Best Practices - August/September 2010

By Sonya Jennings

Baystate Rug, located in Chicopee, Massachusetts, has been in business for 36 years. Over the past few years, the retailer has implemented new strategies to attract customers during these difficult economic times. When a customer walks through the door, the staff at Baystate Rug is always prepared to close the sale. Owner Joe Montemagni states, “Now our local community recognizes our name and our brand. And when a customer enters our store, our staff knows how to win the business.”

Four years ago, when brand awareness surveys were conducted by local television and radio stations, Baystate Rug was not on the list of recognized flooring businesses. Today, the company is typically ranked first or second under the category of flooring companies. The difference was made by hiring an advertising agency to manage branding and advertising for Baystate Rug.

When Montemagni initially reached out to the advertising agency, he received a quote for six months of branding and promotion. These months were viewed as an experiment to see if the large financial investment would pay off. Results were obvious within a short time. The company now spends 6% to 8% of gross sales on advertising.

For Baystate Rug, the advertising agency developed a television commercial with a central character named Alex from a fictional HGTV spoof show called Redesign. Alex has become a sort of local cult hero. The flamboyant English designer, played by a local high school teacher, is loved by ladies in the community. Montemagni adds, “Women really like Alex. Men don’t necessarily like him, but they remember him.”

The commercials are funny and silly but are done tastefully. The advertising agency also has an effective frequency of advertising formula that works well. The agency was able to acquire more television spots for the money than Montemagni could get working directly with the television station.

A cartoon of Alex is on the header of the company’s website, and Alex also has a blog on the site. In his blog, he promotes the store in funny and interesting ways. Many family flooring businesses build the family name to create value, but Montemagni seeks to make the business solid and able to stand alone without him. The company spends 80% of its advertising budget on television commercials, and the other 20% is spread between radio, Internet pay-per-click and direct mail.

As his new advertising campaign started to bring in more prospects, Montemagni began to focus on improving the closing ratio of his salespeople. He discovered that consistent, organized and focused training was starting to pay off. There are many different programs in the market to help sales teams, and Montemagni chose to use the Techniques of Professional Selling (TOPS) program offered by Mohawk University.

The sales team meets every week to focus on training. First, the team views a ten to 15 minute video focusing on a certain aspect of selling. Within the video, a new idea or technique is presented by Don Hudson, a speaker and author. The team is asked to try the new technique over the course of the next week. At the following meeting, the same video is viewed again, and discussion centers on the experiences of the sales team and what they have learned.

According to Montemagni, “The discussion is where we figure out so much together. It is amazing what our salespeople learn from each other.” In Montemagni’s opinion, the discussion portion of the training is as valuable a teaching tool as the videos themselves. One success story from this program has been the percentage of closed sales. As the team focused on the topic of “asking for the sale,” it became obvious that this was a difficult challenge. The team had great stories of success when they moved out of their comfort zone and actually asked for the sale. Before the sales training, 25% of customers walking through the door purchased products. Today that number is around 70%. The sales team is more confident due to the sales training.

Montegmagni is also a believer in the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” class. It is a two-day course that changed his personal and professional life. He sends his staff members as well.

Baystate Rug was founded by Montemagni’s father, Edward “Monty.” Montemagni joined Baystate Rug in 1986. The company’s business is 60% residential, 30% mainstreet commercial, and 10% builder and property management. Hard surface products account for 45% of sales and carpet for 55%. The company focuses on mid to higher end products and offers carpet, porcelain and ceramic tile, hardwood, laminate, cork, vinyl, area rugs and window treatments.