After 4 years in the market and with a terrifying pandemic, that has done to change a lot of paradigm, this is my opinion after speaking and comment with a lot of intermediate controls and/or directors of marketing on a lot of things… "That if the sustainability, himself (but no in all) but how and when, that if the point of sale keeps on being the big stranger in full 21st century., that can take out of the digitization and information in the point of point of sale, that if the omnichannel…"
And it gave me for doing a fascicle of notes, where go learning (for well and for bad) what our customers and prospectuses, said me and went out me a draft, that try summarise in 20 points:
1.- We define clearly the ambition. All company has his origin in the ambition. We begin by the end: we imagine the end wished and, working the other way around, arrive to the beginning, where are now. What want to exactly be inside one, two, three… years? In the world of the retail, and the point of sale there is tendency to leave carry by the need of the execution and forget of this necessary reflection. Then it doesn't learn or doesn't investigate and as they say a lot of trades "my providers do always the same".
2.- Have "waist". The strategy is dynamic. At all it will go out to 100% of the planned, know to change on the fly. What cost us yesterday, can that it do not cost us tomorrow. Our strategy has to anticipate and tackle the movements and counterattacks of the competitors and the changes in the demands of our customers. The point of sale is the most dynamic that can know. Hundreds of people cross which each with their thoughts and their value judgments (did a post in my Linkedin to saint of a talk in the University).
3.- We take the plunge with the execution. Few months of pasty neurons can generate irreversible damages: two, three bad campaigns and… we are out. The strategic difference... It is in the execution. How many companies understand this? Few, because in the point of sale in general recently. 4 expositores (some with very little grace) put product and smart.
"Keeping strong the ambition like the first day does that the rest of the pieces of the company work".
4.- We don't lose the "mentality of the day 1". Keep strong the ambition like the first day does that the rest of the pieces of the company work. According to Jeff Bezos, every day in Amazon are the day 1, as if it was a startup. The "mentality of the day 2" means the paralysis, followed of the irrelevance and of the decline unbearable. When the companies say me "our network of sales does what can, we in marketing support them", something does not go well.
5.- Go a few steps ahead. The leaders characterise especially by a form to think. They know that the future is not linear and that, by very well that they have gone them the things, anybody guarantees that it will keep on being like this. They ensure to go several steps by in front of his competitors and, if they trip, raise quickly.
6.- The thirds of the retail and the point of sale. We devote a third of our time to think in the future, a third to the operations of the day in day out and a third to the people. When only we have time to turn off fires, are not doing well our work: every time there will be more fires… Therefore have strategic allies is indispensable. That they know how direct this strategy that goes them to comport a better visibility, knowledge.
7.- From the trench. Although all are connected, avoid the temptation to manage only through messages, social networks, emails or telephone calls. We are in the trench shoulder with shoulder and in contact with the people that decide our future: employees, customers, providers, etc.
8.- The business culture commands on the strategy. We look for the commitment. Better a good strategy accepted by part of all the involved that look for the perfect strategy. In moments of 'retail reset' is more crucial still that all the employees share the same group of values, that speak the same language and that there is a consensus between them on the ambition and the model of business of the company. "If all our competitors do the same, there are quite a lot of probabilities that we find our space doing precisely the contrary" The case is that at the end usually is a "copy and hit".
9.- We do not fear to go to against the flow. In time of turbulence like the current there are not clear ways. If all our competitors do the same, there are quite a lot of probabilities that we find our space doing precisely the contrary. With different strategies and with clear bets.
10.- We follow the "rule of the tenth man" and escape of the "bias of confirmation". Look for different opinions. We avoid to speak only between us, with our customers, with the competition and with our providers... If we draft and we form "clones" that think of the same way can carry us to the disaster. We are brave and patient; we look for to people that think distinct to us, that challenge us and that contribute another point of view with freedom. In VPV have done it, and works, after internal analysis and if we can do it or no. But the power is to want to.
11.- We listen and we observe. The old retail that's that available goes to speak him to the consumer. The 'retail reset' goes to listen and, especially, observe: the most important in the communication is what does not say . The behaviours of our customers, unlike his words, do not deceive.
12.- We look for the feelings: there is less competition. Design experiences "Value Plus". The emotional connection will do us arrive more far that using algorithms. We believe moments of value and use a "language of feelings" and no only of "solutions". "The companies leaders know that they have to go several steps by in front of the competition, changing continuously the script" Here there is a lot that say and a lot of the that manage
13.- More than different, are inimitable. It’s no longer worth being different, we have to be inimitable. Leading companies know that they have to go several steps ahead of the competition, continuously changing the script, to continue maintaining their position in the market.
14.- Have to like us the people. We win his hearts and his minds. In retail is impossible to triumph if they do not like us the people and prefer the leaves of calculation and the algorithms. We depend to 100% of the people. The best products, marks, providers, etc., will not carry us to any part if it fails the team. A lot of customers always explain "my product, etc etc of my product…, and to the that goes allocated this product.? What do with him?
15.- "We love the problem" to look for solutions. The Points of sale coincide in that it does not matter all the well that speak of us, but only what criticise us. The opportunities arise where there are problems or complaints. The solutions come afterwards.
16.- Have a "factory of ideas". Of the quantity and quality of the ideas will depend our horizon. The ideas arise of the people, but his greater value reaches once that they pipe and perfect through the constructive debate in the teams. We think as in the person that goes us to buy.
17.- The collaboration is the new competition. It was of form structured, through a platform or of informal way, somewhere somebody already has confronted to our problem and has resolved it. The problems are so complex that in a lot of cases the only form to face them is by means of the collaboration.
18.- We know to read the data. We listen to the customers, to the shops, to the product. The data speak us, was in shape of big dates or of small dates. According to Inditex to succeed is that from does decades daily receives the information of what is occurring in all the shops of the world. Here it is where is missing this digital strategy in the point of sale. That they amuse the people, that go to buy. "The mark and the people are the active more valuable that have.
19.- We take care the active invisible. The mark and the people are the active more valuable that have and are not very represented in the balances. Thus the balances by himself solos do not serve to value a company.
20.- There is not line of put. We are so good as ours last campaign or the results of the past quarter. In the moment in which we consider that we have arrived is when we are more vulnerable and can advance us by the left or by the right, by up and by down. And here it is where have whenever be active in the point of sale. Doing do that sucedan things for the mark. Involving to the personnel that work for our mark.