Kevin Graff, President Graff Retail and Andrew Siegwart, President Blue Mountain Village Association talk sales floor training for the COVID era and organizational transformation

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada, and with the support of Astound Commerce.

"Modern commerce is complex and leaders need to look beyond web and marketing tech to understand the complete customer experience. The Astound Commerce Maturity Assessment lets you self-evaluate the state of your business against modern commerce demands. Visit astoundcommerce.commaturity "

On this episode I welcome back to the podcast the one and only Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail.   For decades a key advisor, sales trainer and mentor to senior level retailers and their in-store teams, Kevin and I talk about optimizing the sales floor experience before and during the COVID crisis when all seems to have changed, but in fact the fundamentals are even more important to achieving sales success.

Next another long-time friend and colleague Andrew Siegwart, President Blue Mountain Village Association is back to update us on the state of the retail tourism business, and share key lessons in transforming a customer driven organization through the pandemic and beyond with passion and a commitment to a learning and caring culture.

But first, lets check in with Kevin live from Oakville

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Thanks to Kevin and Andrew for being my guests and for Astound Commerce for their support of this episode.  If you liked this podcast please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favourite podcast platform,  rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a safe week!

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.