Mattress Retailing 101: Skillful hiring, training give Sit 'n Sleep an edge

David Perry, Bedding Editor -- Furniture Today, December 20, 2007

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sit 'n Sleep, based in Gardena, Calif., operates the largest bedding sleep shops in the country. Those are also the industry's most productive sleep shops, generating an average of more than $6 million in sales per store, according to Furniture/Today's latest report on the Top 25 Bedding Retailers. Leggett & Platt's recent Spring Alive Tour visited the Sit 'n Sleep store in Laguna Hills, south of Los Angeles. There Bedding Editor David Perry, a participant on the tour, met with company officials and retail sales associates. In this story, the second in a two-part series, he reports on how Sit 'n Sleep hires for success.

Sit 'n Sleep has a reputation for having some of the strongest retail sales associates in the business. It is a veteran, experienced group, mostly composed of men.

How does the retailer, which has the highest grossing bedding stores in the industry, attract such a strong group of sales associates?

"Our interview process is pretty difficult," conceded Bercier. He said the company looks for integrity, personality, intelligence (an IQ-type test is used to measure that), sincerity and honesty.

Anything else? "And a desire to succeed."

Bercier said Sit 'n Sleep wants to provide outstanding customer service. "I don't care if you have sold mattresses before," he said. "Our goal is to give great service. This is not a high-pressure event. We don't drop prices three times. We have professional sales associates."

The sales associates have plenty of latitude to close the deal. "They don't have to consult the manager or the regional," Bercier said. "They run their own show. They are paid on profitability. They share in the deal. They are empowered."

A computer program tells the associates where they stand with their peers based on the margins they are generating with their sales. "They can see what all the sales associates are doing," Bercier said. "They see the true costs."

Bercier and his partner, Larry Miller, take an interest in the sales associates. "We talk to them a lot," Bercier said. "We know virtually every sales associate. It is sort of a friend relationship instead of a boss relationship. We have a policy of open communication. Hopefully there is no fear on their part. We listen to them. They have some great ideas."

Turnover in the ranks of sales associates is currently about 2%. In some years, no one leaves. The average tenure for the sales associates is seven years.

Those are figures that make most other bedding retailers green with envy. Asked why there is so much turnover at other bedding companies, Bercier responded: "A lot of managers don't try to see things through the salesperson's eyes."

Industrywide, too many sales associates are underpaid, overworked and undertrained, he said. "They don't feel appreciated," Bercier said, "so they don't appreciate their employer."

He added that it is important to show your sales associates that you care about them. "Spend money on your people first," Bercier said. "Then spend on advertising, and then spend on yourself."

That's a formula that produces some astounding results at Sit 'n Sleep.

E-mail your comments to David Perry, Furniture/Today's executive editor, at dperry@reedbusiness.com. Or you can write him at: Furniture/Today, 7025 Albert Pick Road, Suite 200, Greensboro, N.C. 27409.

Sit 'n Sleep has a reputation for having some of the strongest retail sales associates in the business. It is a veteran, experienced group, mostly composed of men.A quick look at the numbers is instructive: Last year more than 50 sales associates wrote more than $1 million in business. "That makes them like one of our competitor's stores all by themselves," said Nelson Bercier, a principal in the company. "We tell them we want them to run their business like a store."