I could say it’s that time again but, lets face it, whether you’re buying or selling it’s almost always range review time! Sometimes I feel a bit like a hamster running non stop on one of those wheels.
Anyway, on with the show… First things first. I undertake a bit of general category analysis – at least that way I have an idea of what the true story is which discourages some of the more creative ‘interpretations’ of market data. I find range reviews time consuming enough without adding in a “my data’s better then yours” discussion as I try and reconcile the information from the last meeting with what I’m being told in the current one – both telling wildly different stories, of course.
Once I’m feeling suitably cross eyed from staring at all the facts and figures I decide to start on the potential deletes list. Those poor, underperforming lines which, for whatever reason, customers have decided they no longer want to buy. Well not in significant enough quantities anyway. And then, one of my least favourite tasks (second only to delivering the news of definite deletes) – informing the affected parties. Talk about depressing! The phone continues to ring non stop for the rest of the day with various follow up calls involving anything from “please keep it in – my cat died this morning” to the threat of “I’m going to tell your boss!”. Strange how, at times like these, the rest of the team suddenly becomes extremely busy and therefore unable to pick up my phone regardless of where I might be.
By the end of the day I’m in danger of developing a cauliflower ear from constant phone use and finally stagger out of the office resolving to do some further work developing some elastic shelves…
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