Guerrilla Retailing Elly Valas Orvel Ray Wilson Jay Levinson

Guerrilla Retailing by Jay Conrad Levinson, Elly Valas and Orvel Ray Wilson

Business Book Review - 4.5 Stars

This specialist book in the Guerrilla Marketing book series promises "Unconventional Ways To Make Big Profits From Your Retail Business" and I thought it delivered exactly that.

While Jay Levinson,s name goes first on the book cover as the creator and owner of the Guerrilla Marketing brand, I know from previous books that most, if not all the writing has been done by the other two authors.

Orvel Ray Wilson is a regular contributor the the Guerrilla Marketing series, having co-written Guerrilla Selling, Guerrilla Teleselling, Guerrilla Trade Show Selling and Guerrilla Negotiating.

The real retail experience comes from Elly Valas, a Past President of the North American Retail Dealers Association and a speaker/retail consultant. The about the authors section says that "Elly grew up in retail and is a decorated veteran of the box-store wars. She served more than twenty years in the grocery, sporting goods, consumer electronics and home appliance industries."

My experience of the retail business is predominantly that of a customer rather than helping retail businesses make more money so what is new to me may be more obvious to more experienced retailers.

Nonetheless I thought that Guerrilla Retailing was packed with practical tips to help any entrepreneurial retail business owner fight back against the big boys and their purchasing power.

What's Included In Guerrilla Retailing

These are the chapter headings of Guerrilla Retailing so that you can see the scope of what is covered by the book.

1. So you want to be a retailer?
   
   
2. What do we mean by Guerrilla?
   
   
3. What kind of retailer do you want to be?
   
   
4. Who is your customer?
   
   
5. Location, location, location
   
   
6. Merchandising strategy
   
   
7. Store design and display
   
   
8. Getting lots of customers into your store
   
   
9. The telephone as a marketing weapon
   
   
10. Low cost, high impact promotions
    
    
11. Attracting the right staff
    
    
12. How to train and motivate the sales team
    
    
13. Selling effectively on the retail floor
    
    
14. Selling at higher prices
    
    
15. Creating a culture of service excellence
    
    
16. Retailing in the experience economy
    
    
17. Getting customers back again and again
    
    
18. Dealing with upset or angry customers
    
    
19. Guerrilla Marketing online
    
    
20. Managing for growth and profitability
    
    
21. Parting shot
    
    
22. Appendix A financial diagnostics
    
    
23. Appendix B job descriptions

As you can see, Guerrilla Retailing is a comprehensive book explaining how you can make more money from your retailing business.

Even better, the book is very easy to read and I found it very interesting. I have been critical of some of the other Guerrilla Marketing books because of the writing style of Jay Conrad Levinson's collaborator but this is excellent. 

Review Rating For Guerrilla Retailing by Jay Conrad Levinson, Elly Valas and Orvel Ray Wilson

I see this as a must read book for anyone thinking about starting a retail business.

It's a high risk, cash intensive first step into owning a business for many entrepreneurs and I see many start-ups that look doomed from day 1 because they have a faulty business idea or a bad location. Usually I am proven right and I feel for the people who have committed themselves to a long property lease and lose most of their savings and their dream.

I also see it as an important read for any retail business that wants some new ideas and wants to break free of the competition, especially when it is an unfair fight.

Buying Guerrilla Retailing

You can buy a copy of Guerrilla Retailing from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (affiliate links)

Over at Amazon.com there are 5 reviews of Guerrilla Retailing at the time of writing, none as detailed as this but the ratings are consistent - four 5 star reviews and one 4 star review.

What Do You Think About Guerrilla Retailing?

If you have read Guerrilla Retailing, I am very interested to know what you think so please leave a comment.

I think it is a great idea to take a proven small business methodology like Guerrilla Marketing and then apply the ideas to a particular business segment.

While retailing issues may vary depending on the business, the retail category and local competition, there is more more common ground between retailers than across the different business sectors.