Best Practices - November 2008

By Sonya Jennings

Allowing his employees to run their own businesses within his business has helped Van Gilmore build Nashville Carpet into a local mainstay. He also places a strong emphasis on providing a high quality installation service and is committed to a strong “green” focus, two features that have boosted the profile of the business.

Gilmore began Nashville Carpet Center in 1974 after managing another store for seven years. The store is still in the same place it began, which has turned out to be a great location. It’s visible from a main state highway on the south side of Nashville. The company serves both the residential and commercial markets, with residential accounting for 40% of the business and commercial representing 60%.

The store’s focus began on the retail side, but, over time, his salespeople made contacts in the commercial arena as well. According to Gilmore, there wasn’t a lot of carpet in commercial applications until the 1980s. So the store began with small commercial jobs, which most of them were back then. Slowly, the staff’s knowledge and expertise grew, as did the size of the projects.

According to Gilmore, one difference between commercial and residential is that more warehouse space is needed to hold the products and there’s a much larger upfront cost on large jobs. So, more money is tied up for longer periods of time. His advice to anyone interested in breaking into the commercial market is, “Start small and grow your project size from there. The worst thing would be to take on a job that was too large without the resources and experience.”

On both sides of the business, relationships are key, but especially with commercial. Gilmore’s commercial sales staff has been with him for decades and the relationships they’ve built over that time period are plentiful and strong. He has four commercial salespeople and each specializes in a different area, including hospitality, governmental, designer/specified community, and commercial builders.

Nashville Carpet Center offers carpet, vinyl, hardwood, laminate, rugs, rubber floors, and specialty environmental flooring. The company serves the middle to upper end of the market in both residential and commercial. In good times or bad, the advertising budget doesn’t waver. The vast majority of advertising dollars is spent on local TV ads. Because so much of his business is repeat, Gilmore sees the advertising as a way to remind customers, “We are still here, and we want your business.”

Gilmore believes that salespeople should be free to run their own businesses within his business. At Nashville Carpet Center, the salesperson handles the process from beginning to end, with a lot of autonomy and flexibility. Gilmore says, “Our salespeople create their own following.” He says there are no secrets at the store. The salespeople know the true cost of every item, and they’re empowered to make their own deals as they see fit.

The salespeople have been with him an average of 20 years. Other staff employees have been with him for decades as well. When asked how he has such a low turnover rate, Gilmore responds, “I try to think of what it would take to keep me if I were in their shoes, and I do that.” More specifically, he creates opportunities for salespeople to do as well financially as they want. He adds, “Money is the best motivator.” He never has too many people on the floor so a person has the opportunity to make a lot of sales. Secondly, he tries to make Nashville Carpet a fun place to work.

“There is a lot of kidding that goes on around here,” Gilmore says. “On every employee’s birthday, we have a cake and sing the birthday song. We have 20 to 30 people singing the song in every key imaginable. It sounds awful, but it is fun. We are good at having fun and our customers can sense that.”

When he first began the business, Gilmore used to arrive bright and early, but he later realized that his managers were relying too heavily on him. So he made a decision to get out of their way and let them run their operation. So now he comes in around lunchtime, spends the early afternoon hours “shooting the bull” with the employees and customers, and then his real work begins in the late afternoon. He does his paperwork and handles the day-to-day management duties late in the day and usually into the night. He feels it’s important to keep that connection with his employees and customers, so he’s very accessible during the afternoon, but he’s only there for encouragement and support. The managers and employees know that it’s their responsibility and opportunity to run the show.

Gilmore feels that the store also has an edge on installation. Nashville Carpet Center is committed to providing quality installation for its customers. Gilmore hires independent subcontractors through his installation manager, who was once an installer himself. He offers a lot of training workshops for installers and typically has very few problems. The installation manager knows what crew to send for a particular job. If a project is high-end, he sends a high-end installation team.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each crew, and then making assignments based on that knowledge, is the key to doing a job correctly. For instance, some installers are great on shorter jobs like a residential installation, but they have a hard time managing a large commercial job that may seem overwhelming or never-ending. And then there are crews that manage time well and can pace themselves over a very long period of time, sometimes a year or more.

According to Gilmore, the best way to tell if an installer is high quality is to check out his truck or van. “Is it neat and clean? Does he carry the proper tools to do the job correctly?” He notes that when you have an installation manager who has been an installer himself, he knows what to look for and can’t be fooled.

When the installer comes to the store to pick up the product before installation, the crew is also given all of the sealers, adhesives, or anything that the manufacturer requires to install the product. According to Gilmore, “This has saved us so much grief and hassle over the years. It protects the manufacturer’s guarantee on the product and ensures that the product is installed with quality materials.”

Nashville Carpet Center has also done a great job of making itself the place to go for green flooring products. In 2003, the store began a yearly function called The Green Event to attract potential customers and share information about green concerns. This showcase reception features manufacturers and distributors that exhibit green products. Attendance is by invitation from a well vetted list of architects, owners, executives, builders and designers. The event this year was held at the Vanderbilt University Student Life Center. Nashville Carpet Center does not have an exhibit at the show, but serves as host.

Giving his employees autonomy, being known as a “green” leader and investing in quality installation have helped Van Gilmore create longevity and prosperity at Nashville Carpet Center.

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