WHFA Announces Free Seminar Schedule During San Francisco Winter Market '98

Furniture World Magazine

Retailers attending the San Francisco Winter Market, January 23-27, 1998 are invited to attend FREE WHFA sponsored seminars covering a wide variety of industry related topics. The seminars are presented by experts in each subject area and are offered throughout the day to accommodate busy Market schedules, each lasting no longer than 1-1/2 hours each. The seminars are held in the WHFA Retail Resource Center Seminar Room, Space 705, Mart 2. No advance registration is required; seating is on a first come, first served basis. During Market, valuable products and services are on display in the WHFA Retail Resource Center, also in Space 705, Mart 2. Retailers are invited to drop in and learn how to save thousands of dollars by consulting the many resource companies available there. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23,1998: Measure Up to Peak Retail Performance: Thomas Lockwood, Director, Retail Systems Consulting, BDO Seidman, LLP Furniture Industry Services, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Achieve peak retail performance and cut non-value-added costs. Identify areas draining profits. Learn to set practical performance standards, then measure and analyze your performance to improve all areas of your store's operations. Armed with that information, you will learn how to implement changes to be more efficient, leading to greater profitability. At Market, you will learn about benchmarking and how it improves your total operation. Benchmarking helps you measure your business according to specified standards, compare performance to those standards and improve operations. Customer Service Through the Internet: Carl M. Abernathy, Vice President Sales and Marketing, Four Truckers, Inc. - Morganton, NC, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM A review of the intemet: what is it and how to use it to enhance your customer service through shipment tracking, e-mail communication regarding rate quotes, claim resolution, and other retailer concerns associ-ated with transportation. Presentation includes an actual intemet demonstration. SATURDAY, JANUARY 24.1998: How Private Credit Cards Can Create More Sales Opportunities For Your Store: Larry M. Davidson, Vice President Sales, Avco Financial Services - Costa Mesa, CA 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM. E-Mail: cmabernathy@fourtruckers.com Larry Davidson, Vice President - National Accounts for Avco Financial Services will discuss private label credit card opportunities that are available to retailers. Find out how two private label credit card (P.L. C. C.) programs can help to encourage repeat business, increase your sales, and increase your margins! Greeting Techniques That Lead to More Sales: Philip M. Gutsell, President, Philip M. Gutsell & Associates - Chicago, IL, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM This seminar will demonstrate the practical "Down to Earth" methods that will warm up your prospects. Techniques that will demonstrate how to avoid, "I'm just looking. Developing instant rapport with total strangers. Dealing with the customer's friend. Isn't the art of selling the art of questioning? Mr. Gutsell presents easy ways to gain rapport, trust and confidence in your salespeople. Direct Mail Promotions - How to Maximize Your Sales Potential: Keith Burrows, Vice President NHFA Direct Mail - Denver, CO 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Learn how to harness the power of your advertising, control rising advertising costs, acquire new customers inexpensively, build customer lists and measure the effectiveness of your promotions and ensure that your advertising dollars are producing the returns you need. Dramatically Increase Sales While Lowering Your Lighting Costs 30-50%: Keith Estes, Owner Century Lighting - Auburn, CA 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Review how recent technological advances have changed the way furniture dealers should light their showrooms. Learn what is the best color rendition rating and Kelvin temperature to show off your furniture. Learn how lighting can produce true color, which in turn reduces buying mistakes and increases sales. And, learn how WHFA's volume buying will lower your cost of lighting products and how new reduced wattage products will significantly lower your utility bill while increasing lighting output in your showroom. SUNDAY. JANUARY 25, 1998 How To Get 100 Essential Things Done In Your Business Everyday: Timothy A. Trefry, CEO, F.R.O.G., Inc. - Fair Oaks, CA, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM The essential one and one half hour seminar on accomplishing every task you need performed every day in your business. Every action is either productive or nonproductive, there is no middle ground. You will need to set precedent in your business that will guarantee a more productive result. These 100 tasks will change forever they way your business functions. Sales Promotion - The Big Advertising Pay Off: Sondra Boyd, Manager, CMK #1 (Division of Banker & Brisebois) - Cleveland, OH, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM A too brief seminar on how to make the money you spend on advertising pay off in a big way through focused promotional events! In addition to showing you what works and why, you will learn how to pro-gram, plan and execute successful events. Plenty of samples available to take nome. This is a money- maker! Don't miss it. The Art of Interviewing Customers: Philip M. Gutsell, President, Philip M. Gutsell & Associates - Chicago, IL, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM This seminar shows you the practical techniques for qualifying your customer. In this session, Phil Gutsell will demonstrate how not to only uncover the customer's needs, but also to discover the customer's hidden wants, which will lead to bigger average tickets. In addition, four distinct types of questions will be dis-cussed and demonstrated, as well as proven follow-up techniques. The Power of Color: Phyllis P. Macay, President, PPM Design - Seattle, WA 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM It has been proven that color that can change our health and our behavior. We will be exploring how color can change: the attitude of those entering our store to our homes, a shopper into a buyer, and the mood of a room from calm to vibrant. Phyllis Macay consults with manufacturers and retail businesses on Display and Accessory programs and other topics. Her psychology background has enabled her to compile consumer buying motivational tools from many industry sources. MONDAY JANUARY 26, 1998 Increasing Your Profits by Planning Your Showroom From Your Customer's Perspective: Stan Bossler, Principal, Bossler Design Services - Dallas, TX, 9:00 AM -10:30 AM Mr. Bossler will address reviewing the store planning process from your customer's perspective. He will outline the details which will help you increase profit margin by answering the customer's needs. Guide- lines which will help to insure your customer's loyalty and steps which will differentiate your facility from your competitor's will be reviewed. This lively and informative discussion will be accompanied by a corresponding slide presentation and easy to follow hand-out folder. Tour De West Coast: Phyllis P. Macay, President, PPM Design - Seattle, WA, 11:00 A.M. - 12:30 P.M. Take a visual tour and look at current Display and Accessory ideas from some 60 West Coast retailers. Ideas were gathered from Vancouver B. C., to Phoenix, to Denver. The price range spans from 6 Ethan Allen stores, midrange independent retailers, to one Levitz store n Southern California that is a must see! Phyllis Macay conducted the research for this portfolio and says :"I've averaged 6 stores a month for 16 years. Never have I gathered this voluminous work for this visual display. What the consumer has been saying to me for 2 years about their shopping requirements I experienced first hand." You don't have the time, energy or resources to focus and find this many new ideas from your furniture peers throughout the West Coast. Managing Your Sales Manager- Managing Your Sales: John Egger, Vice President, Shepherd Management Group - Atlanta, GA, 1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M. E-Mail Link:  feedback@shepherdonline.com Driven by the need to concentrate on other areas of their businesses, many store owners hire a Sales Manager. Unfortunately, these Sales Managers often fail and become overhead. This seminar will show you how to measure, manage, and motivate your Sales Manager to ensure that he/she increases sales performance and you get a return on your investment! How Proper 8 Improper Real Estate Effects a Furniture Store's Sales & How it Effects You: Julius M. Feinblum, Julius Feinblum Real Estate, Inc. - Bethpage, NY, 3:00 P.M. - 4:30 P.M. E-Mail Link:jmrealty@aol.com In this seminar you will learn how to find a furniture retail location. Find out how to select a proper real estate broker. Learn how to properly negotiate a lease. And also learn how to select new growth areas. TUESDAY. JANUARY 27, 1998 Managing Your Sales Manager- Managing Your Sales: John Egger, Vice President, Shepherd Management Group - Atlanta, GA, 9:00 A.M. -10:30 A.M. (repeat of Monday's seminar) For more information on these seminars, e-mail Stephanie Berger at admin@whfa.org -PROFIT Systems Releases New Sales Analysis Module PROFITsystems, Inc. announces the release of its new Sales Analysis Module. The new module capitalizes on the interconnectivity of PROFITsystem data which is stored in a format accessible by many of today's software packages incorporating the latest in database technologies. For example, data can be accessed by the entire Microsoft Office Suite. This means that clients now have the ability to create their own custom inquiries and reports in Microsoft Access and import raw data, such as customer mailing information, into Microsoft Word. "We have developed a new user friendly interface in Microsoft Access which provides more power and ease of use for all of our Sales Analysis Reports," according to Mitch Hight, Director of Development. "Clients may continue to use Period-to-date and Year-to-date figures or they may specify any date ranges they desire." The new module gives PROFITsystem more flexibility and control than any other software package available. For more information e-mail: jeff@profitsystems.net