What do you think? From emerging trends to the latest business principles, Furniture News is setting out to gauge the trade’s feelings on a variety of industry-specific topics. Today, we’re asking our panel: What’s your biggest sales turn-off?
Deirdre Mc Gettrick, ufurnish.com: When there’s no research into what my business actually does, meaning the product wouldn’t suit our business. I do not sell furniture, there is no cart on our platform, so don’t try to sell me checkout technology. Trying to be funny on cold-calling LinkedIn messages also really annoys me
George Sinclair, Nimbus Beds: I hate hard, pushy sales. Although it is needed in some places, I prefer a relaxed sales environment
Huw Williams, Toons Furnishers: The hard approach and pushy selling really switch me off. I hate it, and I believe most customers do too
Jade Farthing, Haskins Furniture: Pushy salespeople that haven’t understood the customer’s needs
Keiran Hewkin, Swyft: One that ask questions like, “I guess you’re too busy to acquire new customers for free, so I’ll leave you alone”
Mark Gannon, Sofa Source: Forceful and know-it-all
Neil Barker, Barkers Furniture: Bombardment
Rob King, Julian Bowen: Our industry’s desire for feature-led selling. Bigger is not always better
Shaun Peel, MattressTek: Pushy, ill-informed
Steve Reid, Simba Sleep: Cold calls. The volume of cold email approaches is vast nowadays, but at least they’re easy to screen and block
Tom Bayliss, Kettle Interiors: The type of approach I dislike the most is the one that feels ‘script read’ – not personally tailored or adapted to the moment or customer in question
Shane Harding, Highgrove Beds: People tend to buy from people they like – I’ve never been a fan of personality-free salespeople that have a textbook approach to life. Thankfully, we still have a few characters left in the bed trade!
David Kohn, The Multichannel Expert: The best sales associate will ask a lot of questions to really understand the customer’s needs and preferences. They will be knowledgeable, interested in the product and above all honest. The worst will simply tell without listening
John Northwood, sales agent: “Can I help you?” The first thing you are taught in sales is not to say a negative as an opener
Wendy Martin Green, Peter Green Furnishers: We believe it’s a bad idea to push a customer into a sale. If they are undecided, we are quite happy to let them go home and think on it, and in almost every instance we are rewarded because they come back and make a purchase that they are really happy with
Martin Seeley, MattressNextDay: The discounters that just sell on price and think they are clever (they know who they are) – they just ruin relationships within the industry
This article featured in the September 2022 edition of Furniture News magazine.
