In the 1980’s the American Floor Covering Association (AFA), one of the components of today’s World Floor Covering Association (WFCA), offered a five-day traveling university that featured Walter Guinan, Frank Mayfield and Herb Wolk as the instructors. All three were fantastic talents, as is exhibited by their all being in our industry’s Hall of Fame,…
I saw this headline while reading the editorial section in a morning newspaper recently. The subject of the article was local politics, but it struck me as defining exactly the position many independent flooring retailers are finding themselves in today. We at the WFCA are seeing far too many dealers who have been too busy…
Frequent readers know I believe before we can be good customer service providers, we must first learn to be good customers ourselves. By that, I mean we must pay attention to how we are treated when we are spending our hard earned pay checks. By doing so, you will learn a tremendous amount about both…
At the risk of coming across as an old curmudgeon, I have a nagging question: What in the world has happened to common courtesy? Am I the only one who has gotten my fill of rude and insensitive behavior when attempting to give my hard earned money to a retailer or service provider? I hardly…
The goal of any flooring salesperson is to have their customer satisfied with as few “surprises” as possible. Believe it or not, this is any competent installer’s goal as well. Too often, though, these goals get sidetracked by poor communications that usually result in the customer being adversely affected. Think of the satisfaction of the…
In my last article, (see Please… No Surprises! (Installers – Part II)) I brought up several responsibilities that salespeople have to installers to insure that each job goes as smoothly as possible. Now let’s look at the obligations that a competent installer has to the salesperson. COMMAND RESPECT. If you wish to be treated as a…
I have always felt the very best marketing lessons are learned by observing others’ reactions to firms not in our field. As an example, recently I was having a conversation with my 29-year-old daughter regarding her having some service work done on her vehicle. She was relating to me how nice it was to patronize…
Whether you’re an installer, estimator or inspector, I would bet that you’d agree that your day is both more enjoyable and productive when you can quickly develop a good working relationship with a client. Do you want the customer that you have an in-home appointment with to think good thoughts about you before you even…
Many flooring businesses train their internal team members a variety of ways to positively manage the customer’s first impressions when she interacts with a sales professional. This is both logical and necessary given the logic that “nothing happens until somebody sells something.” It has been my observation, though, that far too few dealers take the…
While casually watching a car race recently, I heard three-time NASCAR champion Daryl Waltrip make the statement that “sometimes you have to slow down in order to go faster.” He was referencing the fact that if you carry too much speed into a turn, you risk losing momentum going into the next straightaway. This results…
There is one asset that I feel is being under motivated presently at most stores – the salesperson. Ask yourself, does my sales staff have a leader? Don’t confuse a sales leader with a sales manager. These are very different tasks. It’s the primary responsibility of most sales managers to oversee the execution of their…
Most sales people have been taught how to qualify a customer. What too few seem to realize is that the customer is busy qualifying them, as well. As a product presentation is made, they are forming a perception of not only what is being said, but also how it is being said. They are judging…