We are in constant contact with our furniture dealers. We regularly ask them about their training experience and what gaps still need to be filled. We get nearly a universal response:
We want better training from our manufacturers.
Put yourself in a dealers shoes. After investing thousands of dollars to carry a new product you have to hope the sales team can actually sell and make your money back. You have to hope the manufacturer rep will teach your sales force to like the product like you do.
Unfortunately, a visit from a rep every 8 or 10 weeks just doesn’t cut it. This is a high turnover industry and reps simply can’t be in the stores as quickly as they’re needed. It doesn’t really matter though because the rep doesn’t teach very well and the visits are often unhelpful. The fact is most of your reps are better at finding new dealers and making sales than they are at training sales people. Ask yourself this: If you were a dealer would you be happy with the training your company provides?
We recently surveyed our dealers to learn about the training they receive from their manufacturers. We learned some amazing things from the survey respondents:
78% of them say that brand specific training is very important to their company.
Only 5% of them are very satisfied with the manufacturer specific training they are receiving.
Let us help you create better training for your dealers and their salespeople. They want it!
Our expertise at the Furniture Training Company is Instructional Design. Two of our company’s original founders have their PhDs in teaching with a computer. We know how to teach and help your dealers increase their sales. Plus, we know the industry. We have trained over 25,000 sales people from more than 1,000 furniture stores. We’ve built custom sales training programs for many industry leaders including Klaussner, Guardsman, and OW Lee.
Call us to put a customized STAMP (Sales Training and Marketing Program) on your brand. We are confident that it will help you to:
Sell more of your products
Incentivize more dealers to carry your product
Make your reps more effective and efficient
Increase awareness and loyalty to your brand
Communicate directly with dealers and RSAs
and so much more!
Learn more by calling us at 866-755-5996