By ROB Editors
Reorganizing your frame board canbuild sales, and your frames salesrep can be your best consultant to enhancedframe board profitability.
ROB Bottom Line:
Know the Numbers in Frames Sales
Average Retail Price
$125
Units Sold
66.2 million
Retail Frames Sales
$8.279 billion
American Adults Wearing Eyeglasses
64.1 percent
Gender Breakdown, Frames
Female: 51.5 percent
Male: 48.5 percent
Source: 2009 VisionWatch survey by The Vision Council
Step 1: Analyze What’s Selling Best
Schedule a meeting with your frames vendor, and ask them to present a list of which frames are selling best. Then, have a discussion about what you want your practice image to be compared to which frames are selling best. Determine whether there is a disconnect between yourpractice image and your best selling frames.Your board may say you’re a high-end practice, but your frames vendor has evidence you’re mostly selling mid-priced and discount frames. If you believe your best long-term goal is to focus on higher-end brands, but you know the lower-priced merchandise is still selling best, continue to make the investment in higher-end brands such as Prada and Calvin Klein, but devote, say, 20 percent to 30 percent of your board to value offerings.
It is key as you adjust your frames mix that you invest adequately in the lines you sell. Don’t just sell one or two Prada or Klein frames, sell enough to compose a line of product or a collection.
Step 2 : Get Rid of Dead Wood
Take non-sellers, or frame board dead wood, off the board and into a display area devoted to offloading merchandise via sales and bundled offerings. Now, take a combination of your best sellers and those frames that best illustrate your long-term business plan, and give them prominent placement on your board. The goal is to present your most popular frames so they are the first thing patients see when they look at your board, while not sacrificingyour practice image message.
Step 3:Run a Reality Check
Meet again with your sales rep toassesshowyour board reflects your top sellers, as well as your future aspirations for the practice. Do this by calculating the percentage of frames on your board linked to current top sellers versus the percentage of frames on your board linked to future business plans. Include as many frames as possible that align with your business goal as you can without eroding into current profit. For example, if you still sell mid-priced and value frames the most, create a board that includes, say, 60 percent high-end brands, but leaves 40 percent value frames on the board to ensure current profits continue.
Step 4: Track Performance
Ask your frames reps to help you track sales results for the adjusted board. Ask them, for instance, which frames you’re reordering most often, and which have been under-performing. From there, ask your rep how you can best reinvest to reflect the performance of the adjusted board. Do this analysis quarterly, rather than annually, to avoid frames mix mistakes that can easily be cleared up.
