Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Lesson #1 Consider simple answers before looking for complicated ones.

No one said the giraffe was too tall for the fridge, did they? You just assumed that, didn’t you? You looked for a complicated answer when a simple one would have worked. Fold the poor animal’s legs all up or chop off its head, remove the shelves, find a baby giraffe and then go buy a commercial refrigerator? No.

The simple answer is: Put the giraffe in the fridge.

Examining other retailers is a SIMPLE way to answer a lot of questions. You don’t have to spend days debating how big your dressing rooms* should be, or what category goes front-and-center. Go look, go feel, go see what’s comfortable.

Spend some time in a retailer whose target audience matches yours. How do their customers shop? Do they turn right or left? Do they look at the item first… or the price tag? What do the various signs around the shop say? Simple answers are all around.

And there are simple answers to more complicated questions as well…if you keep your primary reason for asking the question in mind. Basically, break down your questions into simpler ones. Don’t search for a complicated answer to a simple question.

Here’s a couple of examples:

“Where should I locate my new shop? In a cheap rent/ low-traffic location, or a high-rent, high-visibility spot?” What’s your primary reason for asking? If your answer to that question is that you want to keep your leasehold costs affordable, you’re halfway to your answer.

Simple answer: Locate where costs will be a smaller percentage of your gross income. If you’ll sell enough more in the “better” location will more than cover the cost difference…or if it won’t…you have your simple answer. Of course, all this is guesswork before you open, but as long as you are cautious in your optimism, you’re know. Five more daily purchases of $4 kidswear in a location that costs many hundreds more a month probably won’t make economic sense. Five more $100 pieces of furniture a day, though, probably will.

Example #2: “How can I sell more?” Complicated answers abound, right, until you define your primary purpose for asking. Why do you want to sell more? To get more people to recycle, to help your community keep their money at home, to make more profit for yourself? Decide that and you’re half-way to the answer. Different and simple answers to questions, once you don’t assume the dimensions of the problem (back to that giraffe, which you envisioned as tall, and the fridge, which you regarded as not-so tall.)

Now life is not simple, and I would be simple-minded to try to persuade you that it is. Example #1 above, for instance, hasn’t addressed the further questions such as How much advertising can I do? or What price-point do I need to pay X amount in rent? or even How hard do I want to work? Question #2 has my favorite solution, actually, “hiding” in the question. Sell MORE. To each customer. Why would I choose that answer to the question? Because MY primary purpose for asking would be because I want an easier way to make more money with, basically, the same amount of work and overhead. (I’m cheap and lazy. Maybe you’re more driven by other issues, in which case, your primary purpose for asking will lead to other, equally-simple answers.)

After all, once I’ve lured the customer into my store with all my wiles: writing great ads as in Words That Sell! and making my shop look terrific with Shop Sizzle and developing an event like in Bag Sales, Dollar Racks & BOGO Deals, I might as well sell that customer MORE, right? The money’s spent, my charm has been oozed. My answer to “How do I sell more?” is the simplest answer of all: more. Next time around, when I get comfortable with the answer to Question #2, I’ll ask another simple question and come up with another simple answer. Like, for example: How do I sell to MORE PEOPLE.

When you break down your questions into simple ones, answering them one at a time, without trying to answer all your questions at once, you’ll find it a lot easier to solve a problem like putting a giraffe in a refrigerator. No one said the giraffe was too tall for the fridge, did they? You just assumed that, didn’t you?

* Another simple answer is: how big does the government tell you they have to be. Another issue altogether 😉

The illustration is by Sally Robinson from a book by Valerie Hurst .