Free Rides on Adjustable Beds for EVERYONE
There is some good debate going on in the LinkedIn group Mattress Industry Executives about presenting adjustable bed bases to every customer versus only to those that have expressed the interest or have the need due to health concerns. The discussion was actually started as a result of a great post written by Larry Shinkle on Sleep Geek where Larry tries to convince his readers that you should ALWAYS show an adjustable base during the mattress sale. I happen to side with Larry on this one but realize that this is easier said than done. So the question is, why do rsa’s shy away from making the presentation to every single customer?
There are many things that may prevent an rsa from talking about adjustable beds but I suggest to you that the leading fear the rsa has is the perceived high price of the product. I have done sales training in several industries and this is always true no matter what products people are selling. They don’t want to hit the customer up on the most expensive items because the closing ratio is lower on those products and they don’t like being rejected. After you have successfully sold a $2,000 mattress set, do you really want to risk that and go for the add on sale of a $1,500 base? Could being that aggressive actually cause the consumer to back out of the mattress purchase? These are fair concerns by the rsa but consider this simple tweak to the typical approach. We need to give the consumer the, “just try it” request which is nothing more than the rsa saying to the consumer, “I know that you are just looking for a bed to go into your guest room but before you leave, you have to try out our new adjustable bed base, you won’t believe how comfortable it is.” With this presentation, you take away the intimidation factor on the part of the rsa because they are not officially asking for the sale, but instead just asking the consumer to give it a test drive. On the consumer side, you are not feeling “sold to” or pushed away because the rsa has clearly established the fact that they just want you to see how great it is and for them to give it some thought for their next purchase. You can use this same approach when someone is looking at a bed for their kid or even something for their own master suite. “I understand that your budget is $2,000 but I have to show you something that you need to TRY OUT before you leave that might give you a good reason to treat yourself later on.”
To quote Larry in his Sleep Geek post, “Wayne Gretzky once said that he missed 100% of the shots he never took.” The bottom line here is that we have to get the consumer to experience the product, because if we don’t we are not going to max out our potential here. When a consumer sees an adjustable bed, often times there is absolutely no interest because most people out there still see it as a product for old people or hospitals. It is only when they actually EXPERIENCE the comfort that they get fired up about owning one. We need to make the conversation easy for the rsa and minimize the risk of asking to begin with. Just lead the consumer into the conversation by telling the guys that there is cool new tech inside of beds these days or by giving the kids a remote to an adjustable bed base so mom can shop and kids can play space ship. However you get them there, just get them there.
Those are my thoughts on the subject, do you think this works? Either way, share your opinion in the comments section!