Sketch to Build Sales

June 8, 2015  by in Industry   

By Tom Zollar

Research shows that as consumers have evolved over the past two decades, they have become more confident in their ability to make decisions for their home. In addition, consumers have become more driven by the desire for style in her life.

The enhanced importance for the concept of lifestyle in how she dresses, eats, looks and furnishes her living spaces has also grown. The growth home-focused entertainment has created an increase in consumers’ exposure to home furnishings. Add to that the impact of the Internet and consumers arrive in stores in a much different state previous generations.

Even though they are more confident, many remain overwhelmed by the process of decorating their dream room. They may have a vision, but they can’t always put it together.

While the dynamic increases the value of the salesperson in the process, the consumer’s distrust and sense of “I know what I want, all I have to do is see it” drives them to answer brush off in-store assistance.

My informal research with hundreds of sales associates indicates that as many as 75 percent of first time customers are now likely to say push aside a salesperson’s greeting. That is about three times the total it was before the Internet and HGTV.

Overcoming the rejection is the primary cause of lower closing totals. If you can’t connect with a customer, they can’t be sold. More importantly, we consistently see failure in a key part of the process that reduces the ability to satisfy the ones with whom we connect.

Think about it: When you get to a place with a customer where they will tell you why they came in your chances of selling them should be pretty high. Unless they came in looking for something you don’t carry, which due to their prior research on the Internet does not happen very often anymore, this should be a slam dunk.

Many stores are closing less than half of the customers they get that far in the process with and very often are selling them less than they really need to fulfill their dream. Are the questions asked wrong? The process? The information gathered? Our response?

The answer is yes to all the above

The industry has the answer to the problem and has for some time. It is the focus of every major furniture sales training course I have ever seen in the last 40 years. Even though it’s proven to increase sales and customer satisfaction, many retail sales associates refuse to use it or give it a chance to work.

Room sketching with the customer in the store can make all the difference in the world.

I can hear the groans and yawns, just like I have heard from many sales associates over the years.

It has become more import to the retail selling effort now than it ever was before.

How do you compete with and beat the new retail home furnishings distribution channels like the Internet, big boxes and specialty stores? By providing services they don’t. By developing trusted relationships with customers. Creating loyal clients that don’t want to go elsewhere.

Those are a few of the reasons why you need to do it, but there are others, too. Here are some things to consider before rejecting the sketch as a way to better connect with your customers.

• Consumers want you to sketch their room when they visit your store, but they don’t expect you to because no one does that in a traditional furniture store. Consumers expect it from interior designers, but not furniture stores. Surprise them. A few years ago we did several surveys and focus groups asking furniture consumers a series of questions. About 90 percent of them said they wanted their sales associate to sketch the room for which they were shopping. On the flip side, only 5 percent said their associated did it.

• When a customer enters a store they have a problem they want solved, but unfortunately the problem is in their house. Typically, we act as if we can solve it for them by looking at products in the store. The best sale you can make results from a house call, but only a small percentage of customers will do that. Create a virtual house call by sitting down with them to develop a picture of the room on which they are working. By doing so, you take the consumer’s mind out of the store into their home and you go with them.

• At least 85 percent of consumers who enter a store have been pre-shopping on the Internet and have an idea of what they want. Consumers have been trained by Walmart, Target and grocery stores that “what you see is what you can get.” They believe they can walk through the store and see what it can do for them. The truth is that most stores only show a small percentage of what is available to consumers, and people really only take in about 15 percent of what they see walking through a store. If consumers don’t work with a sales associate, they have no idea what your store can do for them. If that associate does not slow them down and engage them in conversation about the room they are working on, they may believe your store cannot fill their need. What better way to get the customer to slow down and talk with you than to start a rough drawing. Draw two lines, ask where the recliner is going and customers will stop scanning the floor and look at the sketch and begin describing the room. You now have their complete attention. If you done correctly—asking the right questions, building knowledge and understanding about what they need—you will solve their problem; and sell them all they need and create a client for life.

• When you go to any professional consultations to solve a problem they will ask you a lot of questions, right? You would run away if you went to a doctor, a lawyer, a real estate or insurance agent and they didn’t take notes about your situation. Room sketching while doing a consumer needs analysis is how home furnishings retail associates should take notes. We deal with a lot of visual, logistical, size, usage and emotional issues in furniture, so having even a rough picture of the space you are working with is a huge advantage in your efforts to solve the problem. Customers realize you care and view you as professional when you sketch.

Do it.

Despite the excellent reasons to sketch, many sales associates will say they can’t or don’t need to do it. Here are the excuses they will have.

• I can’t sketch, I’m not a designer. We are not talking about a full room layout here, just a very rough drawing of the room, the major pieces in it and the products that the customer is looking for. No design skills needed.

• I can’t draw. This is mostly an excuse, because everyone can do stick figures and draw lines on a piece of paper. We are not looking for perfection; just something that resembles the room. Trust me, I can’t draw a straight line, and it worked for me.

• Not enough time to do it. Perhaps this is an indication they aren’t and don’t want to spend the proper amount of time with each customer. Sketching tends to slow down the process so you can maximize the results. Sales people that sketch consistently see their close rates double when they sketch and their average sale is tripled. It is also the best way to determine if a house call is needed. It is truly a case of slow down and sell more.

• Not everyone wants or needs it. This is true to some extent. A mattress customer probably does not need a drawing of the room unless they are getting a new bed, too. Some customers may be in too much of a hurry or actually only need one product and have their mind pretty much made up. If you don’t attempt to sketch with all of your ups, how will you know? In many stores completing a sketch with 50 percent of your opportunities is a good target, but in most middle to upper stores that goal should be closer to 75 percent.

The first step to developing a staff that sketches consistently is to bring in a quality trainer and teach them how to do it right. Once they’re trained, retailers must track the sketching, coach them and hold associates responsible for doing it.

Holding associates accountable is the hardest part. Many staff members know if they stonewall a new policy or process, it will go away eventually. Sketching is too important, don’t let that happen.

 

Do’s and Don’ts of Sketching

• Carry your sketchbook at all times. Never have to leave a customer to find it.

• Don’t remove sketches from the sketchbook. Make copies if needed.

• Sit down with the customer.

• Put the customer’s name, address and phone number on top of the sketch. Date every sketch.

• Draw the outline of the room yourself. Customers may wish to help with the sketch and should be encouraged. You should outline the room to have the largest possible sketching area while leaving room for margin notes.

• Make margin notes on the sketch regarding lifestyle issues like number of children, ages, names, other residents, etc.

• Make margin notes regarding additional products the customer needs, always concentrating on the product requested.

• Don’t attempt to place or sell additional products at this time.

• Talk about the importance of having a plan for the room.

• Discuss fabric treatment, wood furniture protection plans and extended warranties.

• Draw a second sketch to help the customer understand how the room may look in the future if changes in layout are being considered.