The success of your optical sales hinges on managing your inventory well. In fact, inventory is the backbone of any successful product based business. At VisionAmerica we don't (and won't ) sell glasses. In an effort to "stay in our lane", we brought in Mr. Randle Tibbs of UAB EyeCare to drop some knowledge on the world of optical sales. Here are three tips to make sure you are doing this well. In the classic work paradigm you have two types of businesses: product based and service based.
The differences in the two are probably obvious. A product based business stocks and sells products while a service based business provides a service at a price. It's probably crossed your mind by now that most optometrists operate both a product and service based business and you are right! As with most things, this comes with some positives and negatives. The benefit here is that you have the best of both worlds. You offer a need-driven service and have the opportunity to upsell a quality product on the back end. (This is the Baby Bear's porridge of business!) The problem is that it's complicated. Much like Goldilocks, you have to try two bowls of porridge before you find the perfect balance and there's always the possibility that you could get eaten by a bear. (Ok. No more children's books references, but you get the point.) Not only are you trying to offer the best service possible, but you are also trying to manage inventory and sell a product. It's tough! We could talk ad nauseam about optical. (And we are going to. Just give us time!) But the purpose of this email is to focus on your optical inventory. The success of your optical sales hinges on managing your inventory well. In fact, inventory is the backbone of any successful product based business. At VisionAmerica we don't (and won't ) sell glasses. In an effort to "stay in our lane", we brought in Mr. Randle Tibbs of UAB EyeCare to drop some knowledge on the world of optical sales. Here are three tips to make sure you are doing this well. 1. Avoid tying up too much money in your inventory We are going to camp out here for a while. It's just that important. As we mentioned earlier, staying on top of your optical inventory while running a practice can be demanding. In most cases, your inventory will be the first thing that is neglected. With a consistent flow of contracted vendors and salesmen, it can be easy to overstock or make bad exchanges with frames that aren't moving. So how many frames should you have in inventory? Well, each practice is different, but, in a perfect world, each frame would turn three-to-four times each year with a minimum turn rate of two. This means that the max board time for a particular frame should be 180 days. We will discuss vendors and software more in the following sections, but if a frame hasn't moved in that 180 day timeframe, you should exchange it with your vendor. Most exchanges are "dollar for dollar", but watch out for vendors that make you swap "two for one". One thing to remember if you are overstocked is that exchanging a pair of glasses with a vendor isn't lowering your inventory. A simple solution to combat excess inventory is to offer frames that aren't moving at half price and offer them as second pairs to your customers. This should not become the norm, though. You are obviously losing money if you are selling a large quantity of frames for half price. If you want to know a good baseline for your inventory, take the number of frames you sold last year and divide by two. As an example, if you sold 1,200 frames last year, you should have 600 stocked. (This is operating on the assumption that each frame will turn a minimum of two times.) Now that you know how many frames you should have, let's discuss how to manage your board space. 2. Vendors and Board Space You can't do business with every vendor that walks in your door. Working with three-to-five frame vendors is recommended and you should have a strict policy with regard to whom you work with. Once you know your inventory needs, you can develop some non-negotiable criteria each vendor must meet in order to earn your business. This criteria can include, among other things, the exchange rate for frames that are not moving. The point here is that you have negotiating power with your vendors! With regard to board space, you should allot it to your vendors based on past performance while keeping in mind that less is often more. Studies have shown that less is actually more when it comes to consumer selection, so making sure your optical layout does not cause decision paralysis should be a priority. If you are interested in a cool study on extensive vs. limited choice and consumer purchasing behavior, check out this case study. Placing your high margin frames at eye level with the customer will also result in improved conversions. 3. Optical software and stale reports for shelf life We probably don't need to tell you that you need to be using software to manage your optical inventory. Simply using the eye test or pen and paper just isn't going to cut it. Most of you know this, but there are probably a few die hards out there who are resisting technology. It doesn't matter how much research and frame placement we do. Sometimes, we just get it wrong. In these situations, it's a lot easier to just walk by a section of frames knowing that they aren't moving than it is to ignore hard data from a stale report. Obviously, your hope is that your stale report never has anything on it, but that is unlikely. When frames fall on the report, you can either move them on the board or go ahead and contact your vendor and request an exchange based on your agreement. The longer a frame sits on the board, the less valuable it becomes to everyone. Knowing your optical well and putting the correct infrastructure in place will allow you to perform a quality exchange on frames that have sat on the board for over 180 days and get a more popular frame in return. Do you have optical inventory tips of your own? We would love to hear them! Reply to this email and let us know!
20 Comments
9/5/2022 10:47:56 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://freecodezilla.net/wp-rocket-nulled/
Reply
9/12/2022 03:24:35 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://odemebozdurma.com/
Reply
9/14/2022 06:17:37 pm
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma
Reply
9/30/2022 08:43:48 am
It's great to have this type of content. Good luck with your spirit. Thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma
Reply
10/4/2022 11:50:29 pm
I think this post is useful for people. It has been very useful for me. Looking forward to the next one, thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/kahramanmaras-escort/nurhak-escort/
Reply
10/5/2022 11:01:58 am
It was a post that I found very successful. Good luck to you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/kirsehir-escort/merkez-escort/
Reply
10/5/2022 04:12:19 pm
I follow your posts closely. I can find it thanks to your reliable share. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/isparta-escort/gonen-escort-isparta-escort/
Reply
10/6/2022 11:54:34 am
I support your continuation of your posts. I will be happy as new posts come. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/kirikkale-escort/baliseyh-escort/
Reply
10/7/2022 12:13:15 am
I think the content is at a successful level. It adds enough information. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/sanliurfa-escort/hilvan-escort/
Reply
10/8/2022 07:35:55 am
Thoughtful and real content is shared. Thank you for these shares. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/eskisehir-escort/beylikova-escort/
Reply
11/23/2022 12:41:49 pm
Tıkla evde calismaya basla: https://sites.google.com/view/evden-ek-is/
Reply
12/11/2022 06:33:51 am
Uygun fiyatlardan takipçi satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/
Reply
12/11/2022 08:41:55 am
Garantili Tiktok takipçi satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/tiktok-takipci-satin-al/
Reply
12/11/2022 08:48:21 am
instagram beğeni satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/instagram-begeni-satin-al/
Reply
12/17/2022 01:00:27 am
takipci satın almak için tıkla: https://takipcim.com.tr/
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThe staff and doctors at VisionAmerica are committed to providing relevant information for you, your patients and your practice. We hope you find the information in our blog post helpful. Archives
August 2019
Categories |