ite about. (And fun to poke a stick at.) But somehow I thought of the one thing we rarely discuss, but that I see all the time in retail. I am in the fortunate position to get a real helicopter perspective on the performance of many retailers in every category. If you had to ask me to pick just one thing that I can have, or the one thing that makes the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful retailer. Can you guess what that would be? I can tell you that I don’t have it. At least not naturally. I can recognise it, and I value it, but I have to work at it consciously because it is not innate – yet it is the one thing that discriminates between the average and the excellent performer. In retail specifically, I like to talk about this one ingredient as a “merchant mentality”. I am involved with a couple who are buying a restaurant. They have the work ethic. They have the desire. They have the money. There is only one reason why they shouldn’t do it – and that is because they don’t have the “hospitality mentality”. I fear for their success. Someone with a merchant mentality instinctively moves the merchandise in a way that will sell more. They naturally pick adjacencies that will sell better for both products. They seem to have a sixth sense for what will make the customer buy. And above all, they are obsessed with making the sale. A true merchant acts as if sales cure all ills. (For even if it doesn’t, it sure as heck goes a long way.) It really isn’t about stats. Nor displays. Nor location. Of course all these are important, but in many ways these are just proxies for having people with a merchant mentality. If I was heading up a chain right now, I would make that my singular priority: get managers who are merchants in my stores. Easier said than done and all that, but the critical performance factor nevertheless. Dennis GANADOR: Solutions for Managers.