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Furniture World Articles by Gordon Hecht

Read Traffic Stop Selling

Published: 9/30/2022
Shoppers may see red and blue flashing lights when approached by an RSA. Here are useful skills to help people relax into the furniture sales process.

Read Multiple Choice Dairy Queen Dilemma

Published: 7/13/2022
Reducing product selection to chocolate, vanilla and a two-flavor twist will combat customer indecision when choosing furniture and mattresses.

Read The Honey Don’t List

Published: 5/15/2022
There are many habits on and off the sales floor that can kill sales and reduce customer satisfaction.

Read Playing the Retail Bowl Game

Published: 3/20/2022
Retail owners and managers need to have the skills of both professional and college head coaches.

Read Offer New Employees a 20 Percent Pay Increase

Published: 1/10/2022
Help to find your next $500,000 to $1 million dollar closer, organize your business and keep fully staffed in this tight job market.

Read Holy Extended Terms, Batman!

Published: 11/21/2021
Create the options you need today, rehearse them with your sales team and keep your ‘Gotham’ safe, secure and viable.

Read Halloween at Retail

Published: 9/25/2021
Slasher film characters like Michael Myers come back from the dead in sequel after sequel, but customer issue resolution need not be a series of horror stories

Read The Three Million Dollar Retail Salesman

Published: 7/30/2021
One exceptional salesperson wrote the equivalent of $10,000 every day in 2020, selling furniture and mattresses.

Read The Pay Raise You Didn’t Know You Wanted

Published: 5/9/2021
Ringing the register with incrementally higher sales tickets results in pay raises all the way around.

Read Bedding & Mattress Sales: Sumthin’ for Nothin’

Published: 3/20/2021
Free delivery and give-a-ways like free pillows and protectors do more harm than just eroding margins. They lessen perceived value.

Read The 2000-Year-Old Furniture Man

Published: 1/23/2021
Gordon Hecht chats with a 2,000-year-old man about his experiences in the furniture industry over the past 150 years.

Read Train the Trainee

Published: 11/20/2020
Eight simple steps to improve the effectiveness of your sales meetings.

Read A Mattress Detective Story

Published: 9/24/2020
A true detective story about finding the right questions to ask to make that all-important mattress sale.

Read The Price Match Game

Published: 8/5/2020
Grabbing back the sale from an online or down the street retail competitor can be fun.

Read Sales Management: Grim Retail Personalities

Published: 6/6/2020
A post COVID-19 fairy tale from the pages of the Brothers Grim starring your very own sales team.

Read Lots To Keep You Up at Night

Published: 4/4/2020
Things you can do to respond when a large competitor goes out with a bang instead of a whimper.

Read Welcome to WHY2K20

Published: 1/3/2020
You only need to look at the innovators and disruptors in our world to see the value in asking WHY.

Read So-Called Knowledgeable & Friendly Salespeople

Published: 12/8/2019
Many store owners claim that their sales teams are knowledgeable and friendly.

Read Kids Say the Darndest Things

Published: 10/12/2019
Advice from a half- dozen half pints that may just help you grow your retail furniture business.

Read Jeopardy!: I'll Take Bedding for $800

Published: 7/15/2019
Take a few cues from Jeopardy's big winner James Holzhauer, and you just might WIN BIG at retail!

Read Missing the Media Mark? Your Best Inside Ad Campaign Ever!

Published: 6/2/2019
Even the best retail marketers often miss the mark on the #1 target group that can affect an up or down swing in a home furnishings store business.

Read Crazy Bedding Promotions!

Published: 3/23/2019
Can you come up with an off-the-wall promotion to boost bedding sales?

Read The Stuff Retail Dreams Are Made On

Published: 1/11/2019
Chances are pretty good that William Shakespeare never shopped at a mattress store...

Read Open up your Retail Toolboox for 2019

Published: 11/26/2018
Six retail tools you should take out of your tool box to make sure physical assets, policies and procedures can do a good job for you in 2019.

Read The Curse of 4 Percent Unemployment

Published: 9/22/2018
How to hire the best and most loyal employees in today's tight job market.

Read Seven Tiresome Habits of Moderately Successful Salespeople

Published: 7/4/2018
A list of seven poor retail habits RSAs hang onto, but give your shoppers a negative impression.

Read Selling Face To Face

Published: 5/23/2018
How to make the job of sales the EASIEST high paying position in your company.

Read Getting Your Slice of The Pie

Published: 3/23/2018
Although a pie is finite, retailers can expand their market from a large to extra-large with pepperoni!

Read Time To Party Like It's 2023

Published: 1/14/2018
RSAs may think a month ahead, and managers may think a year ahead, savvy business people are thinking about 2023.

Read Taco Bell Your Store In 2018

Published: 11/29/2017
What can you learn about target marketing from Taco Bell, Amazon and The Big Bang Theory?

Read Advance Planning For 2018

Published: 9/23/2017
Sure, it’s not even Halloween, but here are some planning tips for a happy and successful 2018.

Read Retail Phone Talk

Published: 7/7/2017
Five steps to help your people develop better phone skills and get rid of phone system features that annoy customers.

Read Who Wants To Greet a Millionaire?

Published: 6/1/2017
Five steps to help retail sales associates serve customers like millionaires so they might become one.

Read 5 Tips For Shopping High Point

Published: 3/29/2017
A true retail partner will offer initiatives and programs to help you SELL.

Read Don’t Get Peppered With Efficiency

Published: 12/28/2016
They say “time is money”, but that’s not always true at retail.

Read Planning For 2017 And The Poetry of Robert Burns

Published: 11/29/2016
As we flip from this year to the next, it’s a great time to get advice from Gordon Hecht for 2017’s Game Plan.

Read Under New Ownership

Published: 9/30/2016
How to grow your business by turning employee leaders Into owners.

Read Dear Furniture Godfather

Published: 7/7/2016
The Furniture Godfather once again answers your tough questions about life in the furniture industry.

Read Pete Rose- Furniture Salesperson

Published: 6/2/2016
It takes more than talent/ drive to make it to the BIGS, plus luck, the right team, no injuries, and good coaching.

Read Opportunity Doesn’t Knock, It Rings!

Published: 3/25/2016
Every day your service or sales teams end phone calls without suggesting a solution or invitation.

Read Ten Retail Commandments 2016

Published: 1/4/2016
Rules to live by that will help you to build your business, ignite your passion and reduce your level of stress.

Read Bold Retail Predictions for 2016

Published: 11/27/2015
Gordon Hecht stakes his reputation on these predictions for what you are certain to see in terms of retail traffic, sales, government regulations and even major weather disruptions in 2016.

Read Anticipation: It’s Making You Money!

Published: 9/27/2015
Anticipate these common but often ignored needs that can hinder the pathway to completing a sale.

Read Seven Deadly Sins of Retail

Published: 7/17/2015
Avoid them and your business can flourish. Ignore them, and you may lose your retail soul!

Read Millennials: Congratulations Mom & Dad, It’s a Customer!

Published: 6/3/2015
Millennials think and shop differently than Baby Boomers and Generation X. Here’s what you need to know.

Read Six Rules For Planning Your Next Big Event

Published: 3/24/2015
Planning a BIG EVENT is a lot like planning a wedding. It takes time, thought, and budgeting. Here are ideas to consider if you want to maximize the return on your next big event.

Read Get Your Fair Share of Bedding Sales In 2015

Published: 12/29/2014
In most home furnishings stores 96% of shoppers leave without buying a mattress. Here are 11 ways to do better in 2015.

Read The Customer Service Challenge

Published: 11/21/2014
Challenge yourself to find at least five opportunities in each example presented in this article to turn good into great customer service!

Read Win At the Name Game!

Published: 7/8/2014
The last line on the theme song for TV sitcom Cheers went something like, “You want to go where everyone knows your name”. Here are simple inexpensive ideas for keeping your store’s name front and center.

Read Retail: Just Like Your First Date

Published: 1/3/2014
Retail is full of first dates. Gordon Hecht reflects on how a bit of maturity goes a long way in pleasing customers, partners and improving performance in retail organizations.

Read Dear Furniture Godfather

Published: 12/10/2013
Readers’ questions answered by the “Teflon Don” of the furniture business. The Furniture Godfather dispenses advice about getting sales associates to show up on time ready to work, how to improve the retail sales process, sell more accessories and achieve a higher percentage of perfect deliveries.

Read Mattress-7: The New Reality

Published: 7/11/2013
Seven ways to adjust your sales and marketing to take advantage of a new reality.

Read A Baker’s Dozen: Retail Ideas

Published: 5/30/2013
These thirteen practical and detailed tips for retail success from Gordon Hecht will help you to build your furniture business.

Read Drop Those Percentages

Published: 4/1/2013
Observations on how percentage discounts and some sales goals expressed as a percent may be harmful to your furniture business.

Read Time To Dump That Loser In 2013

Published: 1/10/2013
Do you devote precious showroom space and inventory dollars to merchandise that just doesn’t sell? Do you have low performing salespeople who are costing you lost sales every day? If so, here’s what you can do about it.

Read Sales Excuses

Published: 6/6/2012
Replace your sales associate’s sagging excuses and you will replace more of your shoppers sagging beds with brand new bedding!

Read Retail Resolutions For 2012

Published: 12/2/2011
The top 7 New Year’s resolutions for 2012 that can help to build your business.

Read Garage Sale Lessons For Furniture Retailers

Published: 10/5/2011
Lessons a veteran furniture guy learned watching people browse, decide and negotiate at a garage sale.

Read Think Like A Retailer... Not Like A Furniture Guy!

Published: 5/30/2011
Retail furniture stores are different than other retail formats, but we can and should learn from the best practices of good retailers in other industries. Gordon Hecht identifies mindsets about credit, consumer buying behavior, inventory management and recruiting that furniture retailers should be thinking about.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #15 - The Best Bed for Your Shopper is the Bed that's Best for Your Shopper

Published: 5/9/2011
You get her to test-rest your best selling model and ask her if it’s comfortable. She buys it-and a week after delivery she wants to return it, saying that she’s awake tossing and turning all night. Why was she comfortable in the store and not comfortable at home?

Read Weekly Bedding Sales Tip #14 - Providing Mattress Protection

Published: 5/2/2011
When you present your store’s Mattress Protection not as another “Add-On”, but as a necessary component in providing your shopper with a Great Night’s Sleep, your shopper will see the health benefits and value of this product.

Read Weekly Bedding Sales Tip #13 - What's your Cheapest Mattress?

Published: 4/25/2011
Veteran sales people sometimes say that they won’t show the cheapest bed, or tell the shopper it won’t work for them. That may be true, but until the shopper’s needs, wants, and motivation have been discovered, making a derogatory comment about merchandise in our store can stop the demonstration and kill the sale.

Read Weekly Bedding Sales Tip #12 - Kids' Beds-The Worthwhile Investsment

Published: 4/18/2011
Smart retailers know that kids’ tastes are different from Mom and Dad, and they have designed products geared to satisfy the junior set.

Read Weekly Bedding Sales Tip #11 - King versus Queen-Room Requirements

Published: 4/11/2011
Some rooms are too small to accommodate a King Bed. But when you do the math, most master bedrooms can fit the larger size.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #9 -How long should a mattress last?

Published: 3/28/2011
Bedding experts like the Better Sleep Council and Consumer Reports agree that individuals need to re-evaluate what they are sleeping on every 5-7 years, but that's not what most of our customers do.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #10 - The Eight Features that are the Most Important to Your Shopper

Published: 3/28/2011
Cost-Value-or Price, it’s all relative, for some shoppers $699 is too much, and for others $2000 is a bargain. Just don’t try to guess your shopper’s pocket book. Warranty comes in last on shoppers’ lists.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #8 - Better or Worse?

Published: 3/22/2011
The simple question “BETTER or WORSE?” can help you understand if a customer really likes it. Many customers have been sleeping on a substandard mattress for years, and may not understand how proper comfort and support really feels!

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #7 - Comfort and Alignment Selling

Published: 3/14/2011
By looking at your customer’s spinal alignment, you can determine which mattress will provide proper support.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #6 - Who Needs an Power Base?

Published: 3/6/2011
Who is the customer for adjustable bases? The answer is everyone.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #5 - Body Language and Positioning

Published: 2/27/2011
How many times have you brought a shopper into your store’s bedding area and they just would not “test drive” a bed by lying down?

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #4 - The Four Letter "F" Word-FIRM

Published: 2/21/2011
A mattress that is too hard or “FIRM” will arch and stretch the lower back muscles if your customer is a back sleeper. It will increase the pressure points on the shoulder and hips if they are a side sleeper.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #3 - Five Qualifying Questions to Help Select the Right Bed

Published: 2/14/2011
Here are some qualifying questions that will help you fulfill your customer’s need for a Great Night’s Sleep.

Read Weekly Bedding Selling Tip #2 - How to Get Customers into the Bedding Gallery

Published: 2/7/2011
A recent survey discovered that more than 50% of Full-line furniture store shoppers don’t even know that you sell mattresses.

Read Weekly Better Bedding Selling Tip #1 - Who is the Bedding Customer?

Published: 1/31/2011
Customers who nap during the day may be suffering from sleep deprivation. Some will even tell you that when they can’t sleep in their bed, they move to their recliner.