And we’re back!
After doing battle with a sea of troubles, the Fifth Color is back and on the mend. We’ll be heading to the June solicits for Marvel next week since there’s a lot to go through (NOTE: gird your pocketbooks, True Believers! June is going to get expensive!), but while I recoup from a recent bout of illness, I wanted to talk about the retail biz and a bit about the trials and tribulations of having to answer the rather daunting question of “What’s Good?”
In what could justifiably be called the “Mighty Marvel Manner”, I tend to think of myself sometimes as a “comic huckster”, the barker at the big show that crows the greatest stories to the customers. “If you read one book this year, this MUST BE IT!” and “In this issue, SOMEONE DIES!”… you know, the schpeel. I personally have a few ‘set schpeels’ that I use to describe a lot of asked about books at the store and some standard ways to summarize characters to get people interested. Just some of the fancy-schmancy ‘tools’ I can use when someone comes in off the street and goes “What’s good?”. You need to be ready for those guys because it can be a gauntlet thrown by the customer; the longer it takes to answer that question, the longer the customer has to discount even coming in. If a chef can’t describe the pallet of who his food is intended for, does he even know how to cook? Am I making too big a deal out of a fairly inane question? I digress.
There are a few barriers to the sale that I have to go through on the “What’s Good?” question, but sometimes, just having the guts to ask can bring about one of the most rewarding sales all day. The first barrier I have to break through to answer the question is basic listening. Sometimes, customers come in and want to be entertained. Or sometimes, and let’s be honest, they just want to waste time. The girlfriend or relative or acquaintance is shopping next door at someplace boring and comic shops are awfully entertaining. Sometimes, they think we’re the Discovery Channel and can glean information off of us (“So, what’s Spider-Man all about?”). You can tell these guys because the moment you actually direct them to a book or try and bring them into the idea of actually purchasing something, they look confused, as if they weren’t expecting a ‘real’ answer. They also say things like, “Well, I don’t know anything about this”, which for my experience is already admitting a defiance to learn and asking a general question just ensures that they want the minimalist of info to go on. They don’t want to know why it’s good, just that it is. it’s a 50/50 chance in my experience that they’ll actually buy something; like I said, some people just want to be entertained until their wife gets out of the shoe store and they can go home. I’ve just kept a watch on people’s attention spans and tried to work around it. “What’s good?” can be as short as “Civil War was on the Colbert Report and has sold very well.” to “Well, what do you like?”
As a side note, another barrier is that the person has to listen to me. Asking the front counter “What’s good?” is going get an opinion based answer and most times, the guys coming will direct this question to the other guy employees. Getting an opinon from a girl is daunting and there’s not much to be done to make it any easier. The only way I’ve found to help is be the only person at the counter so they’re trapped if they really want an answer. Desperation is good, too; when people are looking for a gift for their sister/wife/cousin/daughter, I can look like I have the inside tip on the female mind. But this is a whole other story. We just want to know what’s ‘good’.
And, in a way, I do. This is all personal experience here, but the best way to get people to pick up a book for the first time is to go whith what they know. Just like you always hear in corny writing classes, “Write what you know”, people can be kept interested be more willing to try something new with something more familiar than with a random book you really think is good. Example? I like Nextwave. I like it A LOT. It’s one of my favorite books that came out last year, but I know it won’t be everyone’s favorite. If someone is walking into the first store looking for “something good”, they probably won’t get a lot of the side humor and genre jokes at comics that Nextwave has. Another example? A guy came in with his two daughters and they wanted to get a book. He gave them Watchmen and Batman: Dark Knight Returns and had no idea why they put them back on the shelf after a lazy once over. It was almost as if he was affronted that these two teenage girls with their hair in pigtails and Juicy jackets did not have the same taste as their Harley riding, Heavy Metal t-shirt wearing father. I know! Who knew? ( I snuck them out of their father’s grasp, asked them a few questions and eventually got them going home with a manga book and Strangers in Paradise; yes, I know kind of standard in “girl book” recommendations, but when the shoe fits…)
There really is a comic out there for everyone and the industry is much more broad than people give it credit for. The customer just has to be open to all of that. Someone can tell you they love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but if they balk at the idea of reading about Sunnydale in comic form, it’s mostly out of preconceived notions of what it’s going to be like. Some people just dig the artwork and when they are looking for “something good”, they just want pictures that fit their artistic aesthetic; harder to recommend things to, you can normally start pointing out art styles and try and go on a hit-and-miss basis. Asking people what they like can easily match them to the right book and when you ring up that sale, there’s enough confidence and enthusiasm to make everyone feel good.
And isn’t that what comics are about?
March 29th, 2007 at 11:46 am
The word you are looking for is “Schpiel” or “spiel” in its less archaic form. “Schpeel” is not a word.
“Am I making too big a deal out of a fairly inane question? I digress.”
The entire process of retail is knowing as a merchant how to separate the goats from the sheep. The goal is to quickly assess who will spend money and who is just wasting your time and getting rid of the latter quickly and politely so you can focus on the former. No one is ever 100% right in being able to assess this so there’s no need to worry about the “Oh, you might have missed a big back issue sale if only you had squandered 30 minutes talking to this guy” quandry.
Always greet, be polite, assess quickly, and make a sale if they are willing to purchase.
The problem with many comic retailers is that they are far too desirous of wanting to proselytize, “be cool”, or provide entertainment, instead of providing knowledgeable assistance or a well lighted, clean and organized shopping environment.
Sometimes customers as above are easy to read: young suburban tweenie girls. Try a non-descript, medium build 27 year old male who says he enjoys “good comics”. He could be an indie comic buff, a Marvel Zombie, a solid collector with a range of critical likes and dislikes, or a time waster who’s reservations at the Silky Sizzler aren’t for another 20 minutes. These are the true tough reads.
You could be talking to a 75 title a month guy who’s looking for a new shop or a civilian freak who really only likes movies based on comics but isn’t willing to read. Or you could have both in your store on an unexpectedly busy retail day with only you running the show and you have to decide how much time to allocate to each of these guys and which one will really benefit your business the most. How you assess which of these guys is which can determine a lot about your shop’s success?
Good luck Soldier, It’s rough out there.