FEATURES The Bed Expert

Vic Smith, owner of independent beds retailer Vic Smith Beds, talks about the difference between being a salesperson and an expert.

You work in a bed shop, you sell beds, you’ve been selling beds for years. Are you a bed expert or are you a salesperson?

For the record, there’s nothing wrong with either, but being a bed expert makes it so much easier to sell beds in your bed shop and that’s a fact. To start, pick 10 beds, you don’t have to pick all of them just 10. Do you know what ones are available in what sizes from what manufacturers? Do you know the lead times? Do you know the storage options? If you do then that makes you a good salesperson.

Now let’s pick a model - just one out of the 10. Do you know what tension the springs are? Even if they’re pocket and don’t be fobbed off by a manufacturer telling you that’s not how it works. That’s how mushrooms grow kept in the dark and fed bulls. Find out from the manufacturers and do yourself a favour, get it in writing, not just a phone call to someone at the other end feeding you more BS, so that “is spring tension X and that pocket spring has a spring count off X with a spring tension off X”. Is it encapsulated? If it is encapsulated, is it blue resistance foam, memory foam or block upholstery? How’s the pocket spring edge? Has it got butterfly springs? What upholstery is on top of the springs? Is there a bridging unit? If you’re reading this and asking what is a bridging unit, what are butterfly springs and what is block upholstery, these are all questions you can answer yourself with a little bit of research.

It doesn’t take much but how silly are you going to look when a customer comes in asking you a question and you don’t know the answer.

Do you tell them “Sorry I don’t know what you’re talking about”, or do you blag it? Which camp do you fall in? Put the kettle on and have another biscuit or do your research and email the manufacturers your questions, get a break down of the upholstery in relation to the spring unit and construction. It really isn’t hard or at least it shouldn’t be. You’re not killing a manufacturer; you’re not making your relationship with him awkward. You’re showing interest in the product and making it easier for you to sell their goods to your customers. Surely, they are going to be happy to explain to you what goes into a bed that they are making profit from you selling.

Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. You’re the customer who has walked into a shop. Somebody told you that make and model ‘X’ has got a bridging unit, while model ‘Y’ hasn’t and it’s a 12.5 gauge. They then walk into your store to see a similar bed with something they have seen elsewhere, and you have no idea what they are talking about. So, this potential customer now is under the illusion that they know more about beds than you do. Do you think they are going to buy from you or go back elsewhere. Now of course they may not have gone into a bricks & mortar store – they may have got their bed degree from Google. Or even worse, your own website making you look a complete fool.

I would always ask my customers when they are shopping around to compare like-for-like so when they walk into another store and the other stores don’t know the answers, they are far more likely to come back here to me, or one of my staff and purchase with confidence. We know as bed experts what we are talking about. Don’t try and get so technical and don’t try and fob this off as mumbo-jumbo. Our job is to educate the public. Tell them what’s inside the beds they are looking at and let them see what they’re paying for and why one bed costs more than the other. If you can do this, it justifies those 10 beds that you started with. Do you know what’s in them? You know how to construct it and you know what they’re made from. All you have to do now is answer the customers questions, and if you can answer questions about the bed that they haven’t even asked yet, then all that’s left is you potentially taking their money - now that’s a bed expert.

The sale is done for you and it’s as easy as that. Because you didn’t have that extra coffee and you didn’t have that extra biscuit, you actually did your job properly. You did your research and you didn’t look silly and desperate. When a customer asks you a question and you have no idea what they’re talking about, do your homework and reap the rewards. Sorry, I should’ve said, once you’ve done all that, then go put the kettle on and have a biscuit waiting. You’ve earnt it.