{"id":1402,"date":"2023-01-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephenfbrown.com\/?p=1402"},"modified":"2023-01-19T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:00:00","slug":"the-tornado-that-spawned-a-multi-billion-dollar-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/19\/the-tornado-that-spawned-a-multi-billion-dollar-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tornado That Spawned A Multi Billion Dollar Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">How A Tornado Helped Start A Highly Profitable Business<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>This is, pure and simple, a lesson in flexibility and adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All too often I see new marketers who KNOW what their customers want and KNOW how to best market that product to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And these are almost always the marketers who fall flat on their face because no one can tell them anything different &#8211; not even their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once upon a time there was a retailer called \u201cSound of Music\u201d that sold stereo equipment using commissioned salespeople. They did well enough for over a decade before a tornado ripped through their store on June 14, 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The roof was sheared off, the showroom was destroyed, and turntables, speakers and stereos were strewn all over the parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But miraculously, the storeroom survived intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within hours all 65 Sound of Music employees were on the scene, cleaning and salvaging items that could be sold as-is at reduced prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/stephenfbrown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Case-Study-Badass-Tornado-Built-the-\u2018Best-Buy-Billions-683x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"the tornado that spawned a multi billion dollar business\" class=\"wp-image-1403 lazyload\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stephenfbrown.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Case-Study-Badass-Tornado-Built-the-\u2018Best-Buy-Billions-683x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"the tornado that spawned a multi billion dollar business\" class=\"wp-image-1403 lazyload\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The store owner, Richard Schulze, decided to do what any good entrepreneur would do in this situation \u2013 sell what he could from a trailer in the parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They set up all the salvaged items that were still working, along with open box items, overstock items and anything that could be marked down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They advertised the Tornado Sale as the place to get the \u201cBest Buy\u201d, and they sold out of stuff in just one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the kicker: Richard Schulze observed the customers as they moved through the temporary store and he realized that customers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026weren\u2019t concerned with the brand names\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026liked the no pressure style of shopping\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026enjoyed picking up the merchandise and handling it themselves\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026loved the \u201cbest buy\u201d prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What did Richard do with this new knowledge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, he brought out more merchandise from the warehouse and staged a second Tornado Sale, making more money in 4 days than the store usually made in a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, he changed the name of the business from \u201cSound of Music\u201d to \u201cBest Buy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, he did away with commissioned salespeople to create a no-pressure sales environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fourth, he placed all merchandise on the sales floor so customers could touch the items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These changes grew the business from one store to a mega chain of stores all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s the lesson: Your customers will tell you what they want to buy and how they want to buy it if you will only pay attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know all too well how easy it is to fall into the trap of thinking you have the perfect product, the perfect sales process and delivery system and so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But until you get actual customer input, odds are you\u2019re not doing it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say you\u2019ve got a course that selling okay. Ask the people who took the course what changes they would have liked. Did you miss something important? Would they prefer less writing and more videos? Or would video transcripts have helped? What problems did they have implementing the information? How are they using what they learned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are just a few of the questions you can ask them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Get them on a call and see what they have to teach you. You\u2019ll be amazed. And if you\u2019re wise enough to implement the best suggestions, you should see your sales soar, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How A Tornado Helped Start A Highly Profitable Business This is, pure and simple, a lesson in flexibility and adaptation. All too often I see new marketers who KNOW what their customers want and KNOW how to best market that product to them. And these are almost always the marketers who fall flat on their &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/19\/the-tornado-that-spawned-a-multi-billion-dollar-business\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Tornado That Spawned A Multi Billion Dollar Business<\/span>Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","slim_seo":{"title":"The Tornado That Spawned A Multi Billion Dollar Business - Stephen Brown&#039;s Blog","description":"How A Tornado Helped Start A Highly Profitable Business This is, pure and simple, a lesson in flexibility and adaptation. All too often I see new marketers who"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[970],"class_list":["post-1402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everything-else","tag-the-tornado-that-spawned-a-multi-billion-dollar-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenbrownsblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}