This one’s going to be short and sweet and to the point: if you want to generate traffic and get the customers coming in the door when every newspaper on the planet is screaming about the meltdown on Wall Street, you gotta give them a reason to come in!

This means making deals. The prices on EVERYTHING are going up, up, up. It’s true in my store, and I know it’s true in yours. When was the last time a vendor called you and said, “Hey, we like you so much we’re going to eat the rising cost of gas because you’re that awesome?”

If you’re like me, that’d be never.

So prices are going up, everywhere. The customer’s feeling it no matter where they go.

Send them coupons — 10% off anything in the store. Run lots of specials. Put things that are NEVER on sale on sale. It’s time, right now.

These don’t have to be super deep discount sales. Especially if you’re a niche market, with lots of brands that never, ever discount. Customers know and understand that they’re not going to get 50% off some of these items — and that’s ok: they’ll buy at 10% off, when they may very well not have at full price.

Realizing 90% of a sale is a lot better than realizing none of it!

The most common mistake retailers make when times get tight is to stop promoting, to stop making deals, to stop reaching out to the customer base. That’s just wrong: this is the time, more than ever, that you’ve got to be out there, constantly, giving the customer a reason to buy.

If you’ve been reading along, you know that in the past three months, we’ve moved two stores. This has been a crazy, hectic time in our life, especially since one of the moves involved moving the headquarters — an office that had been in one place for almost 30 years!

Along the way, I’ve learned some stuff. And boy, some of it really wasn’t pleasant.

You have to understand that we’ve got vendors we’ve been working with for years. Decades. So when they offered to help us set up the new store, absolutely we jumped at the chance. We’ve got strong relationships with these companies, and I was looking forward to seeing what they could do.

It was mind-boggling: mind boggling how much these vendors really didn’t care about us! In a lot of cases, I wound up with double inventory, when vendors ordered the same exact merchandise I was moving from the old store to the new store!

And I’m flabbergasted at the absolute lack of the ability to merchandise effectively! This is what vendors do, all day every day! Yet we gave them endcaps to fill, and they put product in — but no pricing, no signage, and they didn’t even check to see if the product was in the computer system!

For example, one guy handled canned pet food. He had five flavors to stock — and he arranged them horizontally, filling the shelves so full you couldn’t get a hand in there to take a can out. Think about that: arranging five flavors, horizontally. What happens if you want the flavor on the bottom?

Another display had dog harnesses all the way at the top of a 7 foot tall gondola. Kareem Abdul Jabar couldn’t have reached these things without jumping — how are my customers supposed to get them?

Honestly, Mr. Vendor, Ms. Vendor, all independent retailers want from you is for you to make it easier for my guys to sell your products! Now, my guys are in hot water too — they should have never let you out of the store with the shelves looking like that! Now we’ve got a new rule going on the books: nothing goes out on our sales floor if it’s not priced, in the computer, and signed.

We just want to sell your merchandise. Why are you making it so difficult?

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says “The definition of a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

If you want to be a successful business owner, you need to keep an eye on what people are saying about your brand.

One way to do this is to look for what people are saying about you on the internet.  (A side note: you might want to take a Valium BEFORE you do this!)  Go online and check out the local forums and bulliten boards. 

9 times out of 10, you’ll find something about your store.

Here’s some things to keep in mind:

The Internet is an unregulated wasteland.  Anyone can go onto forums and say whatever they want.  That means you’re open to commentary from competitors, angry ex-employees, people who just don’t like you, and more.

Guess what?  These people aren’t going to say nice things!  It’s a sad truth about human nature that people are more than happy to say bad things whenever they’ve got the opportunity — yet when the time comes to say positive things, you can almost hear the crickets chirping!

So what good comes from reading bad things about your organization?

First and foremost, you’ve always got to be open to the fact that some of what might be out there could be true.  If you’re reading that your stores are dirty, that your employees are rude, that your prices are the highest in town, you might want to investigate.  If the stores are dirty, if the employees are rude — well, these problems can be fixed.  If your prices are higher, you need to have a good reason why — and make sure that reason is clear to the public!

Use a mystery shopper!  Have someone investigate these claims for you. 

Other things you read aren’t going to be true.   For me, that’s the infuriating bit.  It’s very hard to read lies about your business, the one you’ve put your heart and soul and life into.

However, you’ve got to, absolutely HAVE to, set emotion aside when dealing with false commentary on the internet.  As good as it may feel to tell some random internet poster that they’re an idiot, the fact is you’re a business.  You need to be calm and professional. 

Defend your brand by presenting facts.  If you’ve got research you can link to, great!  Stay level-headed and make sure you’re representing yourself in a positive light.

This is hard to do.  I’ve screwed up in this area, and wound up alienating a lot of customers.  I regret that — but at the same time, at least I’ve had the experience and learned from it!  It’s hard to stomach that there are people who aren’t going to like you no matter what — but the more important fact is that there are a great many readers who judge you and your store by how you respond to that angry, unpleasant person.

My friend Bill Eisner, one of the smartest, most creative people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet — and the force behind Nonbox Advertising , sent me the following article, and I think you should all read it too:

Marketers Put Emphasis on Loyalty
Budgets Shift to Programs to Keep Core Audience as Economy Tightens
By Michael Bush

Hilton’s Mr. Burke said that’s why the company focuses on customizing its offers. “We’re in an environment where we have, at any given time, as many as 100 offers in market being personalized on individual customer preferences. It’s become a very cost-effective way to run the business and generated a ton of business for the hotels.”

Why do I love this article? Besides the fact that it reinforces one of my core beliefs: that we’re far better off concentrating our time, energy and resources on making our existing customers happy, it points out a tremendous truth:

As the economy gets tighter, it’s critical to spend each dollar wisely. You need to consider the return on investment (ROI) of each and every marketing and promotional decision you make!

“You know,” the customer told me, as she stood at the register, “online, you can buy Wellness for 41 cents a can.” We sell Wellness for 46 cents a can, a nickel more. She glared at me. “Are you going to meet their price?”

If you’re a retailer, chances are you’ve experienced this same scene — or something very similar. With the economy the way it is, news outlets all across the nation are encouraging customers to get over any shy side they may have and start negotiating for lower prices. Lower prices on anything and everything, from a new car to cat food. After all, the public is assured, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

The question isn’t painful. But the answer could be — especially if you’re the retailer!

Like many situations you face in your store there is no one cut and dried answer. There are a number of factors that go into the decision to match prices. These include:

Are you a good customer? If I’ve never ever seen you in my store before and you’re coming in asking me to match prices on the loss-leader sale the chain discounter is running, you’re out of luck. I know you’re just cherry picking prices — and once I give you the deal, I’m never going to see you again! What’s in it for me?

Does the deal make sense? I’m not going to drop my prices so much that it costs me money! Let me give you an example.

Years and years ago, there was a store called Edwards. Some of you might remember Edwards — they were the first to run super deep discounts on national products. They were so cheap, they didn’t even have bags! We’re talking real bare bones here.

At the time, we were selling 9 Lives Cat Food four cans for a dollar. A case of 9 Lives cost us $5.50, and we were making $6.00. Not a great margin, but we sell a LOT of 9 Lives.

A customer came in and told me that Edwards had 9 Lives five cans for a dollar. That’s $4.75 a case — less than my cost. She asked if I would match the price.

I couldn’t — and I told her that. So I was absolutely totally dumbfounded to see this same woman over at my shelves, picking out 9 Lives!

I had to ask her why.

Her answer: “They don’t have the flavor I like.”

I told her, “Then when we don’t have the flavor you like, we’re six for a dollar!” She laughed — because she knew the basic rule of negotiation: For a deal to truly be a good deal, both parties have to be happy with it. You’ve got to leave some money on the table — otherwise, the retailer’s never going to go for it! The trick is finding the balance where the customer gets a good deal and you’ve realized at least some profit.

That’s a good negotiation.

Later this week, we’ll be talking about empowering your employees, so they’re prepared when your customers come in and say “What can you do for me?”