If you’re not reading Entrepreneur magazine or Entrepreneur.com, get with the program. It should be required reading for anyone in retail, whether new kid on the block or seasoned veteran.

Entrepreneur columnist Brad Sugars has a great piece on MSNBC.com on six steps you and your staff can take to turn shoppers into buyers. Besides the obvious–banning “Can I help you?” from the retail floor–Sugars says the first step is to calculate your conversion rate. It’s easy to do and the results will help you fine-tune your sales techniques.

Even answering phone inquires correctly can help boost sales, Sugars says. I called an auto repair shop recently to get an idea of what they charge for various services. The guy at the other end acted like he was put out and in a rush to get off the phone. If he had only asked me a few questions about my car or my driving habits, he probably would have had a new customer. But he didn’t and I eventually found a more customer-focused mechanic.

You hear it stressed again and again: Listen to the customer before you start your sales pitch. Act like you’re a trusted adviser rather than a salesperson trying to make a quota. Whether face to face, on the phone or online, remember that customer loyalty starts with great customer service.

Read what Sugars has to say. Then make sure your sales staff reads it. And encourage them to visit Entrepreneur.com. It could be the best sales pitch you ever make.

Here’s a juicy nugget of information: “About 68 percent of Americans spend more time with their computers than their spouses,” says a trend-spotter quoted in this Cincinatti.comarticle. It’s juicy because savvy retailers can turn that rather sad statistic into a marketing advantage.

Even though the article is mostly about grocery retailers, it points out how customers really cherish relationships with their favorite stores. “Only 27 percent of grocery shoppers are loyal to a store,” an IBM retailing pro says. “That leaves three of four shoppers up for grabs.”

One way to grab them, the trend-spotter says: “Reach them with text messages and you lock in a customer.” I think it’s a great idea. Tex-messaging your customers’ cell phones and sending regular emails helps cement their loyalty to you. Making them the first to know about new products or special sales is easy and effective. Both tactics should be a part of your retailing toolkit. And if their spouse gets jealous, all the better for you

The article also discusses the growing impact of devices such as handheld scanners that allow shoppers to check each item they put in their cart, and then do a self-checkout without using a cashier. “Consumer goods companies now have the ability to talk directly to a customer in the store and are less reliant on commercials on TV,” a Motorola marketing exec says. “Electronic marketing offers a real competitive advantage.”

While such in-store devices are just debuting now, you should check them out now. You don’t want to be left in the dust when your customers decide to be loyal to someone else.

I hope you had a great holiday season. But as we constantly hear from the experts, that season is when many retailers grab one-third of their annual revenues. Now that you’re on a roll, how are you going to keep from rolling downhill?

First of all, take some time for yourself, the article says. Relax, take a vacation, get your mind off work for a while. Then start focusing on how to keep the sales momentum going. Get more connected to your customers than ever, those experts say, because if you’re not doing it, someone else is.

In this challenging economy, you’ve got to do more than have great store layout and great merchandise. Make sure your staff also is well-rested and ready to tackle the new year. Watch you customers’ shopping patterns. Are more customers coming in during the lunch hour than in the evening? If so, modify the work schedule so you have more staff during the busy hours.

Customer loyalty is more important than ever. Use every trick in the book to maintain it. Use invitation-only sales, email newsletters, rewards programs, coupons and community sponsorships. “How a person feels after they shop at a store is extremely important,” a retail-turnover expert says. Make it your resolution to make everyone who shops at your place feel like a special guest. Don’t go overboard, but show your appreciation every way you can. You can be sure your competition is.

It’s hard to believe that we started this blog almost exactly one year ago! The retail landscape continues to evolve at Internet speed, even for strictly brick-and-mortar stores. I rarely find a retailer who hasn’t tapped into the web’s power, either for online ordering or to keep track of the competition.

Looking back at 2007, here are a few of the blog topics that stood out in my mind, some web-related, some not:

• Are You Hitting the Right Notes with Customers? January 25: Industry studies show that the right music keeps customers in stores longer and keeps them in spending mode…Not sure what kind of tunes your customers like? Ask them. Give them a quick music survey form to complete and drop in a box.

• Online Reviews are Nothing to be Afraid Of; February 15: As this article in Business Week points out, letting your customers honestly critique your business can be a good thing…In this age of online social networking, the article says, “…63% of shoppers are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and review.”

• Are You “Experienced”? March 28, 2007: Now I see in The New York Times (free registration may be required) that retail giants like Samsung are opening huge “experience” stores where they don’t sell a thing…I try to make every store our company designs an experience in itself. We do our best to get customers in your door. The rest is up to you.

• The Customer is Always Right, You Guys; May 10, 2007: Places like Vons, Cost Plus World Market and Coco’s are more helpful than before. They look you in the eye, listen to your questions and are eager to help. If these guys–I mean these staff members–can do it, so can your guys, gals and other valued employees.

I look forward to learning about more retail changes in 2008. There’s plenty of helpful advice online. I always encourage retailers to visit the competition as well as stores they admire. Analyze how they entice customers from the front windows to the back shelves, and then emulate them in your own style.

Even in this down economy, I’m still the optimist – I see nothing but good times ahead this year. We’ll soon announce some exciting news about how we can help you improve all aspects of your retail business. Whether you buy your fixtures from us is unimportant. We just want you to give you the tools for success. Because when you succeed, it benefits all of retail.

Happy New Year. You deserve it!

So we decided to create a bricks-and-mortar presence in San Diego.

Why now? Why at all? We’re doing well without a showroom. Why risk changing the mix?

Frankly, I simply felt like we needed to address how relevant we really are to our clients. Every single day, our customers ask, “Where can we see your fixtures?” and our salespeople have only been able to answer, “online.”

Since our business is retail design, we, more than most, realize how important touching and feeling a product is. Sure, consumers are getting more and more accustomed to buying online. But given the choice, I’d rather check pricing on the web and go to a “real” store to, as my grandmother used to say, “Feel da merchandise.” Further, we wanted to create a venue where our customers can immerse themselves in the retail experience. To that end, we decided to build a showroom that does just that. TRIO’s new showroom will showcase our retail display fixtures, house our design studio and libraries, and will provide an opportunity for our clients to interact with our packaging and POS specialists, all in one visit.

Additionally, we want to encourage an interactive retail community. One of my favorite stores in San Diego is Great News. This place started out as a small gift shop and over the past 20 years has evolved in to the greatest kitchen shop in town (and maybe the state). In addition to selling kitchen equipment, they hold cooking classes day and night in a 2,000-square-foot-classroom complete with large-screen TV monitors overhead. The place is packed with people having fun and feeding their passion.

We want to build a similar retail community. So we are setting up an auditorium in our new showroom that will be used for regular seminars and workshops on store design and planning. I’ll teach some of them and we’ll bring in various speakers to enlighten our clients on every aspect of the retail business. We’ll also have videos of many of the seminars available for you to watch in our showroom, plus a full library of books on retail design and planning to browse and purchase.

The store is in Sorrento Valley, a commercial area just north of San Diego. It’s close to the coast and just off interstate freeways 5 and 805. We’re in a semi-rural setting and we think our customers will appreciate how easy it is to get here, park, shop and learn at their leisure.

Over the next two months I’ll take you through our design and construction issues and review some of our challenges in the decision-making process. I hope you’ll be able to learn from our experience so that you’re better-equipped to handle your own move into retail.

Jeff Grant
TRIO
President

Next:
Finding the location. Where to locate, what kind of a building, the competition, rents, acting fast…

Visit our Showroom page here.

Independent computer-repair shops are usually pretty dreary places. Even with the Geek Squad campaign that elevates PC nerds to lovable heroes, I’ve found the smaller independent “screwdriver shops” to be pretty good at repairs and data recovery, but not at all good at store layout. Not that they necessarily need to be attractive, but it wouldn’t hurt, either.

I mention all this because I just visited a fairly new addition to this market, Data Doctors. Their new shop in Vista, California, stands out from the pack, starting with the signage. It’s bold and bright, and immediately tells you what kind of place this is. Inside the store are large, great-looking wall hangings that reinforce the message. One graphic is of a toaster popping up CD disks, with the headline “Is your data toast? We’ll recover it.”

The store is clean and inviting, with modern cabinetry and just a long counter for the geek on duty. Behind that are panels shielding the actual repair area, which we probably wouldn’t want to look at anyway, so long as the work gets done properly.

If anything, I think the place looks a little too sparse in front. No chairs, no magazines, nothing that makes a customer want to stick around. Now that in itself might be a good way to keep naggy non-geeks from lingering. But I think a few items of merchandise and chairs would lend a homier touch — and a reason to check out all the graphics. There were so many, I didn’t have time to check them all out.

Data Doctors is a small chain that seems to be growing fast. They didn’t pop up on the first page of Google searches for “computer repair” and “data recovery.” I hope they have smart marketers who will remedy that situation. I think Data Doctors is on track for success with a winning prescription of graphics and design. And with a little more self-medication, they might give the Geek Squad a run for their money.