The Fundamentals: Retailing is not Football
I have spent much of the last several years meeting with electronics retail professionals who are doing everything they can to address the challenges of a uniquely volatile marketplace. Many of these salespeople, installers, managers and business leaders tell me that their first step in meeting the challenge is “getting back to basics” or “executing the fundamentals”; by which they usually mean refocusing on the sales, service, and marketing skills that have for years made up the “blocking and tackling” of retail success.
That is not bad strategy, but there is a problem. Specialty retailing is not football.
It is not that focusing on fundamentals is a bad thing. The problem is that our game has changed, and many of us are no longer exactly sure what “fundamentals” now means.
One man who truly understood fundamentals was legendary Packer’s coach Vince Lombardi. This icon of winning through fundamentals began every year’s training camp not with blocking and tackling drills, but with a speech that always began: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
Lombardi knew that before beginning the hard work of perfecting individual skills he must make certain that every member of the team and coaching staff were in total alignment on the rules of the game, and the Packer's strategy. He knew that achieving championship level success would depend not only on individual achievements, but on committing every one of his star achievers to their role in a single game plan.
Championship level performance may be required just to survive in today’s markets. That means focusing our teams on a common purpose is crucial. The problem is our business is not football; it’s more challenging than that. The fact is, every member of the Packer’s championship teams had played football since they were kids, and the rules of football do not change much.
This is not true of the consumer electronics business. In the last decade our industry, its players, and what each of us must do to succeed has radically changed. The specialist’s relationships with products, vendors, and customers has changed dramatically; offering new challenges as well as new opportunities for success.
For decades CE specialists were the only place to see the most exciting new products. Today you are more likely to see cool products introduced at Amazon.com or the AT&T store. Vendors who partnered with specialists by offering exclusive value-added models and the training to support them are becoming rare. Customers who looked to specialty retailers as the only source of accurate product information have many more places to learn and far more places to buy.
Countering these harsh new realities are equally bright opportunities. These new challenges to regional CE retailers comes at a time when our products are playing a larger role in our customer’s lives than ever before. With each new technological advance come challenges in integrating products with each other, with our homes, and with our lifestyles. These changes offer opportunities for specialists who can successfully transform their relationships with customers from product expert and vendor, to solution partners. Even in this tough market there are dealers who are taking advantage of emerging opportunities and positioning themselves for growth and success.
Just as there is no single best football game plan, there is no single best strategy for the CE specialist. What is certain is that few of us will succeed in this new environment just by doing what we have done in the past harder and better.
What can every CE specialists do to meet these challenges?
First, each of us must look deeper than blocking and tackling skills to re-examine the emerging NEW fundamentals of the game and our company’s relationship to it. This re-examination must start at the top by asking ourselves some tough questions. How has our business strategy changed to meet new realities? Do our products, our marketing, our facilities, our people and their skills support this change?
Second, leaders must systematically communicate the new game plan to everyone on the team and commit them to their part. In many cases this will mean team members must accept new responsibilities and learn new skills. In all cases it will mean understanding their roles in the big picture; and committing to assuring the team’s success, not just their own. At Consumer Electronics University we call this team commitment to new realities with vendors, customers and each other “Fierce Collaboration”.
Finally, everyone on our teams must have the courage to hold ourselves and each other accountable to succeeding in this new reality. Business leaders and managers must have the patience and empathy to understand that change is difficult and takes time. But we must also have the back-bone to make the hard decisions necessary for success of our team as a whole.
The good news is that it is in tough times that we are most able to implement fundamental change in our organizations. Our best people not only accept new responsibilities, they will demand them from us. Our task as leaders is to provide the vision and to support the new skills they need to succeed.
I have spent much of the last several years meeting with electronics retail professionals who are doing everything they can to address the challenges of a uniquely volatile marketplace. Many of these salespeople, installers, managers and business leaders tell me that their first step in meeting the challenge is “getting back to basics” or “executing the fundamentals”; by which they usually mean refocusing on the sales, service, and marketing skills that have for years made up the “blocking and tackling” of retail success.
That is not bad strategy, but there is a problem. Specialty retailing is not football.
It is not that focusing on fundamentals is a bad thing. The problem is that our game has changed, and many of us are no longer exactly sure what “fundamentals” now means.
One man who truly understood fundamentals was legendary Packer’s coach Vince Lombardi. This icon of winning through fundamentals began every year’s training camp not with blocking and tackling drills, but with a speech that always began: “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
Lombardi knew that before beginning the hard work of perfecting individual skills he must make certain that every member of the team and coaching staff were in total alignment on the rules of the game, and the Packer's strategy. He knew that achieving championship level success would depend not only on individual achievements, but on committing every one of his star achievers to their role in a single game plan.
Championship level performance may be required just to survive in today’s markets. That means focusing our teams on a common purpose is crucial. The problem is our business is not football; it’s more challenging than that. The fact is, every member of the Packer’s championship teams had played football since they were kids, and the rules of football do not change much.
This is not true of the consumer electronics business. In the last decade our industry, its players, and what each of us must do to succeed has radically changed. The specialist’s relationships with products, vendors, and customers has changed dramatically; offering new challenges as well as new opportunities for success.
For decades CE specialists were the only place to see the most exciting new products. Today you are more likely to see cool products introduced at Amazon.com or the AT&T store. Vendors who partnered with specialists by offering exclusive value-added models and the training to support them are becoming rare. Customers who looked to specialty retailers as the only source of accurate product information have many more places to learn and far more places to buy.
Countering these harsh new realities are equally bright opportunities. These new challenges to regional CE retailers comes at a time when our products are playing a larger role in our customer’s lives than ever before. With each new technological advance come challenges in integrating products with each other, with our homes, and with our lifestyles. These changes offer opportunities for specialists who can successfully transform their relationships with customers from product expert and vendor, to solution partners. Even in this tough market there are dealers who are taking advantage of emerging opportunities and positioning themselves for growth and success.
Just as there is no single best football game plan, there is no single best strategy for the CE specialist. What is certain is that few of us will succeed in this new environment just by doing what we have done in the past harder and better.
What can every CE specialists do to meet these challenges?
First, each of us must look deeper than blocking and tackling skills to re-examine the emerging NEW fundamentals of the game and our company’s relationship to it. This re-examination must start at the top by asking ourselves some tough questions. How has our business strategy changed to meet new realities? Do our products, our marketing, our facilities, our people and their skills support this change?
Second, leaders must systematically communicate the new game plan to everyone on the team and commit them to their part. In many cases this will mean team members must accept new responsibilities and learn new skills. In all cases it will mean understanding their roles in the big picture; and committing to assuring the team’s success, not just their own. At Consumer Electronics University we call this team commitment to new realities with vendors, customers and each other “Fierce Collaboration”.
Finally, everyone on our teams must have the courage to hold ourselves and each other accountable to succeeding in this new reality. Business leaders and managers must have the patience and empathy to understand that change is difficult and takes time. But we must also have the back-bone to make the hard decisions necessary for success of our team as a whole.
The good news is that it is in tough times that we are most able to implement fundamental change in our organizations. Our best people not only accept new responsibilities, they will demand them from us. Our task as leaders is to provide the vision and to support the new skills they need to succeed.