Book Description

The book seminar participants have asked for is about to be released! You Can Compete describes how I work and gives the independent businessperson concrete advice from someone who’s worked in retail stores 50+ hours a week, has known what to do when their back is against the wall and has a proven track record of success. It is aimed at independent business owners, many of which are being challenged by chain stores. Think of the movie You’ve Got Mail only in my book, the independent succeeds.

As the "Retail Doctor", I have been giving a message of hope that you can compete - as long as you are creative and willing to change. From nurseries to coffeehouses, from bookstores to hardware stores the message to the small businessperson is clear: you are in a hopeless situation. If the independents are not encouraged and challenged to fight, we will all be the worse for it. This book does that for a wide audience of readers. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Wake-up call for the small business owner
Bob Phibbs takes running a small business seriously and he takes customer service VERY seriously. Best of all, he explains his principles well, without being condescending or preachy. This concise, well-organized book lays out the basics of "killer" marketing and customer service that can make your business stand out above the competition. YCC will light a fire under the complacent or discouraged business owner, as it provides a much needed motivational wake-up call for every independent business trying to stay afloat in corporate America.

If you're not weak of heart-This will work.
I'm a consultant in the jewelry industry and this book tells it like it is and is like having lunch with a mentor once a week. Bob tells you exactly what to do in sales training, hiring, pricing, maarketing and just plain out how to compete against whomever your competition happens to be. Many thoughts are one or two pages on what to do. Some of it it's the number head on. Soemtimes it's a pep talk.

Example: Bob talks about if an employee doesn't work out in a short time or constantly comes in late to FIRE THEM.

This is a correct way to handle your business, it's just that many a store woner are WIMPS. "We're all family here". yeah, right. When it comes down to "who doesn't get a pay check this pay period-cash flow sucks" see who volunteers. YOU.

If this book doesn't nothing else than to make you a STRONGER manager it will be worth a 100 times more.

I give seminars to jewelers on pricing and sales commissions. I felt so strongly about the value of this book that I ordered 50 copies to give out to my attendees this June in Vegas.

Bob talks about commissions and marketing. There aren't as many extra books on commissions out there (Bob spends one to three pages on one" but there a few excelent books on advertising you should read, expecially if you're retail:

" The 33 ruthless rules of local advertising" by Michael Corbett.

Also 2 excellent books (Bob talks about branding-buy these 2 from anexpert) on advertising and marketing:

"The end of marketing as we know it"
"The end of advertising as we know it"

Both by Sergio Zyman. He used to be in charge of marketing at Coca Cola.

David Geller
www.JewelerProfit.com

Not too hot - Not too cold - Just RIGHT ON!
As a former owner of a retail/service business and continuing entrepreneur, I read Bob Phibbs' book with great interest. There is simply not enough I can say about this book. It is an easy read that is not bogged down with anecdote after anecdote trying to make the same point over and over again as so many self-help books are. Phibbs make his points with short, concise, relevant vignettes that more often than not pack an A-ha! punch. Any independent business person with a lick of sense who hopes to compete with the big box retail vampires will have Phibbs' book - not on their bookshelves, but in hand. Personally, I've always believed the little guy could compete, but how? Phibbs tells you exactly how. Interestingly enough, I happen to live in a community where Phibbs cites success stories and was surprised that I am a customer of one of them. I remember when Starbucks moved in a few doors down from Polly's with the sole intention of putting Polly's out of business (there's another Starbucks just a few blocks away). I didn't think Polly's would last a month, but Polly's began to change and began a campaign to beat the giant. Now, at least two years later they're still here... and thriving... and better than ever with Phibbs' expert guidance. You Can Compete is filled with his expertise in an organized, personable package that would almost make you feel as if Phibbs was your own personal consultant. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in the retail business or thinking about going into it - don't wait for the giants to come barging into your backyard. You could not ask for a better guide for success than You Can Compete. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the past ten years, since the death of the legendary Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has passed two challenges with flying colors: leadership transitions and rapid growth. Sam Walton's successors have taken the company into far-flung new markets and new directions yet without losing their down-to-earth retailing culture. Slater was granted unprecedented access to the company; he takes readers deep into where the big decisions are made about strategy and operations as he weaves a fascinating story about the many challenges of the past decade.

Description in Spanish: La historia de una nueva generación de líderes que convirtió el legado de Sam Walton en la compañía # 1 del mundo

En 1992, las tiendas Wal-Mart eran ya el canal de venta al menudeo más importante de Estados Unidos, con operaciones que superaban los 43 mil millones de dólares cuando Sam Walton, el legendario fundador de la cadena, falleció. En 2002, por primera vez, Wal-Mart se convirtió en la compañía número uno en la lista de las 500 más importantes del mundo, según la revista Fortune. Hasta ahora, ningún libro ha explicado los logros en el liderazgo de la era post-Walton: el hipercrecimiento, el extraordinario modelo de precios bajos y el trabajo en equipo que permitió a Wal-Mart obtener mayores réditos por dólar invertido que cualquier otra empresa en la historia. Robert Slater, en este libro, hace un recuento minucioso de esta historia empresarial de proporciones épicas. ¿Cómo es que un equipo de líderes relativamente desconocidos llevó el legado de Sam Walton hasta la cumbre en el mundo de los negocios? ¿Cómo lograron convertir la década pasada en la década, la era de Wal-Mart? Esta obra da respuesta a éstas y muchas otras interrogantes, indispensables para comprender el fenómeno Wal-Mart. ... Read more

Book Description

Get all the franchise details and statistics you need from a single source. Research or locate information on 1200 existing franchises in 142 categories. Determine the best franchise opportunity for you.

The Franchise Redbook is an easy-to-use reference offering information on franchises in the United States and Canada that have continuing plans for expansion. Organized listings make it easy to compare one franchise against its competitors without having to flip pages back and forth. Use information to do market analysis, prepare marketing plans, complete a business plan or prepare contact lists. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

DATED MATERIAL
I had to return the book. The material was several year's old and thus very dated. The index was also in very bad shape. Many of the entries were not indexed properly making it diffcult to do research. This book needs a major update and a good copy editor to review it.

How did they do it?
I work in the publishing industry, and I was impressed by the layout of this book. No wasted space just the facts M'am. Must have been a lot of work to collect all the data on these companies and clean it up for presentation in this comprehensive volume. If you're thinking of getting involved in any franchise operation, you owe it to yourself to own this book. I hope there will be a second edition soon. Oh, and don't forget to check out Roger Rule's other books on franchising and 20th Century Winchester Repeating Arms. ;-)

Not a Bad Book
But is too bad that those facts and figures do not tell you how much money you will make

The Best Franchise Book on the Market
This is a big book and undoubtedly the best on the market for finding facts about franchises in general and any one franchise in particular. It is full of suggested web sites, but I found more information in this one book, on franchises, than I could gather from the Internet after surfing around for two weeks on the information highway. If you want to know the cheapest start-up costs for any franchise, one table shows them in order from the least expensive to the most. And there's similar tables for comparisons in franchise fees, franchise royalties, advertising royalties, and scads of others. And if you want to look up McDonald's, you find Burger King, Wendy's, and all the others compared together. Nothing has been on the market like this, in a book, that I've ever found, and I was in the franchise business for over ten years. It's better than the Bond book. ... Read more

Book Description

Brian Hibbs, owner of San Francisco's premier comic book store, Comix Experience, has joined with IDW Publishing to collect his influential "Tilting at Windmills" columns. These columns have graced the pages of Comics and Game Retailer since its inception. Containing useful guidelines for new and established retailers who sell comics in this pop culture hungry world, "Tilting at Windmills" was also startlingly prescient about the rise and fall of the comics industry in the '90s.

Tilting At Windmills will serve as an entertaining and informative manual for those seeking to cut their way through the four-color jungle of the business of comics. It's filled with commonsense tips, behind-the-scenes thoughts of how and what publishers produce, and point-by-point steps to make selling comics turn into profits. ... Read more

Book Description

More than 100 "opportunities" for students and job seekers!

The most comprehensive career book series available, Opportunities in . . . covers a range of professions, from acting to writing, and encompasses traditional as well as cutting-edge careers. Each book offers job seekers essential information about a variety of careers within each field and includes training and education requirements, salary statistics, and professional and Internet resources.

Book Description

Hundreds of thousands of small retail businesses in the United States are being put out of business by the major retail chains. The Main Streets in America's towns and villages are losing their businesses and customers to the chain retailers located in malls and stand-alone destinations outside of the town. Towns and villages and their residents lose high-paying employment and business opportunities, property values and the tax base go down, and community costs go up to pay for health and other services for the underpaid workers of the major retail chains. The problem, as seen by the author, an antitrust and civil rights lawyer, is the nation's failure to enforce the antitrust laws.

Another problem is that towns and villages, in their effort to bring in the moneys needed to pay for their increasing governmental services, lean heavily on human beings in the area with nuisance fines for parking, driving, standing, outdated inspection, registration and license, marijuana smoking, speed traps, dirty sidewalks - anything to help the town make its budget. Along the way, enforcement of law against non-humans (i.e., the major corporations) is virtually non-existent, probably because it is difficult to put a corporation in jail.

The author explains a novel but highly workable solution to these town and village problems. He describes how every town and village should appoint a "Town Attorney General" to act as a CIVIL PROSECUTOR against the corporations for their wrongdoing injuring the town and/or its residents, and use the proceeds of the civil litigation to provide FREE healthcare, FREE dental care, FREE prescription drugs, FREE broadband services and REDUCED local taxes for all residents.

An unintended but very real consequence would be the reduction of prosecutorial abuse in criminal prosecutions, because the new way to political success would be to obtain needed services for all residents rather than trying to put as many local residents as possible in jail, with high costs and few benefits to the community.

Any one town can do this without waiting for any other towns to act, and any one individual in the town can make it happen by running for office promising (realistically) to obtain healthcare and dental care for the town's residents. When this occurs, the residents of adjoining towns will demand the same, which in substance is a grass roots program for putting the genie of globalization (and outsourcing progeny) back into their bottle. ... Read more

Book Description

‘The authors are to be congratulated on tackling a difficult and extremely important topic in such an authoritative way. The empirical evidence they present and analyse on concentration amongst large retailers in the European food industry is likely to remain a prime source of reference for subsequent researchers for a very long time. In addition, the framework they develop to analyse ‘competitive’ issues in the sector will, probably, find its way into future antitrust investigations.’

- Michael Utton, University of Reading, UK

In this book, leading experts in the field examine the effects of the recent growth in concentration in the European food retailing sector. In particular, the book develops a number of buyer power propositions and builds on the previous work of several of the authors, to consider how the growth of large supermarket chains affects competition in food retailing. The authors outline the theoretical and policy analysis underpinning the work and assess evidence on the size and growth of supermarket chains across the EU. While not entirely critical, they suggest that there is strong evidence in some countries that supermarkets use their buying power to impose unfair terms and conditions on suppliers, particularly affecting small suppliers.

The authors use case studies, to provide an in-depth analysis of four European countries, namely France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The book ends with a discussion of policy issues against a backdrop of likely future trends in concentration in this area.

Academics working in the areas of microeconomics and industrial economics as well as those involved in European competition policy more generally, such as lawyers, civil servants and consultancy groups, will find this volume enlightening. ... Read more

Book Description

Completely revised and updated for 21st century selling, this popular text has been updated to reflect issues affecting salespeople today and beyond. The most current text on the market, Sales Management focuses on topics most important to today’s organizations, including team building, leadership, relationship selling, services and nonprofit selling, global selling, the multicultural workplace, technology, small business, and increasing competition. A salesperson turned professor, Dr. Futrell empowers students with the tools to win customers for life. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Teh 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader
Great book. Complete and clear. We can use this book for our daily work. Complete with exercise and tests. This book is also for people emphasinzing personal selling. Some issues: Sales careers, Ethics, Global selling,Teams, Leaderships, Industry examples. ... Read more

Book Description

Vividly illustrated, this lively book presents the first in-depth study of the traveling salesman, illuminating his role in American culture from 1830 to 1920. Drawing on letters, diaries, and autobiographies, as well as on literary works by Crane, Dreiser, Lewis, and Miller, Spears examines the impact of the commercial traveler both on the national market economy and on American imagination. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

You will never look at sales the same way again
This amazing work offers tremendous detail and insight into the historical life of the American Saleman. I found it truly facinating. If you think about what selling is like today and through the pages of this book compareit to what it was like; much has changed, much has not.

Great detail,very insightful
If you are involved with the modern concept of selling here is a book that gives true perspective and insight on where this stuff all began. I found it amazing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

PhD in mail order
It's instructive that you never see this book touted by the 'overnight rich' gurus.

This book is both a PhD in mail order marketing *and* advice for 'newbies' on how to avoid 'biz op' scams which are now more common that ever thanks to the Internet.

The section on how to research potential products to sell is worth its weight in gold.

If you mention this book to a 'guru' and he doesn't know it or is not excited about it, you can pretty much bet the guy's a scammer.

If you need to be pumped up on hype and nonsense, avoid this book. If you're serious about creating a real mail
order -type business, get it and absorb its contents. ... Read more

Book Description

This step-by-step book helps both beginners and professionals learn how to use AutoCAD for apparel design. It covers everything from illustration, pattern making, drafting and fabric surface to grading and marker making. Organized for use as an introductory "how- to" manual and as a long-lasting reference guide, this book leads you through the entire AutoCAD experience, with complete coverage of AutoCAD Releases 10, 11, and 12. No prior experience with AutoCAD is required. The Instructor's Guide includes information on setting up and managing a CAD lab, plus additional exercises for applying apparel design techniques using AutoCAD Releases 10, 11, and 12. ... Read more

Book Description

The world's most controversial marriage is currently taking place: the union between offline retailers and online e-tailers. Will the two survive the marriage? What direction will traditional retailing take over the next few years? And what role are e-tailers facing, with low earnings, weak distribution and limited customer support?

With an intriguing mix of theory, case study, practical advice and hot updates weekly on the Clicks, Bricks and Brands website, retailers and dot.com companies a clear picture of how to make successful clicks and bricks marriages. The exclusive case studies show how leading e-tailers like drugstore.com and Yahoo! initiated marriages with off-line retailers and weathered the conversion to clicks-and-mortar business. Conversely, candid exposes contributed by Nokia and Tesco illustrate how these major retailers wooed online e-tailers and made the transition from exclusively offline operations to clicks-and-mortar partnerships. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Excellent Introduction
Well written, easy to read with examples, and quite innovative.
This book will appeal to those who prefer the visualisation of models and concepts alongside in depth examples, and the format will be particularly liked by those whom have followed an MBA degree or similar training.
The book is a step-by-step manual as well as a very detailed review of the changes we can expect to see in the future within the world of clicks and mortar.

Highly Recommended!
Lindstrom draws on speeches he's given in worldwide and textbook basics to craft an informative and refreshing marketing text. Highlighting the primary tools and techniques used by marketing professionals, he encourages companies to think about the true value of a clicks and mortar approach. Since it's cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, companies should use all of the resources at their disposal - including marketing - in building long-term clicks and mortar relationships. Beyond the customer-value sermon, Lindstrom offers a systemic review of clicks and mortar concepts that have been very useful for me and which I can heartily recommend to beginners, who quickly will find their copies of this book glowing with highlighter yellow, as well as marketing veterans, who will enjoy and learn from the book's fresh take on familiar topics.

This is a terrific, and ongoing introduction into this impor
The information presented in this book, is like its style and presentation, simple, immediately accessible and implementable.

The book may not apply to highly trained and experienced web designers, but will serve as a terrific information source for non-ICT people that need to get an immediate grasp of the key concepts, the terminology, the possible applications and ultimately in implementing the strategies and ideas.

Strong general overview!
A concise overview on clicks and mortar principles is provided by the book. Despite the condensed nature of its content, many illustrative examples are given throughout the chapters. It serves well as a great introduction for readers who are planning to establish a clicks and mortar program.

Great Appetizer
This book gives professionals and students an excellent introduction and overview on clicks and mortar, on analysis of opportunities, development of marketing and branding strategies and on planning, implementation and control of marketing programs. There is a focus on the traditional marketing process and there are good examples on many topics in the book. ... Read more

Book Description

The Keep It Simple Series -- the greatest guides ever!

This book covers every aspect of selling including managing your time, setting goals, and building a rapport with accounts. A perfect guide to practical techniques that can be used before, during, and after the sale. Arm yourself with key sales skills with DK's KISS Guide to Selling. Discover the myths and realities behind successful selling. Target the best sales jobs and excel at interviews. Set realistic sales goals and plan your time effectively. Get to work on networking and learn key tips for tackling cold calls. Develop essential sales skills, from coping with rejection to using powerful words and stories. Review your progress, learn how to follow up productively, and set up sales plans for the future.

The Keep It Simple Series is the new standard in how-to books! Written by leading experts, each book includes full-color photographs and illustrations throughout, making these the first and only truly accessible guides for beginners. The KISS format is designed to help readers build confidence from the start, and learn gradually and thoroughly to the very last page. Much more than introductions to various subjects, these inspiring and innovative books are the ones that readers can trust! ... Read more

Book Description

The area of retailing is growing, more jobs are being created and shopping has become a major leisure activity. There are two specific dimensions to retail marketing, first how to attract customers into the retail environs - shop, restaurant, pub, or the 'virtual' internet store for instance - and second how to persuade those customers to make a purchase from that outlet. Retailing is one of the most established branches of the Marketing discipline, indeed most retailing activity predates the concept of Marketing. Retail Marketing begins with a thorough examination of the retail industry and then looks at the way marketing principles can address industry challenges. Case studies throughout provide real world examples to assist student learning. Retail Marketing is intended as core reading on specialist Retailing courses, and supplementary reading on courses covering different aspects of marketing. It includes examples and cases from European, Australasian and Asian/Pacific retailing and covers issues that reflect the needs and interests of students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The text has a tactical/operational emphasis and will appeal to retail practitioners as well as students. ... Read more

Book Description

Despite the recent misfortunes of many dotcoms, e-commerce will have major and lasting effects on economic activity. But the rise and fall in the valuations of the first wave of e-commerce companies show that vague promises of distant profits are insufficient. Only business models based on sound economic propositions will survive. This book provides professionals, investors, and MBA students the tools they need to evaluate the wide range of actual and potential e-commerce businesses at the microeconomic level. It demonstrates how these tools can be used to assess a variety of existing applications.

Advances in web-based technology--particularly automation and delegation technologies such as smart agents, shopping bots, and bidding elves--support the further growth of e-commerce. In addition to enabling consumers to conduct automated comparisons and sellers to access visitors' background information in real time, such software programs can make decisions for individuals, negotiate with other programs, and participate in online markets. Much of e-commerce's economic value arises from this kind of automation, which not only reduces operating costs but adds value by generating new market interactions.

This text teaches how to analyze the added value of such applications, considering consumer behavior, pricing strategies, incentives, and other critical factors. It discusses added value in several e-commerce arenas: online shopping, business-to-business e-commerce, application design, online negotiation (one-to-one trading), online auctions (one-to-many trading), and many-to-many electronic exchanges. Combining insights from several years of microeconomic research as well as from game theory and computer science, it stresses the importance of economic engineering in application design as well as the need for business models to take into account the "total game."

As the only serious treatment of the microeconomics of e-commerce, this book should be read by anyone seeking e-commerce solutions or planning to work in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

"This book gives every sales professional, in any market, a step-by-step process to make more sales, faster and easier than ever before. Worth its weight in gold!"

Does the sheer thought of selling make you nervous and uncomfortable?

Do you find it difficult to overcome price objections?

Do you wish you could close more sales with less effort?

You are not alone. Most people are not natural-born sales professionals. Making a sales call stresses us out. Meeting our sales targets month after month is difficult and frustrating. We make a living but we know we could do better, close more sales, and earn more money.

Selling does not have to be difficult.

Now you can quickly and easily learn the techniques used by top retail sales people. They are deceptively simple, yet extremely effective. What’s more, they can be used by sales professionals in any business to improve their results.

Stop, Ask & Listen: Proven Sales Techniques to Turn Browsers Into Buyers will show you:

• The 11 most common mistakes sales people make and how to avoid them.
• How to create a connection with your potential customer quickly and easily.
• The 33 questions that will gain your prospect’s trust.
• How to deliver an engaging and captivating sales presentation.
• A four-step process to overcome virtually any objection.
• Lots of examples, sample scripts, and action plans you can use to apply the concepts in the book, no matter what you sell.

Whether you are new to selling, an experienced veteran, or a sales manager training, supervising, and coaching a team, you will learn valuable strategies that will help you increase your sales and earn more money. ... Read more