The role of fashion in selling Floors: Successful Selling

By Sam Allman

Creating a unique position in your customers’ minds is the key to being remembered for what you do and to being remarkable as a flooring salesperson. It is also the key to selling at prices higher than the competition. As I discussed in my last column, a good way to create that unique position is to sell value rather than price. Customers will pay more if they feel they are getting value in return. A subset of selling for value is selling for fashion.

As vendors of flooring, we are in the fashion business. However, being in the flooring business does not necessarily make you a seller of fashion. It requires that you consciously decide to take that position and act that part. It is impossible to be known as a price merchant (cheap floors) and a fashion merchant (beautiful homes) simultaneously. For which will you be remembered?

Amazingly, you have the power to decide what kind of flooring salesperson you want to be. You can create work that customers remember, or you can do things that do not make a dent in their gray matter. Making that dent is called positioning.

CATERING TO THE FASHION CUSTOMER
In order to sell fashion effectively, we have to understand the fashion customer. Research has found that, for many women, buying flooring is like buying a new pair of shoes. Men often have a couple of pairs of shoes that they wear consistently. For most men, buying shoes is like buying gas or groceries, another task checked off the to-do list. In contrast, most women do not take the purchase of shoes lightly. Shoes provide women a means of self-expression. Buying flooring also gives her a means of self-expression. In fact, you should think of flooring as the shoe of the home.

As Melissa Murphy of Johnston Paint and Decorating in Columbia, Missouri said in a recent Floor Focus Tuft Talk article, “It is just like finding that perfect pair of boots at Nordstrom...the ideal thing would be that they were made of rubber, so there wasn’t any maintenance, right? But they look and feel so much better if they are Italian leather!”

What does this mean for salespeople? Salespeople must understand that an in-your-face selling approach will fail and likely drive the customer out the door. The salesperson must be patient and as deliberate as they would be if they were helping the customer find the perfect shoe. The salesperson must take time to understand what the customer desires to communicate about herself through her home.

Selling fashion requires patience, caring and an engaging, cheerful personality. Customers want to achieve their idea of perfection in the home, a reflection of life the way they think it should be lived. That image may be one of a perfectly decorated home or of a well-functioning home. These are goals that a salesperson should not take lightly. Selecting flooring is a major decision for the consumer. She will do a lot of research from a variety of sources: the Internet, big box stores, magazines, friends and relatives. That research may last one to two months. After all, she is on a quest for perfection.

Fear causes many customers to procrastinate regarding the purchase new flooring. In the quest to make the perfect decision, fear of making a mistake will overshadow the excitement of a new floor.

LEARNING FROM THE BEST
Carl French, owner of Speers Road Broadloom in Oakville, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, and master of selling fashion, says that his favorite thing to say to a customer is, “You need me to make sure you don’t make a mistake.” This statement puts customers at ease, as they know that their long-term happiness with regard to their flooring purchase is French’s goal. And French reports that often his customers feel so confident about his intentions that they will ask him to select the new flooring for them—many without even knowing the total cost. Now that’s a relationship of trust.

A word of warning, however: you can’t say what French says unless you are a legitimate seller of fashion. Ironically, most flooring salespeople think they sell fashion but have no real clue what that means. It doesn’t mean that you have to be a professional decorator or a designer. But, you cannot fake it. Remember Emerson’s quote: “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”

Selling fashion takes work, concerted effort and a never-ending commitment to learning. Any salesperson can sell fashion if that is their goal, and both Murphy and Fresh confirm that, to start, the salesperson must take the time to ask deep, probing questions that will uncover needs, wants and values. Fashion knowledge is not enough; it must be coupled with an effective selling process mingled with the verbiage of fashion. Murphy believes that getting the customer engaged in describing what’s important to her is key.

In addition, when the company for which the salesperson works supports the fashion selling process, he or she can be even more effective at producing profitable sales. That support requires the delivery of a clearly controlled message in the marketing, advertising and merchandising that is reinforced by the customer’s buying experience in the store. Selling fashion becomes an integral part of the company’s brand. A brand identity enhances the salesperson’s decision and position to be a seller of fashion.

Murphy and French also agree that selling fashion starts with a varied product line that includes items other than flooring. Store offerings should include paint, wallpaper, blinds, fabric window treatments, carpet, tile, hardwood, laminate, vinyl, cork and bamboo. According to Murphy, “Our diverse product line gives the customer many more reasons to come into our store.” Johnston Paint and Decorating has become what many fashion customers like: a one-stop shop. If a customer buys flooring today, she may need window treatments tomorrow.

Murphy emphasizes that a showroom must also make a fashion statement. There must be vignettes, pictures, posters and magazines reinforcing the idea that fashion is sold there.

In addition, the showroom must be welcoming and accommodating to the customers’ needs. The children’s play area at Johnston Paint and Decorating is not just a table with a few crayons; it is a mini Johnston, complete with a cash register with play money, mini paint cans, mini product samples and decorating items. Children are never ready to leave when their parents are.

In addition, the bathroom at Johnston Paint and Decorating is a 130 square foot showroom-quality space that offers customers free access to useful everyday items. Drawers are chock-full of items the customer may need, such as pain killers, hair gel and spray, feminine hygiene products and mouth spray. Murphy says it’s amazing how often she has to replenish the drawers, “We don’t look at these extras as an expense. We don’t buy cheap toilet paper or cheap coffee.”

Murphy recognizes and understands that she and her coworkers are in the fashion business. They have done a great job of choosing to carry products that allow a consumer to make a fashion statement in her home. The store has a visual display, called a vision wall, where many different products are put together in a creative and fashion-forward way, allowing the customer to imagine the blending of textures, materials and paint.

The store organizes both informational and hands-on interactive classes to attract designers and contractors as well. Whether it’s a class on hot new color trends, adhesion for flooring products or how to apply a faux finish to a wall, the store offers many learning opportunities. Writers for local lifestyle publications are invited to attend the classes as well, and one of these invites resulted in a three-page feature spread about the store and the material covered in the courses.

According to Murphy, it is imperative that salespeople of fashion understand color. Though she has only women on staff, she would certainly hire a man who understands and has a passion for fashion and color.

French is not a professional designer or decorator, but he works hard to consciously connect himself to fashion. He is a member of the Canadian Decorating Association. He says, “I’ve spent 30 years connecting myself to fashion-minded decorators. I invite them to my store. In fact, I have 35 decorators coming to my showroom for area rug training in September. I learn more from them than they do from me. They bring fresh ideas.”

French claims selling fashion gives confidence to customers and takes the pressure off price. He understands color so well that Shaw and other manufacturers have invited him to evaluate the colors of potential new products. He says, “Never trust a manufacturer when it comes to fashion.” He positions himself as a flooring guy who understands floor fashion, and he tells his vendors, “If you got something new and unique, I need it.”

Related Topics:Shaw Industries Group, Inc.

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