Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM OCTOBER 2017 40 S topped at a light, I read the words on the truck stopped ahead of me: Every good wine starts with a story. This one starts with a farmer. – Tom Gore Vineyards…a farmer's wine. I'm a story enthusiast. I love hearing them as much as I like telling them. Having just returned from a weekend in Napa, the Tom Gore Vineyards truck stopped in front of me spoke to me. I wanted to know the Tom Gore story. According to Tasting Table digital media company, "Tom Gore has been working in wine all his life. It's just that the second-generation grape farmer has been quietly staying behind the scenes, managing 1,400 acres of vineyards in California's Alexander Valley for big- name wineries like Simi and Clos du Bois. That's why we were excited to hear about his new project, Tom Gore Vineyards….It's the first California wine label named for a grape grower." Life is a series of stories strung together. The best kind of communication is telling our stories to others. The more we engage those around us in our stories, the deeper our relationship with them will be. That includes our team members, customers, community and suppliers. Telling a story takes more than just figures to be effective. For example, I remember learning arithmetic two different ways in elementary school. At first we each made our own deck of flash cards—one set for addition and subtraction and another one to memorize our multiplication tables. Every night we went through them over and over until we could answer each one right. Rote memorization at its finest. Later, our math skills advanced when we started to get story problems to solve. Questions like this: Diana is painting statues. She has 7/8 of a gallon of paint remaining. Each statue requires 1/16 of a gallon of paint. How many statues can she paint? Instead of memorization, these problems required critical thinking to solve. They were harder to do, but the learning — the steps required to reduce the fractions and find their common denominator— stuck with me. The stories, not just the numbers, helped me visualize the problem so that I could more easily find the answer. • Tell the story about your company. "Family-owned for 55 years" can be put on a flash card. It's not your story. Your story is how Grandpa Jack came West to seek a new opportunity, worked as a helper to a plumber named Ace, became a mechanic in the Army and came back to start repairing appliances with Ace. Now as a third-generation owner of Ace Appliance, you give the same personalized service, technical expertise, value pricing and exceptional product selection that have been the hallmarks of your company since Ace and Grandpa Jack founded it 55 years ago. Given enough details, your employees and your customers should feel like they personally knew Ace and Grandpa Jack and that they'd been friends for years. • Tell the stories about the products you sell. You don't need a professional sales associate to tell a customer that induction cooking is fast. You can put a list of features like that on a price tag. But the story tells a prospect that an induction stove will boil the water for pasta in a little over 4 minutes—3 minutes faster than an electric range and fully half as long as a gas cooktop—barely giving your family time to get a good whiff of grandma's simmering red sauce and pour themselves a glass of Chianti. Features are flash cards. Benefits are stories. • Tell how you support the community. "Each year, we allocate 15% of our profits to help our neighbors. Our team members submit grant requests to our Giving committee made up of representatives from throughout the Company. Since our founding, we have contributed over $525,000 to groups like the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, International Rescue Committee and the local Boys and Girls Club Chapter." That's a powerful story— reminding your customers why you need to be profitable. • Photos are stories. Hang giant lifestyle pictures around your store to show customers how their life stories might intersect with the products you sell. The more ways your stories humanize your business, the more differentiated you become from your big box competitors. Millennials, in particular, want to buy from people, not big business. Show your custom- ers that you're that farmer who has become a vintner. Elly Valas is an author, speaker and retail consultant. She can be reached at elly@ellyvalas.com or 303-316-7568. Elly Valas Retail Views RO STORY TIME

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