Black Friday Results

Introduction

Well, you made it! Black Friday is in the rear view mirror and I hope you are pleased with your results. If you had successful Black Friday results and achieved your financial plan – CONGRATULATIONS! If you missed the target, DON’T GET DISCOURAGED. The retail season is a marathon, not a sprint. It is the cumulation of the holiday season’s financial results that count!

Question: Why is the windshield in your car larger than the rear view mirror?

Answer: Because what lies ahead is far more important than what lies behind us. Keep this in mind as you begin to evaluate your store’s wins and losses. It is easy to beat ourselves up Over every loss. It doesn’t help us improve. Don’t do it.

High Volume Lies Ahead

Black Friday is only ONE of the ten highest volume and traffic days between now and the new year. Evaluating what your team did well and where there was opportunity is key to driving success for the balance of the peak season.

Reminder: Take a few minutes and slow down to celebrate your wins. While mindfulness might just be viewed as a hip word right now, it is actually important. As humans beings, we rarely slow down enough to take in our accomplishments. (I am so guilty of this!). Your team needs to hear what they did well directly from you. While we never forget our blunders, we need a reminder to celebrate our wins.

Evaluating Black Friday Results

The easiest way to evaluate your Black Friday results is to deconstruct what occurred. I think of this in 4 easy steps. And since it is peak holiday, each step will take 60 seconds. Easiest approach is to evaluate your store in the big buckets:
(1) Staff
(2) Operations
(3) Financial Results

READY, GET SET, GO!

STEP 1: Celebrate the Successes (60 seconds)

Get out a piece of paper and write them down. Every last win you can think of. Big, small, doesn’t matter. Don’t tell yourself – “it’s my job, it’s not a big deal”. Jot down some details because you are looking for trends in what you are doing well.

STEP 2: Consider the Opportunities (60 seconds)

Draw two columns on your paper. The left column is the “Opportunity” and the right column is “How to Address the Opportunity”. This can be super painful so do it fast! The goal here is to address what happened and think through potential ways to fix it in order to turn the opportunities into successes.

STEP 3: Things you never accomplished (60 seconds)

Jot down all the things that you had on your to-do list but just never got around to doing and in neglecting, might have had an impact on your results.

Draw three columns on your paper. The left column is the task that didn’t get done, the middle column is the explanation of why it didn’t get done and the right column is what you will do differently to ensure it gets done. You might need to re-evaluate, or delegate or even follow up more effectively.

STEP 4: Set Goals (60 seconds)

I think we all know, if we don’t set goals, we won’t achieve goals. Don’t leave your holiday success up to chance. Set a few key goals on what you will achieve this holiday.

Then summarize it and share it with your team. When we say it out loud, it becomes real. We become accountable. And who doesn’t love to check off goals as we achieve them?

Action Time

I hope you have found this blog helpful in deconstructing your Black Friday results in an effort to achieve success for the remainder of the peak holiday season. This kind of high volume only comes once a year!

• Take a few minutes to walk through the 4 steps. This is a great way to ensure you are balanced in how you approach your performance.
• Consider taking these steps each week. Don’t overthink it…remember each step is only 60 seconds!
• Share it with peers and your leaders.