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As the summer season winds down and the back-to-school season starts, many retail organizations face one of the most pivotal times of the year. Fall signals the countdown to Q4, a period that can make or break annual sales targets.
It’s a busy and important time. Store and field operations, HR, talent selection and development, merchant, and marketing teams are all laser focused right now on preparing for a profitable and successful fall and holiday season. That encompasses mission-critical tasks like talent sourcing (and then onboarding, everboarding, and development), finalizing seasonal and core product deliveries on key merchandise assortments, and ensuring marketing calendars and promotions are timely and competitive in the marketplace.
It may still be hot outside where you are, but for most retailers, vacation season is over. It is all hands on deck to ensure we have the schedules maximized to service a higher flow of in-person and online customer needs while balancing the increased amount of freight coming in the back door. Let’s talk about what you can do to optimize this transition and ensure your organization is well-positioned for the make-or-break season that’s on the horizon.
Reinforce the Foundation of Your Success: People
Dan Nowlin, a former boss of mine who served as SVP of Store Operations at Sunglass Hut International, likes to say, “Little things don’t mean much; they mean everything.” Dan’s advice and nuggets of wisdom resonate with me often when I think about what we do at MOHR Retail.
We pride ourselves as a retail-specific talent development company that develops the interpersonal skills that drive results. Here’s what that really means: Whether you’re talking about leadership, negotiation, sales, or service skills, retail is a people business. You can’t get the results you desire without talented, engaged, and supported people. And your people’s most important role? It really comes down to how they impact other people.
Yes, the right product is important, but the most pivotal aspect of the business is the role leaders and influencers play in their interactions every day with other people — customers, vendors, internal customers, colleagues, and team members. Especially in today’s retail environment, people are the very foundation of your success.
That brings me to some of those “little things” I learned from Dan, little things that make a big difference. As we head into the whirlwind of this hectic, demanding, and all-important season, we’re taking a moment out to highlight a few areas that will help you and your entire team stay focused and aligned around the interpersonal foundation of your success.
Retail-Specific Support for a Successful Holiday Season
We are busy August through October at MOHR Retail with onsite training implementations as our retail clients prepare their teams for the busy fourth quarter. Our last two public leadership development sessions for 2024 are on deck, beginning in September and October, before the holiday season escalates.
These sessions are a great opportunity for a diverse group of retailers to engage and network with each other while learning and sharing experiences. Many of our established clients use them after a larger implementation to get one or more new leader hires up to speed and ensure a common language and consistency with leadership strategies and skills. These sessions are also a great way to experience the MOHR Retail curriculum and learning design before a full rollout to test the content and gain reactions from the targeted leadership teams.
We want to help you have a successful and profitable holiday season and equip your team with the people-to-people skills they need to drive business results all year long. These sessions are an excellent opportunity to gear up your leaders for the critical months ahead. Scroll down for registration links.
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