71. Each morning, walk through your store and tidy up—pull merchandise forward on shelves, racks, and hooks; fill in holes in your inventory; adjust all products so their labels are facing forward; and straighten your stacks.
72. Install sensors on interior lights to save energy in unoccupied spaces. Take it a step further by replacing your current bulbs with ones that use less energy.
73. Stand in the doorway of your store and take notes on what you see when you survey the retail space. If you’re confused or displeased, there’s a good chance that the customers who walk through your door are, too.
74. Customers read shelves like they read their books—left to right. Run different types of the same product vertically, not horizontally, so customers don’t wear themselves out reading a row of pliers or nails.
75. Keep your end caps fresh. Swapping new feature items in and out of this valuable real estate each month signals to your customers that your store is competitive and up to speed with the latest building product trends. Permanent end caps, industry experts say, belong at the back of aisles.
Where Operations Meets Sales
76. Keep track of fires in your neighborhood. Once the dust settles after a fire, get in touch with the owner to find out plans for the house or business. He or she will need materials if the plan is to rebuild.
77. Countertop edges with names like “half bullnose” are often difficult for non-pro customers to picture. Build a lazy Susan whose edges advertise your most popular designs and display it in your showroom or near your retail counter.
78. Draw up a calling tree that your reps can use to connect with jobsite foremen and builders in your area each morning to limit the number of last-minute delivery requests throughout the day without losing business.
79. Regularly review your customer list to check whether any are changing their practices. Are your builders becoming remodelers? Are remodeling customers honing their focus or expanding into framing work? What you know helps your team sell.
80. Reward your reps. Give OSRs a bonus if credit returns are kept below 0.4% of sales. If returns go over, take a small sum out of your reps’ pay.
