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The Pawnshop Chronicles: Street Wisdom for the Business World by Jack E Rossin Chapter Five Think Customer As best as I can figure it, the customer brings in about 99.9% of the revenue for most businesses. So that would make the customer an important person…except in the minds of some of the executives of those businesses. Cherish your customers. You can learn how to grow your business from them. You can learn what you’re doing right and not. You can learn all about your competitors. Who’s the Real Customer? Abe Goldberg walked into the pawnshop like no one else could. He was short. He was fat. And he had a clubfoot. He spewed profanities at such a remarkable and constant rate, you actually had to admire him. A cigar never left his face. Walking down the narrow store aisle, he rolled and stomped like a steam engine. And, he didn’t need us. He had more money than most people in town did. In fact, he owned half the town. “I just bought the empty store across the street. Come on, I want to show it to you,” he said. We all went outside, even though his comment was directed at my boss, Nate. Directly across the street from our pawnshop was a small, 3,000 square foot store that had been vacant for some time. “I think I’m going to sell second-hand clothes,” Abe belched. He bought the store before he knew what he was going to do with it. “You don’t want to do that,” Nate quickly replied. “Good second-hand clothing is difficult to get, and there’s very little margin. You have to clean everything, alter stuff. Bad move. Try something else, like women’s shoes. Sell discontinued and irregular women’s shoes. You can buy them cheap. Women love deals. You’ll make a fortune.” Without hesitation, Abe said, “good idea,” and that was the beginning of Abe’s Shoe Bazaar. We were in stitches. The reason Nate gave the rationale he did for not selling second-hand clothes was because we sold second-hand clothes. We didn’t want any competitors. I used to laugh about that story a lot, until the day I learned that Abe’s Shoe Bazaar had expanded to 14 locations. I guess some people are just meant to be successful. Abe was successful because he instinctively understood retailing. Abrasive style aside, he believed in giving attentive service to all of his customers. He was more interested in making a customer happy than in making a sale. That kind of attitude gets you both customers and profits. Thanks to the advice Nate gave him, his business model was very narrow and focused. He only sold women's shoes. And, he only sold distressed merchandise at terrific prices. When the business was six months old and booming, he started growing the concept. He hired a buyer to keep the supply of almost-perfect shoes plentiful. He opened more stores to have better leverage in product negotiations. He advertised aggressively. He insisted on hiring sales clerks who had the same customer service orientation as he did. He built a great company. I've read many business books over the years. Some of them offer elaborate plans for success. But, this little example from Abe's Shoe Bazaar is my definitive model. He had a concept that was focused and niched. He executed that concept with the right product supplied in abundance. He insisted on terrific customer service. He expanded his operation to gain economies of scale and enhance his profitability. Recently, one of the giants of retailing, K Mart, ran into big trouble. They declared chapter 11. A business magazine interviewed K Mart customers. They each had the same complaint: the shelves were always empty, and the service was always terrible. Abe could have straightened that place out in no time. Stick with the basics in running your business. Stay focused on your core strength. Hire people who believe in customer service. Worry about keeping your customers happy. Jack Rossin is a marketing consultant who specializes in Presentation Skill Training. For more information how he could make your team present more dramatically and more successfully, visit his web site at www.jackerossin.com or call 617-437-7990. Chapter Six
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