Greetings Floor Dealers!

JIM: Here are three strategies which will help you sell at premium prices, but you have to implement all three or none of them will be as effective.
FLOOR DEALER: That’s a lot of work.
JIM: What’s more work?  Implementing these strategies or staying trapped forever on the cheap-price hamster-wheel of doom?

“Wow, if I’m ever in tax trouble I’m hiring this guy,” I said to myself.

It was my first visit to a new accountant, and I was sitting in his waiting room leafing through a large binder full of testimonials from his clients.   Besides providing accounting services, he specialized in getting people out of tax trouble.   I read letter after letter from grateful clients, some of whom had had tax debts reduced by ninety-percent or more.  He was so successful at getting tax concessions, I began to wonder if he had compromising photos of the IRS at a drunken party with strippers and a lampshade on its head.  This fellow was obviously extremely competent, so I had no reluctance about hiring him even though he was much more expensive than other accounting services.

Lesson: my accountant used testimonials (among other things) to create a zero-resistance selling environment.

en•vi•ron•ment: the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences

There is no single strategy which will enable you to charge premium prices.  Instead, create an environment of zero-resistance selling by using multiple strategies all working together.  I teach floor dealers over twenty-seven strategies for doing this, and here are three of the most effective.

Strategy #1: Testimonials.  What others say about you is a hundred times more effective than what you say about yourself, even if you are a hundred times more eloquent.  Testimonials give you a “halo” of credibility and the ability to command premium prices.
I teach twelve methods for using testimonials to market your business, and one of the simplest ways to get started is to copy my accountant: fill a binder with positive comments from your customers.  (TIP: Comments like “They really know how to party at Jimbo’s Floors” while positive may send the wrong message.)

Strategy #2: Referral Marketing.  We all know that selling to a referral is much easier than selling to a cold walk-in who visited your store because of a radio ad.  They are less suspicious, more friendly, and less price-resistant.  And if you ask nicely, much more likely to share their beer with you.

If you provide good service you’ll get referrals as a matter of course.  So for most dealers, referrals are a “happy accident.”  (Not to be confused with the other kind of “happy accident” resulting in a bouncing new baby when you and your spouse are in your late forties.)  But you can dramatically increase your referrals by implementing a referral marketing system that encourages, celebrates and rewards referrals.

Strategy #3: Customer Education.  When you purchase a high ticket item you want information to make a good choice.  Think about the amount of time you spent shopping and researching on the web when you bought your last car.  (Or private island.)  Your customers also want information when buying flooring, and if you are the one to give it to them it will greatly enhance your credibility and reduce price-resistance.  An education tool I provide dealers is a consumer’s guide which gives prospects six mistakes to avoid when choosing a flooring store, four steps for choosing the right flooring product, and why buying on cheap price is a mistake.  (And why beer—while always appreciated—cannot be used as payment for installation services.)

If you want to escape the rat-race of competing on price, begin creating a zero-resistance selling environment by implementing these three strategies.

 

To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”

Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!