Greetings Floor Dealers!

As the owner of your business, being the rainmaker is your most important job.  Making the shift from seeing yourself as a “flooring store owner” to a “marketer of flooring” is the key to unlocking the financial potential of your business, and to achieving the freedom and lifestyle you want.

Most store owners make the mistake of separating advertising/marketing from everything else that goes on in their business.  In their minds, they have categories of activities: selling, administration, installation, advertising, etc.  This is useful when it comes to delegating activities and running a tight ship, but the smart marketer does not pigeonhole marketing in this way.  They realize that every point of contact between their business and the client is a marketing opportunity.

Disney World does not see picking up trash, cleaning the restrooms and painting fences as maintenance activities, but as marketing activities.  Why?  Because each one of these tasks represents a point of contact between the park and their patrons.

Starbucks does not view serving coffee as a service activity, but as a marketing activity.  It’s obvious that they see it as marketing because of the process they have engineered for serving coffee: they have a sign announcing that shifts designated barista (i.e. Trusted Advisor), a drink of the day recommended by the barista (Trusted Advisor), menu items they have invented or defined, your name gets written on the cup along with details of your customized order, they smile, they call you by name, they feature contests (client involvement) and so on.

Are you taking advantage of the marketing opportunities between every point of contact between your store and your prospects and clients?  As coaching team member, Tracy Tolleson says, “You should always have your marketing antenna up.”

Going deep with the “Marketing Is Everything” concept
When you shift from thinking of yourself as a “flooring store owner” to “marketer of flooring” you will begin to see marketing opportunities everywhere.

Store exterior

  • Is it clean?  Have you hired a janitorial service to keep it clean so you can focus on building your business?
  • Are your carpet samples vacuumed regularly?
  • Are your hard-surface samples dusted regularly?
  • Is it neat?  Cluttered?
  • Are your sidewalks swept daily?
  • Is your parking lot covered in motor oil?  Dirty?  Do you have it pressure-washed quarterly?
  • Is your landscaping attractive?  Weed free?
  • Is your signage the same-ol-same-ol teaser prices?  How about saying, “You’ll love your new floors or we’ll replace them free?”  Or “We fix $129 installations!”

Store interior

  • Is it clean?
  • Well maintained?
  • Do you have a testimonial brag wall?
  • Do you have monitors showing DVD’s of client testimonial videos?
  • Do you have a testimonial portfolio?
  • Do you have a giant banner with your 100% Iron-Clad Guarantee?
  • Do you have a giant banner saying “We Fix $129 Installations”?
  • Is there a perpetual contest where walk-ins write down their name and contact info for a chance to win a flat-screen TV, or three rooms of flooring, or a hand-crafted area rug, etc., etc., etc.
  • Do you have a sign-up sheet for the Home Advisor newsletter?
  • Do you have a bowl of fortune cookies with prizes on each fortune and a sign saying “Everybody’s A Winner”?
  • Do walk-ins smell fresh cookies or bread baking in your on-site oven?
  • Is there a plate of freshly baked bread and/or cookies with a sign inviting walk-ins to have some?
  • Are kids an annoying interruption, or do you have a play area with DVD’s and video games and toys set up?  Is the play area so much fun that kids beg mom and dad to bring them back to your store?
  • Are your restrooms immaculate?  Cleaned daily?  Well decorated?  (Or a disgusting mess.  Women especially hate this.)
  • Do your floors appear worthy of a top-notch flooring store?  (Or are they banged up and dirty?)

Sales process

  • Are walk-ins greeted promptly?
  • Are walk-ins greeted with a carefully scripted and rehearsed opening line that immediately gives the sales person control of the sales process, and leads the client into the Design Audit?  (See “Scripts & Signs” folder under the Marketing tab in the Platinum members only site.)
  • Are clients given a standard “consultation” (like all the other stores do), or are they taken through the Design Audit process (which has more sales & marketing triggers and strategies than I have room to list here)?

Measuring the floors

  • Does your sales team do “estimates” like all the other dealers?  You know, the same-ol’-same-ol’ …show up, walk in, measure the floors, write down some numbers, (maybe give a quote), then leave?
  • Or do they treat the entire in-home visit as a gigantic sales & marketing opportunity via the Design Audit?
  • Is your in-home visit so utterly different that it completely separates you from every other dealer who may have bumbled through the client’s home and given them an “estimate”?
  • Does your in-home visit utterly “WOW” the client?  Is it so different that it compels her to tell her co-workers, friends, neighbors and relatives?  Or is it so bland it’s immediately forgotten?
  • (HINT:  The Design Audit process makes all these wonderful things happen.  It should be mandatory that each member of your team makes use of the Design Audit.)

Administration

  • When the phone is answered, does the caller hear the same greeting they would get from every other store, or something different?  (i.e.  “Hello, thank you for calling Jimbo’s Floors, where you’ll love your new floors or we replace them free!  How can I be of service?”)
  • Does your voice mail have the standard “Thank you for calling Mediocre Floors.  Please leave your name and number and we’ll call you back as soon as possible?”  Or does it include your USP?
  • Does your voice mail have a “Prompt Return Call” guarantee.  i.e. “Thank you for calling Jimbo’s Floors, home of the Zero Regrets guarantee: you’ll love your new floors or we’ll replace them free.  We return calls hourly, so please leave your name, number and detailed message, and a phone number where you can be directly reached during the next hour so we don’t have to play phone tag.  If you’ve called outside our business hours, your call will be returned promptly on the next business day.”
  • When invoices are sent out, do you include that month’s issue of the Home Advisor?
  • When invoices are sent out, do you include the Referral Request form along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope?
  • Would you be proud to have a client tour your warehouse?  Or is it a disorganized mess that shows a lack of respect for the product you’re selling?
  • Are you using the World Class Installation System to provide a superior level of service once a buying decision has been made?
  • Are you using the Reticular Activator campaign once a buying decision has been made, so the client is kept updated throughout the process, and primed to give referrals?
  • Once a buying decision has been made, does the client get a call from your Project Coordinator introducing himself/herself and letting the client know what to expect during the ordering and installation process?
  • Is the client sent the “Ducks In A Row” letter and the “Here We Go” letter?

Installation

  • Are the installers dressed in clothes that are clean and in good repair?
  • Do your installers where polo shirts with your store name and logo?
  • Do your installers wear name badges which include their photo and the name of your store?
  • Are your installers well-spoken, polite, and refrain from inappropriate language while on the job?
  • Do your installers call the client when they are on their way to the client’s home?
  • Is the client contacted immediately if the installation appointment is delayed for any reason?
  • Do your installers refrain from smoking while on the job?
  • Is the client’s home treated with care and respect?
  • Do the installers use corner guards?  Drop cloths?
  • Do the installers vacuum and/or sweep after the installation is complete?
  • Do the installers do a thorough walk-through to pick up tools, razors, scraps, etc.
  • Is the installer trained to leave the house neater than they found it?
  • Does the installer ask the client which restroom they prefer they use?
  • Is the installation truck’s exterior clean and in good repair?
  • Have your installers trained to use the World Class Installation checklist, and to go over it with the client after every job?

Are you beginning to get the idea?  How many more can you come up with?  Fax them in and I may include them in an upcoming issue of IBIL.

There’s no question that everything in your business is a marketing opportunity.  The question is: will those opportunities be ignored or used?

 

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.
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