The Mattress of the 21st Century is Here Today
This Supple-Pedic presentation narrative is geared to impart product knowledge along with basic selling skills that should be beneficial to both the Novice Salesperson as well as the Seasoned Sales Professional.
As you become familiar with this unique mattress product we’re sure you will find Supple-Pedic to be one of the most exciting and innovative products you will ever have the pleasure to sell.
Greeting the Customer
The all important first contact with a prospective customer is critical. After all “you only have one chance to make a first impression.” Establish a personal relationship as quickly as possible. This will help to lower the customers defensive shields by appearing non-threatening. Approach the customer slowly with a friendly smile and be enthusiastic. Always begin with a non-business related question that you can both agree on. For example a question related to the weather, sporting event, or local happening, will usually receive a positive response and enable you to get “close” to the customer.
Qualifying
Once you’ve established a rapport with the customer you need to determine what they might be looking for. Qualifying questions help to draw out the customers needs and interests. You might begin by asking “what brings you into our store today?” A customer will usually tell you what they want, so be sure to listen without interrupting. If you listen well the customer will tell you how to sell them. However a common response to your opening question may be “I’m just looking.” It would be easy to walk away and allow the customer to just look, but an excellent reply could be, “you’re welcome to take your time and look around as we have many things to offer. If the customer is not looking for a mattress ask them: “I would like to get your opinion on an exciting new product we have. “ Then take then to the Supple-Pedic, have them lie down, and give a short presentation. The customer may begin to realize that Supple-Pedic is truly an exciting new product and much better than their mattress at home. In a fair percentage of cases your customer will buy Supple-Pedic even though their current mattress is relatively new. You will earn extra money you otherwise would not have. If your customer is looking for a mattress ask them: “By the way are you looking for a conventional mattress or “the mattress of the 21st century?” Since the customer knows what a conventional mattress is, but has no clue what the mattress of the 21st century is, they will probably ask what it is you’re talking about. This will then allow you to stay with them and continue communication and interaction.
To qualify if the customer is a candidate for Supple-Pedic, determine if they may fit in any of the following categories:
• Has back problems
• Has Arthritis
• Looking for better support
• Looking to reduce tossing & turning
• Needs pressure relief
• Has general aches and pains
• Has been injured
• Has trouble sleeping through the night
• Wants a better nights sleep
An excellent qualifying question is “How well do you sleep?” and “what do you like most about your current mattress” and “what do you like least about your current mattress.” It’s amazing how much information a customer is willing to share. This will help you to lead the customer in the right direction.
Presentation - Features and Benefits:
Create a desire for the Supple-Pedic by explaining the feature and benefits. For best results a presentation should include both immediate as well as long term benefits. Features and benefits should be presented as specifically as possible using the following methods:
Demonstration - ask them to participate (laying down, feeling, touching)
• Present Facts and statistics (define terminology’s - show charts)
• Paint word pictures (comfort, intimacy, support, cradling, passion, space age)
• Tell a story of a satisfied customer.
Demonstration - while customer is lying down ask if they can feel how the bed fills in and supports the small of their back.
Demonstration - place a set of keys on the bed and ask customer to sit on them. They can’t feel the keys. This is how well Supple-Pedic conforms to bony prominences of the body.
Begin the demonstration by having the customer lay down on the Supple-Pedic if the customer seems reluctant to lay down, you might try saying “this is a new ‘space age’ technology mattress that’s not an innerspring, not air, not water and I’d love to get your opinion.” (Most people want to give their opinion.) It is effective to unzip the cover and push on the Polyfilax, showing how it slowly recovers. This intrigues most people, and they will push on it themselves. Then have them lay on the bed with a Supple-Pillow and hand them another Supple-Pillow to fondle. This will create an even higher impact. Most customers will fall in love with the feel instantly and many even passionately. If the customer loves the feel and seems passionate, stop and write the order.
Of course not everyone will respond that quickly, which means they need more information to be able to make a decision. It is good to hand the customer a brochure open to the pressure charts and start explaining that Supple-Pedic gives the scientifically proven best back support. Then go on to explain the chart of the pressure points, that since Supple-Pedic has the lowest body pressures, it will not cut off blood circulation like conventional mattresses, and consequently you will toss and turn much less, sleep deeper, and enjoy more comfort. You might want to keep an extra 11”x17” pressure chart poster at the foot of the bed and use this to show the customer while they are laying on the bed.
What is Supple-Pedic?
Supple-Pedic is a patented new technology mattress using a revolutionary material called Polyfilax combined with a lever spring support system. Together they provide a combination of best lower back support and least amount of pressure points to give the most comfortable and supportive sleep possible (point out on graphs and hand out brochure).
What is Polyfilax?
Polyfilax is a revolutionary material similar to what was originally developed for the NASA space program for a pressure relief surface for the astronauts at lift off. Polyfilax completely conforms to the body to provide even support without high pressure points. Polyfilax is a heat sensitive material that responds to body temperature which allows this amazing material to actually mold to your body’s shape to conform even more perfectly yet the open cell structure breathes, so the heat will not build up or make you fell unpleasantly warm . Polyfilax is a slow recovery material, and even though it allows for a complete body impression, it will always return to it’s original shape and will never sag or feel lumpy.
What is a Lever Spring Support System?
A Lever Spring Support is a series of spring wires connected
to flexible rods imbedded beneath the Polyfilax layer to create support on
demand. As the heavier parts of the body depress into the mattress the levers
push back to support the areas of void, such as the small of the back or under
the knees. Much like a teeter-totter, if you push down on one side the opposite
side lifts up, thereby creating more support in the areas of need. (Point out
lever spring graphic and back support comparison chart) It is the
Lever-Spring System that allows the Supple-Pedic to give the best back support,
body conformity, and consequentially the lowest body pressures. All of this
gives you the most comfort and the best nights sleep possible.
Use a pen or pencil to demonstrate the lever action. Using your finger as a pivot-point/fulcrum push down on one end of the pen to demonstrate how the other end actually pushes up to support a recessed area of your body such as the small of your back.
Comparison to Conventional Mattresses.
Typically a person looking for extra support, chooses an extra firm mattress, however the side effects of sleeping on a hard mattress is the blood circulation cut off that causes tossing & turning. This tossing & turning is an unconscious effort to keep the blood circulating. Often a person will wake up to find a limb has gone numb.
Other people may be looking for a mattress that is soft to reduce pressure points only to find the support to belacking. With Supple-Pedic you receive scientifically proven best lower back support and up to 90% less tossing & turning with never a pressure point to cut off blood circulation.
Firmness vs. Support
The firmness myth has been perpetuated by the innerspring mattress industry. To differentiate their products they either use thicker steel in the coils or use more coils, both of which create a firmer mattress. Both of these options also cost a little more money and the industry has taught people that firmer is better to up sell their products. A steel coil can only respond to downward pressure with an equally opposing force. Thus the further you depress the coil the more pressure it pushes back with to create pressure points on the body. While it is true that you need proper spinal alignment and support, Supple-Pedic achieves this in a different way. Our Lever-Spring system conforms to the shape of a person’s body giving proper spinal alignment and support. This conforming support eliminates pressure points for greatest comfort and better sleep while providing scientifically proven best back support.
Clinically Proven Better Sleep
No other mattress can make this claim! Not Sealy, Simmons, Serta, or any other mattress on the market. While all brands say you will sleep better on their mattress their claims are just slogans or puffery that is allowed by law. Others have tried for years and years to get actual research that you sleep better on their mattress, none have ever succeeded. Only Supple-Pedic with it’s Lever-Spring system has actual scientific research that proves people will sleep better on Supple-Pedic!
Creating Value
Supple-Pedic uses quality new technology materials that are simply more expensive than conventional materials. An innerspring unit is mostly air with steel coils taking up the space in the mattress. They are much less expensive than the solid components of the Supple-Pedic. Supple-Pedic is clinically proven to help you sleep much better. This will help you feel much better every day. What is more important than feeling good?
While Supple-Pedic may cost more than many conventional mattresses, it costs less than some, and gives you a better nights sleep. You spend 1/3 of your life in bed. Supple-Pedic costs the same or less than many other items you purchase. Consider the cost per day or per year of ownership and it seems insignificant.
Competition
A mattress similar to the Supple-Pedic is imported from Europe but does not have the advantage of the Lever-Spring system. It costs more. A mattress takes a lot of space in a container on an ocean ship. Why pay more for this extra freight, import tax, and distribution costs? This competing product does not even achieve pressure point readings as low as the Supple-Pedic.
Other products might have a thin layer of a material that seems similar to Polyfilax over simply a block of standard foam or a standard innerspring unit. Their material is vastly different from Polyfilax, it does not have anywhere near the same conformability or pressure reliving qualities of Polyfilax. Their material simply has a lot more air in it and does not have the same cell structure. Most importantly they do not have the patented Lever-Spring unit. The Lever-Spring system is really the key to body conformity, back support, and Clinically Proven Better Sleep.
Trial Close
When you trial close you are simply looking for buying signals. Since you cannot count on the Customer to tell you when they are “HOT” to buy you must constantly take their “TEMPERATURE”. They may only be hot for a short time before they start turning cold again.
So the trial close can be as simple as “What do you think?” or “How does that feel?” Try to anticipate common objections and overcome them before they are asked. If there are only positive responses to trial closes and no objections, ask for the order.
Objections
5 Steps to overcome an objection
1 - Listen to the objection
2 - Agree with their concern - “I understand how you feel”-
3 - Isolate the true objection (Smoke out the hidden objection )
4 - Restate the objection - “What you’re saying Mr. Customer is that”-
5 - Overcome - Answer the objection
Repeat these steps until all objections are exposed and answered.
Example Objections
1 - “Your price is too high”
First you need to find out if they mean that the product is not worth what you are asking, or if the product costs more than they are willing to spend. In the first case you must go back to features and benefits that create thevalue. (See conventional mattress comparison and value comparison ). In the latter case you may need to look at special financing to make it more affordable or manageable within their budget. Point out that you spend a third of your life in bed, and that your quality of sleep affects your health as well as your quality of life when your are awake. Isn’t that worth the investment in Supple-Pedic?
2 - “I don’t want to buy now because this is the first store that I’ve been to and I want to shop around.” A good reply would be “I appreciate the fact that you want to look around and as a consumer myself I would usually do the same. However since you love the feel of the Supple-Pedic and its benefits, and since it is a patented product by Strobel, and since we are the exclusive dealer for Supple-Pedic in this market area, is there any reason for you to delay experiencing the comfort and health benefits your Supple-Pedic will provide?”
3 - “I’ve just always had a conventional mattress and this is all new to me.” Your response should be- “We know Technology changes with progress as we’ve gone from horse and buggy to automobile, Planes to Jets to Space Travel, Candlelight to Electric Light. Did you know that the Innerspring mattress was invented in 1871 and it was accepted gradually as the mainstream mattress throughout the 20th Century? In fact it was accepted at about the same rate as going from the Horse and Buggy to Automobile. But it’s now over a hundred years later. Aren’t you ready to step into the 21st Century Sleep Technology?”
Closing the Sale
The best definition of closing the Sale is - helping someone to make a decision that is right for them.
Closing is not selling something to someone that they don’t want.
Through the Qualifying process you have been able to determine the Customer’s needs and wants.
Through the Presentation you have created the desire and provided information to allow for an intelligent decision to be made by the Customer. Your Customer is ready to be closed because they have more reasons to buy than not to buy. It’s time to reach for a Sale Order and ask for the Sale.
Closing Examples
The Assumptive Close - simply start filling out the order and if the Customer says nothing further, it’s done.
The alternate of choice close - “Would you like your Supple-Pedic delivered or would you prefer to pick it up.”
“Which would be more convenient for you, Monday or Wednesday.”
“Would you prefer to use a credit card or would you like to take advantage of our 90 Days same as cash.”
The direct close - “Shall we sit down and fill out the paperwork.”
As a sales professional I’m sure you have many of your own techniques and if you find particular sales techniques that are successful with Supple-Pedic we would like to hear from you.
We’re confident you will find Supple-Pedic to be one of your best selling products
If you have questions or comments about how to sell Supple-Pedic, we’d love to hear from you. Call us at 1-800-457-6442