Attention bedding trainers: Give us your perspective
David Perry, Bedding Editor -- Furniture Today, February 4, 2007
High Point — Attention all retail bedding sales trainers: Furniture/Today wants to hear from you.
The newspaper is launching a new monthly feature that will give sales trainers a voice on key bedding issues.
The first installment presents the trainers' thoughts on new fire-resistant bedding lines. In that feature, printed elsewhere on this page, you will meet four leading bedding trainers.
Here's a brief look at the four:
Craig McAndrews works for the Innovative Retail Group, which provides a number of services for retailers, including retail training. He has been in the bedding industry for 14 years on both the wholesale and retail side of the business, and has been doing sales training throughout that time. "For the past three years," he said, "I have trained more than 400 retail sales associates on effective communication with consumers at the point of sale."
Gerry Morris is a veteran bedding sales representative who has written two books on bedding: "Spring Training" and "Sell More Beds Guaranteed!" He has been doing sales training for 20 years, but adds: "I don't claim to be a big know-it-all. I am learning all the time. I tell even the newest associates that by the time I talk to them again, they will be able to teach me something."
Tim Sommer is the principal of SommerTime Consulting, a home furnishings consulting company. He has been doing sales training for 25 years, most of which have been spent in the bedding industry. He was bedding coordinator for HOM Furniture in Coon Rapids, Minn., for many years.
Brett Swygman is director of sales and RSA (retail sales associates) development at Simmons. He has been at Simmons for more than five years, working in the field as a sales representative and then moving into a corporate trainer role one year ago.
These trainers, and others, will be sharing their thoughts on various bedding topics each month on this Mattress Retailing 101 page.
If you are a retail bedding sales trainer and you want to participate in this feature, send an e-mail to David Perry, Furniture/Today's bedding editor, at dperry@reedbusiness.com.
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