If you are the owner, manager or buyer of an optical this could give you a stomachache by the end of this paragraph. At least I did when I experienced this in real life. We had over 2,000 frames, 31 reps, and averaged 0.67 turns per year. That was an investment of $130,000 on our boards and a loss of $7,000 in optical the previous year. Purchased frames would stay in unopened boxes for three to four months before being placed on the boards. We ordered 40-70 frames per rep visit and almost 50 percent of our inventory was high-end luxury product. An average of three to four hours was spent flipping product when reps visited our optical.

I told our doctors that if we figured out how to turn this around, I would probably be able to write and speak about how we did it. Here you go…

How in the World Did This Happen?
That was my first question. I had no idea where to start. There were so many red flags that I did not know how to proceed. We eventually came to the realization that until we could figure out what happened and what we were going to do about it that we were implementing an inventory freeze. This is every optician's nightmare; no more exciting, trendy, fashionable frames for the foreseeable future. It was interesting observing our opticians bring patients over to our frame board. They became great with sales, though had to fake enthusiasm for product that had been in our optical for over three years. This was rough.

Phase One of Five: Trim-Down
The frame freeze helped a bit, but it was still very difficult to sell off our frames which were not current and that our opticians were sick of. We had to get creative with clearing out our inventory! Here are some things to try, some more successful than others.

1. Buy-backs: This is when a frame company would take 70 "duds" and we would get 70 new frames at a discount. Although it was an even trade and did not lower our number immediately, current frames are more saleable and will lower inventory more quickly.

2. Free Frame as a Second Pair: Everyone tells you to sell multiple pairs, right? Even though we weren't making a dime on the second frame, we were getting paid for the lenses and patients get into the habit of having more than one pair.

3. Dots Galore: Purchase a whole bunch of colorful dots and place them on out-dated frames.

• Red Dot: 50 percent off frame
• Yellow Dot: Free frame with purchase of lenses
• Blue Dot: $20 sunglasses with a year supply of contacts

4. Optician Incentives: If trying to sell off a frame line, consider giving a $50 incentive if sold at full price. After three months, consider discounting those frames 25 percent off and pay opticians $35 for selling them. Incentivize $20 for a frame that was 50 percent off and a high-five if the frame was 75-100 percent off. Regardless, working hard at a frame line can ensure that it gets eliminated.

After two painful years (yikes!), we had greatly reduced inventory and were ready for new product. We chose to allow this trim down two years – yours may take less time.

Join me next time for a description of Phase Two of Five: Create a Plan!


Tim Slapnicher, ABOC, CPO is currently the practice coordinator at Rivertown Eye Care in Hastings, Minn., where he lives with his family. He uses his experience of teaching kindergarten to bring a fresh perspective to management in the optical industry.