With that much of your annual volume in play, planning for a successful season is critical.

Elly Valas is the co-author of Guerrilla Retailing and educational consultant to Nationwide Rent Direct and Nationwide PrimeTime! Contact her with your thoughts or comments at elly@ellyvalas.com or at 303/316-7569. Visit her website at www.ellyvalas.com.

It seems like from one day to the next, Summer has given way to Fall. The days are shorter, the nights are cooler and the leaves are beginning to turn. Pumpkins and squash have replaced the last of the local peaches and tomatoes at the farmer’s market. The first snow has fallen on the Colorado Rockies and we’re well into football season.



These changes also mean that the holiday selling season is just around the corner. According the National Retail Federation, retailers sell as much as 20% of their products between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some consumer electronics dealers will sell nearly that much again between Christmas and the Super Bowl.



With that much of your annual volume in play, planning for a successful season is critical. Get out ahead of the curve while you have time to really develop a plan to bring customers in and ensure that they get what they need.



Plan your promotions. Set your budget and make your media buys, finalize your themes, make sure you have sales tags and other point of purchase materials for every campaign.



Hold your VIP customer events early in the season so that your customers buy from you before others begin heavily promoting. Invite your suppliers to help on the floor.



Publish your promotional calendar throughout the organization. Establish your plan to sell with promotional, good, better and best offerings in all categories.



Share your plans with your suppliers. Forecast your inventory requirements so that you have key promotional and step-to models available throughout the season. If there are shortages, vendors may be willing to do more for dealers who tried to predict their best-case scenarios than for those who only bought what they thought they could get by with.



Check out your team. Do you have the right players in the right positions?



Now is the time to beef up your training. Remember to including refresher programs on the application process, basic selling skills, adding accessories, finalizing agreements and customer service.



Make sure your team members have all taken time off so that they’re ready for the frenzy.



If you need additional sales associates or delivery teams, add them now when you have time to thoroughly train them. You’ll find better candidates than if you wait ‘til others start recruiting holiday workers.



Each year consumers leave millions of dollars of products in their “shopping carts” because they can’t get them rung up quickly. Make sure you have enough support people to get merchandise written up promptly and delivered and installed properly.



Outside In. A recent study by America’s Research Group indicated that younger customers will decide whether or not to buy at a retailer solely by its exterior. Don’t turn potential buyers into shoppers.



Clean your parking lot and refresh your store signage. Make sure that banners look fresh and inviting.



Merchandise your store. This is your biggest party of the year so spiff up your showroom so that you look your best. Clean your carpets and windows and refresh any worn price tags and point of purchase materials. Touch up nicked paint and replace damaged ceiling tiles.



Make sure your product displays are in good repair and that all of your lighting is working.



Check your holiday decorations now. It’s one thing to have a Christmas tree with a retro ‘50s look but quite another to throw one up with mismatched ornaments and lights or with missing branches.



Fix it now. There’s nothing worse than having a loaded truck stuck on the side of the road during your busiest season. Put some extra effort into routine truck maintenance. Stock trucks with cables and accessories that may be needed to complete installations.



Get out of your office. If you’re reading this, you’re probably an owner or a store manager. Managers throughout the Disney organization are not allowed to have any meetings for more than 15 minutes during their busy season from Spring break through Labor Day.



Support your team members and get onto the floor with them. Listen to what your customers are saying. See if your promotions are working and change them if you need to. Watch your inventory levels from the store level instead of from 30,000 feet.



The holiday season is getting harder and harder to predict. On the one hand, retailers practically jump into the season as soon as Back-co-School sales end. At the same time, some customers push off buying later and later in hopes of falling prices.



Whether you feel better with “Happy Holidays” or with “Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Joyous Kwanza” the season is here. Dealers with the best planning and execution, who capture their customers first will still get the biggest share of the pie.

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RTO Magazine is the leading rent to own industry print publication.