Being assigned, as I am, to proffer some grain of useful opinion on the sales of pipes and pipe tobaccos in this column every issue, I sometimes know in advance exactly what I wish to convey, and other times I struggle. Having published more than a score of these pipe columns over the past several years, I am occasionally hard-pressed to find fresh inspiration.
And yet I now see that a veritable wellspring was right in front of me the whole time, sitting here on my kitchen table.
In researching a biographical feature I wrote on cigar man David Garofalo [see “Cigar Retailing Authority”], I acquired a copy of Garofalo’s retailing book David vs. Goliath: How to Compete, and Beat, the On-line Retail Giant. It would do his 229-page volume an injustice to call it under-appreciated, for in five years of print David vs. Goliath has made itself fairly well dispersed, and helped cement Garofalo’s reputation as a business leader.
What is particularly noteworthy for our purposes is that Garofalo addressed his book to a readership far beyond cigar merchants. Full of retail promotional ideas for any brick-and-mortar shop, David vs. Goliath has something to offer most storefront operations, whether they be engaged in the sales of home appliances or auto parts or apparel—or pipes. Its promotional ideas (more than 100 of them) fairly leap off the page with more than a whiff of prospect. So I thought it might be well if I were to share a few of those ideas in this space.
Garofalo starts out the book with some judicious words for Main Street warriors: “If you, as a B&M shop owner, try to compete with lowest price and biggest selection the e-tailer offers, you will lose.” B&M shops have to know and fully leverage their own peculiar strengths, which online retailers cannot match: “Our customers can use all their senses in the shopping experience,” Garofalo writes. Websites may present pretty pictures and overnight service, but online shoppers, generally speaking, cannot “touch, hear, or taste the merchandise. That is the edge that B&M has—an edge they need to exploit as much as possible.”
Moreover, Garofalo reminds us that a B&M shop can transport customers through “a sixth sense”—feeling—which, he points out, is distinct from mere touch. Feeling is “an experience.” It is, he explains, “the warm joy that a person can receive in the B&M environment that the online e-tailer can’t provide with a cold, distant website. Compassionate, kind, thoughtful and sympathetic is not something that can happen on a video monitor, but you and your staff can provide that atmosphere. Customers return to stores that make them feel important and special.”
Following are some examples of retail promotions taken from the book’s pages. Mind you, I am relating bare-bones descriptions; the book itself dedicates considerably more space to ways that each promotional technique can be successfully executed.
What’s New?
“The number-one question people ask when they enter retail shops across the world, no matter what category the shop is in, is: What’s new?” Garofalo advises, “If you have a good relationship with your vendors, tell them that you would like to launch their next new product at your shop.” This is “because you want and need to be the first in the area to get the product, ahead of all your competition, even if it’s only for one day”—and you can “plan an entire party around it.” Garofalo observes, “With any success you will soon become the place the vendors want to launch their new products,” and this reputation will serve as an ongoing business catalyst.
Fish Bowl of Business Cards
This is a time-tested promotion for encouraging repeat business. Says the book, “Upon paying their bill for services or products, customers are offered the opportunity to throw their business card into the fish bowl. Every week a card is picked from the fishbowl and a winner is chosen.” The advice includes: “Be sure to offer something with a decent value. Penny-pinching prizes do little to get attention and usually don’t have much staying power.” This promo gives you the chance to harvest your customer’s name, address, place of employment, email address—all good information for building a mailing list. “Companies pay thousands for this data,” the book points out, “but you got it for almost nothing.”
The Phone Smile
Here Garofalo writes, “This one isn’t so much a promotion as a way of doing business.” He relates a word of advice from a wealthy friend (a plumber) who told him, on being asked how he succeeded so wildly, “I answer the damn phone!” I can relate to this item personally, because in my work for this magazine I have occasion to phone up quite a few tobacco shops around the country. It is surprising how often I encounter an answering machine, even during normal business hours. “We are sorry we can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message,” etc., etc. Well, I don’t like talking to those things. The callback always arrives when I am in the shower or otherwise … indisposed. So answer the phone—even if you are attending the store alone and talking to a customer. Excuse yourself for 20 seconds, jot down the person’s name and number, and promise—with a sunny demeanor—to call them back pronto. An unanswered call won’t always be an annoying tobacco journalist with nosy questions. It’ll sometimes be a prospective sale going out the window.
A Chance to Win $100,000,000
Here are the basics as described in the book: “Customers who spend $20 on a particular item you are trying to build sales on or reduce in inventory receive a quick-pick ticket you pre-purchased for a mega lottery prize. That’s it!”
I trust the point is made. David Garofalo exudes love for his customers and for our industry, and it shows in the pages of his book, which I urge readers of this magazine to seek out. (I obtained a used copy on Amazon for a song.)
Here’s a little in-house promo you can run: Have any of your employees who will read the book email you a brief book report with recommendations for ways your shop can incorporate its advice—then buy that worker lunch, or at least a premium coffee, or … something. You get the idea. Business promotion knows no end.
– Story by William C. Nelson.
This story first appeared in PCA The Magazine, Volume 3, 2024. To receive a copy of this magazine, you must be a current PCA member. Join or renew today at premiumcigars.org/membership.