Aaron Soriero, owner of Music Matters in Georgia, said his store is different because it is known for being fun. “We do a summer rock band camp,” he said. “We put them on stage. It’s the next step from the lesson room.”
Carol Cook, president of The Music Room in Palantine, Ill., offers lessons for 500 private students and 200 group students who come through its doors weekly. But the store does much more to differentiate itself. “It sounds like a no-brainer, but we’re focusing our strategy on customer service,” she said. “We are very knowledgeable in our store and we’re interested in extending that knowledge to our customers in any way we can. We make sure the experience for the customer is one of value.”
“Carol is right,” said Sislen. “We are knowledgeable and we care. And we are enablers. Baby Boomers will come to you and they want validation. A gentleman came in four days ago, had tears in his eyes, and said, ‘I’m going to ask you a question. I know it’s a stupid question. I want to play the trumpet.’
“I said, ‘It’s OK. It’s alright. You can play the trumpet.’
“And when those customers come in and say, ‘I’m just starting. I don’t want a good [instrument],’ I say, ‘Oh no. We are grownups. We deserve good sound from the beginning,’” added Sislen. “They walk out with a $2,000 instrument, which comes back to what it’s really all about. Money.”
“I put my nose in everywhere,” added Sislen. “I wander around and listen in on what my employees are doing and how they are interacting. The personality of the store is us. We may be writing bills, paying teachers, or making orders. We may come up with a great idea and say, ‘This spring, let’s have a recital of the families that are taking lessons at the store.’ Why not coordinate the teachers and have the families perform together?
“After that,” she continued, “I wander over to the other end of the store and oversee to make sure everything is being run how it’s supposed to be run to make sure the tone we set is the right one and a friendly one. People should come in and say, ‘Wow, what a really nice place. It feels really good in here.’
“I read a story in a magazine once when a store owner said they made a lot of money selling pencils. All of those gift items are important in making a store homey and nice.”
Having good employees is a tremendous part of how a store is viewed to the outside public of course. Sislen said she gives excellent employee discounts and takes her nine workers out to dinner for sales meetings every two weeks to keep them motivated.
According to Cook, “If someone is negative in any way, get rid of them immediately. Because they will infect the rest of your people and pull down anybody who is on the verge down with them. Get them out.”
You’re Fired?
Saturday’s NAMM Breakfast Session took a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook with “The Retailer Apprentice.” Danny Rocks and Alan Friedman put retailers Russ Beacock, Jessica Freehling-Kazzie, Rosi Johnson, Kathi Kretzer, Joel Menchey, Rick Santos, Peter Sides, and Sislen to the test.
At Sislen’s request, the game not only tested the retailers’ know-how and quick thinking skills, but also became a battle of the sexes with the men going against the women. Each round consisted of a scenario in which each time participants must solve a problem. These included building a Web site for your store, deciding whether to take a deal from a manufacturer on discontinued merchandise, and designing a lesson program in 60 days. While the teams deliberated, dealers in the audience got to throw in their two cents and tell personal stories that related to the task at hand. It was a lively, and at times humorous, give-and-take between retailers as they got to voice their opinions and share ideas with their contemporaries in a game-show setting.
With help from the audience, winning teams were selected for each round and, following a “Monkey Wrench challenge” for individual members of the losing team, the crowd eliminated the contestants one by one with a rousing “You’re Fired!” Rocks and Friedman added to the educational experience by recapping each segment with some helpful tips retailers could take away from the show. Advice included only buying what you can sell when picking up a new line, rolling out your Web site in stages to see what works and what doesn’t, and trying to finance long-term assets with long-term debt when building up new aspects of your business like band and orchestra rentals.
Though the women put up a good fight, the last man standing was just that, with Peter Sides emerging victorious.
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