I am pretty sure by now that my love for the Nashville Predators is pretty obvious, and with the New Year fast-approaching, I have decided to make a career change my first priority. I will no longer be forced to choose between sanity and madness.
Until an opening comes about in Nashville at the Pro-Shop I will be lobbying for the Manager's position, in a not so subtle way... through the use of my Blog, Twitter, & possibly Facebook ( I have to block my current boss from reading it there though, sooooo....it might not appear there for a while)
Here are my qualifications, my shortened resume if you will:
4 year degree in Merchandising from the University of Memphis with a minor in Marketing, 15 years ofon the job experience, of which 5 are as a Store Manager of a large corporate retail store. My current store is constantly monitored and visited by Corporate employees, including the President and CEO of the Company who lives 5 miles down the road. I am the youngest Manager in the history of the highest volume store in the District, with pressure to perform at exceptionally high levels daily in not only Sales, but also Customer Service. My title of Store Manger is mis-leading, as I must also be a salesperson who creates excitement and demonstrates a commitment to excellence for our customers to return. In our last huge visit in October, every VP of every division in the company spent an hour in my store, yielding top marks and repeat comments that I could "sell ice to Eskimos". ( I convinced them each to buy products in our store, something that they usually do not do) This is not the first time that I have been told this, but it was the first time that 30+ corporate execs relayed it to me at the same time. My job is great, but selling shoes is not a passion of mine. There is only so much creativity that can be put in to the day to day operations of a Corporately run store. My hands are tied when it comes to the look and set-up, as I am not paid the "Big-bucks" to make those types of decisions. I am also forbidden to use any type of Social Media, or other such advertising to bring customers to the store. Makes it tough to change the face of a company known in the past for CHEAP, basic shoes, into a modern, fashion-concious entity.
So, enough about the current job.....
Here's my plan to take over the Preds Pro-Shop:
I want to show what the Shop could do with a little salesmanship, as in show the "Powers that Be" how many items they could sell just by getting their audience excited about things. Take for example my #PredsSnuggie campaign on Twitter. I firmly believe that there would still be a huge number of those socially-outcast slankets (blanket with sleeves) still gathering dust in the shelves, if it weren't for a single day of tweets started by a simple request by me, followed by a deluge of Retweets, the creation of a hashtag, and a certain "insider" who helped me get one although the Shop was closed the day I came to town. Some Twitter friends began telling me that they would NEVER own a SNUGGIE, that they were hideous, and could not believe that I wanted one. One friend in particular seems to have changed her mind, admitting that she could use one in her frigid office to keep her arms warm.....Here's a link to the #PredsSnuggie hashtag conversations... (I'm telling you... "Ice to Eskimos").....
This is just the first of my ideas to help our dear, sweet Pro-Shop out. Next is a contest involving jersey tees and the Hockey-Tonk Angels keep an eye out for it in the next week or so. Thanks for reading..... forward to anyone who may find it interesting.....
Go Preds!
