By Carissa Dunphy, ABOC

Being a naturally curious person, I try to keep an open mind about learning new things as it could be applicable in any area of life. If you’ve ever seen Shark Tank or The Profit, both reality television shows about entrepreneurs who seek guidance and funding to advance their small business, you’ve probably heard advice at one point or another that you were able to apply to your own life.

On an episode of one of the shows (I can’t remember which one — I’ve seen so many they all blur together) a small business that operated a frozen food company was struggling to find success because their marketspace was extremely competitive. Even though frozen food is a staple on pretty much everyone’s shopping list, it’s also one of the hardest-to-store items because it must remain frozen. The frozen section is limited to one area in the store — there could be a few small mobile units here or there, but the placement is not ideal because it’s not in the ‘section’ with all the other frozen foods.

Parlay this methodology to your frame boards and the space that each line gets — all the frames are in ‘optical’, not down a hallway, in pretest, or in exam rooms — they are all together. Most opticals have a limited amount of floor space and a set number of pegs or risers to display frames on — there is simply no room to add a new collection without removing an old one.

So, why does this matter? Because the footprint for the product is so limited, it forces strong evaluation to determine if the products are performing well enough to keep their space. How diligent are you in regularly assessing your lines to see how well they sell?

Calculating frame turn rate is extremely simple to do and provides you with a value of what moves, and aids in determining the board space for each line. While there are ways to break it down in detail, we’re going to keep this in the most simple terms. Choose one frame line — take the number of frames from that line that have sold in the past rolling 12 months and divide it by the number of board spaces for said line. You should end up with a number like 1.8 or 3.2. Do this for all your frame lines then sort them by their turn rate. Different sized opticals will have different turn rates, but an annual turn rate of 3.0 is most desirable. For the simplest figuring, start by re-evaluating the lines at the top and the bottom of the list — the highest turn rates deserve more board space and the lowest turn rates should either have their board space reduced or be re-evaluated altogether.

Another important way frames are like frozen foods — buy for your market, not for your own taste. It’s your job to buy for your patient base, not what you’re ‘feeling’ that day and not because the rep will send you some swag if you order a certain amount — wholesale discounts and swag don’t matter if the product doesn’t sell. On the flip side, if you can’t keep it in stock, it deserves more frequent ordering and likely more real estate — do your diligence and provide your patients with their best eyewear experience!