Furniture World Articles by
Gordon Hecht
Published: 3/18/2024
Twelve ways to create a retail workplace environment where talented people want to work, that discourages turnover and that enhances bottom line results.
Published: 12/28/2023
Can you guess who might buy you furniture for your house, maybe a nice
Chesterfield or an ottoman? What if you really wanted to get a mattress store?
Published: 11/30/2023
Colorful insights into what may happen each month at retail in 2024
and what you should do to prepare.
Published: 9/16/2023
Your retail team doesn’t play in a helmet, but they can still play like winners if you follow the advice offered on HBO’s Hard Knocks Training Camp.
Published: 9/30/2022
Shoppers may see red and blue flashing lights when approached by an RSA. Here are useful skills to help people relax into the furniture sales process.
Published: 7/13/2022
Reducing product
selection to
chocolate,
vanilla and a
two-flavor twist will
combat customer
indecision when choosing furniture and mattresses.
Published: 5/15/2022
There are many habits on and off the sales floor that can kill sales and reduce customer satisfaction.
Published: 3/20/2022
Retail owners and managers need to have the skills of both professional and
college head coaches.
Published: 1/10/2022
Help to find your next $500,000 to $1 million dollar closer, organize your business and keep fully staffed in this tight job market.
Published: 11/21/2021
Create the options you need today, rehearse them with your sales team and keep your ‘Gotham’ safe, secure and viable.
Published: 9/25/2021
Slasher film characters like Michael Myers come back from the dead in sequel after sequel, but customer issue resolution need not be a series of horror stories
Published: 7/30/2021
One exceptional salesperson wrote the equivalent of $10,000 every day in 2020, selling furniture and mattresses.
Published: 5/9/2021
Ringing the register with incrementally higher sales tickets results in pay raises all the way around.
Published: 3/20/2021
Free delivery and give-a-ways like free pillows and protectors do more harm than just eroding margins. They lessen perceived value.
Published: 1/23/2021
Gordon Hecht chats with a 2,000-year-old man about his experiences in the furniture industry over the past 150 years.
Published: 11/20/2020
Eight simple steps to improve the effectiveness of your sales meetings.
Published: 9/24/2020
A true detective story about finding the right questions to ask to make that all-important mattress sale.
Published: 8/5/2020
Grabbing back the sale from an online or down the street retail competitor can be fun.
Published: 6/6/2020
A post COVID-19 fairy tale from the pages of the Brothers Grim starring your very own sales team.
Published: 4/4/2020
Things you can do to respond when a large competitor goes out with a bang instead of a whimper.
Published: 1/3/2020
You only need to look at the innovators and disruptors in our world to see the value in asking WHY.
Published: 12/8/2019
Many store owners claim that their sales teams are knowledgeable and
friendly.
Published: 10/12/2019
Advice from a half- dozen half pints that may just help you grow your retail furniture business.
Published: 7/15/2019
Take a few cues from Jeopardy's big winner James Holzhauer, and you just might WIN BIG at retail!
Published: 6/2/2019
Even the best retail marketers often miss the mark on the #1 target group that can affect an up or down swing in a home furnishings store business.
Published: 3/23/2019
Can you come up with an off-the-wall promotion to boost bedding sales?
Published: 1/11/2019
Chances are pretty good that William Shakespeare never shopped at a mattress store...
Published: 11/26/2018
Six retail tools you should take out of your tool box to make sure physical assets, policies and procedures can do a good job for you in 2019.
Published: 9/22/2018
How to hire the best and most loyal employees in today's tight job market.
Published: 7/4/2018
A list of seven poor retail habits RSAs hang onto, but give your shoppers a negative impression.
Published: 5/23/2018
How to make the job of sales the EASIEST high paying position in your company.
Published: 3/23/2018
Although a pie is finite, retailers can expand their market from a large to extra-large with pepperoni!
Published: 1/14/2018
RSAs may think a month ahead, and managers may think a year ahead, savvy business people are thinking about 2023.
Published: 11/29/2017
What can you learn about target marketing from Taco Bell, Amazon and The Big Bang Theory?
Published: 9/23/2017
Sure, it’s not even Halloween, but here are some planning tips for a happy and successful 2018.
Published: 7/7/2017
Five steps to help your people develop better phone skills and get rid of phone system features that annoy customers.
Published: 6/1/2017
Five steps to help retail sales associates serve customers like millionaires so they might become one.
Published: 3/29/2017
A true retail partner will offer initiatives and programs to help you SELL.
Published: 12/28/2016
They say “time is money”, but that’s not always true at retail.
Published: 11/29/2016
As we flip from this year to the next, it’s a great time to get advice from Gordon Hecht for 2017’s Game Plan.
Published: 9/30/2016
How to grow your business by turning employee leaders Into owners.
Published: 7/7/2016
The Furniture Godfather once again answers your tough questions about life in the furniture industry.
Published: 6/2/2016
It takes more than talent/ drive to make it to the BIGS, plus luck, the right team, no injuries, and good coaching.
Published: 3/25/2016
Every day your service or sales teams end phone calls without suggesting a solution or invitation.
Published: 1/4/2016
Rules to live by that will help you to build your business, ignite your passion and reduce your level of stress.
Published: 11/27/2015
Gordon Hecht stakes his reputation on these predictions for what you are certain to see in terms of retail traffic, sales,
government regulations and even major weather disruptions in 2016.
Published: 9/27/2015
Anticipate these common but often ignored needs that can hinder the pathway to completing a sale.
Published: 7/17/2015
Avoid them and your business can flourish. Ignore them, and you may lose your retail soul!
Published: 6/3/2015
Millennials think and shop differently than Baby Boomers and Generation X. Here’s what you need to know.
Published: 3/24/2015
Planning a BIG EVENT is a lot like planning a wedding. It takes time, thought, and budgeting. Here are ideas to consider if you want to maximize the return on your next big event.
Published: 12/29/2014
In most home furnishings stores 96% of shoppers leave without buying a mattress. Here are 11 ways to do better in 2015.
Published: 11/21/2014
Challenge yourself to find at least five opportunities in each example presented in this article to turn good into great customer service!
Published: 7/8/2014
The last line on the theme song for TV sitcom Cheers went something like, “You want to go where everyone knows your name”. Here are simple inexpensive ideas for keeping your store’s name front and center.
Published: 1/3/2014
Retail is full of first dates. Gordon Hecht reflects on how a bit of maturity goes a long way in pleasing customers, partners and improving performance in retail organizations.
Published: 12/10/2013
Readers’ questions answered by the “Teflon Don” of the furniture business. The Furniture Godfather dispenses advice about getting sales associates to show up on time ready to work, how to improve the retail sales process, sell more accessories and achieve a higher percentage of perfect deliveries.
Published: 7/11/2013
Seven ways to adjust your sales and marketing to take advantage of a new reality.
Published: 5/30/2013
These thirteen practical and detailed tips for retail success from Gordon Hecht will help you to build your furniture business.
Published: 4/1/2013
Observations on how percentage discounts and some sales goals
expressed as a percent may be harmful to your furniture business.
Published: 1/10/2013
Do you devote precious showroom space and inventory dollars to merchandise that just doesn’t sell? Do you have low performing salespeople who are costing you lost sales every day? If so, here’s what you can do about it.
Published: 6/6/2012
Replace your sales associate’s sagging excuses and you will replace more of your shoppers sagging beds with brand new bedding!
Published: 12/2/2011
The top 7 New Year’s resolutions for 2012 that can help to build your business.
Published: 10/5/2011
Lessons a veteran furniture guy learned watching people browse, decide and negotiate at a garage sale.
Published: 5/30/2011
Retail furniture stores are different than other retail formats, but we can and should learn from the best practices of good retailers in other industries. Gordon Hecht identifies mindsets about credit, consumer buying behavior, inventory management and recruiting that furniture retailers should be thinking about.
Published: 5/9/2011
You get her to test-rest your best selling model and ask her if it’s comfortable. She buys it-and a week after delivery she wants to return it, saying that she’s awake tossing and turning all night. Why was she comfortable in the store and not comfortable at home?
Published: 5/2/2011
When you present your store’s Mattress Protection not as another “Add-On”, but as a necessary component in providing your shopper with a Great Night’s Sleep, your shopper will see the health benefits and value of this product.
Published: 4/25/2011
Veteran sales people sometimes say that they won’t show the cheapest bed, or tell the shopper it won’t work for them. That may be true, but until the shopper’s needs, wants, and motivation have been discovered, making a derogatory comment about merchandise in our store can stop the demonstration and kill the sale.
Published: 4/18/2011
Smart retailers know that kids’ tastes are different from Mom and Dad, and they have designed products geared to satisfy the junior set.
Published: 4/11/2011
Some rooms are too small to accommodate a King Bed. But when you do the math, most master bedrooms can fit the larger size.
Published: 3/28/2011
Bedding experts like the Better Sleep Council and Consumer Reports agree that individuals need to re-evaluate what they are sleeping on every 5-7 years, but that's not what most of our customers do.
Published: 3/28/2011
Cost-Value-or Price, it’s all relative, for some shoppers $699 is too much, and for others $2000 is a bargain. Just don’t try to guess your shopper’s pocket book. Warranty comes in last on shoppers’ lists.
Published: 3/22/2011
The simple question “BETTER or WORSE?” can help you understand if a customer really likes it. Many customers have been sleeping on a substandard mattress for years, and may not understand how proper comfort and support really feels!
Published: 3/14/2011
By looking at your customer’s spinal alignment, you can determine which mattress will provide proper support.
Published: 3/6/2011
Who is the customer for adjustable bases? The answer is everyone.
Published: 2/27/2011
How many times have you brought a shopper into your store’s bedding area and they just would not “test drive” a bed by lying down?
Published: 2/21/2011
A mattress that is too hard or “FIRM” will arch and stretch the lower back muscles if your customer is a back sleeper. It will increase the pressure points on the shoulder and hips if they are a side sleeper.
Published: 2/14/2011
Here are some qualifying questions that will help you fulfill your customer’s need for a Great Night’s Sleep.
Published: 2/7/2011
A recent survey discovered that more than 50% of Full-line furniture store shoppers don’t even know that you sell mattresses.
Published: 1/31/2011
Customers who nap during the day may be suffering from sleep deprivation. Some will even tell you that when they can’t sleep in their bed, they move to their recliner.