A Tour, An Interview, And A Few “Kerlikisms”
My good friend, Elly Valas, invited me to join her and several members of her association (North American Retail Dealers Association) for a tour of an Atlanta HH Gregg store. HH Gregg is a fast-growing electronics superstore chain, and is new to the Atlanta area, and I readily agreed to Elly’s invitation.
Mike Kerlik conducted the tour, and I was impressed right away by his enthusiasm. I was even more impressed when he said that the HH Gregg culture is for every Team Member to adapt an “I own the company” attitude. It’s exactly what my book, “Building The Dream Workforce,” is all about.
I took notes during the tour, and gave him a copy of my book. A few weeks later, I interviewed Mike one-on-one. Here are a few of the ideas that I picked up from Mike, during the tour and subsequent interview.
Mike talked about several strategies that have helped make HH Gregg successful. In the Atlanta stores, instead of hiding their car stereo installers in the back room, they actually train these valuable Team Members to help sell the car stereo systems. Consumers feel that the installers know more about what would fit best in their car than anyone.
Mike talked about the value of making the Customer feel appreciated. He tells his sales Team, "If you made a decision for a Customer different than you would have for your brother, you've messed up." And there are two words that Mike never wants to hear from an HH Gregg Team Member – “I can’t.”
Mike reinforced my Shazam Nudgin’ philosophy. He stated, “The truest form of advertising is when someone sees your big screen and your friends get excited – and tell people about HH Gregg.” To make Customers do some positive Nudgin’ about your business, you must anticipate their needs. For instance, Mike explained that cables that come with DVD players are too short. “If they don’t have a simple $2 cable, everything that we did goes up in smoke.” So instead of sending the Customer home with the DVD player and a short cord, the HH Gregg sales Team explains the situation to the Customers during the original purchase, and saves them a trip back to the store.
Mike Kerlik does not believe in staying with the status quo. He told me, “We’re always making improvements. We used to do deliveries 2 days out. We have pushed that to same day delivery, and we give you a call 40 minutes ahead of delivery. If we don’t continue to raise the bar, we are in trouble.” He told me, “Mark, I hate evolution – I can’t control that. I agree with your book about the need for revolution.”
I asked Mike my favorite question, “What’s the best mistake you’ve made in business – the one you learned the most from?” He said, “I have discovered the importance of ‘Preparing my bench.’ Sometimes you promote people before they are ready. If you don’t have the right people, the ones you have may make the wrong decisions. It’s the difference that good people make. As leaders, we feel that we all have a 6th sense about people. Whenever you don’t have a bench, they don’t buy into everything. They do sort of a good job, and ‘sort of a good job’ is a problem.”
Here are some other “Shazams” from my visit with Mike (Mike calls some of these “Kerlikisms”):
“Team Members are judged on results - not expectations.”
“Talk to the Customers as they leave the store - walk them out.”
“Managers must be on the sales floor - not in their offices.”
“The key to getting the managers out of their offices is time management.”
“Managers need to spend time teaching, not preaching.”
“It’s not Customer Service until the Customer thinks it’s Customer Service.”
“I’m always recruiting – I don’t usually like to hire people that are currently unemployed.”
“The greatest gift is knowledge.”
I sent this article to Mike, to make sure that I wasn’t revealing anything that HH Gregg wanted to keep private. Luckily, he agreed to the entire article, with one addition. He asked me to add one more Kerlikism, as he pointed out that his great Team is the most important part of his success formula. The additional Kerlikism: " Remain Humble & give the credit to your Team."
During Mike’s tour – and during my interview with him – one theme kept popping up time and time again. When you’re dealing with Customers, Team Members and vendors, the most important skill you can have is the ability to listen. I hope that you’ll “listen” to some of Mike’s philosophy and adapt it to your business.
Mark Mayberry is an international speaker, author, and consultant. Mark wants your input about his newsletter! Please write him at: The Mayberry Group, 6015 Twinpoint Way, Woodstock, Georgia 30189. You can call Mark at (800) 394-6138, or send Mark an E-Mail. (Mark@Markmayberry.com) Visit Mark’s website at www.MarkMayberry.com
