Pawn Shop Advisor Blog

Speed and Guts

Earlier this week I was working with a pawnbroker who's a member of the Pawn Shop Advisor(tm) coaching program - and I must say -I'm very proud of him. He exhibits two qualities that are difficult to find in most business people these days. Or any person for that matter. These two qualities are speed and guts. He has both - no doubt.

Why do I say this? With regards to his speed, he immediately devoured the marketing section of the program and decided to utilize several of the systems in his business specifically to attract more gold buys. The price of that yellow metal is on everyone's mind - you can hardly turn on the news without hearing about it. As a very sage marketer once said "enter the conversation already going on in your customer's mind."

He did so and began bringing many new faces into his pawn shop.

But he contacted me because he was still having some difficulty. Even though his shop had experienced a sharp increase in walk-in trade (another plus for him, he's keeping track), he was not experiencing the same increase in his scrap purchases. So he wanted to see if I may be able to help him out with this difficulty. No sweat - let's talk about it. Can you guess what I asked him? First question? Here's what I said.

"What's going on in your pawn shop?" He asked me what I meant. I explained the obvious to him - that being - if you're getting more customers in the door to sell, but for some reason your scrap purchases are not rising accordingly, something wrong is going on in your pawn shop. And until you find out what it is you're never going to be able to fix it. He asked me what I suggest and I said to him if he had the guts he could really find out what's going on.

I asked him how many scrap gold buyers there were within about a 10 block radius of his store and he told me he was only aware of two besides himself. So I said he should call up one of his friends and set them up with a baggie of scrap, send them into all three locations (including his own) and try to sell the scrap. Turns out he didn't have any friends who were not known by his employees - but this is a completely different problem I'll talk to him about later.

But I must admit - he's got guts. He wasn't afraid to find out what was really going on. Yesterday he hired one of his wife's friends to make the rounds and see what she was offered for the baggie of scrap and how she was treated at each location. One secondhand jewelry broker - one rather large coin dealer - and my clients pawnshop. Plus the extra bonus was up until yesterday afternoon his wife's friend had never been in any of these places.

What did he learn? Plenty. Pricing aside (his shop's offer was right in the middle) he learned that his customer service and his staff are not nearly as good as he thought they were. He told me that his wife's friend said his pawn shop would have been her last choice to sell the scrap. The price didn't matter as much as the treatment. And that's what I want you to understand.

Everything is important - everything in your customer experiences will affect your bottom line. It takes a lot of guts to mystery shop your own stores. But truly this is one of the best ways to figure out exactly what's going on and how you can improve. This pawnbroker told me he was actually getting a little irritated with his wife's friend, that is, until he realized that the only person he should really be getting irritated with is himself.

After speaking with him I e-mailed him a list of techniques he should be training his employees to put the customers at ease, give them the best possible treatment, offer them a fair price, and get the deal close. I also gave him a couple extra steps that all of his employees should be taking whether the deal closes or not. Of course, everything I gave him is already in his Pawn Shop Advisor(tm) coaching program http://www.pawnshopadvisor.com/main.cfm but he just hasn't gotten through every section of the program yet.

I know one thing for sure. He will take my list of suggestions and implement them immediately. How? With speed and guts - that's how. And because of this he will benefit greatly.

Keep your eye on the target and your mind on the goal,
Stephen Krupnik

P.S. Isn't it about time you also began to benefit from the Pawn Shop Advisor(tm) coaching program http://www.pawnshopadvisor.com/main.cfm and learn as much as you can about operating your business? You will not find this information anywhere else. The Pawn Shop Advisor(tm) is like an owner's manual for your pawn shop.

P.P.S. You can still order the Pawn Shop Advisor(tm) coaching program http://www.pawnshopadvisor.com/main.cfm and get in on the special bonuses either on the website or by calling my customer service hotline toll-free at 866-870-5127. But don't wait too long because I'll be pulling the plug on the bonuses sometime in the near future.

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**The contents of this blog post are not to be considered as business advice.**

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