If I Wanted to Grow My Business, I Hire More Willies

We experience people with closed minds who are unwilling to think or act outside the proverbial box. They fight change. Some people are for change, as long as it doesn’t affect them. Someone said there are only two types of people who like change, a cashier, and a wet baby.

It’s hard for a business to stay competitive when the employee’s answer to change is, “We’ve always done it this way,” “We’ve tried that before,” “You’ll never get that approved,” “It cost too much.” We’ve never done that.” “It isn't in the budget.” Successful change requires the support of everyone involved. The catalyst for innovation and change often comes from a team member experiencing an aha moment.

While conducting a Creative Off-the-Wall Thinking? workshop for a small retail company, I witnessed an aha moment that increased the company’s sales by 19 percent at the cost of a business card! The retailer specializes in clothing closeouts, seconds, and odds-and-ends, and their market is mostly low-income families. Each retail store employs three to four people.

Due to a continued sale decline, the president called me and asked me to help his management team develop innovative ideas for increasing their sales. I met with his team and explained the Creative Off-the-Wall Thinking? process. We started with the goal, to improve sales and identify actions to accomplish the goal.

About 45 minutes into the session, the team had a list of ideas including run newspaper ads, create and mail monthly flyers, broadcast TV or radio commercials, conduct a sales contest among the employees, etc. The thoughts were good but flawed: cost prohibitive or the media didn’t target their prospects.

As the facilitator, one of my goals is to keep any one person from dominating the session and make sure that everyone contributed. I noticed one lady had said nothing. As is with any creative thinking endeavor, it is often the quiet, non-participating person that has an excellent idea. For some reason, this lady either felt her idea was worthless. Maybe she had made suggestions in the past and been put down, or she felt someone else had the same idea. 

As often happens in this type of creative environment with ideas are bouncing back and forth, and people are hitchhiking off of each other’s ideas everyone gets excited. This session was no exception. Suddenly, without warning, the silent lady shouted out, “I’d get more Willies.” I wasn’t sure what a “Willie” was and hesitant to go in that direction. But, I asked her to explain.

She told me she was the manager of one of the retail stores and had two people working for her. At the first of each week, she received a sales report for the previous week. If sales were below average, she would go to her cashier, Willie, and say to her. “Willie, if we don’t improve sales, we won’t have a job!” That statement motivated Willie.

Now, when customers came to her register, Willie would suggest additional items to them: “Don’t you want to get a shirt to match those pants or, skirt?” “That’s a good price on those socks, better get another pair before they are gone.” “Did you see that half-price sales table?”

“So,” I said, “Willie is not just a cashier, she is also a salesperson or a sales/cashier.” “Yes,” the manager replied. I asked, why not give Willie a business card and print it with her new job title: Sales/Cashier? All the participants were shocked, none of their retail employees had a business card.

I continued, “Why not print everyone a business card? For the shelf-stocker make it Sales/Inventory Replenisher. Even the employees in the home office should have cards. Buyers should be designated Sales/Buyers, truck drivers should be Sales/Driver, and the receptionist should be Sales/Receptionist.” Everyone, I explained, is in sales and the closer your job is to sales, the more secure your employment.

For the small cost of business cards, appropriately printed with the new job titles, the company, over the next two months increased their sales by 22%.

The president told me, “I wish we could get a return like that on all our investments.” The investment he made was not in business cards; his investment was in improving the employee’s image and his or her importance to the company. When an individuals’ self-worth goes up, sales and profits follow.

One woman, one idea, and a creative session improved sales and employee morale. I find it amazing that we pay people for the use of their bodies and forget that their brains come along for free.

I don’t suppose that this article will change the minds of big corporation CEOs or presidents, but it seems that some entrepreneur or small business owner would unlock the tremendous creative power that lies dormant in his/her organization and discover more "Willies."