The majority of flooring dealers have a plan of action regarding the economy. Unfortunately, that plan tends to be 'waiting and hoping' for the economy to 'get back to normal.' If I had a dollar for every time I heard a flooring retailer say, “Well hopefully the economy will turn around soon,” I could single-handedly fund the [...]
“My revenue increased by 50% last year, and this year it increased by another 50%.” Craig Bendele from Florida was speaking to a group of dealers during one of my training webinars, and we were discussing the strategies he used to grow his revenue. (I covered some of those strategies in Part 2 of this series.) [...]
Most dealers don’t have an ongoing, dependable marketing system in place to create a predictable stream of customers, to even out the seasonal ups and downs, and to bullet-proof their business against market fluctuations. The radio ad rep calls and says, “We’re having a special this month on ad space.” The dealer figures it’s too [...]
Does this sound familiar? Business is slow, so you launch advertising campaigns and promotions, and work your tail off, hustling to get more business in your door. The next thing you know you’re so swamped you can’t keep up with the orders. So, you stop doing the things that brought in the business because you’re [...]
“We need a systematic plan for attacking our marketing,” Matt M., a floor covering dealer from Arizona, told me. Steve N., a dealer from California, added, “Foot traffic is bad. We just want at least seven customers a day. We get two to three customers and it becomes difficult to stay motivated.” Both of these challenges [...]
There are two broad categories in advertising, and it is vital that you understand the difference. If you don’t, your campaigns are doomed to mediocre returns at best, failure at worst. These two kinds of marketing are called institutional advertising and direct response advertising. Direct response advertising will make you rich … image advertising will waste your [...]
“I’ve told my sales team they need to increase their closed sales, but nothing improves.” This was the sentiment expressed to me by a frustrated flooring dealer. Actually, I’ve heard this complaint in various forms from many dealers. The problem occurs because retailers inform their salespeople of the end result they want but fail to [...]
I’ve preached numerous times that for most dealers, competing on price is a suicide mission. Positioning yourself in the market as the dealer with the cheapest prices is, at best, a fragile and temporary advantage. All it takes is someone to come along with a cheaper price and you’ve instantly lost your advantage. Companies that [...]
Greetings Floor Dealers! In 2015 consumers learned that Lumber Liquidators had been selling Chinese-made laminate flooring with formaldehyde levels up to 13 times higher than allowed by California emissions standards. Formaldehyde is found in virtually everything, living or manufactured, but its excessive emissions can cause health problems, which is why California has strict standards [...]
As I covered in Part 1, the vast majority of sales in the $20,000 range and above don’t come from advertising. They come from repeat customers and their referrals. In this installment, we continue with strategies and principles for magnetically attracting high-end, high-margin sales. Marketing to your past customers. Over the years you’ve most likely [...]
