Five Steps to Luxury Bedding Success

The luxury sale isn’t a buzzword, it’s not a flash in the pan, nor is it a money grab. Luxury selling is a mindset!

If you are to survive in today’s economy on Main Street selling mattresses through a brick-and -mortar-store, you have no choice but to level-up. This is especially true if you wish to succeed selling luxury mattresses.

Step#1: Elevate The Message

Elevate the marketing message about how your store is the premier destination for luxury sleep products in your market.

Consider the offers you include in your advertising including:

• The process by which you sell luxury products.

• The actual products you offer and consider as luxury sleep products.

• The aftercare of luxury sleep products customers.

Too often I look at mattress advertising and marketing and see a big pile of “me too”. I don’t blame you as retailers. It’s not as though there is a formal college degree for what we do. There are, however, ways to learn how to do effective marketing and advertising, but this must be done in your own time and on your own dime.

"Luxury mattresses offer wonderful retail margins, but if that is the only reason to consider them for your sales floor, move on."

That said, I see far too many stores taking a boring “me too” approach. Too much price, product and promotion along with “best selection, we won’t be undersold and lowest price guarantee” phrases make for a entire audience of consumers who are under-impressed and skeptical. Both are not conducive to selling anything, let alone premium and luxury mattresses.

By my definition, as applied to mattress retailers, marketing is the creation of messages that resonate with your ideal customer. These messages can and should only be unique to you, your store and your products. They cannot be undone with phrases like “largest selection, lowest price, and in business since….” All of these points are both old hat and easily topped by your competition.

Advertising is the amplification, the distribution if you will, of the marketing messages you create. Core advertising tenets include the following:

• Your market. Who you are going after.

• The message you create and craft about how you best serve your ideal customer.

• The media your ideal customer is most likely to use and digest based on who they are - not what is most cost effective for you.
  
  
  

Luxury customers are typically not reading road signs or fish-wrapper type publications. Typically, I find luxury customers consume media that helps them find ideas for solving problems such as niche magazines, blog posts (found from an online search), online lead capture (as I use my mattress buyers guides found on our website www.GardnersMattressAndMore.com) ,and direct mail to targeted neighborhoods.

Step #2: Use The Right Bait

Remember, the fish you catch depends on the bait you use. I am a novice fisherman, but even I know that if you use minnow bait, you haven't earned the right to be upset if you are left with only fishermen’s tales and dreams of landing big sales.

“When it comes to selling luxury mattresses, how you sell them is as important as how you get the opportunity in the first place, and even more important than the product." 

When it comes to selling luxury mattresses, how you sell them is as important as how you get the opportunity in the first place and even more important than the product. This much I know... there is no shortage of premium and luxury mattress offerings out there. However, how you discuss these products, diagnose needs and present these luxury sleep systems is of utmost importance.

Step #3: Get Off The Sales Floor

My formula since day one has been to sit down with shoppers in a comfortable place like a customer lounge, away from the mattress sales floor, and have a focused conversation about how our luxury sleep products fit customers' sleep needs. This is not a conversation about us, about our tenure in the marketplace, or about how we have the best selection of the biggest name brands. This conversation is about discovering their needs and how we might help meet them. The end result is an understanding of what our customers are struggling with, how they want to solve sleep issues, what their expectations are from a superior bedding purchase, and ultimately about how we can help to connect all the dots.
What you need to do if you want to sell more high-end bedding is establish that your store is the right fit for your customer and that your service offerings exceed the product you sell. If you do this, you’ll find that selling luxury mattresses is one of the easiest sales you can make.

Step #4: Buy Right

I am in awe of just how busy the name brand showrooms are compared to every other showroom I visit at Las Vegas Market. My advice is to do your research and find companies that are over-the-top radical and passionate about their products. They will support you in ways you’ve not seen, nor are accustomed to. But most important, you need to select programs that you are excited about, can personally connect to, manage, and train your staff on. The simplest way to succeed in most anything in life is to do the polar opposite of what everyone else is doing - by this action alone you will be different and different in the mattresss business is good!

Luxury mattresses offer wonderful retail margins, but if that is the only reason to consider them for your sales floor, move on. On the sales floor you need to exude a level of passion that transcends margin and offers the big promise of better sleep and pride from your customers.

Step #5: Care & Concern

Lastly, luxury customers expect and appreciate higher levels of care and concern throughout the buying process. From initial greetings and sales presentations, to follow-up and in home actions, the experience with you and your staff must be elevated. At Gardner's Mattress & More, we follow up with personal, relevant and timely messages. We take time to discover customer needs and present with them in mind. Once we make a sale, a series of welcome-to-the-family emails, direct mail thank you cards and personal phone calls begin. Along with this, our crew delivers a thank you bag filled with artisan cake pops along with every sale.

The luxury sale isn’t a buzzword, it’s not a flash in the pan, nor is it a money grab. Luxury selling is a mindset, a belief that you will elevate the experience from start to finish, and over-deliver all along the way. After all, if the divide in personal income is truly growing in our country, where would you like to have your feet planted? I know which side I choose to be on!