This is Part 3 of the Inventory Engine Workshop. And this is the one where it gets personal.

Parts 1 and 2 covered what Open to Buy really is and what the numbers behind healthy inventory look like. In this final chapter, Coach Maven Dana Connell and I open the floor to the questions store owners are actually sitting with. The ones that don’t always get asked out loud.

What do you do when your open to buy says one thing but your gut is saying something else entirely? How do you handle reorders when there’s not enough cash? What does asking vendors for markdown dollars actually mean? And why do so many store owners think sales don’t work and how do you fix that? Dana and I took every single one of these on, and what came out of it is some of the most practical advice we have shared in this entire series.

No scripts. Honest answers. And at the end, the one analogy that ties this whole series together.

If you haven’t listened to Parts 1 and 2 yet, go back and start there. But if you have, you’re ready for this.

Watch the Full Episode Here:

When Your Open to Buy and Your Emotions Disagree 

This comes up in almost every store I work with. Your numbers say to slow down on buying. Your gut says the store needs something new. Your customer is coming in and you want to have fresh things for them. So you buy anyway.

I get it. I have been there. But here is what I know after 26 years of doing this: emotional buying is expensive. Not because your instincts are wrong. Sometimes your instincts are exactly right. But without a plan behind them, every decision is a guess. And guessing is what makes retail feel like gambling.

A cab driver in Las Vegas said that to me once. I told him I was in town for a trade show. He assumed I was there to gamble. I said no, I don’t gamble. He said, you’re in retail and you don’t think you gamble?

He wasn’t entirely wrong about how most retailers operate. But it does not have to be that way. When you have a system, you stop guessing. And when you stop guessing, retail stops feeling like a high wire and starts feeling like a business.

The lesson: Your gut matters. Your gut also needs a plan behind it. The two are not in competition with each other.

Your Customer Already Voted 

If a product has not sold in 60 to 90 days, your customer has already told you what they think of it.

Their vote is no, thank you.

They walked past it. They picked up something else. They came in three times and left without it. And no amount of moving it to a better shelf, having your team mention it, or waiting for the right customer to walk through the door is going to change that outcome.

I know this is hard to hear when you believed in the product. But your cash does not care about your feelings about it. Dead inventory is not just an annoyance. It is your money sitting completely still. Every day it sits there is a day you are not reinvesting that cash into something that will actually sell.

It’s bad bananas. Inventory is not fine wine. It does not get better with age. The longer it sits, the worse the problem gets. You cannot afford to wait it out.

Mark it down. Move it out. Get your cash back and put it to work.

The lesson: 60 to 90 days with no movement is the line. When a product crosses it, the decision has already been made for you. Your job is to act on it.

The Money You Are Not Asking For 

Here is something most store owners do not know, or know but feel awkward about: when inventory doesn’t sell and you have to mark it down, you can ask your vendor to cover that cost.

It is called markdown money. And it is real, it is common, and it is yours to ask for.

It can come as a credit on a future order, a discount, or a check. The structure varies. But the principle is the same: you took a risk on their product, it didn’t perform, and they have a responsibility to help cover that.

For every markdown dollar you do not ask for, somebody else is getting it. A bigger store. A bolder buyer. Someone who already knows this game and plays it without hesitation.

I watched this happen firsthand. I was working for a family-owned company with ten stores and I suggested we start asking vendors for markdown money. The owner said no, that’s not how we do things. And I thought: every penny you didn’t ask for, they gave to my old employer — a large department store that asked for everything.

The worst a vendor can say is no. And even then, you ask again next time. Their sales reps want to keep your business. It is easier for them to work with you than to go find a new buyer. If you ask, most of the time they will find a way to say yes.

Same goes for co-op advertising money. If you want to boost a vendor’s product on social, ask them to chip in. Ask for the creative assets too. They usually already have them.

The lesson: Ask for markdown dollars. Ask for ad support. Ask again after a no. The money is there. It just goes to whoever asks for it.

Promos and Sales Are Not the Same Thing 

This confusion costs store owners real money, so I want to be direct about it.

A promo is a boost. It drives traffic, creates some excitement around a specific product or moment, and gives your regulars a reason to come in. A seasonal theme, a buy-two-get-one, a weekend event. Those things have a place. They work for what they are designed to do.

But a promo will not clear your dead inventory. It is not built to do that.

A strategic sale is completely different. It is a six-week process with a specific structure. The timing matters. The merchandising matters. How your team talks about it matters. How you market it matters. When all of those pieces are in place, it works every single time. Not most of the time. Every time.

We call it the Sale That Works. Not the most exciting name, I’ll admit. But we named it that because it does exactly what it says.

The framework we use is Good, Bad, and Ugly. Good inventory, newer items that just aren’t moving, goes at 25% off. Bad inventory, things that have been sitting for three to six months, goes at 50%. Ugly inventory, anything past six months with no sales, goes at 75%. Every two weeks, items move down a tier. That movement creates new reasons to market, new urgency, and new reasons for customers to come back.

The goal is not to recover your margin on those items. That ship has sailed. The goal is to get your cash back so you can reinvest it in the things that will sell.

The lesson: If your sales are not working, it is not because sales don’t work. It is because a promo and a strategic sale are two different tools. Make sure you are using the right one.

A Go-Fast Store Has a Tuned Engine 

My son Christopher, when he was little, divided every car in the world into two categories: go-fast cars and go-slow cars. Sports cars were go-fast. Everything else was go-slow. He wanted nothing to do with go-slow cars. He would pick them up, decide they didn’t qualify, and launch them across the room.

I think about that a lot. Because a well-performing engine is what makes a go-fast car. Not the paint job. Not how it looks in the driveway. The engine.

Your store works the same way. Your inventory is the engine. It is your single biggest expense. It drives every customer purchase. And a well-tuned inventory engine is what gets you to a million dollars in sales, to paying yourself over $11,000 a month, to having real freedom in how you run your business.

If your engine is running rough right now, buying on gut feel, sitting on dead stock, guessing at your numbers that is not a character flaw. It is a systems problem. And systems problems have solutions.

The lesson: A go-fast store is not an accident. It is the result of a tuned engine. And tuning that engine is exactly what we are here to help you do.

Your Millie Moment

Step 1: Look at everything in your store that has not sold in 60 to 90 days. That is your action list. Start there.

Step 2: Before your next vendor meeting or trade show, write down your open to buy number. Bring it with you. Let it be the guardrail, not the afterthought.

Step 3: After your next order arrives, email your sales rep and ask about markdown support or co-op advertising. See what they say. You may be surprised.

Step 4: Ask yourself honestly: is your last sale a promo or a strategic clearance? If it’s a promo, plan your next one differently.

Resources & Links

💚 Remember: Inventory is not a guessing game. It never was. You now have the system, the numbers, and the framework to make your inventory work as hard as you do. Go be a go-fast store.