Company Blog

May I Present…

by Adam Zack — May 5, 2015

presentation

Do you know the three most important words to increase sales? Price? No. Service? No. Selection? No. Sure they are important factors, and they do influence the buying decision, but the three most important words to get the customer, or should I say potential customer, to stop and check you out are: 1. Presentation. 2. Presentation and 3. Presentation. I learned that lesson about 25 years ago from a customer who listed it just like that. He said “Why would I shop at your deli if the foods look like dog crap?” And he was 100% right. A little extreme maybe, but right. It really applies to almost everything we purchase. If we don’t like the look of a car, we move on. If the photo on the dating website (and I have no experience in this, but I’ve been told) isn’t attractive to you – pass. If the macaroni and cheese in the hot foods case is dry and crusty, well it won’t be on the table for dinner. And if the burger you get doesn’t even come close to resembling the one in the photo, you feel gypped and jaded to future purchases. Presentation, presentation, presentation.

In our grocery business, presentation is more than just the food. It’s the creativity of the merchandiser. It’s the good looking and informative signage. It’s the display that stops you in your tracks and makes you go “Wow! Cool!” Companies that set a standard for beautiful displays – in their service cases and in grocery and produce marketing – are naturally more successful than those that focus more on product shrink and purely price. There is a prominent gourmet grocery small chain in California that is having such a focus on keeping their shrink (foods that are thrown out – out of date, ugly, wilted, rotten, gross, yuck, etc) at a minimum that they are actually leaving products in the service case far too long, which has resulted in an actual shrink in sales. They have to face the customers, who wonder why meat that is nearly black is still in the case, and can’t remove it until their boss gives them the OK. It’s a vicious circle.

Does your deli make you want to eat? Does it get your stomach rumbling? Does your produce make you think of a farm or an orchard? Does your meat case make you think of firing up the grill, or does your seafood case make you think “What’s that smell?” It’s not easy, but if you wouldn’t serve it to mom, then you shouldn’t serve it all. Unless you really don’t like your mom.