Greetings Floor Dealers! In last week's post I talked about the interview I did with Mike Fry, the owner of Fancy Fortune Cookies. We discuss tons of ideas for making money using this unique product. The full interview is available for my Flooring Success Systems members, but I though I'd make just one more strategy [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! Recently I interviewed Mike Fry the owner and founder of Fancy Fortune Cookies. Your prospects and clients associate fortune cookies with good luck, the future, and mystery. By including fortune cookies in your marketing, you tap into these strong cultural associations. I really like working with FFC. Partly because Mike is such [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! This is part two in a multi-part series on prospering in the “New Economy” by marketing to high-end clients. Unfortunately, most flooring dealers’ “business plan” to deal with market turmoil is to “wait and hope” that the economy “gets back to the way it was.” Those dealers' whose plans to combat a [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! During the mortgage meltdown, the massive government bailout, and sweeping political changes over the past several years, many floor dealers struggled with survival - forget prosperity! The flooring industry seriously experienced the fallout, with many dealers severely downsizing or going out of business all together. Why it’s a mistake to simply “hope” [...]
WARNING: this article contains a strong dose of "tough love," with no punches pulled, and may be difficult for some to hear. If your feelings are easily hurt I recommend skipping this installment. Greetings Floor Dealers! As detailed in Part 1 of this series, selling on cheap-price is a fragile and temporary marketing advantage at [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! When I was in college I earned my daily bread by giving private guitar lessons at a music store. The owner of this store was a good-hearted and generous fellow. A little too generous. He sold his wares at incredibly thin margins, so thin that he had to take part-time work outside [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! Years ago I owned a carpet cleaning company. During that time there was a local charity selling coupon books with deep discounts to local businesses such as restaurants, lube shops, and—you guessed it—carpet cleaning companies. One carpet cleaner participated by including a coupon for "one room free, up to 200 SF." He [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! There is no single strategy—no "silver bullet"—that will magically enable you to leave the boxes in the dust. Rather, you should implement multiple, integrated sales and marketing strategies that reinforce one another and position you as the obvious choice. With that in mind, let's take a look at some effective strategies you [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! At the 2014 TISE West event in Las Vegas, I attended James Dion's class on the psychology of price. He said, "Price is just a number, yet consumer's are obsessed with it. If you want to know who to blame, look in the mirror." I agree. For years box stores and national [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! Not long ago I was on a coaching call with Mark, a floor dealer from the Chicago area. "We love having Home Depot for neighbors," he said. "We take a lot of business from them." I spewed iced tea as I burst out laughing. "Details! Details! Give me details!" I said after [...]