By Harry J. Friedman Founder/CEO, The Friedman Group

Super Sales, Mega-Sales, Extravaganzas. These are not ordinary sales, but strategic marketing events designed to attract attention to your organization, and drive in sales of unheard of numbers. If orchestrated properly, these kinds of events can prove to be a very profitable endeavor, as demonstrated by one bicycle retailer, who generated over one million dollars in sales in just five days. ___________(publication name) recently talked with internationally acclaimed retail authority, Harry J. Friedman about his experience assisting retail clients in putting on a mega-sale.

I understand we're talking about no small affair. How do you go about making the Mega-Sale successful beyond your wildest dreams?

Mr. Friedman: It certainly is no small affair! There are three major factors you need to concern yourself with. One, how do you drive an inordinate number of customers into the store for the sale? Two, what are you going to sell and at what price, and how are you going to dress the store? And three, how are you going to handle the logistical details of the event and motivate your salespeople to sell their socks off?

Let's start with the first factor. How do you go about driving customers into the store?

Mr. Friedman: Database marketing is the absolute key to success. Send a splashy direct mail piece to your house list, those customers that know who you are and have shopped in your store. I'd even go so far as to advise against holding a mega-sale if you don't have a fairly strong house list to begin with. If your house list is active but small, it can be supplemented with rented lists from a list broker. Run ads, too. Pull out all the stops to get as many people as possible to visit your store within the mega-sale period.

You mentioned merchandising and dressing the store as the second factor. What exactly do you mean?

Mr. Friedman: The public wants to see spectacular deals at a mega-sale. Go to your vendors and say, "What do you have in stock-any item, any brand, anything that you want to get rid of and would take just about anything for?" You'll feature the items at a certain price and return what's left after the sale. They'll fill your store with goods and even take back what doesn't sell. Then you have to merchandise your goods like you want to sell them. Fill 50-gallon trash cans with amazing bargains-two for a dollar, four for five dollars, and so forth. In most cases you can double or triple your cost. But to the customer, it still looks like a 50% savings or more. Incredible deals throughout the store make customers go nuts. People just can't resist bargains.

I'm the kind of person who thrives on creating a show. I learned a lot from Colton Piano & Organ back in 1982. They really knew how to stage an event. They had all of their merchandise out in the parking lot, with a band playing, and a big truck full of bread and eggs that they were selling for 25¢ a loaf or dozen. And they would take anything in trade for a piano or organ. A guy would come in with a tire and they'd give him $10 for it on trade. It was just ridiculous.

Hold an hourly auction. Pick an item and say, "Who'll give me a nickel, who'll give me a dollar," and so on. It gets everyone's attention and if it sells for a fairly good price over wholesale, ask, "How many more of you want one at that price. We have six available." You'll move them out.

I have clients buy 2,500 helium balloons, hang banners and streamers, anything to make their event spectacular. Musicians, magicians-the sky's the limit in making the sale entertaining. You know it's a success if you get complaints from your neighbors because your store is causing havoc.

And then you have to worry about how to handle all of this frenzy, right?

Mr. Friedman: Right. Be ready for a lot of people. Back in 1985, at a hugely successful bicycle store called Two-Wheel Transit Authority, we had a fire marshal regulate how many people could enter the store and had a line halfway around the block to get in. This made people even more anxious to buy. We served cold drinks and passed out free books to the people in line, just to settle them down. It's also a good idea to post guards at the exits to curb shoplifting. You'll want to rent extra cash registers and staff them with temps so salespeople never have to waste time ringing up sales. If you want individual salespeople to be able to get credit for sales they can write up sales slips or bag merchandise for customers and attach their sales numbers to them. It may require some thinking, but it can be done.

How do you handle that many customers with the staff you've got? Even if you hire temps, they don't know the products and can't be of much use.

Mr. Friedman: Right. So you go to your vendors. Have reps work in the area of their expertise, but the rule is that they can't sell their brand over another if it doesn't serve the customer. Pay them a wage for the days they work. That wage is their contract to behave like a salesperson, not a rep. The biggest problem you can have is being understaffed. If it's too much of a hassle to get some help or make a purchase, you may end up losing more customers than you gain. Put the salespeople in bright T-shirts or anything that will make them easily identifiable. Managers don't sell during the sale. They're better served to roam the floor and keep things happening. And set up food on-site for employees to grab a quick bite.

Take advantage of all the new customers who attend and capture their names for your database. Whether you use a drawing or instant credit accounts, get their names. Try blue-light specials, sirens, bells, special announcements over a PA. Make it a circus. You're not going to hurt your image.

How do you get the salespeople motivated for this? I mean, they might just perceive it as a big hassle.

Mr. Friedman: That's easy. The greatest trick I ever came up with was at Two-Wheel. We set up goals for the store and departments. This was an annual event, so they had sales figures for the previous year, as well. There were huge signs hanging on a wall in the store that customers couldn't figure out. They had three numbers on them: sales last year at that time, sales needed to reach the goal, and current sales. I had them bleed the registers every two hours and report the new sales numbers. Then I had a manager circulate throughout the store and tell every single salesperson where they stood in terms of reaching the goal. There was a bonus pool that was divided based on hours worked, your position and the department's performance. Two-Wheel was more than slightly successful with their sale. The first year they did $191,000, the second $585,000 and the third $1,100,000. Now what would you be willing to give out to the employees if you had those kind of sales in three to five days? Well, on the second year, Paul Moore, the owner, threw a party the night after the sale to celebrate its success and handed out $25,000 in cash. He called up each person and counted out 100-dollar bills into their hands. At Ocean Enterprises, Werner Kurn was able to track individual sales, so he set up a store in his back room with bicycles, tents, and all kinds of other merchandise that appealed to his employees. He got all of the merchandise at cost from his buddies in the retail community. Each sale earned points to go shopping in this store. The employees loved it!

Another clever thing we did at Two-Wheel was to come up with a slogan for the sale like, "One Up and One More." That meant that if a customer was looking at a $30 item, you had to show him a $40 one, too, and then try to add on. We sent mystery shoppers in constantly and if salespeople showed "one up and one more", they were handed a certificate worth $25 in cash. The key is to make it exciting for the staff. If they're up and making it fun, then the customers will have fun buying.

So it's no easy trick to pull off one of these events, is it?

Mr. Friedman: No, it's a lot of work and attention to detail, but well worth the effort. I always tell clients to videotape the store at different times during the sale so they can review how it went and make improvements for the next sale. Otherwise you'll never remember what you could have done to make it better a year later. Again, if you're going to do it, do it big and do it right. The mega-sale truly embodies what retail can be. Picture this scene in your store-customers buying in a frenzy, your salespeople selling like mad and more fun than you could have ever imagined. Make it happen.