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Creating Urgency

Bear Down

The strategy for coming from behind has MORE actions than the strategy for making goal when you are on track to do so. 
That means elevating expectations and perspective of what it will take…to aim higher and be prepared to do what you need to do to achieve the goal.

That also means MORE outreach calls. Making more appointments. Closing more appointments and more sales…and doing more with the time you have or maybe extending the time needed to each segment of the period. 

Notice your reac…

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Organized for Appointments

The Greek poet Archilochus said: “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training”. The same is true for our level of structure and organization.

If we are really intending to manage our actions in time and achieve our targeted outcomes by successfully making and executing appointments, we need to be structured to do that.

And that means to be organized by having appointments IN YOUR CALENDAR as one-hour placeholders, using the repeat function on yo…

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April Showers Bring May Flowers

As lead times remain long and product pricing and freight continue to rise, we are faced with the question of timing. It’s likely that home furnishings (and I speak to fine quality products here) will never be more affordable than they are right now. And right now is all we have. Now is the time to take action and make decisions. 

That thinking needs to start with the sales professional. Waiting favors no one. A client/customer who believes that waiting until supply chain challenges lessen or…

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Priorities…plus….

As we did in the first blog of this series (Problems….), we will focus on one element. One element that when added to the others creates something magical. 

Priorities are those things that matter most. And there aren’t a lot of them, which is what makes them priorities. 

When working with a designer or with a retail customer, ask what the priorities of the project/product are…and limit them to THREE. 

Ask: “What are the three most important elements to you?” Then listen and take no…

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The Last Month of the Year

December is a funny month. 

For retail showrooms, this tends to be a slower traffic month with a lower average sale. And, like November, it also tends to be a good delivery month, with holidays driving making homes lovely for family and guests. 

Residential trade business continues to be strong and retail traffic has started to wane a bit but is still sufficient to hit targets. And trade showrooms can go either way as these are not typical times. 

Given the unpredictability, this is a c…

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Delays and Communication

We all wish it was different…that special orders could be placed and received within a couple of months.

We all wish that price increases didn’t accompany these delays…and yet they do. What we can stop wishing for and start acting on are the communications that need to happen with the customer.

If it’s not a habit to send monthly emails to your customers who placed a special order, make it one. Start by telling your customer (in their thank you note) that they can expect to hear from you every…

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Part 9 of 20: HubSpot Sales Statistics…With Secret Sauce Added

9.  Salespeople are 9x more likely to convert web leads if they respond within 5 minutes

Customers who contact you via your website expect a quick response. Leads and questions that come through your site need to trigger a response instantly within your sales team.

Salespeople This role isn’t a fit for EVERY salesperson. They need to be skilled in technology, persistent in their communication and closely tied to the marketing department so that they can participate in creating responses that are…

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