Better Bedding & Mattress Sales Series
A comprehensive sales and marketing series on how to merchandise, promote and sell everything in the mattress deparatment including pillows, mattress protectors and power foundations.
Whether or not you agree that we’ve entered a new retail paradigm, it’s time to double down on proven sales practices.
What is the point of organic certifications such as the GOTS and others? It's to comply with government rules, be transparent and truthful with consumers and avoid possible liability.
If you are considering adding organic mattresses to your merchandising mix, it’s best to clarify the claims you make to your customers.
Introduction to a multi-part series on how to merchandise, advertise and sell organic mattresses and bedding to boost margin and incremental sales.
If you want to have more trouble-free sales, educate
your customers with facts and take care that your RSAs do not spread misinformation or disinformation.
Mark Quinn explains why It’s so much more interesting and satisfying to be in the life improvement
business than just selling mattresses.
There are many reasons to get together with your team. From scheduled to impromptu, why, when and how you manage them is very important.
Free delivery and give-a-ways like free pillows and protectors do more harm than just eroding margins. They lessen perceived value.
Selling mattresses and furniture can be a great career. So, what can be done to elevate the status of RSAs, starting now in 2021?
Get your customers to spend more money than they intended on a mattress, and leave your store happy for spending it!
What are the best ways, for both store and customer, to handle product exchanges?
If you've decided to negotiate, here's what you need to know.
While plans have an annoying tendency to go haywire, having
no plan at all is begging for failure.
How to get the be-back customer back by David Benbow, author of How to Win the Battle For Mattress Sales.
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.
Whether your top bed is $4,000 or $40,000, here are sales strategies to help you present and sell your best.
Here's how to make a great closing argument and avoid the many pitfalls that can result in lost sales.
Saying you are the biggest, the best, in business the longest, and your prices can't be beat... is the wrong sentence!
Part 1: How can a quiet, modest, non-pushy RSA ever be a good closer? Here's how!
Best ways to help the uninformed and misinformed to make the right purchase decisions.
Where does sleep deprivation fit into a sales narrative that emphasizes comfort and good, restful sleep?.
Here we will present a number of specific objections furniture and bedding customers can and will bring up.
Responding correctly to customer objections is a powerful and productive sales skill. Here’s how to do it right.
The Presentation Step is the start of closing. Here’s how to do it right.
How to create advertorial marketing assets that really sell for you.
What’s the solution to under-performing sales associates?
Many hardworking retailers struggle to earn the money and live the lifestyle they deserve. Here’s how to change all that.
Effective managing comes down to doing these three activities every day; One minute goal setting, One minute praising and One minute reprimands.
How can you as a mattress retailer cope with showrooming, social media and online mattress sales?
If not executed properly, the selection step can wind up badly for both RSA and the customer. Here’s how to do it right.
Your store does not have to be a victim of shrinking bedding sales.
What will you do about the online retailers selling lower priced mattress who expect to take market share away from you?
More qualifying questions RSA’s can use to keep the sale moving along.
Part 6 of our Steps-Of-The-Sale series. Qualifying questions RSAs need to know to complete more mattress sales.
Part 5 of our Steps-Of-The-Sale series. Do your RSAs fail to ask even the most fundamental qualifying questions?
Part 3 of our Steps-Of-The-Sale series. The ‘Meet and Greet,’ is where the R.S.A. makes a first impression.
This installment provides a checklist of everything your R.S.A.’s need to know, inside and out, about the background knowledge that supports and sustains the sales process.
A structured, two-week training program for new bedding (and furniture) RSAs.
How one mattress retailer decided to stop selling lower priced mattresses that accounted for 20 percent of its sales, and why.
In most home furnishings stores 96% of shoppers leave without buying a mattress. Here are 11 ways to do better in 2015.
Tips on how to find, hire, evaluate and compensate what could be your most important assets.
What policies should you set to respond intelligently to a customer’s (buyer’s) after-the-sale enquiries or complaints?
Ideas for merchandising your mattress showroom so you can show enough beds, the right beds, and the ones your customers want to buy.
How Gardner’s Mattress & More turned a fax offering into a profitable Sign Sleep Dream promotion.
The final outcome of the mattress sales process depends almost entirely on whether the RSA keeps control or gives up control to the customer. Here’s how to stay in control.
How to get information on your mattress competition, profile them, and use this information to close more sales.
Here is a collection of ideas on how to arrange and run a mattress warehouse for optimum efficiency. This article can be useful as a check list when opening a new warehouse or as a training guide for new warehouse personnel.
If you haven’t set up a mattress warehouse before, are looking for new/additional space, or want a quick review of important considerations, read on.
Training new-hires, as every small and large store owner knows, is a problem that never ends. This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to structure a program for new hires that will set them up for success and longevity on your sales floor.
Part 11: Are we in the middle of a bedding revolution,
an evolution, or is it a non-starter for your operation?
With his long-time partner and friend, Nelson Bercier, President of Sit ‘n Sleep, Larry Miller just opened his thirty-second store. They have plans for expansion to 40 stores over the next three years. More than 300 highly trained employees serve Sit ‘n Sleep’s clients’ needs and sales have surged past $100 million annually.
The 10th installment in our Better Bedding & Mattress Sales series continues with a close look at the latex and gel used in mattresses, their features and benefits.
The 9th installment in Furniture World Magazine's Better Bedding & Mattress Sales series continues with a close look at foam.
This time, we continue our exploration of mattress anatomy by looking at springs and their role in mattress support, comfort and durability.
The past seven installments in this series on selling better bedding presented tools and techniques the best retail furniture stores use to price, promote and present mattresses, pillows, mattress protectors and foundations. This time, we start an exploration of mattress components and construction with when, why and how to bring up components and construction.
Part six of Furniture World’s selling better bedding series features expert sales tips and techniques that will help you to increase attachment rates on power bases.
Part five of Furniture World’s selling better bedding series features expert sales tips and techniques for furniture and bedding retailers that want to sell more pillows and mattress protectors
Part four of our selling better bedding series looks at creating demand by using the “Science of Sleep” approach.
Some best and worst bedding sales practices in furniture and bedding stores.
This month, our series on how to sell more higher-end bedding continues with additional ideas to help you and your salespeople create a focused and consistent marketing approach. See what the experts say about shifting the emphasis away from price by creating a plan for advertising, approaching customers, greeting them and asking appropriate questions to advance the sale.
This is the first part in a series that looks at how retailers can sell more higher-end bedding. In this issue, we define the luxury bedding category, present information on customer demographics and start to look at what experts say about best sales practices.