Urgency: If You Don’t Have It, You’re Losing Sales

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URGENCY: IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT, YOU’RE LOSING SALES

Let me ask you a question: How much money is your store losing because your employees don’t have a sense of urgency?

You may never see it on a financial statement. There won’t be a line item that says “Lost Sales Due to Lack of Urgency.” But I can assure you, it is there.

It is in the customer who walked in and wasn’t greeted.
It is in the customer who asked a question and had to wait for an answer.
It is in the quote that wasn’t followed up.
It is in the phone call that was put off until tomorrow.
It is in the customer who was ready to buy but couldn’t find anyone who seemed interested in helping them.

And perhaps most damaging of all, it is in the employee who has learned that “good enough” is good enough.

Let’s be blunt: Your employees will perform at the level you expect, inspect, and tolerate.

If you tolerate employees standing around, they will stand around.

If you tolerate slow follow-up, you will get slow follow-up.

If you tolerate excuses, you will get excuses.

If you tolerate a lack of enthusiasm, you will have a store that feels like a place where employees work rather than a place where customers want to shop.

And if you tolerate a lack of urgency, don’t be surprised when your sales lack urgency too.

Urgency does not mean running around the store like your hair is on fire. It doesn’t mean pressuring customers or making them feel uncomfortable. Urgency means understanding that opportunities have a shelf life.

That customer standing in front of you right now may never come back.

That phone call you plan to make tomorrow may be too late.

That customer who asked for a quote may be talking to your competitor tonight.

That salesperson who says, “I’ll follow up with them later” may discover that “later” turned into never.

Retail is a business of opportunities, and opportunities disappear when nobody acts on them.

IT STARTS WITH THE OWNER

Owners and managers need to take a hard look in the mirror.

You cannot demand urgency from your employees while demonstrating complacency yourself.

If you spend the morning behind a desk, disappear into the office, take forever to make decisions, or constantly postpone things that need to be done, your employees are getting a very clear message:

“There’s no hurry around here.”

Your behavior is training your employees whether you realize it or not.

If you want urgency, bring urgency to the building.

Walk the floor. Talk to customers. Ask questions. Follow up. Set goals. Check results. Recognize people who take action. Deal immediately with problems that are costing you sales.

Make it obvious that today matters.

STOP CONFUSING ACTIVITY WITH URGENCY

One of the biggest mistakes managers make is believing that a busy employee is necessarily a productive employee.

They’re not the same thing.

Someone can spend eight hours doing paperwork, organizing a drawer, rearranging merchandise, checking email, and talking with coworkers and accomplish very little that produces a sale.

Urgency asks a different question:

“What are you doing right now that has the potential to move the business forward?”

Call the customer.

Send the quote.

Follow up on yesterday’s opportunity.

Greet the customer.

Ask for the appointment.

Ask for the sale.

Help another salesperson.

Solve the problem.

Do something!

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

If you want urgency, measure the behaviors that create results.

How many customers were contacted today?

How many follow-ups were completed?

How many appointments were scheduled?

How many customers were actually engaged?

What was the closing ratio?

What was the average transaction?

What opportunities were lost, and why?

What gets measured gets attention. What gets ignored usually gets ignored.

And don’t wait until the end of the month to discover that your numbers are bad. By then, the opportunities are gone.

Managers need to know what is happening today—not just what happened last month.

MAKE URGENCY PART OF YOUR CULTURE

The goal isn’t to have one frantic sales meeting where everyone gets excited and then returns to business as usual.

The goal is to create a culture where urgency becomes normal.

Where employees don’t wait to be told to help a customer.

Where follow-up happens because that’s simply how business is done.

Where managers don’t have to chase people to complete basic responsibilities.

Where employees understand that every customer matters, every opportunity matters, and every day matters.

Your competitors are not sitting around waiting for business to come to them.

Why should you?

The retail world has changed. Customers have more choices than ever, and they can take their money somewhere else with the click of a button. You cannot afford to give them a reason to do it.

So take a hard look at your store.

Walk in tomorrow morning as if you were a customer seeing it for the first time.

Do you see energy?

Do you see people engaged?

Do you see employees taking action?

Do you see managers leading from the floor?

Or do you see people waiting for something to happen?

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If your store doesn’t have a sense of urgency, your customers will eventually find a store that does.

Urgency isn’t about working faster.

It’s about understanding that the opportunity in front of you today may not be there tomorrow—and acting accordingly.

Be sure to go to https://principlesforbusinessandlife.com/ – click on Our Viewpoint Newsletter and read a terrific article Titled:

The Value of Showing Up – By Bryan Dodge of Dodge Development

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