Family Business

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Web Summit 3.0

September 14 in Vegas | REGISTER HERE

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Is your online strategy struggling? Do you even have an online strategy? The third release of the Industry-Wide Web Summit will unite home furnishings retailers, manufacturers, representatives and suppliers to:

o Brainstorm new solutions

o Work through existing conflicts

o Bury old misconceptions

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You CAN show and sell furniture online.

We’ll show you how.

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You will leave the Web Summit with practical, real world information and implementation strategies for all areas of electronic media and web for the furniture industry. Seating is limited. Registration is required for this free event.

Click here to register: please provide your name, company and telephone number.

How to Implement Email Marketing and Social Media for Results | David McMahon | PROFITconsulting

Throw Web-Based Marketing Into Your Mix | Ron Carpenter | Strategic Marketing Solutions LLC

Demystifying the Online Furniture Shopper | David Lively | The Lively Merchant

Create an Engaging Website that Brings Your Brand to Life Online | Renee Loper | aspenhome

Tags: furniture, furniture store advertising, internet, market, online
Posted in About Retail, Communication, Events, Family Business | 2 Comments

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Idiom: Information

“Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”

Ms. Jones might pull out this Joe Friday line when she’s furniture shopping. Even if she falls head over heels in love with a sexy chaise or a beautiful bedroom, she’s going to have to justify her financial investment with some cold, hard facts.

Look at the following areas where Ms. Jones might find information about furniture. Rate them for accuracy, and then rate them for influence:

1. A recommendation from a friend

2. The internet

3. A store visit

Now rate your store in these same areas. Have you irritated your customer base to the point that your name is dragged through the mud more often than it’s recommended? Do you have a website? Is it fresh and relevant? Do you have tear-offs in the store that she can take home with her? Does your entire staff know your policies? Are your designers well trained? Be honest!

Once Ms. Jones is in the information gathering stage, she has already decided that she’s going to buy furniture. The only question is, from whom?

How do you ensure that it’s from you?

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Retail Idioms | Leave Comment

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

PROFITinnovation

Steve Jobs says, “Innovation distinguishes a leader and a follower.”

Our Partners at Profitconsulting and PROFITsystems are talking about retailer innovation:

Date: Wednesday, August 5

Time: 11:00 am Pacific | starts at 12:00 pm Mountain, 1:00 pm Central, 2:00 pm Eastern

Cost: FREE

You’ll learn 21 innovative practices to help retailers maximize profits and cash flow from David McMahon, PROFITconsulting Senior Consultant and Furniture World Contributing Editor. You’ll also be given proven strategies highly successful retailers are using to get the upper hand on their competition.

You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions about practical application of the practices in your business.

for money-making, money-saving ideas.

Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/361477657

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Leave Comment

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Conflict for Furniture Manufacturers

Conflicted manufacturers are rarely good for retail relationships.

During this week’s Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Boston, Ed Stevens, the CEO of Shoptron, talked about the “biggest roadblock for manufactures selling online is channel conflict.” This is a fancy description of the challenge vendors face when trying to figure out how to sell directly to the customer via the net. Stevens went on to say suppliers are concerned about retail partners’ retaliation.

Mark my words, this situation is changing quickly. As all furniture manufactures struggle to sell enough product to remain viable, they WILL NOT continue to let the estimated 60% of customers looking for branded product who begin their search at the vendor website simply leave without offering to sell them something. This change is coming regardless of retailer feelings!

Listen to what three industry executives have said already:

“One cannot afford to not be in e-commerce,” Ethan Allen Chairman and Chief Executive Farooq Kathwari.
“We knew that the longer we waited on the Web, the more risk that someone else would be capturing that demand,” Jason Camp, senior vice president of retail at Bassett Furniture Industries.
“We estimate between 60% and 70% of people spend some time on the Web before or during the purchase process,” said La-Z-Boy Chief Marketing Officer Doug Collier. With “more than a few million” visitors to its site each year, Collier said, “La-Z-Boy wants to convert as many of those to sales as possible.”

These gentlemen are not talking about being your partner. They are devising a company strategy to be your competitor.

Finally, I want you know understand where I come from. I believe these vendors are 100% right in their belief that they must sell online or go broke. However, I equally believe the furniture retail community had better do the same! Did any of you ever believe 2,000 auto retailers would be closed down because their suppliers changed the rules of the game? I didn’t! The 100,000 American families who worked for these retailers didn’t either.

Draw a line in the sand. Decide your future. Don’t let the vendor dictate what happens to your family business. They are busy worrying about their own skin.

Posted in About Retail, Family Business | 3 Comments

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

I might be the only furniture guy with a brain on the bookcase next to my desk. Brain science has changed our understanding of free will, consciousness, memory, motivations and indeed, connections between the mind and the brain.

There is branch of marketing called neuromarketing. Science is attempting to explain why we buy. Books like Buy-ology, Iconoclast, and The Power of Less all take a stab at explaining this emerging field of study.

If you’re interested in how the 3-pounds of soft tissue in your head works, you might want to begin with The Owner’s Manual For The Brain, a fascinating 1007-page technical explanation of why we do the things we do. Or check out this podcast series on the brain which explains how business will be structured, organized and run in the not too distant future.

In a Los Angeles Times article, “Searching for the Why of Buy,” Robert Lee Hotz talks about insights into the human brain made possible by revolutionary new scanning technology. He wrote, “Much of what was traditionally considered the product of logic and deliberation is actually driven by primitive brain systems responsible for emotional responses.” So, what does this mean to you? It means that your customer buys because of emotion, not logic and deliberation.

Consumer behavior studies will never be the same. If you ignore brain research about human behavior, you are risking your future. Your competitors are studying this issue and putting their new knowledge to work daily.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business, Personality Type | 1 Comment

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

What’s in your skillet?

When are we going to stop debating and begin fixing the problem? Whatever “the problem” may be, knowing when to stop talking and start walking are a key indicators of success. If we don’t ask enough questions, we’re likely to go off half-cocked and make half-baked decisions. On the other hand, debate, discussion and refinement can be a never ending pit. We can work ourselves so deeply into a problem or situation that we forget the desired outcome of the distant solution.

I often ask customers, friends and family the same question: “How does it end?” The question isn’t original, and people often look at me like I’m nuts, but I intend to keep on asking. Frankly, my mom’s description remains the best; she always said, “You can’t be a fart in a skillet.” I used to think she didn’t understand how things worked. Today I think she’s a very smart woman. I’ve always heard children eventually realize how smart their parents are.

Use the tools you were given to co-labor toward the outcome you desire. Whether it’s fixing things, challenging the status quo, networking behind the scenes, organizing the facts, standing up for the weak, or pursuing the brightest light of center stage, the finish line you’re seeking comes from using the skills you were given directed at the end of the line.

So, I’ll ask you again, “How does it end?”

Posted in Communication, Family Business | 1 Comment

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

How to persuade a crowd

TS Eliot said, “Business today consists in persuading crowds.”

Do you believe your marketing and training message is persuasive?

Does your organization show understanding, trust, threat, tension, surprise, substitution, specificity, social proof, similarity, repetition, push, pull, perception, passion, obligation, objectivity, logic, involvement, investment, interest, hurt and rescue, harmony, framing, fragmentation, experience, exchange, evidence, distraction, dependence, deception, daring, contrast, consistency, confusion, confidence, closure, bonding, authority, attention, assumption, association, arousal, appeal, amplification, or alignment?

Each are positions in persuasion that, used correctly and with timeliness, will raise the impact of your story.

How it works

When a person receives a communication from you, they decide if they can trust you and your message. Mixed messages result when beliefs, values, attitudes and prior words and actions do not tell the same story.

You know, like when will claim to have the biggest or best of something, only to eat humble pie when someone proves your claim aren’t true. Saying one thing and doing another causes a loss of trust, and a falling of confidence, and makes you appear shallow.

Remember the prayer? Your will, NOT mine… Alignment.

Posted in Communication, Family Business, Generations | Leave Comment

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Should you fire your website?

What would it look like if your online strategy worked perfectly?

Site visits? Catalog pages? Phone calls to your store? Sign-ups for your online newsletter?

In retail, “wins” are often defined by someone other than the business owner. Vendors design product they want to sell at price points that allow them to make money. Advertisers tell the owner they should say this, or do that in terms of marketing. Sales people explain how they “don’t feel comfortable” working in your selling system. Customers do what they want and buy what they like regardless of your opinion or your inventory.

Online presentation seems to be following suit. Retailers aren’t controlling the outcome. Retailers are being told an online “win” is a high number of site visits, or the number of phone calls they receive as a result of website traffic, or maybe it’s the large number of vendor photos they can promote on their retail site. While all of these are good, none directly support sales.

We heard from a Wizard of Ads partner last fall something that won’t let go of me. He said, “If your website isn’t selling as much as your weakest salesperson, you should fire it.” I agree.

Never lose sight of the primary goal of retail: to sell as much product as possible at a profit. If your web designer and web developer aren’t constantly talking about selling product, I would suggest they deserve the same fate as you worst salesperson.

Contact us to schedule a free Needs Analysis, and register now for the Industry-Wide Web Summit 2.0. It’s free, but seating is limited and filling up quickly.

Posted in Family Business, Products | Leave Comment

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Ms. Jones does not want to play Hide & Seek

“She’s out there and she’s looking for you. This is not the time to play hide and seek.”

So says Ray Allegrezza, Editor-In-Chief of FurnitureToday, in a recent editorial. “It’s always a good thing to be connected to your customers — current and potential. But in this current economic climate, being disconnected from your customer is not just risky business, it can be deadly business.”

We couldn’t agree more, as we said loudly (or, in my case, hoarsely) during the E-Commerce Strategy webinar we conducted this week with our partner, PROFITconsulting:

Complete audio presentation

Complete PowerPoint

PowerPoint Presentation in .PDF

Give me a call if you want to analyze your web strategy (or create it) or contact Wayne McMahon at wayne@profitsystems.com or 719-332-9824 to see what PROFITsystems’ e-Marketing can do for you.

Incidentally, Allegrezza quoted a study by Nielsen Online, whose Claritas market segmentation is the basis for the Meet Ms. Jones™ personification we use to help you give the right message using the right media to the right customer – online, offline and in-store.

Your back yard is a whole lot bigger than it used to be. Make sure Ms. Jones can find you.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Leave Comment

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

“Can’t act. Slightly bald. Can dance only a little.”

Good thing Fred Astaire paid no attention to MGM’s review of his screen test.

Beethoven’s violin teacher declared him hopeless as a composer, while Einstein’s teacher wrote that he “would never be able to do anything that would make any sense in this life.” Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas.

How many of you could share a story – either personal in nature or well known in your family – of how certain failure actually turned into real success. Can you share a dead end that lead to one of the better times in your life?

I don’t want to be like one of those naysayers who tried to squash a genius, but I have to disagree with a blowhard professor from Wharton who predicts the end of advertising because of the internet. You can read his entire point of view here.

To me this an opinion whose time has not yet come. Failing newspapers and declining radio revenue are examples of changes in media usage. But the death of standard push media is greatly exaggerated.

Time will tell. Don’t let new age ideas that are ahead of their usefulness affect your bottom-line. Invest in the future at a manageable pace. Make sure the people who are advising you have a real world understanding of your challenges. A book full of words and a brain full of academia rarely produce outcomes that produce jobs for employees, sales to customers, or profits to pay your bills.

Posted in About Retail, Communication, Family Business | Comments Off