In part 1 I made the point that mediocre service is rampant across most industries, retail flooring included. The flooring world is getting more difficult and competitive, not less so, and if you expect to prosper long-term you must rise above the legions of the mediocre. This is especially true if you want to have [...]
I was on the phone recently with my sister. She and her husband needed floors for their new house, and she had spent several days visiting flooring stores in and around the major metro area near their home. “I visited seven or eight flooring stores, and the showrooms were almost all super depressing,” she said. [...]
There was once a chiropractor who built up a million-dollar-per-year practice. He sold his business, and quickly built another million-dollar practice. Then he did it a third time. Obviously, this man had a system for building successful chiropractic practices. So, he began to host seminars teaching other chiropractors how to grow their businesses. After almost [...]
“Watch what everyone else does – do the opposite. The majority is always wrong.” -Earl Nightingale Most of the sales, marketing, and differentiation strategies I teach floor dealers and write about in this column break convention and completely ignore industry “norms.” I do this because unconventional strategies offer the biggest return on investment for [...]
Every interaction you, your staff, and your business has with a prospect or customer is a marketing opportunity. Like it or not - whether you pay attention to it or not - during every interaction with your company, your consumers are getting an impression of you. The only question is: What kind of impression are [...]
Statistically, when buying big ticket items ($500 or more), the average consumer spends 79 days on the path-to-purchase. 85% begin their path-to-purchase online. But, 82% of the time they make the actual purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, in order to make sure that the path ends at your store instead of a competitor’s, it’s [...]
In 2016 Synchrony Financial did a Major Purchase study that focused on the path-to-purchase consumers take when they buy big-ticket items. (Big ticket is defined as $500 or more.) 85% of consumers begin their path-to-purchase online. 70% then visit a brick-and-mortar store. 82% make their purchase in the store. According to GE Financial, this entire [...]
“What do you think of my website,” a dealer named Bob asked me. I pulled up his site and saw some common mistakes that were costing him thousands of dollars. Let’s review these mistakes and how they can be corrected. Mistake #1: Failure To Differentiate Bob’s site had the name of his business at the [...]
Box stores, national chains, and online sellers have deep pockets which enables them to outspend small retailers in the advertising game. They also have strong purchasing power, which gives them advantageous pricing when buying wholesale. To the small, independent dealer these advantages can seem insurmountable. The good news is that local retailers have unique advantages [...]
“I have to cut my margins to compete,” a floor dealer recently complained to me. This is something I hear fairly often. So what’s the solution to preventing margin erosion in a market full of box stores, online discounters, and other cheap price competitors? In a word: differentiation. If you don’t create differentiation, you are [...]
