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David Perry

Mattress Firm associates get better sleep message

TOUR UPDATE: We had a great day Monday at Mattress Firm, one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most respected bedding specialty stores. Interestingly, this is one of three Retail Bedding Giants we are visiting on this tour. That’s an award that we present each year at our Bedding Conference to honor outstanding bedding retailers.

We met with the Mattress Firm sales associates in a room on the 21st floor of the Renaissance Grand in downtown St. Louis. I could see the famous St. Louis arch from a window in the hallway outside the meeting room.

Tour host Mark Quinn of Leggett & Platt talked about the importance of promoting better sleep, and added that such an approach will put more money in sales associates’ pockets. Then Craig McAndrews, a retail bedding consultant, shared his insights on how to benefit by selling better sleep. He encouraged the sales associates to ask lifestyle-oriented questions rather than the all-too-familiar questions that many sales associates use: What size and type of bedding are you looking for, and who is it for? The problem with those questions, he said, is that they are so common that consumers will think your store is just like every other store they have visited.

Later that morning we watched Kurt Ling, president of Customer Kinetics, conduct a focus group discussion with seven female consumers. We watched on the other side of a one-way glass window that the consumers couldn’t look through. It was fascinating to get their thoughts on key mattress issues. I didn’t like what they had to say on warranties — they were very much in favor of them — but found it interesting to see what they had to say about the importance of coils in bedding. Those consumers credited coils as the heart of the sleep set, providing durable support and comfort.

Now we are getting ready to fly to Wisconsin. It’s been a great day.

BETTER SLEEP MOMENT: Want to help consumers sleep better? Advise consumers to knock off the caffeine after 2 p.m. “Caffeine is one of the biggest contributors to bad sleep,” he said.

INSIGHT OF THE DAY: “A mattress expert can talk about the anatomy of the mattress. A sleep expert can talk about the anatomy of the body in better sleep.” McAndrews made that comment after a woman in the focus group said the sales associates she had encountered knew more about “the anatomy of the mattress than the anatomy of the body.” That was an “ah-ha” moment for our group.

THE VIEW FROM 25,000 FEET (LITERALLY): We are flying on Leggett & Platt’s corporate jet each day, which enables us to meet the tight deadlines of this week of retail visits. I’m starting to feel like a political candidate who is flying from one campaign stop to another. And that’s an apt analogy: We are seeking support for the Better Sleep Campaign.

THE VIEW FROM 25,000 FEET (FIGURATIVELY): Is McDonald’s in the burger business or in the training business? Both, of course. Bedding retailers face a similar challenge. Yes, they are selling mattresses. But training is a constant as sales associates come and go, and so do product lines. As we conduct mini-training sessions with sales associates, I am reminded of how important training programs are for the most successful bedding retailers.

SPRINGING FORWARD: Yes, we are going to talk about innersprings in this section of our daily blog. And we have a lot to say, because Leggett & Platt is launching a strong innerspring marketing campaign on this trip. One key theme is that L&P innersprings offer “Active Support Technology.” That defining benefit of an innerspring mattress is the “dynamic response of the coils to body movement,” L&P says. It is delivering that message to retailers and retail sales associates this week.

TOMORROW I’LL TELL YOU ABOUT: Verlo Mattress.

FOR MORE ON THE TOUR: See Leggett & Platt’s special Web site at www.LeggettSleep.com for daily tour updates.