Furniture World Articles
All of the Furniture World Magazine Articles that have also been published
online can be found here. Select a year to begin browsing the articles.
Articles published in
2010
Retail Furniture Stories -Part 4
- 11/24/2010
FURNITURE WORLD’s retail readers share their stories of survival, growth and service. Due to overwhelming response, this series that began in the March/April 140th year anniversary issue, will be continued into 2011.
Six Ways To Improve The Customer Experience
- 11/24/2010
Store traffic around the country is down, and for many salespeople, earnings have dropped as well. This has resulted in a palpable sense of low or negative energy on many furniture sales floors that can be felt by customers. Here are six tips that can help you to turn this situation around.
Pay For Performance!
- 11/24/2010
A prime reason why top performing companies out perform their average performing peers is because they pay people extra when they perform better. Here is how to go about taking this path to success.
Sales Associates Must Make Friends For The House
- 11/24/2010
The founder of the famous Statler Hotel Chain E. M. Statler once said: “The [salesperson] who thinks that his first duty is selling, is absolutely wrong. Selling is only one of the two important things a [salesperson] is supposed to do – and it is not the more important of the two. The [salesperson’s] first duty is to make friends for his house.”
Your Golden Sales Opportunity: Gender Awareness
- 11/24/2010
Your business will vault 10 steps ahead if you take gender differences seriously and adjust your sales and customer service approaches to meet the requirements, needs and wants of male and female customers.
Costly Retail Headache: Buyer's Remorse
- 11/24/2010
Two to ten percent of furniture deliveries result in a return or exchange when there is nothing wrong with the furniture. This fact points to opportunities to drastically reduce returns by attending to a few details before, during and after delivery.
Your Next Big Money Making Idea - Part 2
- 9/22/2010
This short series of articles delves into the process of creative thinking, gets into some more practical guidelines for fostering creativity in your organization, and ends with an 8-step process for monetizing your creative efforts.
Free Advertising For Less Than Two Cents A Day!
- 9/22/2010
Presented are seven ways that furniture stores can implement an effective personal business card marketing strategy. Salespeople often neglect this inexpensive and surprisingly effective way to increase the number of customers who come in to the store asking specifically for them.
Let’s Simplify Your Furniture Inventory - Part 2
- 9/22/2010
This article is about selling more inventory and improving inventory buying. David McMahon presents a coordinated approach to age your inventory, mark it down and provide sales compensation incentives to improve profitability.
Trial Closing: The Art of Getting to YES!
- 9/22/2010
Trial closing questions ask for an opinion. Closing questions ask for a decision.The benefit of trial closing is that it helps you to get to a favorable decision at the end, by encouraging lots of small yeses along the way. Plus, you can check on the customer’s level of approval of the things you’re showing.
Retail Furniture Stories -Part 3
- 9/22/2010
FURNITURE WORLD’s retail readers share their stories of survival, growth and service. Due to overwhelming response, this series, that began in the March/April 140th year anniversary issue of FURNITURE WORLD, will be continued throughout 2010.
I’m Just Looking... For Ideas!
- 7/9/2010
Research shows that many customers are really just looking for ideas towards the beginning of the shopping process. Trying to close them before they are ready can, therefore, contribute to overall low closing rates. Instead, work to get them back for a second visit.
A Time To Speak About Generational Change
- 7/9/2010
Most family furniture businesses are not prepared to handle wealth transfer. In fact, the majority have made few or no provisions for turning the business over to the next generation.
Furniture Retailers Guide To Intellectual Property - Part 3
- 7/9/2010
IP issues arise internally when creating and protecting your catalogues, websites, advertisements, and trademarks. External concerns over knock-offs, competitive advertising, and improper trademark use are omnipresent in this highly competitive industry.
Embracing Creativity In Your Furniture Business
- 7/9/2010
This short series of articles delves into the process of creative thinking, gets into some more practical guidelines for fostering creativity in your organization, and ends with an 8-step process for monetizing your creative efforts.
Let's Simplify Your Inventory
- 7/9/2010
David McMahon shows you the core practices that the most profitable businesses follow to achieve the highest return on their inventory investment.
Getting Caught In The Cheap Furniture Trap
- 6/7/2010
Retailers like COSTCO don’t lose customers when they sell furniture that fails to live up to customer expectations for quality. The same cannot be said for local furniture retailers. Here are five ways to avoid the cheap furniture trap.
Best Furniture Retailers Share Their Histories - Part 2
- 6/7/2010
Many of our most enterprising home furnishings retailers have shared their stories of survival, growth and service with FURNITURE WORLD readers. This is the second installment in a series that commemorates the 140th anniversary year of FURNITURE WORLD Magazine.
A Theory Of How Women Buy Furniture
- 6/7/2010
Most furniture retailers focus on selling features and what we call “benefits”, and leave the customers to choose the things she likes best or that she believes best fit her needs. This has little to do with how most women want to shop for furniture and accounts for the 20-30% close rates in our stores.
Hiring Digital Retail Furniture Employees
- 6/7/2010
People have changed, consumption has changed, technology has changed, but - most importantly - what is cool has changed. So, have you changed? Tomorrow’s leading companies are changing hiring criteria and measurements of performance.
Major Retailers Share Thoughts On Home Delivery Programs
- 6/7/2010
Topics discussed in a Home Delivery panel discussion at the 2010 International Furniture Transportation & Logistics Council (IFTLC) conference provides Furniture World readers with tips on how to improve operations.
Six Steps to Juggle Aggressive Sales Goals
- 1/19/2010
If you can create a goal achievement culture in your sales department, you can structure information gathering, strategic sales process development, salesperson training, management training, and performance coaching in a seamless way to achieve your most aggressive revenue goals.
Happy Days Are Here Again?
- 1/19/2010
Three furniture retailers in areas of high unemployment are enthusiastic about doing lots more business in 2010.
Top Ten Tips To Hire Great Furniture Delivery & Warehouse Managers
- 1/19/2010
The failure rate for new warehouse and delivery managers in retail furniture stores is high. Retailers that promote from within often run up against the Peter Principle. When an outsider is selected, his or her individual style may conflict with your corporate culture or they may have flat out lied about their experience. Here’s how to avoid these problems.
Create A Family Furniture Store Money Plan
- 1/19/2010
Most families in the retail furniture business just don’t talk about money. Money entices us with opportunities. Money torments us with uncertainty, and leads us to decisions we normally would not make. If you’re not careful, money and possessions will become the downfall of your family and your business.
Build A Home Furnishings Sales Machine - Part 3
- 1/19/2010
The third and final installment in this series explains how you can get way out front of your competition by working to deliver uncompromising Integrity, Excellence, and Caring.
Turn Furniture Supervisors Into Retail Leaders
- 1/19/2010
The best retailers teach their managers to work with subordinates in ways that help employees to feel good about their jobs. Skills that allow managers to accomplish this important objective can be divided into two categories. The first category is designed to maintain and enhance performance. The second is designed to encourage employees to change unacceptable performance.
Furniture Retailers Go Tribal Part 2
- 1/19/2010
This is the second in a series on how to take a leadership position in the new decade by creating tribal loyalty among your customers.