Furniture First Symposium inspires
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 13, 2005
Myrtle Beach. S.C. — Retailers need to be on a continual quest to improve their image, service and marketing message if they want to boost profits and stay ahead of the competition.
That was the message from four speakers here at Furniture First's Annual Symposium, attended by about 130 people representing 58 of the buying group's 116 member companies.
In one eye-opening presentation, Barry Shamis, president of Selecting Winners, laid out the many mistakes companies make during the hiring process — chief among them, the lack of time and attention they give it. He said that, on average, only 10% of business leaders receive formal training for recruiting or hiring.
"It's the most important thing about a business and it's not treated like a business," Shamis said.
The costs of hiring the wrong people range from lost opportunity, angry consumers, wasted management time (poorly spent dealing with the mistakes rather than helping the winners) and low morale.
Shamis held up Microsoft as an example of a company that understands the importance of hiring right. It has more than 200 full-time recruiters, and Chairman Bill Gates will drop whatever he's doing to interview a prospective employee.
While few have the resources of a Microsoft, Shamis offered some suggestions that are relatively easy and inexpensive. He said that whenever he can, he visits seminars by his competitors in the speaking business to scope out skilled workers he might recruit.
"How many of you do this in other retail stores?" he said. "Why not? It's free."
Forget much of the conventional wisdom about hiring and interviewing techniques, he said, such as asking candidates, "Where do you want to be five years from now? What's your greatest weakness? What's the most innovative thing you've done?"
Instead, ask close-ended questions that require straightforward answers, and keep questions in the past tense, he said.
"I don't care how he thinks," Shamis said. "I care about what he's done, when he's done it, where he did it and how he did it."
Other tips coming from the symposium:
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Think service, not price, to differentiate yourself from the competition. Brian Parsley of BuyGitomer.com said that memorable service leads to positive word of mouth and repeat business.
One of his recommendations: provide business cards for delivery crews, since they have more interaction than most with the customer. "Plus, why not make your delivery staff feel important too?" -
Work to get your direct mail advertising into the "A" pile — mail that will be opened right away and not tossed aside as junk. Bill Glazer, president of BGS marketing, offered several ways to do that, from smart headlines to premiums to clever packaging.
A successful anniversary sale mailer for a bicycle shop was sent in a water bottle that you'd find on a bicycle, he said. While a water bottle might not work for the furniture industry, he suggested something like a mini-trashcan that asks consumers if they are "throwing way the opportunity of a lifetime."
On the last day of the three-day event, attendees took a bus to Furniture First member Garden City Furniture's updated store in Garden City, S.C., where owner Dianne Ray spent about $500,000 on an overhaul of the 40,000-square-foot midpriced store.
The project, designed by Connie Post, brought a residential feel to the exterior with an upper-level façade, along with new track lighting, flooring amenable to beach living, and a well-defined traffic pattern to the store's interior.
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