We’ve been offering the Management One Winning@Retail™ program long enough to know that it makes a tangible difference in the business operations of our independent retail clients. At a training conference with Management One leaders in Arizona, CRS principal Scott Smith was pleased to meet Jeff Jankelow and Gordon Peters, the managing partners of Focus Retail. While working extensively together at the training conference, Scott found that Jeff and Gordon shared his enthusiasm for Winning@Retail™, so much so that they founded Focus Retail together solely for the purpose of delivering Winning@Retail™ to CRS clients in Eastern Canada.
The Benefits of the Winning@Retail™ Program
Winning@Retail™ isn’t just a reporting system for your store. It’s a top-down business solution which allows you to see exactly what is going on with your inventory, profits, margins and sales at all times. It gives independent retailers the flexibility and understanding of their business that they need to change their business plan on the fly and compete in today’s cutthroat global marketplace.
One of the greatest strengths of this program is a monthly meeting with a certified Winning@Retail consultant who guides you through what the numbers mean for your business. While the reporting tools that come with Winning@Retail™ are versatile and easy to use, an outside perspective can help with interpreting what those numbers actually mean for your business. You’re not just getting a program, you’re getting retail consulting services from top-notch individuals who have been working with retail businesses for most of their careers.
This means you don’t have to worry about interpreting the numbers at all while involved in the busy day-to-day operations of your business, unless you want to. You can rely on the advice of your Winning@Retail™ consultant to put your business on a path to long-term success, not just meeting payroll and paying rent every month.
CRS and Focus Retail Partner to Help Your Business Win@Retail
The in-person component of the program is enriched by having someone in your area who can come in for a meeting with you and understand the unique geographic challenges of your location. Scott saw a huge value in partnering with Gord and Jeff to offer Winning@Retail™ to CRS clients in Eastern Canada, where CRS has less in-person coverage for the program. As Scott puts it:
“We realized the importance of being in other geographic locations, and Gord and Jeff have a very good knowledge and understanding of the Ontario and eastern market. So that was the ticket for us to start having discussions and negotiating with those guys to become, effectively, part of CRS and work with out client base, and work very closely with myself and our team to support our clients, and the leads and the opportunities that we have in those areas. And since that time it’s been a joy to work with those guys.”
Focus Retail is Led by Retail Industry Experts
Gord and Jeff collectively have over 50 years of experience in the retail industry between them. Jeff began his career in the department store environment in South Africa, and Gord started off in a specialty independent chain in Ontario. From there they both evolved into working on the wholesale side of things and ultimately they each owned their own wholesale businesses. Having been in constant communication, Gord and Jeff had an excellent working relationship and decided to begin management consulting for retail businesses.
It didn’t take long for them to discover Management One’s Winning@Retail™ program and get excited about the implications of such a detailed and comprehensive system to offer their clients. They decided to partner up and offer the program shortly after and have already seen huge successes from their retail store clients who are participating in the program. Gord and Jeff bring a wealth of experience, and being former business owners themselves they understand the challenges that you face every day.
“Jeff and I both had a lot experience working with a lot of independent retailers and we knew how difficult their lives could be, and so we felt that it was a particularly good fit. We saw a void, in that most independent retailers don’t have the wherewithal to manage their inventory at the sophisticated level that Winning@Retail™ allows them to. It was a way for us to take our consulting careers and marry them with a unique product and service.”
-Gord Peters, Focus Retail Managing Partner
Their masterful expertise in retail business makes them ideal partners for CRS in managing the Winning@Retail™ program for our clients, and they’ve already experienced the benefits of having a retail technology expert like CRS onboard for their own clients.
Making business better for our clients is all about putting winners on our team, and with Gord and Jeff on board, our Eastern Canada clients are going to be able to take their businesses to an entirely new level when they sign on to the Winning@Retail™ program. Contact CRS today to find out how we can help you take your retail business to another level with Winning@Retail™.
