November is the beginning of dining table season. Dining table customers will be visiting furniture stores to select a new table and chairs. As families' plans solidify for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day (and other holidays, too), some start dreaming of a brand new dining set. That's good news for furniture sales representatives.
As these customers enter your store, what can you do to maximize your selling opportunity with them? Here are five sales tips to help you give your customers happier holidays this year:
1. The recession is over, remember?
The economic gurus agree that our recession is over and we're entering a stage of economic recovery. Keep this in mind as you work with your prospects. Get over the recession and start looking beyond it.
2. Ask probing questions.
Your best sales tool is asking questions to gain an understanding of your customers' needs and desires. If you allow your furniture store to only be a "walk through and see what I like" destination, you'd be well served to install self-serve kiosks in the store and spend the next two months with your families at home. You're there to sell, so start by asking the right questions: What are you looking for in a table? Why is this a good time for you to get a good table? Do you have a dining table now? How about chairs? What are they like? What don't you like about your current table? You get the idea.
3. Remember, some won't get their new table by the end of the year.
Despite the wishes of some of your customers, they won't get their dining table for the big holidays this year. They'll have to special order a table and they'll have it all ready to go by sometime next year. Part of your selling challenge with these people will be to get them to be patient and to realize that it's worth the wait to get the table and chairs they really want, rather than limit their options only to products available in the next few weeks.
4. Sit at the table with your prospects.
Once your prospects have found a table they're interested, get them to sit down at it, and make sure you do likewise. Discuss their plans while seated at the table. Ask who in the family sits in which position at home, and have them sit in those positions while in the store. It adds allows a more realistic experience. Ask what they're going to serve for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or whatever holiday they will celebrate with their new table and chairs. Ask who will be invited to join the family for dinner and find out where they will sit.
5. Make the sales interaction fun and celebratory.
Many families will buy a dining table only once or twice in their lifetimes, so make this a festive occasion. Let your prospects have fun and enjoy the process.
Read dozens of other furniture sales training posts on the Selling to Consumers Blog.
If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.
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Any one that's read this post should remember the line, "Sit at the table with your prospects". This goes for living room (let them sit on the sofa you sit on the love seat or chair). For other pieces such as desks, get them to sit down. The more they interact with a piece and feel the sense of ownership, the more likely they are to buy. And by all means forget about the recession, whether it's really over or not. Regardless of the economy it's our jobs and livelihoods to SELL!
Posted by: Furniture Stores | 07 November 2009 at 01:16 PM