5 Profit-Draining Mistakes You Make In Your Advertising Every Day And What You Can Do About It.- Part 5
Furniture World News Desk on
11/2/2013
Back when I was a rep for Stratolounger I had a very wise sales manager. I had taken over a very neglected territory. Stratolounger had not had a rep for a while and the business from that territory had dwindled to almost nothing.
We were discussing a strategy to build back the territory and he gave me one of the most important pieces of advice I've ever received. As a retailer I bet you see your better reps doing just this. What was that advice? One . . . Frequency of calls and Two . . . Make your relationship with your accounts as personal as possible.
What he meant by frequency of calls is pretty much self-explanatory. I needed to be in the stores often. (That next year I put over 60,000 miles on my car. I went wherever I needed to go to get an order.) What is meant by Two needs some explanation. Of course he didn’t mean I needed to know what went on in the store owner’s or buyer’s bedroom. He meant that when I was in the stores, I should get to know his salespeople and the warehouse guys in addition to the buyer/store owner. That I talk about his family and tell them about mine. That I talk about his golf game. That I talk about his kid’s Little League game. And so on.
I've seen many a rep, and I know you have too, come into your store, go right back to the buyer’s office and when his appointment is over, go right back out the front door. When I was a rep, I always spent time out of the floor. I knew the names of every salesperson and warehouse guy in my territory.
So here’s what I'd suggest you do if you're not doing it already. Make your marketing personal.
Whether a flyer, ROP ad, direct mail or web site, have a photo of the owner or manager. Make sure there is a caption under the photo identifying who is in the picture. Any photo should have a caption. It’s one of the most read part of an ad or letter, etc.
At a minimum, have a video on your web site of that owner or manager telling a little about the store and inviting the viewer to come in. Talk about the benefits of doing business with you vs all the other stores in your market. Remember that any communication with your prospects and customers should feature benefits; the only reason people buy. You can do the same with each department if you like. You can show interior shots of your departments.
Let’s summarize what we’ve talked about the past four weeks. People buy for one reason and one reason only; BENEFITS.
Prospects for what you have to sell are hungry for information and will read any amount of copy -- if it is interesting, helpful, and serves the interest of the prospect. That you fail to accept this Truth about advertising, that you accept your own opinion, the opinion of your wife, the warehouse guy, the mattress rep, etc., that no one will read copy, is causing you to waste tens of thousands of dollars on advertising that doesn’t justify the dollars spent. When you buy ad space (whatever media) you are not buying advertising; you are buying only the opportunity to advertise. A flyer filled with pretty pictures, prices and not much else is not advertising.
The last item is to make your advertising accountable; in two ways. Track results and make your dollars justify themselves just as you do for other functions of your business.
If you’d like to find out more about these topics and more, visit
www.lovefurnitureprofits.com.
David Love is the owner of Love Furniture Profits. An advertising consulting and coaching firm that shows retailers how to get more traffic, more and higher ticket sales and more profits using long-lost scientific advertising secrets unknown by about 99% of all of today’s retailers.
David is a 41 year furniture/mattress, in the trenches, industry veteran. His unmatched-by-anyone background includes retail furniture sales. Manager of a retail furniture store. 22 years on the road making money for companies like Sealy Mattress and Best Chairs. His territory and his retailers achieved sometimes remarkable sales increases due to the expert advertising and sales advice he gave. He has also owned and sold his own profitable furniture store and was a highly regarded sales manager of a top 100 furniture store.
With his front-line experience he has a passion for passing it on and sharing that experience to help furniture and mattress retailers cut advertising waste and maximize sales and profits.
To find out more get your free copy (a $29 value) of his just released, breakthrough Special Report for Furniture and Mattress stores, “5 Long Lost Scientific Retail Advertising Secrets that work like magic in today’s economy for any furniture or mattress store to get you more ready-to-buy customers, more sales, more profits” go right now to www.lovefurnitureprofits.com. David can be reached 707-580-3415. david@lovefurnitureprofits.com.
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