Once You Lose a Sale, You Can Never Get It Back!

Retail Lesson: I learned this many years ago but it's just as valid today as it was back then!

Once You Lose a Sale, You Can Never Get It Back!

?As a store manager at Kay-Bee Toys, way back in 1980, I was pretty full of myself. I was leading the 2nd highest volume store in a chain of over 500 locations, and our sales were increasing year-over-year by double-digits. One day, Kay-Bee’s VP of Operations was making a visit to the Chicago area, and my store was on his itinerary. The store looked great (my humble opinion) and I expected an easy and positive visit.

Back story:?Kay-Bee had just purchased millions of units of flat-packed gift wrap?in multiple designs. The retail price was only?$1.00. There was an?enormous push?behind this gift wrap as it was an?ideal tie-in sale?(to increase average sale per transaction), and it was a?very high margin item.?A win-win. Kay-Bee wanted this wrap displayed by each cash register and suggested with every purchase. It made perfect sense.

We had just received a shipment?of 600+ cartons the day prior to the VP’s visit. We had?processed about half of it?when he arrived. As he toured the store, the feedback was positive (as I expected).

Then we went into the stockroom.?While we had worked through a big chunk of the prior day’s shipment, the promotional?gift wrap was still in the back. Given our store volume, there were probably 24 or so cases of wrap sitting in their shipping cartons. You couldn’t miss it.

The VP, a bit annoyed,?asked why it was not on the sales floor yet, especially given the focus Kay-Bee had placed on the sales opportunity. He went on to mention it was?selling great?in test stores, and?we were losing a significant sales opportunity?by not processing it faster.

So, my response?(which was well-intentioned but perhaps a bit cocky) was “we will get the gift wrap out now and my team?will work hard to make up the sales we lost?over the past 24 hours”.?Wrong answer!

The VP spent the next 10 minutes?with me explaining, a bit forcefully, how?once you miss a sales opportunity, it’s gone forever. If my team, through the extra effort I had referred to, sold 50 packs today instead of 30, we could have sold those same 50 units regardless of lost sales. And…if we could sell 50 pieces of wrap today, we could have done the same yesterday, if the goods were on the sales floor. His point was made, very effectively, and I have never forgotten it.?Make the sale today, because if you lose it, you can never, ever make it up!

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