Real Life Retail Funnels - Dave Woodward - FHR #292

Why Dave Decided to talk about “Real Life Funnels”:

Over the weekend Dave did something he normally doesn’t enjoy: shopping. He saw many things regarding customer servicing and marketing, as well as customer retention. He wants to share his thoughts on the aspect of using your funnels on your sites and in real life the way you should be this holiday season.

Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business:

(1:06) Making Christmas shopping interesting for the “Grinch of Shopping”

(4:40) Remember that your Retail Funnels work the same online as they do offline

(6:20) There is an importance to the service you give for your customers

(8:39) The value you give to your customer correlates to the value added to your business

Quotable Moments:

(0:48) “There’s nothing wrong with polarizing people and realizing “I only serve X and that this product is only good for X group”

(2:12) “I was so glad to get out of there, I was just so lost and didn’t know who they were trying to talk to. Are you trying to talk to my sons, are you talking to my wife, are you talking to me. It was just the most bizarre experience I’d had in a clothing store.”

(4:20) “Too often in business we try to appeal to everybody and it just ends up confusing everybody. And we all know that a confused buyer just says ‘no’.”

(8:16) “You have to apply amazing customer service at all times. And, if you run out of product, you say ‘WE’RE OUT’ and that creates more urgency. It creates more scarcity and make me want to come back to you.”

Other Tidbits:

Dave regrets never buying stock in LuLu Lemon after all the money and time he’s helped contribute to them, don’t worry it’s for his wife.

Don’t you dare short Dave on his beans and lettuce at Chipotle

Your customers will appreciate that you know who you’re talking to and selling to

Dave’s kids have developed a marketer mindset

Important Links:

FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar

---Transcript---

Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here is your host, Dave Woodward. Welcome back everybody. I want to kind of share.

I had recently, rarely do I actually spend a whole bunch of time shopping. It's not one of the things I enjoy going into stores. I do a lot of shopping online, but I had these really cool experiences while I was shopping and retail shops over the weekend. And I just want to share them with you. So one of the things I always talk to people a lot whenever we're, we're looking at funnels is the importance of making sure that you know who your customer is and realizing you cannot be everything to everybody. And there's nothing wrong with polarizing people and realizing I only serve x and this product is only fit for this, this group. Uh, so Saturday I spent in my, uh, my database with my wife going around and trying to get some Christmas shopping done early. Uh, something I've never done in my life, but uh, let's try to spend some time with ours and we decided to do that.

So even before Thanksgiving, I'm so proud of myself, but we went into this one store and so she's asked me not to name the store just in case I offend anybody but for. So for her credit, I will not name the actual store, but we went into the store and it was a clothing store and we walked into the store and it was crazy because the pictures of people on the wall, we're literally anybody and everybody and the staff was dressed totally different. It wasn't like they were wearing their brands clothes. It was, it was just, I was sitting there going, I'm totally confused. Who is this store for it? It can't be for everybody. Is it for men, for women? Is it for certain? It was just, it was crazy. I literally just, I got in there and I just felt like, oh my gosh, I feel weird.

I feel dirty, I feel wrong. I feel like I don't know where I'm at. I feel lost. And so we were shopping for something for one of her friends and we caught it and I was so glad to get out of there. It was just like, ugh. I just feel lost. I don't know who you're talking to. Are you talking to my sons? Are you talking to my wife or are you talking to me? Or are you talking to. It was just the most bizarre experience I've ever had in a clothing store. And literally within minutes we walked into Lulu lemon where I know exactly who that audience is. That's my wife and I mean it was like that. I walk in and it was totally for her and it was one of those things I have, I've joked around about. I have been donating to the Lulu lemon cause for so many years now.

I should've actually owned stock in the company I should have, but I never bought stock in there. Anyway. The crazy thing is when you go into a little lemon, you know exactly who the stores for now. They started doing some things on a men's line. It's not that large, but Eric, the guy had been working out with, he was giving me, I've noticed these joggers and and patsy out on it. I said, so tell me what do you, what brand you recommend? What do you use it? And he just started laughing. I'm like, what's wrong? He goes, you're going to be so embarrassed when I tell you. I'm like, just tell me they're not Lulu Lemon. And he just started laughing. He's, Yep. They are like, why? He goes, because he goes, I know it's primarily a female store, but until you feel the fabric Dave and until you actually try them on and until you actually experience it, you can't, you can't give me any crap about it.

And he goes, listen, I've got super thick thighs and I always rub out the crotch and these ones have. And so he starts selling me on Lulu Lemon as far as there was a larger panel through the Crotch area and they're guaranteed if they, if they fray or anything else. He goes, I've actually taken a back. I got a brand new pair, goes to have the best customer service in the world and so I was in there and my wife was like, so are you finding and try some on. So I tried some on and I, I, I just couldn't do it. But again, I, I've always associated Lula limit with my wife. That is her brand. It is. I mean she's got an outlet. She's got a whole bunch of other different brands, but when it comes to Lulu Lemon, I know when I walk in that store, I know exactly who it is.

It is totally polarizing. It's exactly for female women, certain body shapes, everything else and that's just, it's so clear and I thought, you know what? Too often in business we try to, we try to appeal to everybody and all you do is you confuse the buyer. And a confused buyer always says no. So I would highly recommend as you take a look at retail funnels, they work the same online as they do offline and that is you've got to make sure that you are polarizing, that you said this is who it's for and this is who it's not for. So that was the first lesson I had in my retail funnel. The next thing was. So we went to go grab a bite to eat for lunch and I've always loved to pull it. I don't know why it's just, it's it, it just tastes good.

I always get a bowl, it's white black steak. I know exactly what to order. And so we go in there and my wife got her salad and stuff and I started looking and I'm like, what do you guys do? Eat? I mean usually they're large portions, everything else. And I feel like we were on rations. I'm like, what is going on? And they're like, well we're, we're kind of running low on, on beans and on lettuce. I'm like, how can you be running low on beans and lettuce? That is your primary. You can tell you guys do beans. Let us rice steak and meet. I mean, that's it. How could you be running low on it? Well, I don't know. We just, I don't know if someone didn't order it right. And so they literally were rationing off beans and lettuce and rice and I'm like, this is ridiculous.

And so I. my whole experience there was just fraught with frustration and anger. I'm like, are you really? And my wife and I sit sat there as we're eating our small little bowls because they didn't have enough. I'm like, why didn't you close the store and say we're out of lettuce. Come back another time instead of giving us this terrible experience where. I mean, we literally joked, I think she had five corn kernels. I mean it was just. I'm like, what are you guys doing? You, you will be so much better as far as providing your normal product and insane we're out than to go ahead and try to ration it out through. I was just, ugh. I was so frustrated. I'm like, you guys, you can't do this in business. You have a product that you deliver and you've got to make sure it's the same quality product and when you run out of product, you stop, you don't ration your product.

Oh, it was just the most bizarre experience I've ever seen. And then we went to the apple store to get my son will watch. So if my sons are listening to this podcast, hopefully it doesn't ruin their Christmas. Um, anyway, so we go into an apple store to get a watch and in buying this it was so funny because I love the apple experience. It's just they totally know their customers and everything else. Again, they, they know who their customers are, they cater to their customers, they provide great service when you walk in. But this time was a little different and it was kind of interesting to me. So there was a certain watch we wanted with a certain band and the guy, a guy who was helping us said, oh, I'm so sorry we're out of that. And I said, well, can you order?

He goes, yeah, you can order it online. I'm like, he says, but we can't do that here. I'm like, what do you mean you can't do that here? He goes, well, we, we just, we don't do that. You just have to go. You just have, you can order on your phone, you can go home and you can order it there. And one of the other guys who was in the, their turns to him and says, no, we can take care of that right now. And so he takes me over to a MAC computer, which they will have tons of them already online already connected goes, I am so sorry. I really, really apologize. That is not how we take care of our customers. He goes, let me walk you through this. And he literally went through the entire order form with me and he filled everything out for me and then I gave my car.

I literally, he took everything off my hands to make sure I had a great, great experience. And so again, I will go back to apple because of it. So realize that in real life there are retail funnels and they work the same way online. Is it work offline? It's the same thing. You have to understand, you have to be willing to be polarizing. You have got to know who your customer is and who your customer is not. You also have to provide amazing customer service at all times and if you run out of a product, then you say, we're out and that creates more urgency. It creates more scarcity. It makes me want to come back to you because I realized that you have a high quality product and sometimes you're out and the other thing as far as customer service is you always have to provide the greatest customer service possible because you have no idea who they're going to talk to.

You have no idea what podcasts they're going to publish it so realize in in our world, especially with all the social media out there, you've got to be totally congruent, totally true to who you are as a business, as a person, utmost integrity and the type of customer service that you want your customers to know your brand by. So again, that was my most recent real life retail funnel, and again, I just highly recommend just pay it. Pay attention as you're out shopping, pay attention as you're, as you're going through buying experiences, whether online or offline. See what you can learn from it. It's always fun for me, but my kids, I've totally ruined them. They're like, Dad, we've become these. We pay attention to marketing all the time in every buying experience. And I think that's important. I think you have to realize every time you're buying something, there is an experience and people love experiences.

So give them an amazing experience and the greater that experience, the more willing they are to share it. Like I just did add again, apple, I will be back at shortly because of there's other products I will continue to buy from them. Have an amazing day. Happy thanksgiving, happy holidays, wherever you are. If you like these types of podcasts as far as my kind of going on rants on occasion or telling you the my experience and things, by all means, please let me know. Uh, leave me a comment rate and review this on itunes. Send me a facebook message or an email, whatever it might be. I really want to find out if, if you like this type of a format, if you prefer my interview in other people instead, uh, let me know what you like. And again, most importantly and during this Thanksgiving period of time, I want you to know how thankful I am for you. I know you have the option and the opportunity to listen to a ton of other people and the fact that you've taken time out to listen to me. I really, really greatly appreciate it. Have an amazing day. We'll talk soon.

Hey everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to podcasts. If you don't mind, could you please share this with others, rate and review this podcast on itunes. It means the world to me where I'm trying to get to as a million downloads here in the next few months and just crush through over $650,000 and I just want to get the next few $100,000 so we can get to a million downloads and see really what I can do to help improve and and get this out to more people at the same time. If there's a topic, there's something you'd like me to share or someone you'd like me to interview, by all means, just reach out to me on facebook. You can pm me and I'll be more than happy to take any of your feedback as well as if people would like me to interview more than happy to reach out and have that conversation with you. So again, go to Itunes, rate and review this, share this podcast with others and let me know how else I can improve this or what I can do to make this better for you guys. Thanks.