The following is a letter from Brad Parker to his managers (6 stores in Oregon) regarding the TRAX system.

(Sometime in Early Oct 2004)

When we mail for a killer Friday private sales event here are the typical stats:

·                    We send 120,000 pieces to our existing customers and some prospects.

·                    We typically generate $450,000 in sales.

·                    The yield on those names is $3.75 in sales per name mailed to.

Here are the results of a fellow dealer with 4 stores, each being around the size of Salem in both traffic and volume.  The market is Connecticut and the owner's name is Tom Greene. He is a good La-Z-Boy FG operator.

·                    Their sales force is good. When I say good they are comparable to us. Tom Greene is passionate and they train well.

·                    They collect the names AND addresses of his unsold customers at an AVERAGE rate of 75%

·                    They have been at this collection rate for more than a year.

·                    They pulled the unsold customers for the last 4 months from the Trax systems to create a list of 5000 names.

·                    They had a one day 10% off private sale for these people on a Wednesday.

·                    The did $188,000 in one day for four stores.

·                    The yield on their collected names was $37.60 in sales per name mailed to.

Bottom line? Those people who have been in before but didn't buy, according to this data, are 1000% more productive as a marketing resource than our existing customers. Existing customers have traditionally been the best resource for us to generate sales. These new names provide us a brand new way to market our business. We can only do this IF we get the names and addresses of those people who are not buying. This is the job of your salespeople. You all are responsible to see that they are doing it. Go forth and create this new opportunity for the company! This will be huge for us.

Don't let us down.

Brad

Brad Parker

La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries

20752 SW 120th

Tualatin, OR 97062

503-691-4440

fax 210-1446

bparker@lzbpdx.com

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Dave Mink’s comments…

I called LA-Z-BOY Connecticut and spoke with Dave Peterson (General Manager) and discovered several things.

·                    They have a monthly chair giveaway (drawing) for sold and unsold customers to enter.  When they first started they gave away one chair per store.  They now give away one chair per month for the entire company.  Each salesperson marks their customer cards so they are easily identified later and can be put into TRAX easily.

·                    They kicked off the use of TRAX with a very exciting contest to get their salespeople in the habit of entering unsold customers into TRAX.  50% is the initial goal we suggest.

·                    They bonus and spiff their salespeople on the highest IGE numbers (Information Gathering Efficiency) report percentages.  This report measures the ability of salespeople to begin relationships with the opportunities that are not sold.

·                    The sale that LA-Z-BOY Connecticut had on Wednesday was a special event. All the salespeople dressed in Hawaiian Outfits and they decorated the store in a festive luau style.

Here are the benefits to requiring your salespeople to enter unsold customer information into Trax.

• Use the IGE Report (Information Gathering Efficiency Report).  We know that you always learn the customers name, address and phone numbers 99% of the time when a sale is made.  What IGE tells you is how often you learn this information when a sale is not made.  We also understand you will never get this information 100% of the time so don't try.  50% is very realistic.
• We can prove that by developing good skills for follow-up you will automatically increase your overall sales.  This number is based on our experience with over two thousand retail showrooms and 150 La-Z- Boy stores.  If you allow Trax to print the auto letter and follow-up you will  pick off this low hanging fruit and sell more of the customers who are right on the edge.
• Get each salesperson committed to learning your customer’s birthdate and allowing TRAX to send a birthday letter.  Sometimes it's the only birthday card received and they won't forget you.  Furniture Today has said that the average Home furnishings consumer will spend between 70 and 90 Thousand Dollars in their lifetime.  Why not attempt to develop a strong meaningful and personal relationship with everyone your salespeople meet.  It literally takes only minutes per customer and there are several smart strategies to getting this habit developed on any sales floor and your customers will keep coming back if you personalize their communications.
• By using TRAX rather than having your salespeople use a manual tickler file that is rarely used properly, you will triple each salespersons follow-up performance and with the Automated Printed Daily TO DO report insure that every salesperson never forgets about a golden opportunity to make someone very happy with a LA-Z-BOY product.