How the Right Questions Lead to Growth in Retail
Remember what Albert Einstein said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper questions to ask, for once I know the proper question, I can solve the problem in less than five minutes”
Asking the right questions is like wielding a powerful tool that can unlock solutions and will deliver actions and decisions that drive positive change.
Framing
In general, framing refers to the way something is presented, interpreted, or perceived by others. Framing can influence how people think, feel, and act about various topics or issues.
Framing allows you to clarify the problem or opportunity you are seeking to solve.
For example, instead of asking why business is slow, ask what was the conversion rate of the customers who came in, and what was our average sale per customer?
You can not solve a problem that does not include data. It is all subjective, and therefore not solvable.
Subjectivity lives in the realm of excuses and data driven questions live in the realm of reasons.
Another way to look at this is to ask…
What are we doing to create traffic?
If you want to change an outcome, then change the way you are framing the issue so it can be solved.
Then you can start to seek solutions. I had a retailer that told me if her staff made 10 calls to customers a day, they would do $2,500 to $3,000 that day if they doubled the calls and then the sales also doubled to around $5,000 to $6,000. This was 25 years ago, today the same activity may include calls and texts, or just texts.
There are other activities like planning activities with invitations, so you know better how to prepare. A simple idea is to put a message board or balloons in front of your store. By the way, the message board can have balloons and does not need to necessarily promote a sale.
Problems and opportunities get solved by taking the context and then framing it in a way the issue can be successfully solved. I think good framing of an issue has other benefits as it can create accountability. For example, if the solution to increase traffic was to have each sales person send out 15 texts, then when the question about traffic is asked, we can look at the data.
How many texts were sent, analyze the content, what time did we send them, how many responses did we get? From this information you know you have a base to learn in order to adapt and change for better results.
Good problem solving requires good root cause identification. Knowing the root cause is what leads to discovering solutions. Getting to the root cause is accomplished by framing the right questions.
Albert Einstein also said doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity. If your results are not changing, a great place to start is to think about the questions you are asking.
Onwards and Upwards,
Marc
