BSC research says many consumers are willing to pay more for a sustainable mattress, but an industry effort is needed to raise awareness. Exactly how much more will consumers pay for a mattress made with environmentally sustainable practices or materials? That was the question that a major mattress retailer posed to me the other day […]
‘Retail Theater’ a Winning Idea for Mattress Retailers
Bedgear’s Eugene Alletto says compelling displays make in-store experiences special. Eugene Alletto, chief executive officer of Bedgear, has some refreshing thoughts on the state of retail these days. And he brings his ideas to life with compelling presentations in his High Point and Las Vegas showrooms. My latest visit with Alletto at the High Point […]
Six Lessons From the Road
Merchants found success with passion, teamwork, no-pressure selling. We started the year in Hartford, Connecticut, which just happens to be where I started my life some years ago, and we finished the year with a virtual visit to a snazzy new sleep shop in Edina, Minnesota. In between we made three stops in North Carolina […]
To Sell More Sheets, Look to Sheetz
Fast-growing gas/coffee/food/convenience chain points way for mattress retailers to focus on sleep solutions. To understand why mattress stores should carry sheets, let’s take a look at Sheetz. For those of you not familiar with Sheetz, it is a fast-growing chain with stores in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Sheetz is winning […]
Avoid This Mistake
Drawing on retail experience, Borreggine says in video series that stores should merchandise in lines, not by items One of the biggest mistakes that retailers make, a long-time bedding retailer says, is that they merchandise by items and not lines and collections. While it may be tempting to put a special mattress on the floor, […]
Retail Display Ideas Dazzle
Winter Las Vegas Market offered a host of ideas retailers can borrow to add energy and excitement to store floors There was a lot to like at the Las Vegas Market in January, one that marks, I hope, another step toward more normal days in Mattressville. As expected, many new products dotted showrooms across the […]
The Future of Retail Design
Stores need to be adaptable, agile and connected to consumers, a new forecast says The past two years have tested retailers’ abilities to pivot, and those skills will serve them well as they reimagine their brick-and-mortar spaces to serve shoppers whose priorities and habits also have been altered by the pandemic. “The retail industry has […]
Research Brings King-Size Good News
Consumer shift to larger mattresses would bring more comfort to consumers and more dollars to retailers There could be a king-size installment of good news in a big round of consumer research conducted for the Better Sleep Council, the consumer education arm of the International Sleep Products Association. The summary: More consumers are planning to […]
Golden Insights Into Mattress Prices
Going inside the minds of mattress shoppers reveals retailers are leaving money on the table in many transactions, according to a BSC survey We will call it mattress gold. It’s the gift to retailers of helping them close more sales at higher prices. And that will bring golden benefits to their stores and websites in […]
BSC Study Confirms a Divided Nation
Possibly a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers favor softer mattresses, especially among young shoppers, according to a Better Sleep Council survey The country is divided. One side is getting softer. The other is holding firm. No, we are not talking politics, my friends. We are talking mattress firmness or the lack thereof. One of […]
Assessing the Covid-19 Marketplace
As consumers focus on their sleep, retailers have an opportunity to boost sales of king-size mattresses and sleep accessories The bedding industry has experienced a Covid-19 bounce, with sales surging as consumers hunker down at home and focus on making themselves more comfortable in their nests. This is an opportunity for mattress retailers to sell […]
2021: A Year of Reimagining
To find success during the challenging times of the Covid-19 pandemic, bedding retailers need a fresh start to spark business The word of 2020, according to the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster, was “pandemic.” That word, which we all have heard every day for months, was looked up 1,621% more last year than in the previous year, […]
The Next Chapter
In my farewell column, I want to thank readers and friends, as well as share lessons I’ve learned and imparted during my tenure with Sleep Savvy BY GERRY MORRIS The time has come for me to turn the page (pun intended) and move on to another chapter in my life. So, this is my final […]
The Selling Paradox
BY GERRY MORRIS Do you want to increase your mattress sales? Sales strategist Jill Konrath offers 7 seemingly contradictory ways to go about it Sometime back, I ran across an article, “The 7 Paradoxical Sales Principles,” by Jill Konrath, a sales strategist, speaker and writer. I thought it might get your attention and hopefully give you […]
Motivating Shoppers to Buy
BY GERRY MORRIS An interview with a Texas retailer reveals winning ways to overcome customer objections, close the deal and follow up “When we do things right up front, closing becomes a ‘nudge’ that allows the shopper to buy.” — Devin McNeal This is the third in a series of my interviews with Devin […]
Four steps to selling a mattress
BY GERRY MORRIS It starts with building rapport and (gasp!) includes asking early about a shopper’s budget This is the second in a series of my interviews with Devin McNeal, who is general manager of three Ashley HomeStores, two Four States Furniture locations and two America’s Mattress stores in northeast Texas (with more stores to […]
Lessons from the GM’s office
BY GERRY MORRIS First, don’t have an office—and other advice from a retailer who knows how to sell mattresses In my column in the April issue of Sleep Savvy, I recounted my adventures actually selling mattresses at the retail level as opposed to my real profession of telling others how to do it—or, as I […]
When a coach becomes a player
BY GERRY MORRIS An experienced sales trainer takes to the store floor and remembers selling mattresses is harder than it looks It’s far easier to tell others how to do things than actually do them yourself. I should know. I’ve made a career out of it. Uh-oh! A company I have been doing sales training […]
Tips brought to you by the letter ‘e’
BY GERRY MORRIS Retail sales associates can make mattress shopping easier for consumers by being educated, engaging and enthusiastic Over the many years that I’ve been writing for Sleep Savvy, I’ve discussed on a regular basis the attitudes and motivations of consumers as they begin shopping for a new mattress. Here’s why. It cannot be […]
Don’t wait for your customers
BY GERRY MORRIS Reach out to consumers with positive messages about sleep and bedding on social media and in face-to-face interactions. The good news is that mattresses are and always will be one of the single best and most important products for consumers to buy and, consequently, for retail sales associates to sell. But the […]
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave me a mattress
BY GERRY MORRIS Retailers can show consumers that mattresses make great gifts (and they are way more practical than turtle doves). It’s hard to believe the holidays are again rapidly approaching. I, like probably many of you, have begun contemplating what to get my true love and even wondering what my true love may get […]
What buyers don’t know can hurt
BY GERRY MORRIS Without your help, people who have spent their lives sleeping on a bad mattress may never know the benefits of a quality bed set “I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed. My cousins’ beds were so uncomfortable. They don’t know what they’re missing.” Those words from my daughter Amanda—11 years […]
How expecting success—and envisioning positive scenarios—can improve your real-life performance
BY GERRY MORRIS In the July/August issue of Sleep Savvy, I presented the Pygmalion and Golem effects, which explain how employee performance and even customer behavior are influenced by the expectations of others—positively in the case of the Pygmalion effect; negatively in the Golem effect. In essence, retail sales associates perform much better when their […]
How the Pygmalion and Golem Effects Change Retail Mattress Sales
BY GERRY MORRIS Different expectations of RSA performance and customer buying behavior can spur or squash mattress sales The Pygmalion and Golem effects have nothing to do with pygmy animals or Gollum, the ring-bearing creature in “The Lord of the Rings.” Rather, these two terms refer to psychological phenomena that relate to human performance […]
7 Habits of Highly Effective Retail Sales Associates
BY GERRY MORRIS Adopt these principles to mattress selling, and you’ll achieve financial success by doing the right thing for the right reason Most readers will instantly associate the headline of this article with Stephen R. Covey’s best-seller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” That’s because it’s considered by many to be one of […]
How to Build Trust Between Your RSAs and Your Customers
BY GERRY MORRIS It starts with being honest and having integrity—and then you can build other skills that will help customers see you as trustworthy. Every shopper for every consumer product has a prioritized list of factors they use to determine what and where to buy. Mattress shoppers are no exception. Common considerations include brand, price, […]
How Golf Lessons and Mattress Sales Go Hand-in-Hand
What does selling mattresses have to do with a love of the links and the clubs used to play on them? More than you might imagine. BY GERRY MORRIS There is a similarity between golf clubs and mattresses. No, I haven’t lost my mind, but I’m pretty sure that I have your attention now. I […]
12 Sales Tactics to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick
Resolutions to build success What better time to set new goals than when the calendar changes? Practice these 12 tactics to make this year your best year yet: BY GERRY MORRIS Why do we make New Year’s resolutions? It seems we are endowed with a desire to improve our lives. It’s as simple as that. […]
How Mattress Sales are Part of the Bigger Picture
Seeing yourself as part of an important process that involves countless other people who can make you more successful BY GERRY MORRIS At 6 years old, riding in the backseat of our ’56 Chevrolet station wagon, I gazed at the sparkling lights of Dallas disappearing in the distance as my family journeyed back to our […]
These Famous Quotes Will Help Improve Your Mattress Sales
BY GERRY MORRIS “People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations.” That’s according to Graham Greene, the English novelist and, I would say, a sourpuss. Sorry, but I do like quotes and use them often in my Sleep Savvy columns. I Googled to find out why some people (like me) favor quotations and some people (like […]
How-to Make a Sale to Those ‘Just Looking’
BY GERRY MORRIS Just looking? Oh no! Consider these 8 ideas to increase the odds of making a sale to those determined to shop around and compare “We need a mattress, but this is our first stop and we want to shop around and compare.” These are not only some of the most dreaded words heard […]
Stellar Selling Strategies That Start With ‘C’
BY GERRY MORRIS The sounds of success Alliteration is a stylistic device defined by the repeated sound of the first consonant in a series of words, e.g., the headline on this column. There are several reasons I like using alliteration. First, it’s kind of fun for me to see how many meaningful words I can […]
Tires Change the Dynamics of Mattress Sales
BY GERRY MORRIS Believe it or not, a query about tires can transform the way you—and your customers—think about mattresses. I can trace a turning point of my mattress industry career to a single question I asked more than 20 years ago, “How would you feel if you had to buy a new set of […]
The Changing Mattress Industry
BY GERRY MORRIS While the mattress business has transformed itself, over the past two decades, the need for retail sales associate training is more important than ever Each time the deadline approaches to submit my column for Sleep Savvy, I get a friendly reminder from Editor in Chief Mary Best. I’m sure she pads the […]
Believing the ‘Mattress Matters’
Sleep Savvy columnist compiles past articles to give retailers an educational, inspiring book they can turn to again and again BY GERRY MORRIS It doesn’t seem that long ago that Nancy Butler, founding editor in chief of Sleep Savvy, called to ask me if she could include an excerpt from my then-recently published book, “Spring […]
Tips For Becoming a Sleep Expert
Help your customers connect the dots between the quality of a mattress, the quality of sleep and the quality of their lives BY GERRY MORRIS While the relationship between mattresses and sleep should be obvious, a significant percentage of consumers don’t fully appreciate the vital role a mattress plays in getting restorative sleep and the […]
Browsers, shoppers, customers—what’s the difference and what does it matter?
Create your clientele: Customers aren’t customers until they buy something. Find out how to keep them satisfied—and keep their business BY GERRY MORRIS It seems the word “customer” is the catch-all term for anyone and everyone who visits a store. The truth is, they’re not technically customers until they buy something. While this may seem nit-picky, […]
What goes into a bed?
Seeing the forest and the trees: Gaining a broader perspective on mattresses by looking at their components and the industry that produces them can deepen your appreciation of your job BY GERRY MORRIS If you can’t see the forest for the trees, take a closer look at the trees. Confusing? Contradictory? Yes, but I’ll explain. Most […]
Returns: A laughing matter?
Often funny, sometimes bizarre, these anecdotes about returned goods offer insight—and instruction—into what can be a retailer’s nightmare BY GERRY MORRIS For many years I worked as a manufacturer’s rep, and the one aspect of my job I dreaded was dealing with returned goods, including warranties and—even worse—comfort returns. It was during this time that […]
Some things bear repeating
In the last of a two-part series, we revisit six of the most useful and empowering ideas that have helped mattress sales associates over the years BY GERRY MORRIS As I prepare my column for each Sleep Savvy issue, I am burdened by a sense of responsibility to present new, empowering ideas that hopefully will […]
Some things bear repeating
In the first of a two-part series, we revisit six of the most useful and empowering ideas that have had a positive impact on sales associates over the years BY GERRY MORRIS Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. … We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but […]
Subliminal sabotage?
Are your personal preferences and comfort zones keeping you from selling mattresses effectively? Follow these suggestions for overcoming your biases BY GERRY MORRIS There is an issue damaging our industry that flies so far below the radar screen few are even aware of it. I call it subliminal sabotage. Retail sales associates can and often […]
Retail sales workshop: If it ain’t broke
Don’t fix it To satisfy customers, explore every shopper’s sleep experience and offer an accurate explanation of mattress performance BY GERRY MORRIS “It started sagging where we slept. The store would not take it back and allow us to exchange for something more firm.” “I have had the same issue with each of the mattresses […]
Value judgment
The price might be right, but it’s not the only thing driving sales. Quality, service and trustworthiness factor heavily in the decision to buy BY GERRY MORRIS Many people will choose to spend more money on the same product to buy from someone they like and trust.” I can still remember the look of […]
The real value of a mattress
BY GERRY MORRIS This sample message–“Make your dreams come true–sleep on a comfortable mattress” (below)–to consumers can help you help them understand the true importance of a quality sleep system and will be the most powerful determinants in mattress shopping, especially when consumers are trying to decide what mattress to buy and where to buy […]