to apply and really see movement, other things might be easier, but remember. It is not a menu. You can't pick and choose.
Dane Cohen: who's say all.
Rachel Williamson: I'll do 5 of the 30 things. The magic in the 30 things is this is what I did in my… to have a successful retail career. When I left retail, I was the Senior Vice President of, store operations for a 1,000 store chain, transformation. I can tell you that, that all happened, started scooping ice cream at 14 years old at Baskin-Robbins, and then I was a sales associate in a retail store, and a store manager, and worked my way through college in retail, but the point is, this is really stuff I did. The thing is, I wish someone would have told me. You don't have to wait and be old like me to figure this stuff out. The book is the answer to the test.
Dane Cohen: Okay, well, we…
Rachel Williamson: my hardcover and Audible. Robin, what… am I, like, paying you for these comments? I want to purchase… well, do you want to tell them the other good news, that they get a discount? You don't have to buy it on Amazon. We've gotta bulk order everybody on the call.
Dane Cohen: Nico, will you put those… Nico, will you put those details in the chat? I think we have people that already bought, so let's get… let's get those details out there.
Management One: Yeah, exactly.
Rachel Williamson: Got it.
Management One: Let me drop it in chat again, just to… If you already bought it…
Rachel Williamson: email me, and I'll send you some goodies to go with it. There is an… if you buy it directly from me, you get an implementation guide that helps you implement the book with your team. You also get a book that's personalized and autographed to you, and then some other little goodies that come in the box that are, relevant to the book, so…
Dane Cohen: Oh, great.
Rachel Williamson: I wanted to give you guys a little… a little bonus for joining today.
Dane Cohen: Okay, and we have a lot of people that want to buy for their team, this is great. So, I'm gonna open this up. You have Rachel, she's live with you now. Do we have any questions? For myself, for Rachel, we'd love to hear from you. And then, you know, as we're kind of coming up to the end of the hour, you know, Rachel, I'd be remiss And I liked your perspective on this. We were chatting a little bit the other day, and so I'm gonna set you up a little here, but… a lot of people are getting a little worried about what's happening right now. Now, it's interesting because the NRF just said that they're expecting a stellar year in retail. It's been off with a bang. The year has already started off strong. But again, people are looking at these gas prices, and people are getting nervous, and…
Rachel Williamson: income.
Dane Cohen: is this the end of retail as we know it? So, help us make, fact… separate fact from fiction here.
Rachel Williamson: You know, I think the reality is, you guys, we could go back… I could go back to the 80s and talk about every disruption that has ever happened that has made many retailers go out of business. many retailers batten down the hatches and work their way through it and be fine. I think it's… the reality is, you're in retail, you picked a profession that has constant disruptions, so now that you're here, let's batten down the hatches and address… you're gonna start with addressing the fundamentals. What can I control versus what I can't control? I hear a lot of people talking about Tariffs and gas prices. You and I have no control over those things, but what we do have control over is what we need to own 200%. Our brand has made a promise to those customers, are our stores fulfilling that promise? And what are we doing to… make the experience amazing, make the customer want to shop with us, want to buy the product. Those are things within your control. And I would say that while the fundamentals aren't sexy and fun, the fundamentals are how we win. And that is… I mean, you said it, Dane, with the opening and closing checklist, and all of that stuff sounds so boring and so mundane, but those realities of running a store are what make the store where people want to be. They're not going to tell you, you have no light bulbs out, so I like being in here. There's no dirt in your window, so I like being in here. Your store's merchandised well, so I like being in here. They don't know that, but psychologically, they know there's something that's drawing them in, and 9 out of 10 times, I can take you back to that they've nailed the fundamentals of running a great retail store.
Dane Cohen: Well, Rachel, you put the fun in fundamentals.
Rachel Williamson: Oh, dang.
Management One: Nice.
Dane Cohen: We have, we have a question, we have a.
Rachel Williamson: Alright.
Dane Cohen: Other than Indeed and personal recruiting, which you touched on earlier, do you have any recommendations to how to find good candidates, especially higher-level ones?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, it's a great question, Robin, and I can tell you that it is, you know, it's always a challenge, but when you have an active recruiting log, and you are literally meeting people, and connecting with people, and building what I call a bench. You're gonna have people. Second thing, talk to people you know. Let them know, I own a store. I'm looking for fabulous talent. You know people. I want you to send them to me. And this is a great way. Then third, talk to your employees. Ask your employees, who do you know? You know our standards, you know what it's like to work here. People love working with their friends, and they will recommend people. Sometimes a little incentive doesn't hurt, but these are probably the four best ways. The Indeed, personal recruiting, talk to people you know outside of the store, your own network, and then fourth, talk to your team.
Dane Cohen: And, you know, Rachel, here's why this is so interesting, because it's just so true. You know, I ran a, 8 stores for my family business. We had 8 locations across New York, New Jersey. Connecticut, and everything you just said is exactly how we found our best people. We would have friends of friends of employees come and work for us, even family members, right?
Rachel Williamson: Yup.
Dane Cohen: you're great, you know what we do, bring them in. We've had customers that have become employees, right? We've had great customers that have become employees.
Rachel Williamson: Well, the customer one is a huge one. I was working with a client over Christmas time, and they have a local store here, and I was in the store, and I was engaging with this customer. She didn't know what in the world I was doing there. She figured I was a salesgirl or something. And I was like, you know, I feel like you should work here. I feel like… You would… and she's like, oh, I would really love to. The story manager turns around and goes, you would? There's Honestly, I cannot find… And… anyone to work here. And the lady's like, well, can you call me? Can we, like, start to talk? And you make a great point, and… It's just, again, it's fun. If they already love your store, and they're already good customers, they're already… they already get you, it's so easy. And by the way, if I had to force rank these. That would be higher than Indeed, because I haven't seen a lot of great results from Indeed. I think you get a lot of resumes, a lot of applications, you spend a lot of time, they're not always the people you want. So, if I was forced ranking, Indeed would be close to the bottom of my list of where I'd go. Nothing against them, I love them, but for retail sales, it's not always the best.
Management One: Andrea had a comment in here, she said, several of her hires came from an employee recommendation.
Rachel Williamson: Oh, there you go.
Dane Cohen: We'll bring it back.
Dane Cohen: We'll bring it back to your favorite example, Rachel. It's like dating. You want to get set up by a friend. That's the best way. That's right. That's the best way.
Rachel Williamson: Dang, good point. That's how I met my husband. Someone introduced us. I never would have met him otherwise.
Dane Cohen: Not on Indeed? You didn't find him on Indeed?
Rachel Williamson: It looks… no.
Dane Cohen: No.
Rachel Williamson: It looks like, Elizabeth, you've got… you've been doing successful pop-ups in holiday markets over 20 years, and you're opening your first brick and mortar! Congratulations! That's huge!
Dane Cohen: Yeah, that's very exciting.
Management One: I actually had one question for you, Rachel, just reading my own copy of the book here. You had a comment that you said earlier about the math doesn't lie, and math is definitely a good indicator. One of the things I loved in your book is you had developing your EQ as a superpower. Can you do… just run very quickly, for people that don't know how to develop that in themselves, what are just some good ways that people can up their EQ?
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, it's a great question, and I'm not trying to sell books to do this, you could probably Google and find some things as well, but there is a good little short chapter in the book. I think with EQ, we have to be super cognizant, and the first way to be cognizant about our own behavior is to ask people who know us. And it can be really hard to ask somebody, if you had to rate me on a scale of 1 to 10 of my EQ, my emotional quotient, what number would you give me? Well, when I did this years ago. I was saddened by the number. And I'm not gonna share it here, but y'all can just tell by my comment, it wasn't that high. And they were like, everyone loves you, it's not that, but it's that when something gets too, like, hard or disruptive or whatever, you kind of emotionally react, and you need to not. If I had not asked the question and gotten that feedback, I would never have realized it, and been able to then work with people who helped me be more aware, and then get better at not reacting, but rather… and it's the dumbest thing, but for me. It's taking a breath. It's just… Stopping for a minute. And that is, like, my reset button. Everyone has a different one. But that's probably the best way to do it, is to start by asking people who you trust. Don't ask your mortal enemy, a retailer down the street, who wishes you weren't there because they feel like you're competing with them. I might not ask them, but ask people whose opinion you care about, and then go from there.
Management One: Love that. Robin said that we want Rachel and her business, but one quick thing here, Dane.
Rachel Williamson: Rachel does.
Management One: have a substack. I'm gonna drop that in chat so, you can regularly get Rachel in your inbox.
Management One: If you just go to RunningGreatStores.com.
Rachel Williamson: Yep, and you can just sign up for my Substack newsletter, it's always free, you only get one email each week, you don't… you do not get spammed, but it is just always gonna be either new videos, new podcasts, anything that's not yet out in the marketplace, and then, of course, just retail tips and tricks. Quick read, every week.
Management One: Love it.
Management One: Are there more questions? The other one that I'm going through, and it was buried way up here at the top.
Dane Cohen: Nico, I'm gonna… I have to get home for Passover. It is the Jewish holidays here, so I'm gonna have to jump… Rachel, this was an awesome conversation. I know that there are still some questions in the chat, so I'm gonna let you and Nico, handle those. Rachel, though, it was really so illuminating speaking to you, and just, again, so great to just get that. voice of reason in a world where we are getting so much bombarded at us, just some old-school facts about retail and how to run your store. It really was great to hear you today, and always great to make a new friend.
Rachel Williamson: Well, thank you, Dane.
Management One: Thanks, Dan. Yeah, as Dane said, so, one other quick question here. Trisha…
Rachel Williamson: There's another question, yeah.
Management One: Yeah, Tricia's saying, I want to give deep merchandise discounts to salespeople without losing money. I have a high margin, so 40%, 50%, sometimes seems like not enough. Should I add a percent to the cost?
Rachel Williamson: Is this an apparel business? That you want people to wear the product in order to sell it? Tricia does not…
Management One: If I look… It is, yes.
Rachel Williamson: It is, okay. Oftentimes, what I see, like, the best retailers doing, I'm not talking about small brands, I'm talking about, like, streamlined, you know, mainline brands, they give their salespeople, a 50% discount, which makes most people go nuts, and they buy lots. And they might, if they're doing some sort of an event, or that, you know, where they really want, like, cashmere to be a thing, they'll give them a, like, cashmere sweater for, like, cost plus 10%. So that they're wearing, like… I had a client who just gifted me one, because they wanted me there that Saturday, and everybody else had bought one, and they didn't want me to have to buy one. But I'm like, it was… really nice. Like, I would have bought as many as they would have sold me of that sweater at cost plus 10%, but again, it just helped. And we sold… I did work the store that day, and we did sell a lot of them that day, because we were all wearing them. So, I think there's a benefit to it. But I wouldn't do it with everything. I think 50 is… should be enough, unless you're a really high, high-end luxury retailer worth 50 off, and the hourly rate you're paying people still doesn't, reconcile. So I don't know that story. Tricia, feel free to email me. I'm happy to continue the conversation offline with you.
Management One: That's good that you say that, because I will also put your email, if you don't mind.
Rachel Williamson: Yep, not at all. Rachel at runninggreatStores.com.
Management One: Right in the chat there. Excellent. Well, thank you, Rachel, so much for taking the time to run through this, and thanks to our audience for joining in. We had a lot of good questions, and as I mentioned at the top of the hour, we did record this session, and we are going to send that to all of our folks. As Dane mentioned earlier, the giving away of the three books.
Rachel Williamson: Yeah, who's winning them?
Management One: I will be reaching out to our folks. We have a long list of attendees, and I'm basically just gonna run it through a randomizer, and I will reach out to you personally, and I'll give Rachel your information, and we'll get a nice, free, personalized copy out to 3 of our attendees.
Rachel Williamson: Yes, and… Make sure that I have the full address, including the code in there. Make sure you don't fat-finger any address information, so we can make sure this lands in your… in your mailbox.
Management One: Absolutely.
Rachel Williamson: Perfect!
Management One: Rachel, I mean, we could talk for another hour here, but we're happy to have you on again, and…
Rachel Williamson: Invite me back whenever.
Management One: Absolutely, will do.