Over the 36 years that Kerry Tramel has worked for Oklahoma City-based Mathis Home, formerly Mathis Brothers Furniture, the biggest change he has seen in the bedding industry has been the greater emphasis consumers place on the importance of a good night’s sleep—and the resulting change in the value proposition of his company and others in the industry.
“Most definitely the thing that changed the most is the transition from selling mattresses to selling sleep,” says Kerry Tramel, president of Factory Direct Inc., the bedding side of Mathis’ business. When he served on the Better Sleep Council prior to joining the board of the International Sleep Products Association, “There wasn’t a single study that had been published in any medical journal linking a mattress to better sleep. Not one,” he says. “And so that was one of the first things that I was fortunate enough to be able to work on.”
Now, Tramel says, podcasts and other popular media are filled with research-backed testimonials asserting that exercise, diet, and sleep are the keys to a healthier lifestyle. “And it’s true,” he says. “Everybody is aware of sleep. It’s getting a greater voice than ever before in terms of its importance. We can thank Tempur-Pedic to a large degree for carrying that mantle early on in the category of mattresses. They really elevated that and got everybody thinking that there’s more to this business than selling a $599 pillow top.”
Family founded
Mathis Brothers Furniture was founded in 1960 by brothers Don and Bud Mathis, and the company remains in the family today. Don Mathis’ sons Bill and Larry and Bill Mathis’ children Rit and Kerry are all in leadership positions. Rit Mathis serves as CEO of the firm, which changed its name to Mathis Home in 2021, Tramel says.
“We’re now a third-generation company,” he says. “Two brothers who started it with very, very humble roots. They never even completed high school. They started selling used appliances, and then used furniture, and then got into some new appliances and new furniture. … They started selling mattresses fairly early on, but we actually started manufacturing in 1991.”
The company has a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing location in Oklahoma City, Tramel says. “It is state of the art, one of the cleanest facilities you’ll ever go in,” he says. “We’ve got robots, automated lines, and we’ve invested heavily into the category.”
Mathis Home has 39 retail stores in four states—Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and California—across four business models, comprising more than 1.4 million square feet of retail. Those include five big-box, large-format furniture stores with a full range of models, including a “significant bedding department,” 19 stand-alone Mathis Sleep locations, four factory outlet stores, and 10 Ashley HomeStores that Mathis Home operates. In January, Mathis Home began selling to outside accounts for the first time, and Tramel notes that the company invested $3 million upgrading its factory to handle the new business.
“We have developed a unique skill set to make really great, fantastic products at the higher end,” he says. “Friends of ours that would visit [from] national retailers, who would come in and see the product, [would say,] ‘Man, we’d really like to buy this.’ So, we geared up for that, and we just started that.”
Six sub-brands, spacious showrooms
Factory Direct Inc. manufactures six sub-brands, and “each has a particular purpose, and they speak to different customers’ needs and wants,” Tramel says. The biggest seller and highest-end sub-brand, IntelliGrid, accounts for 15% of sales in the bedding side of the business. It has four different models that range between $4,000 and $9,000. “They’re an unbelievable, unique selling proposition,” he says. “Those models represent a healthy chunk of our overall balance of sales in our own stores,” he says.
Other sub-brands include William & Lawrence, which Tramel describes as “a handmade story, very traditional,” with nine models that range in starting price from $3,399 to $4,199; EcoComfort, which leans into organic materials, with 10 models starting from $299 (for a kids’ twin) to $2,799; EcoPerfect, which has “a natural story, but not quite as far as EcoComfort,” with three models all starting at $1,699; Qube, “a hot new line that we’re making that has gel foam in it,” with three models starting from $2,499; and the value line Americana, with seven models starting between $799 and $1,699.
Throughout its range of store types, Mathis Home leans toward spaciousness in its showrooms, Tramel says. “We tend to devote more square footage per slot than most people … about 165 square feet,” he says. “We could certainly fit more [merchandise] into our large showrooms, but we really want people to be able to mentally relax when they come in. There’s a value to order and having everything in its place.” That 165 square feet “is somewhere around 80% more than an average sleep center,” he adds.
In addition to its own brands, the company’s stores carry most, if not all, of the major mattress brands, Tramel says. “We’ve got Tempur-Pedic, and we’ve got Sealy, and Stearns, and Beautyrest, and soon we will add Avocado,” he says.
Mission and value proposition
Tramel’s description of the mission and philosophy of Mathis Home, as it relates to the bedding business, traces back to the changes he’s noted in the sector.
“We believe heavily in sleep,” he says. “Everything goes back to, ‘We don’t sell mattresses, we want to sell sleep.’ That’s not a whitewash. We want to have products that actually offer solutions across a wide variety of areas that will help people get better sleep. So, there’s a magnitude of things that go into that, including great [retail sales associates], who are well-trained and also motivated for the same reasons. … It’s a great mission, and it’s one that we’re just passionate about.”
The companywide mission statement on the Mathis Home website overlaps with Tramel’s comments: “It is our commitment to provide our customers a one-stop destination for the largest selection of quality home furnishings at the lowest prices every day, while striving to enrich, fulfill, and reward our employees and the communities we live in.”
Tramel sums up the value proposition of Factory Direct Inc. by saying that it offers options in any preferred price point. “At each of those price points, our products represent a tremendous value, and that’s true from the very low end all the way up to the high end,” he says. While the IntelliGrid line is on the pricey side, he adds, “These are just awesome beds. And even for a $9,000 mattress, what a consumer gets for that is a tremendous value.”
The Mathis Home value statement on the company website reads: “To this day, Mathis Brothers Furniture is committed to offering what Don and Bud started over 60 years ago, giving our customers the lowest price, guaranteed.”
Customer outreach
Mathis Home uses almost entirely digital marketing to try to draw customers into its stores, with zero print advertising and only occasional direct mailers, Tramel says.
“That’s more of a one-off than it is part of a continuous plan,” he says. “But we are constantly advertising. We’re always on advertising mode, and we still do some over the air. For the most part, it’s a lot of digital. We’ve got robust social media outreach that goes on all the time, along with email blasts and a suite of options on the digital side. … As far as our marketing, we do a lot of digital and try to curate as close to possible with the digital advertising.”
Once a customer makes a purchase, the company handles delivery and setup of new mattresses and the removal of old mattresses. Post-sale, Mathis Home and Factory Direct Inc. like to stay in touch as much as possible, Tramel says. “We want customers to be satisfied and happy with their purchase,” he says. “So, we do multiple follow-ups: ‘Tell me about your experience. Do you like the bed?’ It’s way past the normal, ‘How was your delivery?’ because we do want to stay engaged.”
Traditionally, the mattress trade operated on what Tramel describes as almost a “don’t ask, don’t tell” train of thought. “But we don’t believe that way,” he says. “We think, ‘Let’s stay involved. Let’s make sure the customer got the right bed, that they selected what they needed.’ And so we follow up post-sale in that manner.”
Elevating the stature
Tramel has been involved with ISPA since well before his year as board chair in 2005–2006, both on the Better Sleep Council and as a member of the executive team, and he says he’s “a big believer” in the organization, what it has done, and what it continues to accomplish on behalf of the industry.
“It’s continuing to try to bring the stature of mattresses up in people’s minds,” he says. “ISPA has done a great job of that through the years and is continuing to improve. They do a lot of work on the legislative side that’s really important to us. Whether it’s wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, or consumers, they’re making sure that legislation is needed and appropriate. So, I’ve been very active in ISPA.”
Tramel expects that continuing to elevate mattresses in consumers’ minds will remain key to his company’s and the industry’s success. “The future is now, and we’re already doing what we’re planning on doing in the future,” he says. “I don’t see the train slowing down, as far as consumers becoming more aware of all that a great night’s sleep can do for you—and tying that back to a mattress.”
With 22% of mattresses today being sold over Amazon, some consumers continue to see them as a commoditized product, Tramel says. He adds that the mindset is divided between, “‘I’ve got to have a mattress, and it’s all the same,’ versus someone who’s willing to invest in sleep. … The future, for us, looks more and more about being the sleep authority: better-trained sleep RSAs, better advertising, getting that health message out. And of course, products that will meet those needs.”
Tramel’s Top 10 Selling Tips
Kerry Tramel, the president of Factory Direct Inc., the bedding side of Oklahoma City-based Mathis Home, shared his top tips for salespeople. Among them are:
- Be prepared before the customer walks in. Great selling begins long before the first conversation. Be mentally ready, dressed appropriately, and grounded in a winning mindset before the opportunity arrives.
- Show up and be fully present. When a customer engages, they deserve your full attention. Be engaged, listen closely, and meet them where they are.
- Understand what selling really is. Selling isn’t pressure or persuasion. It’s about supplying the right information so the customer can make the best possible decision.
- Know your products—and your competitors. Confidence comes from knowledge. You need to understand your own products inside and out and know how alternatives compare.
- Guide the customer through a clear process. Strong performers follow a direct, structured path from greeting to close. A clear process removes uncertainty for both the retail sales associate and the customer.
- Demonstrate features and translate them into benefits. Don’t just describe the product—show how it improves the customer’s life. Make the benefits real and personal.
- Sell with integrity. The most effective selling is grounded in ethics and trust. Integrity builds long-term relationships and is a true competitive advantage.
- Learn from both success and failure. It’s just as important to understand why things don’t work as why they do. Growth comes from studying both outcomes.
- Continue sharpening your skills. Top performers treat selling as a craft. Ongoing learning and skill development separate average results from exceptional ones.
- Let satisfied customers work for you. Happy customers are your strongest marketing tool. When activated intentionally, they help create future opportunities.
