Making Money With Carpet - 08 Retailers' Guide

As a professional in the flooring business, it is often difficult to gauge how much change has occurred in a five year period. With carpet, the changes in the last five years have been dramatic. And since most of your customers haven’t shopped for carpet since their last purchase over five years ago, you have plenty to talk about. All flooring is fashion oriented, but carpet, by its very nature, allows homeowners to combine texture, color and pattern into a floor that blends well with any home décor.

Engage the customer with the new generation of carpet, featuring part performance and part style. Start with style and introduce your customers to today’s looks. They are more fashionable than ever, full of patterns and designs. Be extra careful not to talk industry jargon when you’re selling carpet. All they need to know is that the technology of making carpet has evolved and the styling and design are much crisper than they were five years ago.

There is a reason that carpet is still the leading flooring category in this country. While square footage use has been on the decline, industry statistics show consumers are spending about the same amount of money. That means they are buying better, higher margin carpet. When it comes to explaining fiber types, just use the good, better, best analogy to illustrate the levels of quality and the broader selection as quality improves. Tailor what you present to the customer’s given lifestyle. Dial in children, pets, formal, casual and traffic level as reasons for changing what’s there now.

Make sure you remind her of what makes carpet so popular —value, warmth, comfort, quietness, ease of installation. And be prepared to refer her to the Carpet and Rug Institute website if she has questions about mold, dirt or maintenance.

When customers ask about carpet, position carpet as an investment, not a purchase. And be savvy by asking about their lifestyle. That can help you present and sell value-added products like carpet (and cushion) with moisture, stain, mildew and bacteria control plus odor-fighting technologies that pay for themselves in the long run. Introduce customers to the value of quality cushion products, which make for better installations, help keep the carpet cleaner and provide longer lasting beauty.

UPSELLING TO WOOL

Wool is a natural fiber that has some amazing characteristics that your customers may want in their homes. It's luxurious and can command a higher price. Wool and wool blends are functional, too. For example, wool actually can moderate humidity and act as an insulator, quickly adjusting to the ambient temperature of a room. Microscopic scales on the surface of each fiber help trap microscopic dust particles, holding them firmly in place (and away from family members) until a room can be vacuumed. Because wool also naturally repels moisture, it repels water and spills in a customer's home and provides precious extra time for cleanup. It's not a delicate fiber, even though it's soft, and it's flame resistant. Learning more abut wool will help you sell more and better high margin wool carpet and area rugs!

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