What if I told you that there was a group of really smart people available to you who could, after reviewing your current efforts, increase your revenues, bring in new customers, raise your conve
rsion rate, and position your brand more powerfully. Maybe even turn your whole business around.
Believe it or not, if you are like 95% of retailers, you would say “no thanks!” and continue doing things the way you’ve always done them.
That’s not an insult. That is reality. It’s human nature. We tend to be turned off by offers that sound “too good to be true” and we also tend to politely turn down outside advice on how we might do our jobs better.
But every once in a while, for whatever reasons, we find ourselves in a place where we are ready. Ready to open our minds to making some improvements. Ready to take the chance that maybe we really could be doing something better, or making more money, or bringing in new customers who we thought didn’t exist.
That five-percent who don’t say “no thanks” typically have some similar issues that they’re grappling with – maybe you recognize some of these tell-tale signs:
• You’ve reached a plateau. Sales have been looking good over the past couple years, the line on the graph keeps going up and to the right, and then suddenly, it’s flattened out. What’s going on?
• Your creative isn’t evolving. You’re running out of ideas on how to present your products -- in your catalogs, on the web, in emails. Maybe your in-house creative team lacks fresh ideas; they’re stuck in a rut. What can you do to freshen things up?
• Your process and schedule seem out of whack. Things are taking longer than they seem like they should. Your creative team, photographers, stylists, copywriters, and production vendors are like ships passing in the night. How do you get back on track and get everyone coordinated?
• Competitors’ catalogs look better than yours. So frustrating. Why can’t ours look like that? What are they doing that’s making their catalog so much more appealing? Sometimes the answers aren’t obvious.
• The “Sleep Aids” aisle at CVS is calling your name. You’re losing sleep over the direction that your business is headed. You’re feeling depressed about what the future looks like. You’ve made some great changes, tried some innovative ideas, done a good amount of research, but things still could be better.
Do you see yourself in any of these descriptions? If so, what will it take to make that call or send that email to get your business back on track? You know there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but you need a push in the right direction.
Many businesses have experienced this same trajectory; they’ve hit the plateaus, they’ve felt a let-down when they see their newest catalog looking just like the last one, and the one before that, and the one before that… They’ve cursed their competitors for doing it better.
And they’ve asked us to do a Best Practice Review.
One of the foundations of CohereOne’s work is the Best Practice Review. Typically it’s a one-day sit-down meeting during which we review what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been doing it, what your goals are, and how you can get on the road to reaching them.
We offer Best Practice Reviews focusing on all aspects of your business. My personal focus is on creative, branding, process, and production, but we can also look at marketing, circulation, lists and data, ecommerce, email marketing, and digital strategy.
What would it take for you to bring in an incomparable team of catalog and ecommerce executives to help you bump your business up to the next level? If you’re ready, we’re ready too.
Comments