How to Sell from a "Non-Essential" Business

Brick and Mortar Nightmare

Things are definitely different.

At the time of this writing, all major sports have been cancelled or postponed. In some states, they’ve already moved to further reduce our physical contact by closing bars, restaurants (take out/delivery only), movie theaters and even Disneyland!

We all know this is going to be a “disruption” like we’ve never seen.

I want to concentrate on serving our clients.

What to do if you have a good Ol’ fashioned physical store?

This has already been explained to my client. Who’s been told his store is considered “Non-essential”!

In other words, stop making money!

“Joe” owns two Hardware/Garden centers. (Not the chain variety)

You’d think a place that carries propane, furnace parts and tons of tools would be considered at least somewhat “essential”.

Not in sunny Southern California!

It’s confusing. None of the brightly colored “Big Box” centers are considered “non-essential” (so far).

Insert your favorite “Better Lawyers” line here.

“Joe’s” not very “tech savvy”. He rarely sells anything online.

He DOES have a pretty good size Email list!

So, here’s the plan.

He has a large loading dock. Still receiving products every day!

They’re starting to pile up. So out comes the camera.

Everyday he takes shots of these piles of boxes.

Now looking at a stack of cardboard cubes doesn’t really make me want to run to my in-box.

This is where the fun begins!

In the back of your mind, you secretly wonder “what’s in THAT one?”

So “Joe” opens up a few. Usually 6-8 per shoot.

Customers see a "Before" picture (the box) and then an "After" shot slide with the top open.

You see hands holding four pairs of super high quality, brand new Gardening gloves! Right over the now open box of what looks like hundreds of gloves.

Next let’s move to that really big, tall box that looks like a refrigerator.

“I bet it’s a fridge…”

No! It’s filled with at least 25, shiny Garden spades! The shovels are so clean, they look like mirrors. Real Ash handles and even a measuring system right on the shovel.

(We add a short description to each photo. Perfect place to highlight features and benefits, uniqueness etc.)

You get the idea.

But here’s even more fun…as you can imagine a home center gets a lot of weird stuff.

So, in every Email there’s a “Mystery Product”.

No description. Just “Joe’s” hands holding some strange thing over the box filled with more of those “what the heck is thats?”

(Plumbing tools are great when it comes to “weird”)

 Guess correctly and you win it! (or a $50 gift card if the item’s lower in price)

Plus, to guess you must fill out the form (opt-in) to become a FREE member of the HGC. The “Healthy Gardeners Club”!

This way “Joe” can tag all those folks and further segment his list.

The people in the “Club” will receive huge discounts on any of the products featured in the Email. (once we’re set free)

It’s only been a few days, but our “open rate” is around 70%!

Plus, you don’t have to worry about “customer fatigue” because folks can’t wait for new Emails.

Depending on how many HGC members we have (once Disneyland is open) “Joe” will have some type of event with special perks.

(Think private sale)

Another benefit I’m pretty sure of…

“Joe’s” customers will continue to welcome his Email for a long time to come.

Somewhere in the “semi-conscious” brain, they’re thinking...

“Joe” has a lot of stuff!

Will it work?

Let me know what you think.

I’ll share #’s after we have enough data to TEST!

Feel free to steal this promotion (or add to it)

“Joe” is also considering a “take out” service where customers can purchase online and then have it handed to them in the parking lot.

But that’s a whole different article.

“Joe” told me “We don’t have to use computers to set that up, do we?”

Oh Boy.