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TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
MAY/JUNE 2015
are still effective, but with a POS system
we’re no longer flying by the seat of our
pants. Now we know exactly how many
Fuentes, Macanudos and Perdomos we
sold today, last week or last month. Now
we can tell what’s moving and what isn’t,
so it eliminates a lot of guess work.”
Social Media Maven
As for leveraging the power of the
Internet, Steinbock is a firm believer in
new media. “Whenever we plan our in-
store events, that goes up on Facebook,
and we send emails to our regular
customers and do everything we can
once a customer is in the store to capture
their email address,” he says. “If you go
through each [situation using] the old
way of doing business it can get bland,
so you’ve got to come up with new ways
to promote events and get customers
excited.”
All of the effort, however, would be
wastedwithout properly trained employees.
“You have to work with new employees and
get them as knowledgeable about product
as possible,” notes Steinbock. “That’s
particularly important here at Uhle’s
because we don’t have a walk-in humidor,
we have cases, and that requires much more
hands-on customer service.”
According to Steinbock, it’s imperative
that your employees be able to talk
to your customers to find out what
they like—and what they don’t like—
and what they’ve already tried. “The
competition from the Internet is fierce,
but the advantage to the way we retail
cigars is it delivers more service and
deeper knowledge. With our way, you’re
not just ringing up sales, you’re actually
suggesting and building future sales.”
An important aspect of the knowledge
he and his team impart to his customers
comes from staying abreast of industry
trends and potential regulatory actions
from the local, state and federal
governments. “IPCPR and NATO are
good sources of information for us, and
I do a lot of additional reading. I also
listen closely to the salesmen that come
in because they have lots of information
about what’s hot and what’s not,” he says.
And staying on top of the industry
might be what keeps Uhle’s going
for another century. “We’ve never
seen more challenges to our business
from the government,” he says.
“That ’s a dark cloud hanging over
the industry. We don’t know what
they’ll do to us. I think as a retailer,
you have to dovetail your efforts and
connect with the industry—even
your competitors.
“The fight has to come from all of us,”
says Steinbock. “And I mean from all of
us together, not as individuals. We have
to get consumers motivated to respond
to these things, too, if we’re going to
survive. It’s not going to get better, but
we can stop it from getting worse. It’s
not insurmountable in terms of fighting
it, but we have to be smart and work
with our competitors on this or we all
lose.”
TBI
trench marketing