 Are you making the best buying decisions when it comes to your optical inventory? Who makes your buying decisions? I hear opticians tell me all the time, I do all the frame buying here and I plan ahead. I check to see how many frames have been sold before the rep even comes in. Or I hear doctors all the time, we have Mary and Sam do all of our frame bang because they really know what our patients are wanting. Now listen, I'm not doubting that y'all know your stuff. It is clear that opticianry is a very proud profession and rightfully so, we're a very unique breed. We are healthcare specialists, artists, refined salesmen, fashion designers, precision light bending engineers, technology focused supergeeks, all rolled into one, an optician. We have a long history and we really should be proud. So when I come in, a gal from Boise, Idaho who starts questioning your optical decision making, it can make you a little uncomfortable. You might think she doesn't know me or my optical isn't like other opticals. We have a particular type of patient here. Hopefully by the end of this blog, I've caused you to think differently. Okay, hear me out. 95% of independent opticals have buying habits that closely resemble this. Sell one frame, replace one frame. Sell one frame, replace one frame. Here are a few examples. Optical A has about 500 frames in their optical. They like to wait until the rep comes in before they reorder. They have a nice little visit with their rep and they'll take a look at all the things that are new and between what's new and what's already sold, they'll end up filling up their board. Optical B has 3000 frames on their board between what's out in the optical and what's in backsock. They don't wait for reps to come around. They're far too busy for that. When their inventory gets low, they've got their optician who's their designated frame buyer who goes ahead and reorders what has just sold. And then when the reps do come in, they take a look at what's new and they might swap out or change out whatever they need, but essentially they're just replacing the frames that were already sold. When simplified, it's still sell one frame, replace one frame, sell one frame, replace one frame. I guarantee that this or a version of it is similar to what's happening in your office. Here's the problem with this concept. It displaces the focus from being able to optimize all of your optical sales. This hurts your optical in the three most damaging ways, time, energy and money. Now, what if you started to think of your optical as real estate and started to view your frame spots as investment properties? This analogy would make each frame brand the renter and make you the landlord. So let's run the same sell one frame, replace one frame scenario when we're thinking of it like real estate. So if you've got all these renters here that are paying their rent, you go, woohoo, they're paying their rent, yay. But what about all these bums that aren't paying their rent? You've got a big problem. You are going to go into foreclosure if you can't get them to start paying. And if they don't start paying their rent, you have to evict them. When you think of it as real estate, you realize that the typical sell one frame, replace one frame strategy is really hurting your optical sales. The way you are running your optical is distracting your focus from optimizing those sales. We are so focused on the green frames that are selling that we're not paying attention to the frames that aren't selling. What data are you using to guide you on what to order? What info are you collecting to help you identify the good renters and the bad renters? Now, before some of you start saying, well, we run inventory, good job. About 50% of opticals do on a regular basis, but what is that inventory really telling you? It's only giving you a snapshot of what your frames and what your optical looks like right now. Others might pull an aging report to see how long a frame has been sitting there. But really, how far is that info going to get you? While some opticals will pull a sales report and be like, whew, we sold 15 frames. Well, that's fantastic if you've got 20 spots on the board, but if you've got 75 spots on the board and you sold 15 of that brand, that's not good. None of these common data pulling methods are offering you the insight that you need to make calculated decisions for creating a plan in your optical. You must build your optical plan on logic and analytics. The most beneficial analysis that you can run in your optical is to calculate your frame turnover or a frame turn. Your frame turn is the quantity of frames sold divided by the quantity of frames that you hold in your inventory. Because sales can be so cyclical in our industry, we run these numbers on a 12 month basis. The annual frame turnover would equal the quantity of frames sold in the last 12 months divided by the quantity of frames in your inventory. However, this gets your frame turn number for all of your inventory. This assessment becomes much more powerful if you break it down by brand. But this takes a lot of time and definitely some mathematical talent. But if you take the time to do it, you can get an assessment of your optical real estate. You can identify the good renters and the bad renters. And once you've identified the bad renters, if you need to evict those, you can do that in order to create room for the new renters that will be making you so much more money. You can also look at the renters who might be paying their rent, but they're messing with your home. Essentially, they're ruining your optical image. You can make a wise decision on who a better renter is to replace them with. That better renter that can fill the same function or niche, but be able to provide a better image for you like an independent brand. Here is the best part. When you run these assessments, it'll show you what your optical does, but also what your optical needs. It doesn't matter how big or small your optical is, if you're in a big city or a small country town, they are your numbers and only your numbers. Your optical is telling you a story of how you can be most profitable, but are you listening? You need to start thinking of your optical as real estate. Once you are able to assess your optical, you can combine logic with your assessment and be able to completely optimize your optical. There is one small problem though. As an optician, the last thing that you have is extra time. The extra time to be running all these numbers every month and breaking down the info to create these optical plans. Well, this is where the gal from Boise, Idaho comes back in. I've spent thousands of hours working with hundreds of opticals to refine this concept. I've created a tool that allows opticians the convenience of being able to look at what's happening in their optical on an annual and a monthly basis. Break down the value of every brand and even offering assessments and guidance on creating a plan for your optical. Know your frame turn and the impact that it can make on your optical success is unmatched. Do your optical a favor. Stop making decisions on feelings, emotions and opinions. Start using logic and analytics and you will see amazing results.