Retailers Want Shorter Warranties, More Training on Selling Skills
David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 29, 2011
David Perry Executive Editor
Some helpful suggestions for the mattress industry:
► One-year mattress warranties would give the bedding industry a chance to sell extended warranties and would be a "game changer" for mattress retailers.
► Manufacturers' sales representatives should offer more retail training on selling skills. Better-trained retail sales associates would significantly lessen mattress returns.
► The industry needs to do a better job of exciting the consumer. There is too much sameness on retail floors. Exciting product alternatives would resonate with consumers.
Those were some of the key points that emerged from a retail panel discussion that I moderated the other day at Therapedic International's annual meeting. As is usually the case when retailers get together, some thought-provoking ideas came forward.
The panel consisted of two current bedding retailers: David Shiroff, president of Metro Mattress, the Syracuse, N.Y.-based specialty bedding retailer, and Mark Chase, vice president of merchandising for bedding for Badcock Home Furniture & more, based in Mulberry, Fla. Also joining the panel was a former retailer, Therapedic CEO Gerry Borreggine, who ran 40 Winks, a Philadelphia-based sleep shop chain, for many years.
On the warranty topic, I think most bedding folks know I'm a fan of much shorter warranties. Although I didn't introduce warranties into the discussion, I was glad they came up.
I agree 100% with Shiroff that shorter warranties are the way to go for mattresses; why should we offer warranties that are decades longer than those offered in the consumer electronics industry? And I think selling extended warranties is a great idea. Plenty of other industries are doing so now. Let's join them.
Borreggine added his weight to the warranty issue, saying that the industry is doing a disservice to consumers with its long warranties and complex warranty terms.
Chase brought up the need for more training in selling skills, and he's right about that. As we all know, nothing happens until you make the sale. Manufacturer representatives who really want to help their retailers would be wise to focus on selling skills, rather than just trying to get more SKUs on the floor. In many cases, retailers don't need more products on their floors, they need to do a better job of selling what they've already got.
Borreggine added the point about better sales training reducing returns. He said that 95% of product returns are due to a poor job of selling. That's a scary figure, one that points out the importance of sales training.
That retail panel provided considerable food for thought. It sure would be nice to see shorter warranties and more training in selling skills.
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