With over thirty years experience companies worldwide have turned to Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor® for the proven expertise necessary to grow their sales.

An expert in American retail, customer service, sales, and marketing Phibbs has been engaged as an entrepreneur, sales trainer, author, franchisor and customer service champion. His passion and enthusiasm combined with his tell-it-like-it-is persona make him an in-demand media guest. PBS, MSNBC, and Fox News are just a few of the places Phibbs has been invited to share his expertise and straightforward advice.

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.

Beginning in the trenches of retail and extending to senior management positions, Phibbs has been a corporate officer, franchisor and entrepreneur. As a motivational speaker and consultant, he has creatively helped some of America’s best-known retail brands, including Yamaha, Vera Bradley, Caswell-Massey, Viking, LEGO, and Brother continue to succeed when economic circumstances or new competitors have challenged their customer base Bob’s passion and enthusiasm to provide exceptional experiences are hallmarks of his presentation skills.

PROGRAMS

You Can Compete!
Retail isn’t that hard to perfect… it comes down to having the right people and right product for your customers. When you drop one of those, you end up settling. And if the past few years have taught us anything about retail sales, it’s that you just can’t settle anymore if you want to get ahead of the competition and stay there.

In this retail sales training presentation, you’ll discover how to make bigger sales and earn the profits you seek by building the right team, holding on to existing clientele, and capturing new customers.

Selling to Boomers:  How Your Millennial Employees are Impacting Your Store
Millennials man your store while Boomers purchase your products. Don’t lose a sale because of their differences.  Millennials (whom we generally define as between ages 18 – 34 in 2016) are the most studied and talked about generation ever. How are they impacting your store?  Well for one thing they are the most frugal generation in a long time. Do you know how they should they be selling to your Baby Boomers who still have the money?  70% of disposable income is still controlled by the Baby Boom generation. You can’t treat them the same as the Millennial consumer who is more inclined to search and buy online due to price.    Millennials rarely have experienced what Baby Boomers believe makes for a compelling sales presentation. You’ll need your team to effectively bridge the retail age gap -especially if you carry luxury or higher priced merchandise.  What are the values important to both age groups? What are the differences?    Join Bob as he compares the two generation groups and gives you tips how to effectively sell value with high customer service to the Baby Boomer generation.      

Don’t Take Yesterday To Bed With You
Industry unknowns don’t have to stress you out, as long as you’re properly equipped to stare down these demons and watch them blink first. Smartphone apps and the online revolution may have changed much about the way consumers shop, but they still need you. Phibbs reveals how the energy in your store determines your outcome and how you can easily go to bed each night looking forward to tomorrow’s possibilities . In short, you’ll hit the reset button on your business and leave with actionable ideas that set the pace for a profitable year.

Merchandising For Sales
With these days of budget cuts and computer scheduling programs to minimize overlap of hours, your employees simply can’t be everywhere suggesting add-ons. Displays are your silent salesperson, from the intriguing windows to the impulse items at the counter. They are the foundation of a healthy business. In “Merchandising for Sales,” Bob shares tips and tools that will help you create kick-butt displays that move product quickly.

Selling Like A Pro
In order to move more merch, your employees must possess great customer services skills so they can build trust quickly and start a relationship with your customers. In this presentation, Bob reveals his proven sales process you can easily apply to see your sales increase, your merchandise turn increase and your employee turnover plummet. Perfect if you are selling luxury or premium goods or services.

How Not To Be A Showroom For Amazon
Shoppers are walking in to your store with a loaded weapon – their smartphone. And if you choose to ignore it, the results can be the demise of your business. Why? Because they can price-check while you are helping another customer, they can scan your bar code and compare to any online retailer and buy while your staff is hanging out behind the counter, they are more likely to use Amazon than any other to do – all without paying tax and with free shipping. You can’t ignore it or just “try harder” as some have suggested, you have to go to battle to win the fight for the customer’s loyalty. You’ll leave this session with actionable steps you can take to neutralize the smartphone weapon.

Full Biography

Bob Phibbs, is a nationally recognized expert on small 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. As a motivational speaker and consultant, he has creatively helped some of America’s best-known retail brands, including Yamaha, Vera Bradley, Caswell-Massey, Viking, LEGO, and Brother continue to succeed when economic circumstances or new competitors have challenged their customer base Bob’s passion and enthusiasm to provide exceptional experiences are hallmarks of his presentation skills. He is a frequent guest on MSNBC’s Your Business, has a regular radio program on an ABC affiliate and is the author of the new book from Wiley & Sons, The Retail Doctor’s Guide To Growing Your Business.

After completing his degree at Chapman College 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 from a profile in the New York Times.

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 helped to establish Hunter Douglas Window Fashion’s elite Gallery dealer program, creating a culture of excellence and growing their numbers from 59 to over 400. Phibbs two-day sales intensive presented across the country saw attendees enjoy a 20% sales increase within three months.

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

Bob’s programs and his work have been featured on PBS, Entrepreneur magazine 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.