FGX International’s Post

Retailers are planning for a busy Memorial day weekend! Here are my tips for #storemanagers below. 1. Always protect your peak hours. Look at LY SPH and Traffic, even though it might not be the same this year, it gives you a good baseline. Use Reflex to quickly get the coverage you need to maximize sales and convert. 2. Anticipate call outs and teams being late. This will lead to missed sales budgets, so having Reflex associates scheduled prevents any missed opportunities! 3. Get in early to refresh your floors, highlight sale/promo signage. Change mannequins & fill the floor with higher stacks/ more product to drive key products/classifiactions you need to push. Don’t schedule your sales team to come in early taking away from their selling time- instead use Reflex associates to help with the early floor moves, markdowns and coverage to help your team sell more! #retail #retailleadership #management #retailing #leadership #selling #staff #reatilworkers #share #tips

🔥 Day 32 at Associated Packaging, Inc. 🔥 “It does not pay to try to get the business all at once. In the first place, you can’t get it, so a good deal of your money is thrown away. In the second place, if you did get it, the factory could not handle it. And in the third place, if you did get it, you could not hold it. A company that gets business too quickly acts just about as a boy does who gets money too quickly.” - Harvey Firestone Friday Recap 📣 - Houston TX customer call via teams in Starbucks halfway to my morning call - Morning warehouse walk call in Allen, TX - Teams call with multi location national account buyer interested in several pieces of machinery and materials - week closing and look ahead planning One of the best things about sharing my 100 days journey and my goals 👉 Instant, real accountability. And because I do what I say I’m gonna do, here I am and here I will be. #LetsGo #ThePackagingPeople ————————————————————— P.S. Hit 🔔 and join me 4 my first 100 days 👈 Follow me Chris Hardwick 📦 🧠 for more on #growthmindset, #sales, #leadership, #packaging, and #fatherhood.

Jennifer Engelking: Culture Warrior Meets Road Warrior Today I received an absolutely awesome e-mail from one of our fantastic T-Mobile Retail Store Managers. Let me share a few excerpts from the e-mail. "The level of compassion and understanding she has for her people is unmeasurable." "Jen is always consistent with her energy and her leading by example mentality; you can literally feel Jen's love and dedication for T-Mobile just radiating off her." "Not only does she provide excellent general support for her leaders and stores, but she actively goes above and beyond by rolling up her sleeves and taking the reins with customers whenever possible." The e-mail went on and on, with admiration, pride, and gratefulness for Jennifer's leadership. Thank you for sharing it Abbie. Jennifer is a CULTURE WARRIOR but she is also a ROAD WARRIOR. In retail leadership you can't be a CULTURE WARRIOR without also being a ROAD WARRIOR, it simply doesn't work. My friend Gary Harmon wrote a book recently called "Sales Made Simple...Starring You." The first chapter is titled GO SEE THE PEOPLE. The entire premise of the first chapter is that successful sales are made by building relationships by seeing people IN PERSON. Retail field leadership is no different, you have to GO SEE YOUR PEOPLE. Retail leaders win in culture by being in the fire with their team, oftentimes when the flames are red hot. Whether it be a busy sales floor, a customer escalation, a delicate employee situation, or just being a wind at the back of the team when they need it the most. The very best retail field leaders are right in the middle of it all, providing steady guidance and constant encouragement. They deliver great results because of culture, not despite culture, and that culture comes from being there with high frequency. 8-10 oil changes per year is likely the minimum price of admission. ROAD WARRIORS for their people because they are CULTURE WARRIORS for their people. Thank you Jennifer. Your retail leadership peers salute you.

The 4 skills crucial to the supply chain leader of the future. The one that I found most striking? Comfort with ambiguity. I find it critical to embracing change instead of protecting the status quo. #supplychain #optimization #leadership

Transforming Perceptions Sales careers often get a bad rap. Yet, many of the most successful leaders began in sales. Here are five who exemplify how sales skills lead to extraordinary achievements. 📌 Warren Buffett He started by selling securities. Now, he’s one of the world’s richest men. Sales taught him invaluable lessons about people and markets. 📌 Howard Schultz From Sales Representative to CEO of Starbucks. Howard’s early sales experience shaped his vision for a global coffee empire. 📌 Nick Woodman Nick began selling necklaces on the beach. He went on to create GoPro, revolutionisng how we capture and share our lives. 📌 Gary Vaynerchuk Gary sold baseball cards. He built his family's wine business and now owns multiple successful companies. Sales was his foundation. 📌 Anne Mulcahy Anne started as a Sales Representative at Xerox. She rose to CEO, proving that sales expertise is crucial for leadership. These stories remind us: sales skills are invaluable. They teach resilience, customer empathy, and strategic thinking. Let's keep selling and scaling businesses to new heights. #sales #revenue #careergrowth #career #ceo

This is tough news; Mike was a retail legend. One of my favorite training sessions - several mid and senior leaders spent two days with Mike and our CHRO at the time. He did this often, without interruptions. He invested in people. He taught the way he led, not through bragging or taking credit or trying to be the smartest person in the room (though often, he was). Instead, he shared stories of how and when he failed, what he learned, and inspired others to reach a bit higher than they thought was possible. A couple of years later, I was recruited by a competitor - during the process, a senior executive said, "Mike sure likes the camera; he gives a lot of interviews!" Interestingly, during this leadership training, he had told us why he would do these interviews. He explained that not only was he speaking with shareholders, but with over 155,000 associates (at the time), oftentimes the only way that these associates would hear what was going on was through one of these articles. It wasn’t ego - it was his desire to connect with his people. He talked about his "Sunday emails." He would make notes about the current business and what was upcoming, what was on his mind. For himself mainly, but since he was doing it anyway, he would send them to the board. He rarely would hear back, so he didn't really know if they were reading it. One Sunday, he wasn't feeling great, so he didn't put a note together - and around midday, he started to receive messages: "Is everything ok? Are we getting our update?" His point was that even when people don't acknowledge that they are listening, oftentimes they are. I've often thought about sending him a note and thanking him for the lessons learned. I wish I had. I know that there are hundreds, maybe more who have benefitted from his leadership and learnings, and I know that what he taught will continue to impact retail positively. He will be missed.

Kroger Management Share Group! Join us June 11th & 12th A new Share Group designed to address the interest and curiosity stemming from the recent marketplace developments involving Kroger/Albertson’s. Presenting CPG companies with a unique opportunity to benefit from peer-to-peer interaction, engagement, and exchanges of insights related to Challenges, Approaches, Best Practices, Supportive Resources, and more…. WHAT ARE THEY DISCUSSING: ·        Org Structure and Role Development specific to Kroger/Albertson’s ·        Strategies for partnering with Kroger (short & longer term) ·        Management of Direct Sales Personnel ·        Broker/Agency Management ·        Retail Coverage considerations, plans, alignment, and approach ·        Retail Landscape (Food Channel and other key retailer influences) ·        Financial Management ·        Supply Chain Influences, Considerations and Approaches ·        Additional Resources Utilized ·        And more WHO PARTICIPATES? ·        Team Leaders ·        NAM’s ·        Directors/VP’s ·        Sales Analysts ·        Business Development Manager Contact us Today! #Kroger #Krogermanagement #Sharegroup

Can Anyone Relate? 🤔 Former and current Retail Leaders - Does anyone else have their "head on a swivel" everywhere you go??? People look at me like I am sketchy but I am just being hyper-aware of my surroundings. You just never know anymore... #retail #management #business #awareness #sales #retailmanagement

🔥 Day 27 at Associated Packaging, Inc. ❄️🔥… I am listening to “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins. You may also know that I lead a free outdoor men’s boot camp twice a week in Southlake, TX at 5:30AM. 💪 “A true leader stays exhausted, abhores arrogance, and never looks down on the weakest link. He fights for his men and leads by example. That’s what it means to be uncommon among uncommon.” - David Goggins Setting the example, I committed to being there this morning knowing the weather forecast. The 3 men who showed up to be with me pushed their limits and found that they are stronger and more resilient than they thought they were. ⚔️ But, what did I do Friday? 😜 - Took a call on a customer parking lot - Measuring & pics at customer warehouse for renovation project (yep, we do that!) - Supplier lunch w/ a great partner 🥗 - Close out and week ahead planning One of the best things about sharing my 100 days journey and my goals 👉 Instant, real accountability. And because I do what I say I’m gonna do, here I am and here I will be. #LetsGo #ThePackagingPeople ————————————————————— P.S. Hit 🔔 and follow my first 100 days 👈 Follow me Chris Hardwick 📦 🧠 for more on #growthmindset, #sales, #leadership, #packaging, and #fatherhood.