Home centers must upgrade selling skills

By Robert C. Vereen Senior Vice President/Director Home Center Institute

HE HOME CENTER re- tailing business has never been as competitive as it currently is. Not even discounting is as competitive. Discounters learned long ago not to worry about being outpriced on a few items in a promotion. Home centers aren't happy if that happens and are matching or beating any

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advertised price.

5, l0 or as much as20o/0.

Thus this industry is in the midst of an intensive pricg war, and if price is to be the battleground, what is there to distinguish one home center from another? The answer of course is a combination of other factors, but chief among these should be the quality of employee service and advice.

Story at a Glance

Home center business has never been as competitive... price is the battleground...employee service a vital weapon ...industry must develop selling skills.

While all retailers talk about their employees and their training programs, surprisingly few make a serious and prolonged effort to upgrade performance. Programs that start out meaning well get caught up in the battle to keep payroll expenses down. The fastest way to cut expenses is to reduce payroll, or to hire more part-timers. Both conflict with the need of home centers to man their floors with qualified people, especially if there is any hope of building project sales, rather than promoted-item sales.

Recognizing this problem, Home Center Institute is embarking during 1986 on a new employee training program that attacks the basic need of developing selling skills.

One may still need to control payroll expenses, but the best way to do that is not by cutting back on people but by making people more productive. Retailers need to do something to teach the basics of customer relations and selling skills to their employees.

One may have to fight for customer business on price. The market may leave no choice. But qualified employee service is what will build repeat (and add-on) business.

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(Continued from page 15) distortions in markets particularly at'fected by the approach taken in most of the reform proposals.

In particular, a more radical reduction in marginal tax rates and a true, across-the-board simplification in the tax code would be necessary to provide sufficient macroeconomic stimulation to offset the dislocations caused by loss of favored ftu( treatment. The housing industry is especially vulnerable to injury from piece-meal reform. Indeed, current levels of rental unit construction activity probably have been exaggerated by investors' anticipation that any tax changes would affect adversely the future rental property developments. At this time, it would appear that such expectations, in retrospect, will have proven to be correct.