NAMM U - Management

Do you take advantage of eBay? If not, you might be missing a huge opportunity. At 2014 Summer NAMM, Blues Angel Music co-owner Jim DeStafney and his eBay facilitator, Sierra Williams, presented specific eBay strategies that have worked for them—based on mistakes they’ve made since venturing into eBay nearly five years ago. Their lessons learned will help take the sting out of getting started on eBay. DeStafney cited getting involved with the online auction and e-commerce platform as one of the most important factors that spurred his store’s recent growth. “With 116 million buyers

If you do a Google search for ‘sweetwater,’ Sweetwater.com comes up first out of 25 million results. It’s just one example of what a powerful website can do for your business. And as a retailer, you want your business to get a top listing when customers do a local search. At 2014 Summer NAMM, Sweetwater Vice President of Marketing Mike Ross took the mystery out of creating a powerful website. He delved into such topics as mobile responsive design, how Amazon.com and eBay play into a retailer’s website strategy, creating customer loyalty, how to optimize a site for local ISP search

Master retailers came together at the 2014 NAMM Show to share their views on what it takes to be successful in the music retail business. During this session, George Hines of George’s Music moderated a panel discussion with retailers from the Alliance of Independent Music Merchants (AIMM). The panel included Skip Maggiora of Skip’s Music, Jon Haber of Alto Music, Ryan West of West Music, Leslie Faltin of Instrumental Music and Paul Decker of Music Villa. These leading retailers provided new perspectives and inspiration for building a strong music industry during times of intense c

They say that running multiple stores means more work for less money. That’s because this is generally true. So, in true confessions style, I’ll share some things I’ve learned and dealt with as we’ve grown from a single location to a company with five locations. It’s scary. Are your systems good enough to handle more locations? Are you good enough? Obviously, you’ve had success up to this point, which is why you got this knuckleheaded idea of expanding. But once you do it and you’re in a new market and reality sets in (along with the onslaught of bills, which always seem to outpac

You’ve stocked your store with the right products. It looks fine, but you might be confusing customers and missing out on critical sales—all because of poor merchandising. At the 2014 NAMM Show, Tracy Leenman of Musical Innovations offered 10 simple and effective merchandising tips you can use right away to increase your sales and customer satisfaction. Leenman's rule of thumb: “Display for the uninitiated first-time customer. Look around your store, and pretend you’ve never been there before.” Don’t underestimate the power of merchandising.

In less than one minute, Tracy Leenman of Musical Innovations shares her big idea: Get involved in your local chamber of commerce. Leenman hosted a business after-hours event through her chamber of commerce in August 2012. The event brought 200 people to her store’s parking lot. “One band director ended up bringing his whole marching band,” she says. Her instrument rentals were up 20 percent from the previous year. “People have already asked us to schedule another business after-hours for this August.” ​Watch the video.

When was the last time you did a mirror test to make sure your business was still alive and breathing? With the rising influence of e-commerce and economic pressures, how do you keep your business relevant and focused? ​At the 2014 NAMM Show, Jeffrey Hayzlett—global business celebrity and host of Bloomberg Television’s “C-Suite”—offered no-nonsense marketing, management, sales and customer engagement techniques to help you surge ahead in today’s changing business climate. He asked the tough questions most business owners are afraid to ask and gave the answers you need to hear.

Today's digitally armed consumers have adopted showrooming as part of the buying process. Using brick-and-mortar stores to check out products and later purchase them online is becoming more common and will influence 19 percent of all sales by 2016. Amazingly, 80 percent of retailers expect to be impacted by showrooming, but only one in 10 has a plan to combat it. Brick-and-mortar retailers have gone to extremes to prevent this. I once saw a retailer post a sign that said, “There's a $5 charge for looking, which will be credited to any purchase you make before you leave the store.”

Donovan Bankhead of Springfield Music shares his big idea: Use Google Apps to stay organized and improve your business. He's used this service at his music stores to do everything from share sales procedures with his team to organize his company's many promotional events. He adds, "They have a free program, and then you can also scale it up with a paid program if you need to." ​Watch the video.

Today's customer has less and less time for shopping. The vast majority consider shopping a chore—and a stressful one at that—so they place a huge premium on convenience. Is your store merchandised in a way that contributes to that stress, or is it set up to provide each customer with an enjoyable, stress-free shopping experience? You want customers to be comfortable in your store and able to find what they need easily. The more comfortable they are, the more time and money they will spend with you. Here are some quick and easy ideas for making your store more shopper-friendly: Gi

Did you know that the simple act of communicating can make a big difference to your store’s bottom line? Communicating effectively with your employees will strengthen key relationships and your business. Committed employees become ambassadors for your store and your relationships with customers. How do you turn less-than-enthusiastic staff into super-committed, customer-service centric team members? By applying the same principles to these “internal customers” as you do to your external customers. Think about all you do to give your customers a positive and memorable retail experi

Key management and operations strategies from "40 Tips for Music Professionals 40 and Under"—a NAMM U session presented at The NAMM Show 2013. The session was hosted by Ryan West (pictured), Cris Behrens and CJ Averwater of NAMM YP (Young Professionals). Use this as a checklist, and share it with your employees. 1. Take advantage of ÜberConference. It's a free conference calling service for up to five people. 2. Use Google Analytics. Whether you're an e-tailer, manufacturer or hosting a retail brochure site, Google Analytics is your friend. Google Analytics has great information a