When it comes to technology solutions for your business it is easy to get carried away with the latest-and-greatest gadgets and solutions. Everyone wants to have the latest shiny thing.  In larger organizations, managing technology can become burdensome due to competing and duplicative technology requests. Left unfettered, the company technology platform can resemble a “spaghetti bowl” over time.  Often is the case, new technology requests are submitted without any business case to support their investment.

I am a big proponent of having non-technology business leaders play an active role in the determination of the technology solutions utilized at an organization.  While it is critical to include an IT perspective from a technical interface standpoint, having non-IT personnel drive technology solutions often lead to decisions based on the business needs of the organization.  As such, any technology request would require a business plan to support the investment.

Form A Technology Committee: This is the start of your technology approval process.  Create a technology committee that represents various personnel from cross-functional departments.  Consider selecting an operations, marketing, accounting, technology and finance member to this team.  This committee is charged with creating the process for submitting technology solution requests for the organization as well as providing the prioritization and ultimately, approval of the requests.

Develop A Submittal Process: Inherent in a well-thought through technology strategy for an organization is developing a process for the submission of ideas.  Following the “garbage-in, garbage-out” mindset, developing a detailed process for submission will help weed out the “nice to haves” and focus the committee on real, tangible solutions.  This process should not only include the technology solution identified, but as importantly, the business case for its justification. For approved projects in the queue, a monthly communication should be sent to the organization recapping the activity of the committee.

Focus Your Projects: A technology committee creates focus throughout the organization.  While it would be great to have every new iteration of technology that gets released, that is impractical and costly.  The committee can help with providing a high-level perspective on the entire enterprise since it is considering all requests.  All to often, departmental requests have a tendency to be created in a silo, with only the impact on that department considered.

Need To Have Vs. Nice To Have: This is a biggie.  It is easy to feel that an Iphone 3 becomes obsolete as soon as the Iphone 4 is released, but when the technology is run by the committee, the “nice to haves” usually fail due to a lack of business case.  The committee allows the organization to run with an unbiased interference with respect to technology.  The committee is charged with improving ROI on technology solutions and since it is comprised cross-departmentally, there should be no “pet” projects.

One Project, Big Picture: I have headed a technology committee in the past and the greatest “aha” moment for me was the amount of similar technology solutions that were being presented from different departments.  Had all of these requests been accepted, the organization would have overspent IT dollars as well as created duplicative solutions to the same issues. The committee allows for its members to “rise above” the fray of the organization and view the technology requests in the big picture.  The committee’s goal was to ensure that any approved request was accretive to the overall company.

Create A Business Case: This is the best way to clear out the clutter. Ask employees what they need from a technology solution and the committee will be inundated with ideas.  Ask them to submit in a business case (cost justification for the investment) along with their solution and ideas are significantly reduced.  The business case for a technology solution not only helps in identifying whether the investment is worth it, but also forces the author to think about how this solution interfaces within the existing platform.

Post Analysis: Lastly, carefully measuring the business case proforma against the actual cost/return of the projects not only holds the submitter responsible, but also the committee.  The goal with the post analysis isn’t to “call people out”, but rather provide an unbiased financial review of the project. Without this type of post analysis measurement to hold this team accountable, the committee eventually will serve no purpose.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

Fire. Aim. Ready.  If this is your communications plan…..you may want to read on.

Amazingly, many companies do not think about communications – both internally and externally – until it is a necessity.  A crisis occurs, a reaction follows and in many cases, they do not necessarily put the best foot forward.  A strategic communications plan should be a part of your overall business plan and can provide the company clarity that is required in both good times and bad.  Developing the process for delivering your communications on an ongoing basis is critical in order to maintain a consistent message as well as a continuous forum from which to communicate.

Even small companies (less than 10 employees) can have an effective communications strategy that enables them to articulate company news efficiently.  In the case of Gray Cat, my website acts as the key repository of “everything Gray Cat” and all news information emanates to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.  This helps organize information and helps to create a cohesive communications strategy – even for a small company.

Once you have the basic distribution structure in place, developing the content is the next critical task.  Rather than just  develop news “willy-nilly”, ensure that a well-thought through strategy is in place regarding content development. Timing and sequencing of topics are critical to having your audience “stay with you”.  There will still be ample opportunities to infuse “new” content as it is warranted – these items are just icing on the cake.  Let’s take a look at the core elements of an overall strategic communications plan:

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Media: The first step is getting over the intimidation with the media. There sure not be any fear in dealing with the media – they have a job to do and often are looking for news.  Help them!  Next, develop a list of all key media contacts and get their email address. Be proactive with your contacts in order to create a relationship in advance.  In addition, target specific industries that would be beneficial for your business. Over time, your goal should be to enhance your company image through communications as this helps soften distressing news and provides accessibility for interviews.  Lastly, develop reasons for meeting the media and build those relationships.

Create News Releases: Once you have established your media contact list, begin to develop news content.  Keep in mind that news information may have to be tailored for each of your audiences, but the core message should stay the same. Determine what elements are critical and conclude your news release with a consistent “boilerplate” that provides a quick paragraph on your company. Lastly, determine how the news release will be communicated and by whom.

Employees And Stakeholders: Another set of audiences to include within your strategic communications, would be both employees and/or stakeholders. Keeping your internal teams informed is vital in order to permeate your communications throughout your entire organization. There is nothing worse than having misinformed employees and stakeholders attempting to communicate your vision.

Communicate To Key Vendors: Oft-overlooked is proactively communicating to your vendors. Many company owners feel compelled to keep vendors in the dark in order to keep them at arms length.  I have always had the philosophy that a vendor works better on your behalf if they understand how their role fits in your overall communication strategy. The more they are informed, the better decisions they can make to enhance their support of your brand.

Internet/Intranet Media Kit: In years past, having a hard copy media kit – press releases, biographies of senior management, news items, etc. – was an excellent way of putting your company in a nice, neat “package”. Today, websites can act as the media kit and allow for flexibility in real time to post updates on your company. In addition, your website expands your reach far more effectively than hard-copy media kits. Save the dough and go electronic.

Media Policy Handbook: Lastly, if more than one person manages your communications or if you simply just want to have greater structure within your organization, consider developing a media policy handbook. This guide can come in handy in order to develop consistency in dealing with the media, particularly if there is a crisis. Crisis management tests the mettle of any organization and “winging” how the company manages a crisis only exacerbates the situation.

Creating and managing a strategic communications plan requires upfront work. Once in place, communicating a consistent message will not only be effortless, but highly productive.  The media, employees, stakeholders and vendors will all be singing from the same songbook, which ultimately translates into your customers being well-informed about your company and brand.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

As I enter the second half of my life [sic], I look back at the first 50 years with a great sense of pride and exuberance.  I have been blessed with the opportunities afforded me – both personally and in business – have met tremendous high-quality people along the way and have been humbled by the relationships that I have fostered.  In addition, I have had the good fortune of spending some 20 years with leading companies before transcending into owning Gray Cat Enterprises for the last 8 years.  I certainly hope that my next 50 years will be as invigorating.

Last week, I had an opportunity to present to the National Honor Society at my son’s high school.  I was asked to present on my business background and what I have learned throughout my career.  In preparing my speech, I had the chance to reflect on a number of items that I have “learned” and how I fortunate my career truly has been.  Here are a few snippets from that presentation:

Life Is Not Fair, But You Own It: You win some, you lose some….sometimes you are just downright screwed.  It happens and there is no way to avoid it entirely – but you can minimize it.  Your option is to let fate deal your hand or always be prepared for what may forsake you.  I have always believed that if I had answers to issues in advance of them propagating, I stood a chance to be able to overcome the onslaught.  You may not be able to withstand everything thrown at you, but in most cases, you can protect against the downside.

You Have To Start At The Bottom: Many of today’s college grads are looking for the mid-manager to senior-level jobs on day one.  That expectation in today’s job market, will go unfulfilled.  While I am sure there are some insanely talented grads out there, everyone starts at the bottom.  The sooner you accept that premise, the faster you can start your career climb.  Besides, you can learn anything in any position, it is you that decides if you are willing to be coachable.

Grab All The Responsibility You Can: Break outside of your comfort zone if you wish to exceed your expectations. I owe a debt of gratitude to my two bosses that I had at Clark Retail Enterprises for what I became in my career.  I was a “marketing guy” when I arrived at Clark and through their consistent confidence in my abilities, they expanded my business acumen — in both breadth and depth — to include real estate, IT, capital and facilities management. Many of the projects I have been involved with at Gray Cat, incorporate some or all of these disciplines.

Network With People: Thankfully, LinkedIn was invented!  I have always been a strong connector and networker but prior to LinkedIn, every contact was tracked manually!  Now with a network north of 13 million on LinkedIn (2,100 1st degree contacts) and a database of 7,500 contacts in my iPhone, I feel confident that I am well informed and connected.  For the students at the high school, this fell into the “it’s not what you know, it’s who know” camp.

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Abyss: Much like grabbing all of the responsibility you can, getting past the “fear factor” is the key to taking on and overcoming immense challenges as they are presented.  Over the years, the fear of the “abyss” has dwindled and in fact, has made me seek greater and greater challenges.  Desire to succeed is the key ingredient to any successful career.

Everyone Will Have A Lousy Boss: Or bosses.  It is the way of the world.  Navigating around or with a lousy boss is not an easy task.  Recognizing that everyone has faced this scenario as well, should make the interaction less intrusive.  Take a deep breath, attempt to seek common ground and hope for the best — or a transfer!

You Will Lose One Of Your Jobs:  Layoffs, bankruptcies, acquisitions, mistakes, downsizing, relocations and the list goes on.  So many “out of your control” factors can determine whether you keep your job or not.  Oh yeah, and so does your own performance.  In today’s world, losing your job is the norm – just ask the people that are out of work. As of January, 2012, the United States is 15.2 million jobs away from full employment (defined as the employment conditions that existed at the peak of the Clinton boom, in April 2000).  That is a lot of “out of work” companions.

Develop An Attitude To Persevere: Your career is yours – own it.  No matter what the circumstances, it comes down to you being the “CEO” of your career.  Accept that mantra and you will persevere.  Your career is a long-steady run – enjoy the work, the sweat and above all, the significant relationships that are built over the years.

Here’s to the next 50 years!

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

I can’t believe it has been 20 years!

Seems like just yesterday that we met, but when John walked into the Wichita Eagle, I knew he would be a challenging client!  You see, I was the marketing consultant for the Wichita Eagle newspaper and was assigned the Little Caesars account.  At the time, the seven locations in Wichita were owned by a franchisee but we had heard that the company just re-purchased the stores.  I was supposed to meet the Corporate National Marketing Director at Little Caesars – John Matthews.  Corporate meant challenges!

What I thought was going to be my worst nightmare, turned out to be a 20-year friendship.  Along the way, I have learned tremendous marketing insights from him and use them in my current role.  John has a unique ability to think about retail with a strategic direction in mind, yet rolls up his sleeves and makes his ideas come to life.  In fact, I used his recent article on suggestive sales for my own employee training seminar I held last fall.  I have found that more than half the challenge with retail marketing is execution and his ideas cut to the chase! In a word, John is practical!

My garden centers attract a large customer base – with wide ranges of demographic attributes.  The “one-stop fits all” marketing approach simply will not do – we have to delineate our customer base into core categories then market specifically to those sects.  Many of the local store marketing tactics he professes enable us to effectively target and reach specific customer demos in a cost-effective manner.  Our recent onsite Christmas event was a perfect example of attracting a core customer faction and ensuring that our targeted audience was welcomed with the appropriate assortment of garden products.  Throw in an Elvis “Santa” and THAT’s an event!

While I was gathering my notes for this column, I looked at Gray Cat’s website and ran across this testimonial on local store marketing that pretty much sums it up:

“Thank you for delivering your Local Store Marketing speech to my company and our franchisees at our National Convention.  I thought I would share the results of my LSM efforts at my own personal store.  From September through December we were able to increase the sales at my store by 58% over the previous year simply by adding a Local Store Marketing person 10 hours a week and implementing a number of ideas that you shared with us at the Convention!  Thanks again – I am confident that many of my franchisees are achieving similar results.” 

– One Happy CEO

It is all about execution and results.  It’s not just the LSM ideas that Gray Cat has, it is the practical, step-by-step procedures to execute them that makes all the difference.  His LSM manual is written for an operator, not a marketing person.  It is designed to help people that know nothing about marketing, actually implement low-cost ideas for their stores.  Though I have multiple locations that I am responsible for, I do not have endless budgets – I need to scrape and claw like everyone else.  So, working in some of these LSM ideas into our mix, helps make our dollars go further.

Over the years, I have run across many business associates and often my relationship with them spans the duration that we engage in business. With John, it has been a pleasant surprise that our relationship has transcended into a lifetime friendship. Not to mention that I get to steal all of his great ideas too!

*****************************************************************************************

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

One of the most successful local store marketing (LSM) tactics to build into your daily operations is a sampling strategy for your products.  If your retail establishment is foodservice, your customers will want to taste the product.  The goal for your retail store is to market your unique product offering by taking it to your best prospects.  Day in and day out, your local business community should be reminded that the fantastic products you offer are less than a few blocks away.  By investing less than an hour per day, you can solidify your brand in the minds of your core customers.

Flyers and coupons only go so far–customers want to know if your product will work for them.  Finding an ideal product that you can use for your store to sample to potential customers may be the difference whether you attract them to your store or not.  This is particularly the case if your products are food.  Tasting your products is a critical deciding factor more so than a coupon.  Nonetheless, even if you are not in the food business, you need to find a unique product that you can sample.  If you have established group sales programs, participate in fundraisers, and get involved in sports sponsorships, all of these relationships should involve product samples.  Developing a sampling strategy for your unique products helps elevate your store to the next level in the eyes of potential customers and is a terrific way to win them over.

Every morning, create 20 product samples.  Wrap each sample with a flyer for your store and based on a predetermined distribution route (map out your trade area), send a clean-cut and articulate employee to local businesses handing out samples/flyers to employees.  Tout the product in addition to delivery services, if applicable. In the case of food, it is an extremely rare occasion that will someone will turn down food – so this gives you an inviting door opener to any establishment. In addition, you can leave a slew of menus for all to use when the samples are depleted.

Identify Your Key Proprietary Product: Pick out your product “winner” and bring it to life!  Sample a product that not only represents your brand but delineates your brand from competition. A product sampling strategy creates a purchasing routine for your customers and helps undermine even the biggest advertising budgets of your competitors.  Ensure that you leave behind a bounce-back coupon or offer to drive customers to your store.  This is the perfect LSM strategy for restaurants.

Systematically Map And Plan Your Sampling: Map out your trade area in quadrants—dividing it into 4 sections–and post the week’s sampling territory on the wall.  That way, everyone knows precisely where the sampling will take place and enables you to track sales from the respective quadrant for the week.  Once all of the quadrants have been provided samples, have your employees repeat the process.  

Best Foot Forward: When executing a product sampling strategy, it is crucial that you select employees who best represent your store, are clean-cut, and well-dressed in uniforms (if applicable).  Have them work their way through your three-mile trade area over six weeks until they hit all of the local businesses.  In addition, it is essential that you provide your employees strong direction, ensure quality representation of your products and that you monitor sales.

Provide Direction And Monitor: Dividing your trade area into quarters, you should plan on making your way through the entire territory in one month to six weeks.  Once complete, repeat the process.  Every sample should be handed out and a business card gathered–if sampling to a company–to verify that samples were delivered. Also, be sure to add all business cards into your customer database.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat:  Once completed, do it again!

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

Creating and investing as a co-op brings all stores in a geographic area together to help deliver common brand benefits as well as increasing top-of-mind awareness.  Over time, this can lead the entire organization to greater market share for the brand.  Combined with the obvious buying power that co-ops enjoy through lower cost-per-thousand investments, co-ops can position the stores to achieve greater sales potential.

The benefits of co-ops go even further and create a system in place to:

DMA Definition: Nielsen television-based DMA’s are determined by counties and follow the general guidelines that if more than 50% of the population in that county receives their television signal from one market versus another market, that county is in the majority market DMA.  Fringe counties often argue that they do not receive the same coverage as core counties, but nonetheless they still receive the majority.  In addition, a DMA is determined to form a co-op if  two or more franchised stores begin pooling monies for collective advertising.

Co-Op Scope and Quorum: Once the co-op is formed, certain guidelines need to be established in order to maintain the integrity of the co-op and its members.  These guidelines prevent a small group of members from getting together over coffee and determining how to spend co-op funds on behalf of the entire co-op.  Quorum guidelines are established in order to prevent such events from occurring.  With a franchise organization, stores usually become eligible to vote on co-op issues only after their store becomes operational – so they have some “skin in the game”.  In order to facilitate a quorum where votes may be cast, a minimum of 50% of the stores and 50% of the members need to be present in order to form a quorum.  In addition, each of these present members may carry additional member votes by proxy.

Co-Op Member Contributions: Co-ops are designed to locally enhance any and all plans that may be in place at a national level.  Co-op contributions and purchasing are accretive to those national plans and when vertically integrated with the national message, can help deliver greater results.  Most franchise organizations set two levels of contributions based on a percentage of sales:  a) national ad fund contribution; b) local marketing co-op media fund. The national contribution levels are usually contractually obligated per the franchise agreement with minimum levels stated for co-ops.

Voting Rights: Voting rights should be determined in advance of the co-op being formed.  Consideration should be made to determining the best route for a democratic resolution.  I have been a part of many co-op’s and have seen a wild assortment of voting structures within the co-op.  The best one that protects both the small and large franchise owner is the “One Store, One Vote Combined with 2/3rds Majority Franchise Owners”.  This ensures that a large franchisee (multiple stores) can’t run amok within the co-op, yet protects them since they have the most at stake. Co-ops should be able to increase members contributions through this voting method and only franchisees that are current in their financial obligations to the co-op, shall be eligible to vote.

Co-Op Member Protection: Additional provisions should be determined as well – all designed to protect the members of the co-op.  For instance, if a franchisee is selling their store, they should still be required to contribute up to the day of closing.  In addition, since they are leaving the system, yet their store isn’t, receiving credits for their previous contributions should not be allowed.  Once a contribution is made, it stays with the co-op.  Lastly, all co-op’s should establish how they plan to deal with franchisees that become delinquent in their co-op contributions, yet still gain the benefits of advertising.

Forming a co-op is a significant event in a company history – it states that it has arrived.  Co-op’s assist in growing the brand exponentially, adding topspin to the overall brand message of the company.  If executed properly, co-ops are a terrific way to increase customer recognition of the brand and foster an environment where market share and sales increase significantly.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

If you get in a car in Chicago with the intent of driving to Los Angeles, the GPS rarely plots the California portion of the map while you are in your driveway. Rather, the GPS methodically and sequentially plots each road to take in order to reach the desired location.  Project management follows the same logic of a series of key tasks or steps that have to be completed in a systematic process in order to meet the desired outcome.  Traveling to Los Angeles from Chicago can only happen if the tasks of traveling through the Midwest and the Rockies are met first.

This type of thinking seems elusive when it comes to business project management.  Ask someone to “map” out the many steps required to achieve a desired result of managing a project and many times you get resistance as in “overkill” or simply a “deer in the headlights” look.  Yet, the dollars at stake as well as the operational disruption to the organization seem secondary to the tedious task of mapping the process in advance.  No one would jump in a car and start driving without a map nor should they start a project without a plan.

Lacking a plan almost assuredly locks in failure as much as putting the wrong project manager in place.  There is a specific skill set that is required from project managers that enables them to manage to an on-time, on-budget conclusion.  It is critical for the organization to identify those key people to lead projects or as an alternative, outsource to industry experts.

Below highlights the key components of project management:

On-Time, On-Budget: This should be the mantra of every project manager.  There should be nothing more fundamental in the mind of the project manager than completing the project on-time and on-budget.  All too often, project managers view their projects in a vacuum but rarely are these tasks within an organization, mutually exclusive.  Failing to comply with an on-time, on-budget philosophy not only causes the project at hand to fail, but risks the failure of other reliant projects.

Know End Game: Determine in advance, what a successful project conclusion looks like.  The most successful projects have a clear vision in mind from the onset.  Poorly managed projects fall victim to duplicative resource allocation and cost overruns known as ”capital creep”.  Capital creep can be crippling to an organization since it not only “sucks away” future dollars to be invested back into the company, but layers on added expense that diminishes the overall return of the project.

Resource Management: Let the fighting begin!  Project management is all about organizing systems and processes in a sequential fashion in order to efficiently complete the task at hand.  Implicit in that mindset are identifying key resources that are necessary to knock out the work. The challenge is, resources are finite and competent people are always in demand.  There can be some intense competition for solid resources – overallocation of their time is an ongoing concern.

Practice “War Gaming”: Imagine if you could anticipate issues in advance of them happening – that is what “war gaming” is.  Play out possible scenarios and anticipate “broken pipes” in advance of them actually happening. Scheduling a resource for a task to be completed only to find out that they are going on vacation is an avoidable “broken pipe”.  By lying out as many steps as you can against a time line, a project manager should be able to recognize obvious “hiccups” to the process in advance and devise alternative solutions.

Be Realistic: Rome was not built in a day and your project will not be either.  Setting realistic goals not only for the project but especially for the approving committee, is paramount to managing expectations.  The project cannot be built for free nor can it be completed in an afternoon.  Realistic goals and time tables need to be continually communicated and are crucial to the overall perception of the project.  It is vital to manage the expectations all along the way.

Daily Business Impact: The challenge managing new projects for an organization is that they still have a day-to-day business to run. Rarely do they have an idle body to be able to manage a project exclusively.  Prudent organizations are the ones that identify this in advance and either outsource the management of the project or re-adjust internal teams to minimize disruptions to daily operations.  Organizations that fail to recognize this impact will not only see their project fall short of expectations, but run the risk of their daily operations slipping.

Deliver The Goods: At the end of the day, the project manager has a fairly clear-cut task at hand:  Deliver a completed project, on-time and on-budget. Managing the project can be fraught with missed tasks and time challenges but the prudent project manager will attempt to minimize those to exceptions only. Leaving the entire project to chance will guarantee only one thing – a failed project.  Prudent capital management is one key element to maintaining your operation ongoing profit stream.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

Sports sponsorships are terrific ways to build your brand through local store marketing, because they are so flexible in nature.  Creating and fostering a relationship with a local team, while customizing your sponsorship to suit your needs, can catapult your brand further than simply advertising. In fact, taking it a step further by developing sports sponsorships with your vendors as well as a local minor league sports team, is an excellent strategy to increase your exposure, generate sales, as well as stretch your advertising dollars.

Most sports teams—especially the smaller, local teams—will have a variety of sponsorship packages that are available.  Depending on your budget, it can determine the extent of your sponsorship. Partnering with one of your vendors is a terrific way to help offset some of your sponsorship cost while developing an enticing promotion to drive store sales. Once you have established your sports sponsorship with your local team, you can offer part of this sponsorship to one of your vendors.

Watch The YouTube Video:  Gray Cat Sports Sponsorships

Make A Community Partnership: The great part about sports sponsorships is that you are not only benefiting your business, but you are benefiting a local team.  Most minor league teams have a value-driven customer base and these teams want to get more people to their games.  Often teams offer ticket vouchers as part of their sponsorship participation.  Some of these ticket vouchers could be 2-for-1 ticket vouchers–with a ticket value of $10 or $16, as an example. Now imagine a co-sponsoring coffee vendor participating in a promotion at your store where a customer purchases a 69-cent cup of coffee and the customer receives a ticket voucher worth $16–not a bad deal for 69 cents!  The opportunity to drive sales with such an over-the-top offer is significant.

Create A Win-Win-Win: All parties win in the above scenario — the team increases game attendance; your vendor sells more product; and your store has a point of differentiation from your competition—and the best part of all is that your sports sponsorship is driving sales for your store.  In addition, vendors have access to a number of third-party sponsorships that are vast opportunities for you to tap into.  Combine an attractive price point coupled with a “money can’t buy prize” (i.e., throw out the first pitch) and this will have critical appeal for your customers.

Tap The Local: Local teams such as school sports teams or minor league teams are anxious for partnerships with retailers.  Utilize your customer traffic to help drive game ticket sales in exchange for group sales and advertising signage for your store.  The sponsorship package could include arena signage, local cable television ads, radio spots, promotional packages, tickets, and on-field logos.

Provide Added-Value: BOGO (Buy One, Get One) team tickets with a product purchase, creates a perceived and real value with the customer compared to your competition.  In addition, you create a greater awareness of your ongoing community support within your 3-mile trade area.  Have the team track redemptions of the BOGO tickets, so you can gauge customer acceptance of your sports sponsorship and its impact.

Grow Your Business: Once your relationship has been established with a sports team, work with them to expand your opportunity for group sales.  Every team will have VIP fund-raiser nights, team parties, tailgate events, etc., that enable your store to be the “product-of-choice” at each of these functions.

Make A Plan: Contact every minor league, college, or high school team in your 3-mile trade area and offer a trade-out sponsorship to the teams you select (NOTE:  Major league teams will not have much interest in this).  Negotiate a trade proposal that would include handing out “Buy-One-Get-One” (BOGO) ticket offers for the team to your customers in exchange for store signage and group sales opportunities at the arena/stadium.  Minor league teams are interested in driving fans to their games–you need to position your store as a great pipeline for potential attendees.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

This adage held true in your first job search and still holds true today in business.  Building and fostering long-term business relationships not only enable you to be connected to the key decision makers in your community, but also their contacts. From a competitive standpoint, your personal contact list becomes an immensely valuable asset.

Many business owners underestimate the importance of developing business relationships with the key people in their trade areas.  Whether it is a comfort level in approaching strangers or perhaps not fully understanding the multi-fold benefit of these relationships, often owners will not venture to meet key leaders.  A key leader in your trade area can enable you to exponentially grow your potential customer base since these leaders are tremendously influential over their followers.

There are many key leaders in your trade area that you should target for introductory meetings in the upcoming year. Including in that list would be:

If you are planning your grand opening or are already established in the market, creating a plan that includes introductory meetings with key leaders helps develop a stealth marketing strategy.  This type of marketing is exceedingly difficult for your competition to overcome – after all, these are your contacts in which you have established a relationship.  For operators that have effectively fostered these relationships, they stand to gain from this viral networking strategy.

Watch The YouTube Video:  Gray Cat Key Leaders

Make A Plan:  Making inroads to developing key leadership relationships should not be left to happen-chance.   Rather, create a year-long strategy to meet key public officials, private sector business leaders, youth organizers and other top networkers.  A progressive goal of meeting with two to three new contacts a month will enable you to expand your network – and more importantly, your reach – much more quickly.  At years end, you will be able to point to 25 new “movers and shakers” that hopefully will connect you with their network contacts.

Be A Tipper:  As one expands their exposure to other key leaders in the trade area, you become one of those “tippers”, as well.  A tipper is one that is at the epicenter of a number of activities – the person that is not only in the know, but is connected throughout ones network.  The more activity that flows through a tipper, the stronger the chance that they will be presented opportunities that can be capitalized upon.

Think “Exponentially”:  You may remember the Faberge Organics Shampoo commercial starring Heather Locklear that ended the commercial with the famous line of  ”and they’ll tell their friends- and so on, and so on…” Networking with key leaders follows the same premise.  Get to the right people and your brand will cascade throughout their networks much more quickly.  Identifying and fostering relationships with 25 key leaders in your trade area may connect you with thousands of people in no time.

Outsmart Competition:  When it comes to market share, many companies try and outspend their competition. Money can buy many things in an attempt to capture loyal customers, but combating a competitor that is tightly linked to the key leaders in their trade area, is often the most difficult to overcome. Relationships matter and establishing key contacts throughout your local marketing trade area will give you an impenetrable market position.

Stay Top Of Mind:  While meeting two to three leaders a month will get you started, it doesn’t end there.  Sending out periodic emails or notes to these contacts is time well-served to remain top-of-mind.  Leaders are intensely busy and their daily lives keep them moving at a breakneck pace.  A periodic “hello” or update on your business is all it takes to keep you and your brand relevant.

Networking with key leaders in your trade area not only positions your brand firmly in these tipper minds, but also their constituents.  Whether you find them through LinkedIn or in-person events, fostering and maintaining relationships with these leaders outflanks your competition.  The math is extraordinarily compelling when you consider the amount key constituents that monitor each of these key leaders.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.

I am sure that many have driven by a closed store that still has the logo signs intact and other branding signage.  It is an eyesore, speaks poorly regarding the operation and slowly erodes the brand value if left untouched.  Whether a store is operational or not, a decaying storefront is detrimental.  In order to maintain the integrity of the go-forward brand, one cannot simply lock the doors and walk away from the store.  How a franchisor or a multi-unit operator manages a de-branding is sometimes as vital as how they manage a grand opening.

Over the years, I have been a part of many grand openings and regretfully, many store closures.  While a grand opening goes from a “vanilla box” to a retail store in a matter of months, a properly de-branded store must go from a fully operational retail store to a “vanilla box” in less than a day.  Ultimately, a complete de-branding essentially erases the store from the retail landscape before customers are even aware.  The quicker it can be “out of mind”, the betterment of the brand going forward.  Some retailers even take this a step further by de-branding throughout the night to minimize the observation of the process by customers.

NOTE:  In some cases, a store closure could be “repositioned” and identified as a ”store relocation” – directing existing customers to the nearest store with marketing and signage.  This allows for the operator to retain existing customers and slowly migrate them to another store.

Store de-branding is not a effortless process and generally an allocation of upwards of 40 to 60 man-hours may be required to properly de-brand the store (depending on the store design and format).  The goal is to return both the interior and exterior of the store to its original state, so a proper de-branding process should consist of the following:

• Product inventory should be removed in advance of the de-branding crew arriving as well as unplugging all equipment – this is particular noteworthy if the equipment is refrigeration.
• Schedule a truck to arrive at the store on the de-branding day to take all equipment, safe, POS devices and furniture to desired location.
• Remove all signage in and on the exterior of store.  Inventory the materials.
• Remove all equipment in store.  Inventory the materials.
• Spackle all holes in walls.
• Rough paint all walls in the store covering anything that may convey the “image” of the brand – including, but not limited to:  specific tile, paint colors, texture, shapes, etc.
• Remove all wood floor and all tile flooring.
• Remove all countertops and countertop bases.
• Remove all light fixtures including, but not limited to:  fluorescents, wall washers, hanging light bulbs, etc.
• Remove all speakers and stereo system.

The crew should arrive with the following necessary items for de-branding:

• Dolly
• Shovels
• 2 push brooms
• Spackle
• 5 gallons of white paint
• 3 paint rollers (with long handles)
• Tools for disassembly of equipment and demolition
• Small dumpster if significant demolition is required

The integrity of the brand is maintained through proper image.  Closing a store without properly de-branding it, casts doubt on your operation and the overall brand.  While it may be easier to simply lock the doors, your brand will decay in the eyes of your remaining customers.  While it is probably not the most enjoyable experience for a retailer, the sharpest multi-unit retailers have not let their brand image erode behind a wall of weeds.  If one spends the time to de-brand a store correctly, the brand can continue to flourish.

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries.  With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at www.graycatenterprises.com.