Flooring is often one of the largest purchase a consumer makes after buying a home or a car. Customers want to interact with a human being who validates their choices and ensures they don't make a mistake. An automated email cannot provide that comfort.

The takeaway for business owners is the importance of returning customers who not only come back but also recommend our services. This is our customer base. It’s not enough to maintain it; we have to grow it.

There is a saying in retail that you make your profit in buying, not in selling. And it’s true.

What does it mean for the flooring retailer? It means two things: first, our sales focus should be on products we can buy at a better price than our competitors, and we shouldn’t promote products we know our competitors buy at better prices than we do. Second, we need strict controls on the prices our salespeople can charge and the discounts they can offer. If we don’t have those controls, our salespeople will erode our profit advantage.

Let’s talk about managing our pricing.

After 17 years in flooring retail and 15 years in systems for flooring businesses, I'd like to share my perspective on how quantifying holds back flooring businesses. I have experienced it myself, and we regularly interact with clients who face the same challenge.

When customers stop walking in, every missed sale hurts—SWOT can help turn that around.

We are negotiating some interesting times, and when things are interesting, consumer confidence tends to fall along with spending.

The gold standard for flooring sales is to measure, quantify and quote while in the home. Retailers and salespeople see all sorts of obstacles to achieving this goal, many of which are valid, and all of which can be overcome by training.

Integration is something we hear about more and more. In the past (even the recent past), work might get done in one application, but then had to be re-keyed into the next application before the next stage can take place, introducing additional work, delay, and potential for error. The purpose of integration is to eliminate all three.