The following list and program descriptions have all been tested and successfully presented by Rick Segel. Not only do they cover a wide range of serious subjects, but Rick's humorous style makes each program an enjoyable event. He believes in the philosophy of education through entertainment, where humor becomes a teaching technique. He strives for the comment, "I had such a good time and learned so much!" These programs can also be customized and adapted to specific audiences and corporate settings.

WAYS TO WOW!!!
How to Really Impress Your Customers and Keep Them Coming Back
Learn the little things we can do that impress our customers to the point of being true believers. These are the things that make your customers talk about your store to create the all important word of mouth advertising that we all long for. These little things aren't anything--they are EVERYTHING, ranging from the personal call, to the way the store is arranged, to the attitude of the employees, to the thank-you note after the sale. These are proven techniques, not from just the biggies, but a collection of the best creative business ideas that will separate you as one of the leaders.
 Ways to convert customers to fanatic followers
 How to differentiate yourself with the unusual and unexpected
 The how to's of standing apart
 Learn how to make the exciting difference THE exciting difference

Bring Your Business to the Next Level…
Learn the Ways to Differentiate and Become A Destination Business
In order for a business to succeed today, it must be different than its competitors and stand out in the crowd. This program will explore the ways to differentiate a business and make your store special, different and talked about by your customers. It will also help businesses define what their next level is and create a path to that level by offering various differentiating strategies and techniques.
 Learn the eight major categories to differentiate your business: product, presentation, promotion and advertising, people, education, community involvement, pricing, and procedures
 Learn the tips in each of these categories to make your business stand out
 Brainstorm with your colleagues to come up with new innovative ways to make the business special
 Leave with what to differentiate and how to do it!

How to Thrive During A Slowing Economy
Businesses can thrive during economic downturns and recessions if they know the right strategies to use. Economic slowdowns create opportunities when competitors cut back their marketing efforts, suppliers are more willing to negotiate, and lower interest rates prevail. Doom and gloom will become a self-fulfilling prophecy for those who believe in them. This seminar will show you the strategies that will teach you how to:
 Restructure your marketing tactics to acknowledge but not succumb to negative sentiment
 Focus on retention and awareness strategies
 Reinvent yourself to become a true value driven organization
 Seek out alternative marketing strategies
 Create emotional attachments
 Uncover new channels of distribution
 Direct your marketing toward the 8 key customer types

The Sales, Marketing, and Advertising Matrix…
Techniques to Make Your Business Thrive During Challenging Times
The success of any business is dependent on a company’s ability to attract new business and maximize the business for existing accounts. What are the best methods and techniques to attract, retain, and upsell accounts? How do you market, advertise, and sell in today’s highly competitive marketplace without competing on price? This interactive program will have you look at your marketing and advertising in a different way.
 Learn how to sell solutions, not price
 Learn the keys to marketing that will make your advertising stand out without spending a lot of money
 Learn relationship building skills
 Understand the techniques to use when the economy slows down
 Understand the power of non-manipulative selling

Learn the role that the internet plays in the entire process
The Online Solution ….the five step formula for small business success
Is this the right time to jump on the ecommerce band wagon?
This program is modeled from Rick Segel’s new book of the same name. It explores why NOW is the time to embrace certain technologies that can reenergize and revitalize your business. This program is a marketing program designed for the independent retailer (not the techies) to explore ways to generate more revenues from your existing business. You will see how other stores are succeeding and how you can use them as your role models. You will leave with the essentials of how to do it!
 Learn why stores are succeeding beyond expectations
 Learn why websites are only one component of the online solution
 Learn the ingredients of the electronic Combo-Cocktail that has catapulted sales
 Understand why it is more economical than you think
 Learn why just having a web site means nothing
 Understand why every store must have a blog
 Learn why ecommerce isn’t about being big but rather being special
 Learn how to partner with your vendors for increased profitability

Making Your Website More Competitive…
A Website Review Sharing the Hot Techniques to Adopt and Adapt
When was the last time you shopped the competition? When was the last time you shopped other types of stores just to get ideas? Now when did you do it online? It is difficult to shop your direct competitor but you can do it online anytime you feel like it.

The problem is we don’t. The other issue is what should we be looking for? In this program, you will not only have a guided tour of some of the best sites on the web but you will also learn some of the tricks and tools used in the sites that make them so successful. This will all be in terms that retailers understand, complete with an idea of the types of costs that are associated with them. Let Rick Segel be your mystery online shopper and uncover trends, tools, and treasures that will make you money. Let’s enjoy the ride!

Signage: The Overlooked Killer Resource
Learn why the effective use of signage can have the single biggest impact on your store. Signage is a secret weapon, a silent salesperson that can produce more than your strongest salesperson. This forgotten and much overlooked topic can turn your business around.
 Understand the 3 categories of signage
 Improve the shopping experience with creative signs
 Create a buying frenzy
 Learn how to increase sales between 10-500% with the I.S.E.E. Formula
 Have your customers linger longer increasing the likelihood of increased sales

The Art of Making More Money from Your Business
In order to survive and thrive in business today you must be able to utilize every tool in your arsenal, reducing your expenses while increasing your sales. Discover the secrets of making money in business today and understand how these techniques have changed over the last few years.
You will learn:
 How to price your merchandise for maximum profits
 How to control your buying in a simple to use and understandable system
 The secrets of effective cost saving advertising used by the savvy pros
 A selling system so effective that it will increase your sales immediately
 How to run a sale to have throngs of people lined up at your front door

Million Dollar Advertising Ideas on a Shoestring Budget
This seminar will explore all forms of advertising media including newspaper, magazines, radio, TV and direct mail. The strengths and weaknesses of these five areas will be highlighted along with basic "how to's" that make advertising affordable and create an image larger than life with a limited budget.
 Learn to advertise in newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and direct mail with little or no money
 Learn which advertising vehicle will bring your store the best results
 Learn the 10 basic "how to's" that make advertising affordable
 Learn to create a larger than life image for your store
 And do all these steps on a very limited budget

Customer Service…Who Needs It?
Service is the ultimate differentiator. But good service represents different things to different people. This program will explore not only those different perceptions and the universal expectations, but will also help you see how the customer defines customer service. This program is about service but the results are all about attracting and keeping customers and clients for life!
It includes
 Learn why service is selling and selling is service
 Learn the effect of the likeability factor in customer service
 Learn how to handle the most challenging customers and turn them into fanatic followers
 Learn why visual merchandising and signage are service
 Learn the 60 Second Formulas for Service, Selling, and Management that will change the way you look at service forever
 Learn the Key Buying Motivations that are the basis of customer service

Effective Suggestive Selling
The days of the high pressure “shake the customer until all the money comes out” way of selling is over. No one wants to be sold anymore, but they all want help in buying. This program redefines selling into a non-threatening suggestion driven soft approach that will increase store morale and improve sales personnel’s attitudes while the customers are buying more than ever before. It is for both the experienced pro and the newest rookie, designed in Rick's classic laugh and learn style.
 Increase sales effectiveness
 Learn the multiple sales mindset for extraordinary results
 Boost the fun and reduce fear of follow up
 Discover ways to quietly WOW your customers and keep them coming back

Find ‘Em, Hire ‘Em, and Keep ‘Em
If a company does all the right things, but one employee insults a customer, it’s all for naught. Without the right people we cannot survive, let alone grow. This offbeat shirtsleeves program recognizes that traditional means don’t work during a hot and highly competitive job market.
 How to find them using non-traditional ways
 How to keep them using creative strategies
 How to harness the “fun factor” to make your business a place that attracts and retains good employees
 The importance of differences in conflict—learn how to celebrate the differences, yet control the conflicts
 That rewards come in all forms
 How to use the concept of involvement from conception
 How caring is the hidden business secret to increase management effectiveness and retention
 Why money is not the #1 motivator

It’s More Than Just Price
Did you know that the "price" of an item ranks third after service and selection? Do you put too much emphasis on the price of the products in your store? How do you price your merchandise for the most profit? This program is a comprehensive look at the issue of price where the attendee will examine the importance and techniques of pricing merchandise to increase business and the profit margin.
 Explore what effect volume has on price
 Learn when you should mark an item down and by how much
 Learn about the tool of price and how it influences the profit margin
 Learn to use price as a way to move merchandise
 Stimulate business in your store

Streetsmart Negotiations…Win/Win and Beyond
Negotiation skills have become critical in business today. This seminar will highlight the top ten principles of Streetsmart Negotiations where the theory of negotiation meets the real world. Presented in Rick Segel’s laugh and learn style, attendees will not only learn how to improve their listening skills which are critical to successful negotiation, but they will leave the seminar with hands-on techniques to improve their negotiating effectiveness.
 Learn the 10 major factors affecting power in a negotiation
 Learn practical guidelines that assure getting and giving concessions effectively
 Learn how to gain the “slight edge” advantage in negotiation
 Learn effective telephone negotiating techniques
 Learn what questions to ask and how to ask them more effectively

The Likeability Factor
People have a tendency of doing business with people that they like. Yet, we tend to trivialize the importance of learning the skills to become more likeable. It’s almost impossible to do business with people we dislike. It doesn’t matter how good the product is, how low the price is, how effective the service is, or how convenient the business is, we avoid doing business with people we don’t like. And if we do business with them, we are constantly looking for alternatives. This program will pay lifetime dividends on your path of mastering likeability.
 Learn the Likeability Awareness System to increase your Likeability Quotient
 Learn the ways to have people like you, treat you nicer, buy from you, get better prices from vendors, and do extra things for you naturally and subconsciously
 Learn the 5 killer categories that turn people off and how to counter our natural tendencies that create dislike and distrust.

Service Is Selling and Selling is Service
Service and selling are interchangeable, yet many of us tend to separate these two functions. When we are servicing well, we are selling well. And when the customer is being sold the proper merchandise, they are being serviced well. Selling is not a word to be avoided--it is the heartbeat of our businesses. We provide exceptional customer service in order to generate sales. But if customer service personnel can’t recognize sales opportunities, then we are missing one of the key elements of our service initiatives. Learn how these skills come together to create the ultimate customer experience.
Rick Segel uses his front line retail expertise to add the “sell” into servicing with fun, memorable and easy to use selling cues.
 Learn fun based techniques that serve as a vehicle to customer delight
 Learn ways to interchange the selling and servicing principles
 Learn the principle of “Effective Suggestive Selling”

The Art of Pinpoint Marketing
This program will teach you how to sell what you have to people who want it, appreciate it, are willing to pay for it, and know when they want to buy it. By using the Matrix Marketing System, you will learn how to classify your customers by their buying habits and receive maximum value per customer. This system revolutionizes the way you look at your customer and your mail list forever. There is gold in them thar names.
 Take the Terror out of Technology
 Database and Relationship Marketing made easy to understand and USE!
 Learn how to get 25% to 35% return on your direct mail
 Learn how to save up to 40% on your advertising budgets achieving the same sales results
 Learn how to take the "sell" out of selling and convert it into low-key servicing

The Art of Running A Sale
Paint with a broad brush to create a masterpiece sale! In this seminar, based on Rick Segel’s book, How To Run A Sale, you will learn all the aspects of running a sale-- from writing a sale ad, to physical set-ups, to theme creation, and to the definition of the sale customer. Learn the psychology of "saling" and how to control customer perceptions. This program encompasses every type of sale for every type of budget.
 Learn the ABC's of running a sale in a step by step approach
 Learn all the things that nobody ever teaches you and everybody assumes that you know
 Learn how to double and triple your sales result
 Learn the right words to use when running a sale
 Learn what to do and when to do it

How to Evaluate A Retail Store
This program is designed to help you evaluate your retail business so that you will have a better understanding of your strengths, areas to improve, and how you compare to other retailers. The 9 key areas that will be covered include store management, product, pricing, presentation, promotion, customer engagement, reporting, profitability, and technology. The goal is to provide you with the information that will enable you to run your business more efficiently, more profitably, and with more customer focus. The research for this program was sponsored by Microsoft. You will be able to take home an actual CD version so that you can take this test over and over again and see how your business improves in order to survive and thrive in this era of hyper competition.
 Learn what the winners are doing to become successful
 Learn how to evaluate your own business
 Recognize the strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed
 Create an objective analysis of the viability of your business

The 7 Essentials of Successful Retailing
What are the common denominators for successful Independent Retailing? Every successful retailer is practicing some of the Seven. The most successful embrace all of the Seven. This program will not only reveal those Seven Essential Elements that are prevalent in successful retailers, but will also show you ways to use them in your own business.
 The Seven Essential Skills for Successful Retailing
 The difference between Picking Winners and Being a Buyer
 How the winning stores sell and train their employees to sell
 The Power of Shopping and what to look for
 What we need to know about our customers and ourselves
 The right pricing policies for maximum return
 Number Awareness—what numbers must you be aware of

Dealing with the Decision Makers
There is a new breed of decision makers…and they belong to some diverse demographic groups from Baby Boomers, to Gen X, Y, and Z. And in addition to these segments, we also have to consider the gender difference—the woman buyer. Many women are now earning larger salaries than their husbands, are climbing higher within corporate structures, and are opening more small businesses than any other demographic group. This program focuses on ways to better understand and market to these different market segments. You learn:
 A new set of buying motivations
 An understanding of why old standards and values are being discarded
 Why treating a woman like a man is as bad as treating her as a “girl”
 How to incorporate these new values into your business marketing plan
 The type of merchandise, promotion, and displays that appeals to each category

Visual Merchandising for the Artistically Challenged and Financially Deprived
Visual merchandising is an art form unto itself that can make or break any business. But what do you do when you have no talent and less money? This program will help those retailers improve their visual merchandising capabilities with easy to use and understand tricks and tactics that just don’t cost a lot of money.
 Learn ten easy window designs that anyone can do
 Learn the ten best props to use that can be used over and over again
 Create an action plan to take home with you

The Art of Merchandising
Merchandising is having the right merchandise for the right customer at the right time. All aspects of the merchandising process will be covered from planning, to buying, to receiving, to displaying, to positioning, to markdowns, to finally having the merchandise go out the door, and even contingencies if the merchandise is returned.
 Learn how to create a buying plan
 Find out how much is too much merchandise
 The 10 steps to becoming a successful buyer
 Uncover the secrets of receiving merchandise
 Learn the art of markdowns

What Would You Do If_____________________?
How many times have you ever wondered how another retailer would handle a situation? Have you ever asked yourself or doubted your decision about a business decision? Ever wonder if anyone else has ever has ever been in the same situation? If you have answered yes to any of those questions, then this program is for you. This program is a collection of sticky questions that retailers all over the world have asked Rick Segel throughout the past 15 years coming derived his award winning newsletter, blog, and seminars. Issues from customer and employee relations to inventory and buying scenarios will be covered.
You will learn :
 What do you do if someone complains about your return policy?
 What are the best return policies to have?
 When do you say the customer is right and when do you let the customer walk?
 What should you do if a customer tries to negotiate?
 What do you do when you catch an employee stealing?
 What would you do if you think you have too much merchandise?
 How much inventory should a store have?
 What do you do about marking down merchandise?
 When you should run a sale or markdown your inventory?
Learn about these and many more questions you always wanted answered in this fastpaced interactive session. And bring your situations to discuss. This program is NOT to be missed!

Laugh & Get Rich
This presentation, which is based on Rick Segel’s book, Laugh & Get Rich, stresses the importance of the fun factor in business today. It discusses how our customers are not working, and how more sales are made based on emotional, feel-good decisions rather than pure analytical reasoning. Boring doesn't sell anything! This program gives the hands-on training to start to make your business a fun place to work and shop. It will help management convert the motivation of employees from the "must do" mode to the "want to do" mode. Learn how to create an upbeat work environment for employees and a fun happening place for your customers to shop.
 Learn the importance of the “fun factor”
 Learn why boring doesn’t sell anything
 Find out about emotional versus analytical decision-making
 Learn how to “up” your attitude & sales energy

Articles by Rick Segel:

• Selling is Servicing and Servicing is Selling
  
• How Do We Keep Our Employees Motivated?
  
• A Retailer`s Paradox
  
• The Forgotten Headline