No one says love or life is easy, even for royalty. That's especially true in the furniture industry, where love seems harder to find right now.
But take heart, love still prevails and so does lovely business, although you’ve got to really, really work at making it work.
I don’t know for sure, and want to know, but I believe some of the mid-to-smaller merchants are finding ways to love their customers in ways, perhaps, that their larger loveorned mercantile brothers and sisters are lacking.
In love and business, relationships matter. Working at them is what counts. That means knowing what your mate wants and needs, and finding a way to deliver it.
For merchants needing to differentiate themselves, the High Point Market is coming. That's the place where matching consumer needs with the broadest and boldest product assortment reigns.
In an uncertain economy or anytime self pity isn’t the answer, a resounding theme that Editor Ray Allegrezza of Furniture|Today rightly (writely) declared in his current column that remaining focused on purpose and responsibility.
Yes, yes, keeping our eyes on the prize — helping people live more comfortably and better with furniture. That’s the mantra, not destructive self-pity patois.
There’s business out there, if you want it, but it won’t come easy. Stop complaining.
Nobody can buy results. All that’s possible is opportunity, and that exists, but it is more challenging. No kidding.
Here’s a simple, hard-working example: Andy Kane of Tapestries Ltd., a purveyor of decorative accessories and home accents, said he couldn’t sit on his assets any longer, and needed to act because “you need to go out and get the business.” He did.
With determination, he went out and met with retailers and, violà, he wrote business. Imagine that?!
Andy knew what to do with the power of personal marketing. He called on merchants who developed lasting relationships with their customers. He knew that he could give those retailers a path to differentiate themselves, the missing and necessary added oomph, to helping them succeed.
No pity from Andy, except to say that on his successful odyssey, he rarely encountered other sales peers who, he could only speculate, were too busy pitying themselves instead of putting themselves in better position for continuing business.
So take heart today and every day. Because the sun does come up every day, and no one is gonna give you nuttin’. You have to devise new ways all the time.
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