Flooring America/Flooring Canada Set for Winter Co
Manchester, NH, February 11--Flooring America and Flooring Canada are set to energize members and sales professionals at their 2005 Winter Convention on Wednesday, February 23 to Saturday, February 26, 2005 at The Gaylord Texan Resort and Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
The overall convention theme — Right TEAM, Right TOOLS, Right NOW — focuses on the importance of tying together members and their sales teams with the right tools for success. This year's closing event will feature special guest speaker and dynamic motivator, Lou Holtz — former head football coach for Notre Dame and the only coach in NCAA history to lead six different teams to bowl games.
"We're expecting nearly 100% attendance for this convention, making it our largest ever," said Vinnie Virga, president of Flooring America. "We're continuing to improve existing programs and introducing more initiatives designed to benefit our members and their businesses, most importantly the launch of our first Sales Professionals Convention. We're working to make the entire selling process complete, by concentrating on more effectively communicating Flooring America/Flooring Canada core competencies to our customers by directly educating our sales professionals."
The Sales Professionals Convention will run on a separate schedule from the General Convention, with a variety of courses focused on selling skills, flooring industry trends, and fully understanding Flooring America/Flooring Canada products and services.
Flooring America and Flooring Canada members will receive a Sales Certification Kit, detailing a certification program with special courses and interactive game tutorials for sales professionals that must be completed online at Flooring America University; and access to Sales Net, a new website to get sales professionals more involved with Flooring America/Flooring Canada programs.
In addition, this year's convention will feature special vendor breakouts to help sales professionals more accurately understand the value and benefits of Flooring America/Flooring Canada products to the customer.
"Our main goal is to give our sales professionals the big picture. When they leave this convention, I hope they leave knowing they're part of so much more than their local stores — they're part of the entire Flooring America/Flooring Canada network and a wonderful industry," said Virga.
Flooring America will introduce several new programs, including the Builder Connection, a program specifically designed to help members get into the custom home builder business, and a new mystery shop program.
On Thursday's Education Day, members can take advantage of 20 different seminars and that evening's Gold Rush event, offering substantial convention-only discounts on core items.
The Exhibit Floor opens Friday with over 100 major floorcovering manufacturers in every category presenting the latest additions to their lines. Members can also expect to be updated on the ongoing success of the Infomercial, view the unveiling of new advertising promotions and attend presentations from exciting speakers such as Warren Tyler and Kelly Kramer of Floor Covering News, and customer service expert, Mark Sanborn.
