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The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business: A Step-by-Step Approach to Quickly Diagnose, Treat, and Cure [Paperback]

Bob Phibbs
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 3, 2010

It's one of the toughest economies in years, but don't fear-the doctor is in

Are you among the thousands of retailers frustrated by market challenges and looking for ways to take control of your business? Are you looking for the advice of an expert consultant, but unable to spend the money? Then The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business is for you.

By providing a step-by-step approach to evaluate your current business practices, The Retail Doctor offers professional guidance

  • Redesign your organizational structure
  • Reap the maximum returns on your investment
  • Keep your business financially healthy

Following the advice in these pages will help you devise a sound strategy to accomplish your goals and outperform your competitors. You'll also gain clear insight into all areas of human resource management, sales training, merchandising methods, and marketing.

While your competitors are looking for a magic bullet to solve their problems, with The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business, you can be making changes that will guarentee enormous returns and financial success.


Frequently Bought Together

The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business: A Step-by-Step Approach to Quickly Diagnose, Treat, and Cure + Guerrilla Retailing: Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits from Your Retail Business  (Guerrilla Marketing Series) + The New Rules of Retail: Competing in the World's Toughest Marketplace
Price for all three: $59.03

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Editorial Reviews

Review

‘‘DON’T BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE A COMPETITOR OF MINE!—but otherwise Bob Phibbs has great advice that that will enable you to make more money and have a successful business.’’
—Tom Sullivan, Chairman/Founder, Lumber Liquidators

‘‘There’s no denying that retailers have taken a beating lately. But the smart ones find a way to stop the bleeding and start looking ahead for new opportunities. With his plainspoken style and real-world anecdotes, Bob Phibbs gets back to basics and provides a helpful guide for entrepreneurs determined to survive the current downturn—and position themselves for the next big upswing.’’
—Rod Kurtz, Senior Editor, Inc. magazine

‘‘Everyone knows that it is important to gain sales, but most do not know what that really takes or how to do it. This book will lead you on a journey that describes, analyzes, and provides real world examples how to really affect change with your business. If you will follow the treatment given, you’ll be rewarded with the most important measures of a business’s success—profits, not just sales.’’
—Georgette Mosbacher, President and CEO, Borghese Cosmetics

‘‘Bob Phibbs presents more useful information in his typically direct and thought-provoking style that challenges you to really assess the performance of your business, your employees, and most importantly yourself. We often talk about personality types in leadership training and development, but it is not typically thought about in relation to the customer. Bob shows how these personality types play a role for you, your employees, and your customer, and how it can be most useful in looking for new approaches.’’
—Kurt Rachdorf, Retail Operations Senior Manager, LEGO

‘‘Phibbs’ no-nonsense approach to understanding your business and how to improve it is direct and refreshing. The concept of being objective and taking responsibility for your business can quickly make all the difference between success and failure, and Bob brings that to the table right from the start of this book. Great inspiration for any business owner!’’
—Jeff Janke, Vice President, Retail Alliance Programs, Hunter Douglas Window Fashions

‘‘Bob blends his extensive retail experience and his direct style to tell it like it is. As retailers, we may not always likewhat he says, but it’s hard to argue with the basics of running a successful business. In a market influenced by almost endless competition for the consumer’s dollar, retailers need to continually ask themselves tough questions about what TRULY differentiates their offering. Bob effectively reminds us of this hard reality. Bob’s analytical approach allows us to better understand the filter throughwhichwe see our businesses. Only by adjusting our focus are we able to evaluate the true state of affairs.
—Alistair Linton, Director of Retail Development, Benjamin Moore Paints

‘‘During my 30 years in the small business arena, Bob stands out as a ‘pro’s pro’ in retail marketing. If you’re determined to accelerate your growth, his street-smart book is a must. Buy it, read it, do it!’’
—Steve Olson, Publisher, Franchise Update Media Group

‘‘Phibbs’ new book addresses everything necessary to take the pulse of your retail operation so you can find the cure. Whether it’s managing staff, merchandising, or producing real sales, it prescribes a hands-on, real world, step-by-step approach to managing your business. Good news! The Doctor is in the house.’’
—Joseph Dagley, Yamaha Motor University

‘‘Bob Phibbs has been my go-to retail expert for many years and his book shows why: he draws from a deep well of knowledge, presenting his advice in practical, easy-to-digest fashion. By explaining how entrepreneurs can evaluate themselves and their customers, Phibbs tailors this book to specific individual types that retailers will be quick to recognize. This is not a shallow primer, but a comprehensive prescription from The Retail Doctor1.’’
—Karen E. Klein, Small Business Columnist, BusinessWeek.com and the Los Angeles Times

‘‘Nothing in business is guaranteed. However, The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing your Business is guaranteed to help you gain insight into the do’s and don’ts of successful retailing. Consider this book your survival manual to compete in the challenging world of retail.’’
—Dean F. Shulman Sr., Vice President, Brother International

‘‘If you want to grow your business, the book in your hand right now is the place to start. Bob Phibbs is one of the top retail experts in the country; he’s not called The Retail Doctor1 for nothing. This step-by-step guide will show you—using real life examples and savvy strategies—just how to get from here to where you want to be. My prescription for small business success is to read The Retail Doctor’s1 Guide to Growing Your Business.’’
—Steven D. Strauss, USA Today Small Business Columnist and author of The Small Business Bible.

‘‘Bob’s approach is no-nonsense, and his back-to-basics philosophy is something a lot of retailers need to hear right now. I would advise keeping a highlighter handy.’’
—James Bickers, Senior Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com

From the Back Cover

Help Your Business Thrive with the Retail Doctor!

Are you among the thousands of small businesses frustrated by market challenges, willing to change, but unsure of the right path for your business? Are you looking for the advice of an expert consultant, but unable to spend the money? Then The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business is for you.

Whether you're a mom-and-pop, chain, franchise, or service business, this no-nonsense, accessible guide delivers spot-on advice so you can:

  • Make over your small business to become profitable

  • Effectively market your business online

  • Understand how personality types affect your business

  • Recognize how mark-ups, price points, and discountsaffect your bottom line

  • Avoid the common mistakes merchants make in a downturn

  • Increase your profitability on every transaction

  • And much more!


Product Details

  • Paperback: 246 pages
  • Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (May 3, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0470587172
  • ISBN-13: 978-0470587171
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.7 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bob Phibbs is the Retail Doctor®, an internationally recognized expert on business strategy, customer service, sales, and marketing. With over thirty years experience beginning in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, he has been a corporate officer, franchisor and entrepreneur.

Phibbs is a popular speaker because he knows what business owners are up against since he has started three successful businesses and can deliver the message to "look in the mirror," with a straightforward, witty and detailed process to grow their sales.

Phibbs has creatively helped some of retail's best-known brands and their dealers, including Yamaha, Caswell-Massey, Hunter Douglas, LEGO, and Brother succeed. He has been a frequent guest on MSNBC and is an AMEX OPEN forum contributor. His Advanced Sales Training weekends using his Five Parts to a Successful Sale have boosted stores sales by over 20% within months.

After completing his degree at Chapman University and attending USC, Bob fulfilled an as-yet-untapped dream of wearing cowboy clothes every day while selling high-end boots and hats to the city slickers of Los Angeles County during the height of the Urban Cowboy trend. Bob's part-time job soon became a career, and he built a network of over 55 stores at the top of their industry.

In 1994, Bob started his own consulting company, The Retail Doctor®, with a mission to provide training, inspiration and hope to independent businesses; to teach them how to successfully compete in today's retail environment. By helping a coffee roaster that had been in business 25 years reverse a protracted sales drop-off, compete against a second Starbucks just 75 feet from his front door, and increase sales by 50 percent in one year, Bob found a national audience.

In 1998, the Los Angeles Times courted Bob to perform business makeovers. He began speaking about his success principles, which grew to include manufacturers and trade associations around the world.

Bob provided sales training for the elite Hunter Douglas Gallery alliance program, creating a culture of selling excellence to support a strong national distribution of over 400 dealers. Bob put his successive strategies for improving a business into his first book, You Can Compete: Double Sales Without Discounting.

Bob drank up the next big trend helping It's A Grind Coffee, a startup, first as COO and then as VP of Marketing. Along the way, they grew to over 125 franchised locations nationwide, created a lot of buzz as the featured coffeehouse on ShowTime's Weeds. Phibbs helped make it the second-fastest growing company in Los Angeles County two years running according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. 



Phibbs programs and his work have been featured on PBS Life & Times, Entrepreneur magazine, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He received the Greatest Increase in Sales Award for his work with a specialty-clothing retailer at South Coast Plaza in Southern California, the highest per-square-foot grossing mall in the world. 


Bob owns his own publishing firm, is a member of the Author's Guild, the National Retail Federation, and National Speakers Association. www.retaildoc.com

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
(12)
4.8 out of 5 stars
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Excellent, easy to read, easy to understand, easy to implement. slame1  |  5 reviewers made a similar statement
This will be in my permanent reference library for years to come. Dana Tisdale  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Let's face it: most business books have one good, solid idea- ok, maybe two- and the rest of the book is just fluff. The Retail Doctor's new Guide to Growing Your Business One of the least-fluffy business books I've read... I was going to say "in a long time", but I think I can just say "period.". This has become a new addition to the required reading list for my retail management staff, along with "First, Break All the Rules" (Buckingham & Coffman) and "It's Ok to be the Boss" (Tulgan). Well written, good ideas that can be applied both short- and long-term, and a variety of real-world examples without becoming bogged down in a litany of case studies. Do I agree with everything the Retail Doctor has to say in this book? No. Will you? Probably not. The point of this, as with all business books in my experience, is to find that one, maybe two good ideas and put them into action in ways that make sense for you. This Guide has a goodly number of solid, actionable ideas and a bit of a wake-up call (perhaps more of a "kick in the behind") to get beyond the "oh, we should do that" stage and into the "we're doing this" stage. The Retail Doc really helped me move from "thinking about" to actually acting to improve my store and improve my business. He can do the same for you.

I have been following the Retail Doctor's thinking for awhile, and this book is a good synergy of his ideas, both old and new, all written in his nice, snappy writing style. As my Dad might say, well worth the price of admission.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars How to save your business from this bad economy! August 13, 2010
Format:Paperback
The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing your Business, a step by step approach to quickly diagnose, treat, and cure by Bob Phibbs is just that - the book you need to treat your business from the fall out due to the economy.

When we are sick, we try to treat ourselves, we ask friends what we can do and we try anything to avoid going to the doctor. Putting off treatment until it is so bad we have to run to the emergency room or make a doctor's appointment. Don't do this to your business!

Even if you think your business is thriving right now, use this book to learn how to do a quick diagnosis of your business, how it is doing, how your bottom line looks, how your vendors and customers are doing and how your employees are doing so that you can make an educated decision on treatment before its to late. Bob shares ideas and tips you can use once you diagnose your business on ways to treat your business and cure it from this happening again.

Bob shares information on how to hire and choose employees and why that is beneficial to your business and your bottom line, learn about the stages of training, the anatomy of a retail store, sales, finances and all of the aspects that create the "guts" of your business. Learn how to keep those "guts" healthy, immune to sickness and how to make them thrive.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't wait for a rainy day to read this book! July 27, 2010
Format:Paperback
The Retail Doctor's "Guide to Growing your Business" is a must read by any retail manager or proprietor, and you should not wait until your small business needs a doctor to explore this book! Bob Phibbs' valuable personal experience as the Retail Doctor advising business owners is now accessible in his new book....read full review at [...].
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars I reread many parts more than once! So helpful
This book was recomened by my manager. I found it easy to read and refer back too. We have purchased more copies for other employees to read. Most helpful was ... Read more
Published 1 month ago by lynn
4.0 out of 5 stars The Retail Doctors - Growing Your Business
This is a guide to retail selling. It provides good practical examples for both existing retailers and those who are starting off in retail. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ken H
5.0 out of 5 stars Retail Doctor is great
I try to put into practice his recommendations- did get his magazine
that was disappointing was like one long advertising

Update; November 10 2012
this is a... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Merrillville Auto Glass
5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Your Business
Great resource for any retail business. Full of usefull guidance and information that we can imediately implement to improve our business. Read more
Published 20 months ago by TSB
5.0 out of 5 stars New Retailer Trying to Start off on the Right Foot
Although I have 20 years of retail experience, this is the first time I have owned my own retail business. Read more
Published on April 9, 2011 by Dana Tisdale
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent information!
Excellent, easy to read, easy to understand, easy to implement. I've been in business for 6 1/2 years and found it very beneficial. Highly recommend!
Published on February 9, 2011 by slame1
5.0 out of 5 stars The Retail Doctor
I sold Office Products and Data Processing Equipment and attended one of the best sales schools
in the business and I learned a lot from this book. Read more
Published on September 3, 2010 by Harold Shipley
4.0 out of 5 stars Skip the info on search engine rankings, but underline and highlight...
I'm looking at this book from a different angle than others who will review it. I want to know if this book really helps small business owners dominate their space on the web. Read more
Published on July 27, 2010 by Doug Stewart
5.0 out of 5 stars The Retail Doctor's Guide to Growing Your Business Review
I have been following Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor, for about a year. After purchasing and reading "You Can Compete: Double Sales Without Discounting", I figured there wasn't... Read more
Published on July 27, 2010 by kyteman4
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