Scoop 'em Up Early
Dear Friend,
I just got back from being out of town
for a week.
Before I left, I was talking to a woman
about how many salespeople she would
need for the holidays at her cart.
***
She expressed a big concern:
'Once you get close to Christmas, all
the good ones are already scooped up.'
***
By the 'good ones', she was referring to
the good salespeople.
It really is the truth. If you wait until a
couple of weeks before Christmas to add
the staff you need... it's usually too late.
The good ones ARE often scooped up.
In addition, it's hard to train someone
at the last minute... and really get peak
performance from them.
***
When I opened my first cart, I knew finding
a staff was going to be a challenge because
unemployment in the Twin Cities was at an
all time low... less than 2%.
So I busted my butt before I opened... finding
salespeople.
Prior to opening, I think I put up 1500 help
wanted flyers... at every church, college,
high school, library... etc...near my mall.
I placed help wanted ads in several local
weekly or monthly newspapers, and in every
college newspaper near the mall.
And I let everyone I knew know what I was
doing... and if they showed any flutter of
interest... I suggested they come work with
me.
Whew! It sounds like a lot of work just
thinking about it.
***
But through those efforts, I was able to cobble
together a staff to open with.
Because I had so much outflow, I continued
to get responses, and was able to put together
a pretty solid staff.
***
There were two other first-time operators
in the Twin Cities selling the same product line
as me.
They didn't put as much effort into finding a
staff before they opened.
One of them, Jason, opened with no help... worked
virtually by himself at first... before he realized how
screwed he would be without a staff.
Finally, he made up help-wanted signs similar to the
campaign signs we see this time of year... and placed
them in strategic areas in his community.
He was able to hire a decent size staff using those
'campaign signs'. But because his staff came aboard
'later', they were a little 'rough' and didn't perform
as well.
The other operator, Ed, never did seem to get
a staff in place... it was just himself and a few
family members.
***
Now, we were open the SAME season, with the
SAME product, in malls that were virtually the
SAME in stature and traffic.
But our results were vastly different.
Myself.... $114K
Jason....... $60K
Ed.............$26K
My sales totals were higher because I started
hiring early enough so when I really needed
the staff... they were trained and ready to go.
***
The message:
Scoop 'em up early!
Get your staff hired and trained NOW... so that they're ready WHEN you need them.
You'll be poised then to fully maximize your
holiday profits!
Brady Flower
The Kiosk Expert
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