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Stony Creek Furniture
October 10,
2012 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on October 2012
A no-hassle shopping atmosphere and a focus on personnel development have made Stoney Creek Furniture a longtime standout among Canadian furniture retailers. Along with building a name for offering exclusive products, Stoney Creek adopted a non-commission pay policy for salespeople fairly early on.
Our awareness and reputation grew, said Jim Fee, vice president and co-owner along with President Dennis Novosel. We were delivering unique, quality furniture and selling it in a non-commissioned selling environment. ... Our success has come from trying to offer the customers a unique shopping environmentproduct, visual display, and non commission sellingand providing strong back end and delivery support.
The no-commission approach dates back Stoney Creeks experience at its original location.
It started when we were a small store and had two or three salespeople, and dealing with the bullcrap of thats my customer and you stole my customer, Fee noted. When we moved (to the current location) we were going to 10 to 12 salespeople, and said we werent going to deal with that anymore.
We wanted an environment that wasnt me-focused for a salesperson. There obviously are a lot of people who make it work, but with commission, that salesperson has to sell to put food on the table. Its I might not sell you what you need, but Im selling something to you.
Fee said the policy fosters better teamwork at Stoney Creek, as well.
Say Jims off today and a customer walks in asking for him; the customer starts to look around, and next thing, Marys helping the customer, Fee said. Jim comes back and tells Mary she stole his customer. Well, the customer might have asked at the door for Jim, but he didnt ask Mary if Jim was around. The pressure that environment creates is felt by the customer.
Stoney Creek offers salespeople an hourly rate, but also offers incentives, such as commission for add-ons such as warranties, fabric protection or mattress pads. The store also takes a percentage of monthly sales, puts it in a pool and divides it by total number of hours worked. That fosters an attitude of were in this together.
If Im not busy, its in my best interest to go over help Mary make that sale, Fee noted. The pay scale is fairly simpleyet still offers incentives for better performance. I break it down to sales per hourif you sell between A and B, your earn between A and B; if you sell between C and D, your earn between C and D, Fee said. Now there are other parts of the job beyond sellingfollow up phone calls, thank-you cards, maintenance of the showroom display, playing nice by putting up samples. If youre selling at the top of the D range, but youre not doing your share of the team things, you might get C plus 50 percent.
The store also conducts periodic and discretionary reviews, and might grant a discretionary bonus for selling beyond the sales rate.
Theres incentive to sell more, but its not immediateits not this week, this month, Fee said. He added that while good salesperson works well, is hungry to sell, in any environment, those with average motivation might coast on Stoney Creeks systembut only for a while. We monitor that through minimum acceptable standards, Fee explained. If they cant meet those, its time for them to move on.
Whatever the challenges of non-commission pay, Stoney Creeks low-pressure shopping atmosphere is worth it.
Its one of the biggest complements our customers give us, Fee said.