In addition to the business tips we covered here and here from Spring KnowledgeFest in Indianapolis this month, there were a few other points we thought worth bringing to your attention.
If you have 5 star reviews online and you are not showing them in your store you are missing the mark. Show reproductions of them up on the walls–Del Ellis of Del Ellis International
The money that stores used to spend on the yellow pages should now be invested in search engine optimization (SEO)—Cory Mayo, Mobile Electronics Group
You are better off spending your marketing money on SEO than on buying Google key word ads. When you buy a key word (like “car radio”), your store shows up in an ad listing on the top of the page. But consumers will click on true search results rather than ads 90 percent of the time because they know the organic ads are more accurate.”—Cory Mayo.
SEO includes making sure your web site is optimized specifically for local search, which is where you’ll get most of your customers. Companies such as Altruik (which is working with the Mobile Electronics Group) can show you how to improve SEO generally and for local search.–Laura Johnson, Altruik
Specialists should have 30 days of inventory on hand, not more. A special buy in isn’t helpful if you have to give away the inventory later.– Marcel Newell of Avidworx (Businessworx) “When we have too much inventory it kills us because that is cash. If you’re not looking at this number it’s a problem,” he said.
By fixing inventory you start solving another key industry problem—end of the month deals. Ben Vollmer of Audition Audio/Businessworx says, “When XYZ rep calls us we can go to a tool and pull up how many days stuff I have left. Anything over 35 days I will say ‘I have too much of this this and this’ and ‘How are you going to help me move it this month.’ That’s the conversation we should have in this industry. We’re going to be able to do this if we know our numbers.”
Watch for “canaries” (in the coal mine), otherwise called leading indicators of your business going wrong or right. Vollmer closely watches product category sales. “If speakers drop off, I know the salesmen aren’t selling, they are just clerking,” because it shows they are just pushing head units, which have lower margins.
Back to SEO, it’s likely that the other specialists in your area are not putting in the effort to work on search engine optimization, so if you do, you will have a distinct advantage.–Cory Mayo.
Interesting…. 4 of 8 relate to SEO. I agree with all of it. Another thing to consider is that when you spend money on SEO, it stays with you for a long time. Great optimization will work today, tomorrow, next month and next year… traditional advertising (newspaper, radio, tv, direct mail) works for a very limited time and then you need to spend more to keep it rolling. Advertising dollars spent on SEO has a very unique compounding effect. As I tell my clients, it is casting a constantly growing net. All 5 of those fellows on stage understand the value of SEO.