Explore ways you can ensure you are making the most of every customer opportunity

By Justin Bowen, Vendor Relations Manager

During seasonal upswings in mattress foot traffic, it can be easy to overlook proactive steps to capitalize on increased mattress interest. Although this can be done at any time of the year, it is especially important to review your mattress efforts going into and during these periods to ensure you are making the most of each opportunity in your store.

Two types of customers will usually come into your store: One looking for a white rectangle to keep them off the ground, and one dissatisfied with their current sleep quality. One you will rarely upsell, the other you will almost always upsell. Both are necessary to run a mattress store or department.

Evaluate Your Vendors

Vendor selection impacts every other part of your operation: marketing, merchandising, sales, service and fulfillment. If you have not evaluated your mattress vendors in the last year, there’s no better time to start.

Diversity of your lineup is important to be able to effectively convert on the variety of customer needs with proper solutions. This extends not just to individual mattress feel, but vendors themselves. Some vendors will pull in customers due to general brand awareness, others you will sell volume at lower margins and some will be for discerning sleep shoppers. Even still, it’s a good time to consider private label lines to maximize margins and have an in-house option for select price point and feel combinations.

Expand Price Points

Not all mattress buyers are alike, so having a full range of price points is key. Gaps of $400-$500 in your lineup can potentially kill sales. If you haven’t, make a grid of your feel and price point combinations and identify any missing slots. These should be added to your floor from an existing vendor if possible in short order.

You should also evaluate your per-model sales, with all sizes rolled up to a base model. While it is true that some beds are “step-up” models designed to upsell, that does not mean you should narrow your models that are moving to only be 20-30% of your lineup. See if current or prospective vendors can offer better value in those spots.

Engage Sales Staff

It can be tempting to leave sales training up to the vendor, but this is one area that necessitates attention from store management. Customers seeking sleep need the expertise of your sales staff to be able to identify the correct mattress, but if your new hires are just left waiting until the vendor rep comes by, you could be missing a lot of valuable opportunities. Put in place a proactive sales training and re-training approach, especially with key vendors, and watch your mattress sales climb.

Energize Online Marketing

Will a customer on your site be able to quickly find your brands, and what types of promotions they have? In order to make your site mirror your store, take the same approach with in-store POP online by adding banners and callouts to your vendor promotions. Some may provide co-op or marketing assets, and others may not, but even a simple badge or flag can be enough to get your online shopper to come to the store or start an online inquiry.

Excite Sleep Shoppers

Do you have a consistent sales strategy for the entire sleep solution? By incorporating specialty pillow selection at the beginning of the mattress demonstration process, you set the tone that you’re serious about fitting the customer with the right options. By creating this expectation, you set the stage for the real power play: the adjustable base. By having adjustable bases on all compatible mattresses on your showroom, most of your customers will get to experience the benefits of a full sleep solution. Train sales staff to include this in their presentations for maximum effect.

Oftentimes growth comes down to how well you have mastered the fundamentals. Taking a proactive approach with vendor partnerships, pricing and sales strategy, sales training and your online marketing will help ensure sustained success even during competitive market climates.

Justin Bowen is vendor relations manager at AVB Marketing, the advertising, e-commerce and digital marketing arm of YSN publisher AVB BrandSource. Contact Justin at Justin.Bowen@avb.net.

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