Well, traveling again, as usual.  I just flew back from attending the Bedding Conference sponsored by Furniture|Today in Naples Florida, another tough assignment.  I was forced to stay at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort.  If that wasn’t enough, my upgrade request was honored and I had to sit in first class on my flight home.

There were several people from the conference on the plane and as they waved to me on their way to sit with the masses, I thought it would be cute to wave at them like the Queen, with the back of my hand. I don’t think they thought it was quite as funny as I did. In fact they just looked at me like I was stupid.  Well you know what Forrest says: “Stupid is as…stupid does.”  Uh oh, I guess I better quit doing stupid things.

My plane mate next to me (did I mention in the “First Class” section) had also attended the conference. He owns several name brand gallery stores and is about to open several more in a new market.   I shouldn’t be surprised, but still was when he started telling me about the difficulty his associates have selling bedding. He said that his stores just don’t do a good job with mattresses. He came to the conference with the hopes of changing that.

He and his associates like many others in home furnishing stores struggle with the process.  If you haven’t read my book Spring Training, I talk about this phenomenon a lot.  Retail associates have a better chance to sell a mattress than most any other product on the market.  Lookers= shoppers= buyers.  But because of the attitude of the consumer, many sales associates will spend more time with someone browsing for furniture with no intent to buy than they will with a bedding shopper that is practically guaranteed to.

What my friend got out of the conference, was that selling sleep is easier than selling a mattress.  In fact that was one of the main topics.  Sell Sleep, Sell Sleep.  (Hey buddy, pay me $5 and I’ll take a nap for you).  There I go being stupid again.  Seriously, I understand the concept and agree that taking the focus off the product helps to sell it. Huh?  (Well, paradoxically it really does).

I’ve been in this industry for over 20 years and have watched the evolution of the selling approach go from being spec oriented, to comfort selling, to selling sleep (where we are now). I have been on a one-person crusade to say, don’t stop there, we are only one step away from the Ultimate selling approach.

Here it is: What is the one thing that everyone wants and it is the final determinant on every, I mean every decision that we make?  I’ll give you a moment…

IT IS TO FEEL GOOD and TO BE HAPPY.