The Furniture Training Company announced that it has certified over 1000 retail furniture sales associates as “Furniture Fundamentals Specialists” in just the past nine months. These sales associates became certified by completing the company’s award-winning training program, Fundamentals of Furniture Product Knowledge. Since January alone, the company has delivered more than 45,000 on-line product knowledge lessons to more than 2,500 furniture sales associates world-wide.
Glen Barklow, Director of Training at Wickes Furniture, reports, “We chose the Furniture Training Company's on-line Fundamentals of Furniture Product Knowledge program because it would instantly allow us to provide consistent and comprehensive coursework to each store location.” He went on to say, “We are most impressed with the design of the program. The combination of the self-paced on-line format, the review activities, and the showroom exercises provide a total learning experience that our sales consultants will be able apply directly on the sales floor.”
The Fundamentals on-line training course includes 36 self-paced, interactive lessons with multimedia presentations, quizzes, tests, and in-store learning activities. The training program lessons cover the following areas:
casegoods, upholstered furniture, beds, bedding, fibers, fabric, leather furniture, and rugs. The affordable and easy to use training program includes bookmarking for employees and real-time status reports that let owners and managers know each employee's progress toward certification. Associates who become certified receive, by mail, an elegant certificate of completion for framing and a handsome pewter lapel pin from the Furniture Training Company.
“We’re elated to have reached this major milestone in our company’s growth,” said Mark Lacy, President, of The Furniture Training Company. “It’s only when associates have sufficient product knowledge that they can increase their sales by being able to correctly answer customers’ questions and make confident suggestions about furniture styles, construction, and materials. They can also close sales with confidence because they have been trained in the value of the products they sell.”
The Fundamentals of Furniture Product Knowledge training course was recently awarded the 2007 Best Educational Software Award by the ComputEd Learning Center in the category of vocational education.
The Fundamentals program is the ideal foundation course to the Furniture Training Company’s other on-line training course, SalesForce: Selling with Service. A program which teaches sales associates the following skills: greeting customers, handling “I’m just looking” customers, discovering customer needs, presenting room solutions, overcoming objections, and closing sales with confidence. Sales associates who complete the SalesForce program are certified as “Furniture Sales Specialists.”
Wickes Furniture, RoomStore, Kasey’s Fine Furniture, Olinde’s Furniture, Lack’s Home Furnishings, McMahan’s Furniture, Cort Furniture, Designs of the Interior, various Ashley stores, and Dearden’s Furniture are just a few of the more than 100 furniture retailers large and small whose sales associates are becoming certified furniture experts using the Furniture Training Company’s on-line courses.
For more information on this program offered in conjunction with FURNITURE WORLD Magazine (Go to http://www.furnituretrainingcompany.com or call toll-free (866) 755-5996 to learn more about the Fundamentals of Furniture Product Knowledge and SalesForce: Selling with Service online training courses and to sign-up to preview lessons from either course risk free.)
About The Furniture Training Company The Furniture Training Company is a subsidiary of LetterPress Software, Inc. and provides technology-based training services to the retail furniture industry. Since 2001 they have been providing training services to furniture retailers world-wide, from single-store independents to large retail furniture chains and department stores. The Furniture Training Company was established in the fall of 2006 to better serve the furniture industry.