Known nationwide as the Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs has recently come out with a new book – The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing your Business. The book’s target audience is small retail businesses of all kinds; from mom-and-pop stores, to franchise businesses to chain stores and even service businesses.
After reading the book this past week, I was particularly struck by two points that resonate throughout the book.
First, the author breaks down the personality types of both your employees and your customers into two main types: Thinkers and Feelers. Thinkers are controlled by the brain and Feelers are controlled by the heart. He further breaks these personality types down by categorizing Thinkers into two types: Drivers (independent, decisive, confident, extrovert, etc.) and Analytical (independent, logical, steady, introvert, etc.). The Feelers are also broken down into two types: Expressive (dependent, talker, spontaneous, extrovert, etc.) and Amiable (dependent, peacemakers, introvert, loyal, etc.) These four sub-categories are successfully used throughout the book as examples of how to treat both your employees and your customers differently. I like the way the author consistently applies these personality types in developing solutions to some the common problems faced by retail business owners today.
The book also does a nice job in summarizing each chapter with a list of five to six action items – things to do immediately after reading the chapter which will improve your business today. I particularly like this type of chapter summary because it gives the reader definitive and immediate ways to improve their condition without having to do the heavy lifting of translating the book’s contents into action items.
For the thousands of retail owners who struggle with growing their businesses, The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business is a must-read. Read it today and you should be able to implement changes that will grow your bottom line results starting tomorrow.
