Selling For Profit - Five Steps to Help You Focus on the Profitability of the Sale

1. Make Profit Important Get your people in line. All employees need to understand the rudiments of how they can behave profitably. Yes, you can behave profitably! Help all employees to have a regard for the costs they incur in their daily jobs. Share (in general terms) how much of the cost of running the business is represented in the cost of the product or service you are selling. Understand how easily this is given away due to inefficient behaviours, wastage, getting things wrong, letting customers down and so on. 2. Understand Costs As a business you need to know what to charge to cover all your costs and achieve your profitability targets. Whether you are charging for your time, a product or a service, you will need to know how to recoup all costs relating to making that product or service available and what profit margin will sustain your business. Check regularly what the costs of running your business are and your level of sales revenue. Then you can keep track of your viability as a business. It sounds simple and it is! Costs need to be in focus. 3. Define your Pricing Policy Define a process for managing the prices you charge. Many companies use an upper and lower limit as a guide for market pricing. Communicate clearly to your employees what their limits are and measure performance, rewarding good pricing management. It is too easy to let price slip when giving discounts and running promotions, so let employees know when they can stretch to their limits. Record your companies' adherence to pricing policy and take strong measures if you're letting good habits slip. 4. Find the right Price Position Find a position that sits well with your offer. Use the market as a guide in the first instance but intuitively you will know if your charges are about right for what you offer. You might consider the following three observations whilst deciding your price position: 1. Pricing is not going to differentiate your business. Service or quality will make you different, not price! 2. Prices, which to some look like good value, may look cheap to others. Not everyone likes cheap. 3. Try to be premium or low-cost; it's good to be one end of the scale rather than the middle. The centre ground can suggest no position at all! Find a price position and try it. If it doesn't work don't get stuck, look again and find another position that fits. 5. Understand your 'Hidden' Value Many products and services have become commodities and can become labeled with a price. Some businesses on the face of it do exactly what other businesses do. An accountant is an accountant after all. Not so! You may have to work hard to find differences but there will be some. Try hard to find these differences because you can charge for them! You may be bigger, smaller, faster or more experienced. You may wear the right kind of tie! Change your position to become the type of supplier they need. Your 'hidden' value is actually the ability to find what the client values most about your product or service. You will rarely need to be the cheapest if you can discover the 'hidden' value in your offer. KEITH PLACE DIRECTOROXFORD SALES CONSULTANTSHelping you to be better at selling - whatever you sell Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keith_Place

What Can CRM Do For My Sales

Thanks to the large number of CRM software programs on the market today, most people have heard of CRM software. But many of those people have an incorrect or incomplete understanding of what CRM is capable of doing. This article will describe what CRM can do for your sales. After a brief overview of the concept of CRM, we'll identify some typical sales problems that CRM can solve. CRM became a buzzword in the 1990's. It referred to a technology-driven initiative to unify the efforts of a company's customer-facing departments. This new strategy would restructure these departments around the company's greatest asset - its customers! CRM would allow customer information from across the company to be available to any employee who happened to interact with the customer, enabling the sales team to sell more successfully, the marketing team to segment and market to customers more effectively, and the service team to provide more personal, more effective resolution to customer complaints or requests. Simply put, the technology available at the outset of CRM was insufficient to allow the concept to deliver on its promise. Today, however, the technology is available, and companies of every size and budget are realizing the benefits of CRM technology. Is your company one of them? Do you know what these benefits are? Why Do I Need CRM? Below are some typical problems that can be solved by implementing CRM.... "I want to improve the performance of my sales team this year." Well what do you mean, "improve?" How did you measure the performance of your sales team last year (meaning can you identify important metrics other than total revenue or number of sales)? Here are some specific questions you may ask yourself: o Can I identify the areas of performance in which my sales team did well, and those in which they underperformed? o Can I identify which of those areas has historically had the greatest impact on overall sales performance? o Which of those areas can be improved with the least investment of dollars, time, or training? o Which specific behaviors should I encourage to drive the performance increase I seek? For example, it may be that you had good lead generation and qualification numbers, but fell short in your more advanced sales stages. Or maybe your sales reps seemed to stall out in a certain part of your sale cycle, taking much longer than you would expect to achieve the objectives there and move into the next stage. There are many ways a sales team can underperform. But if you don't have a well-implemented CRM system, the odds are good that you can't accurately answer the questions that will help you improve. The truth is that measurable improvement can only come from measured results. Otherwise, your message to your sales team will continue to consist of frustrated admonitions to work harder or close better. "I think my sales team is doing a poor job of following up on the leads we receive, although I can't say for sure." There are two problems in this statement - the first is the suspicion that your valuable leads are falling through the cracks; the second is the fact that you can't measure the degree to which effective follow-up is occurring on the leads your team receives. CRM is designed to chain together a prospect's progress through the different stages of your sales efforts, from campaign to close. You can see exactly how many leads your sales team receives, and what actions are taken to pursue those leads. This information is available in high-level percentages and in detailed specifics about each lead. "I only know what's in the pipeline once a week - after spending hours calling my direct reports. By the time I'm done aggregating the data, things have probably changed anyway." It's hard to proactively manage your sales team in today's sales environment without knowing exactly how the pipeline for your team and for each rep looks. Identifying regions and reps that aren't performing well isn't possible without pipeline information. When this information is available real-time, you can use your valuable time for coaching and enabling your team rather than collecting their numbers. Opportunity management in CRM gives you and your sales reps and the ability to see what's in your pipeline in real-time. Information can be organized to show where each opportunity is in the sales stage, when it's expected to close, and what the rep expects it to be worth. Furthermore, if you know your sales process well enough to identify factors that indicate high chances of success or failure in an opportunity, certain opportunities can be flagged to help you take the necessary steps to close those deals or keep them from falling out of your pipeline. Over time and with enough accumulated pipeline data, you can begin to understand the probability related to pipeline values in different stages of your sales process. This understanding will help you forecast sales more accurately and identify the optimal pipeline numbers in each sales stage that will maximize pipeline through-put. "My sales reps don't execute the sales process properly. It's hard for me to identify the degree to which they're really following the process. It's also hard for me to mandate change in sales rep behavior." When CRM becomes the tool your sales team uses to manage the information relating to potential sales, it also becomes the medium through which you can mandate positive change. Your sales process can be integrated into the CRM system, allowing you to monitor the tasks and stages that each rep completes for each deal, or giving you high-level statistics to see the degree to which the sales process is being followed by your sales team as a whole. "My reps are not productive enough - they spend too much time doing things other than selling." CRM is designed to automate the tasks that take your reps away from selling. Whether it be · creating quotes or proposals · churning out follow-up communications · communicating internally with others involved in the sales process · saving or hunting for saved customer communications or the host of other tasks that cut into the time reps spend in front of potential customers, CRM can streamline or automate these tasks to free up more selling time for your sales team. "It takes too much time and effort for my reps to collaborate with other groups who could help in the sales process - we don't collaborate as much as we'd like to, and the collaboration we do engage in is inefficient." This is a CRM sweet spot. The whole concept of CRM is to allow information to flow across the enterprise in the instant it's created. Sales data will be made available to key players in your organization who can help move a sale to completion. This information flow can be automated, eliminating the need for manual communications. Tasks will be automatically created, both to remind your team members to complete assignments and to allow you to monitor and follow-up on tasks that aren't being completed. All of this drastically reduces the time your team needs to spend on the phone or sending emails to inform others of details relating to a sale. "My company's customer and prospect information is unreliable." Today is a great day to start reversing this trend. While you may or may not be able to improve the quality of the data you already have, you can certainly ensure that the customer data you create from now on will be complete and reliable. Good data keeping requires 2 things: a policy and a place. CRM gives you both. You define the policy by deciding what information is required for CRM records like accounts and contacts. Duplicate detection tools and other validation procedures defined by you can be created to ensure the purity and entirety of your customer data. And, of course, CRM is the place - the new center of all customer-facing information in your organization. by Andy Schultz Questions or comments? Invoc exists to help companies identify the ways CRM can contribute to measured, sustainable growth in sales, service, and marketing activities. Feel free to contact Invoc using the information below if you would like to explore the possibilities for CRM at your company. Invoc is a Microsoft Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics® CRM. 713-240-3549 http://www.invoc.net info@invoc.net Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_B_Schultz

Why the Sales Process Never Stops

The other week, a client expressed an unfortunate but too frequent complaint about certain salespeople: "Salespeople tell you whatever they think you want to hear to close a sale. But once you've signed off and the tech people come in to fulfill it, they say you can't have the product as promised! Their justification, if you can call it that: 'Well that's salespeople. They'll tell you anything.'" We often hear stories such as this. But there's also a universal truth for any company that operates this way: they're doomed to lose customers and fail. As a customer, why would you ever give your business to them again? Companies like this fall into the trap of believing that the business sales process stops with the first order. In reality of course, it doesn't. Nor does it stop with the fulfillment of that order. Nor does it stop with the next order, or the fulfillment of that. The selling process, in fact, never stops. And it's businesses that understand and embrace this that are the most enduringly successful. These businesses understand that the sales process is about building a relationship that extends far beyond the sales person. Every person in the organization is in fact part of this process; the very reason their job exists is to solve customer problems and fulfill customer needs. In essence the salesperson has point duty on behalf of every member of the company. You may ask: How do other people in the organization, like customer service, engineering, finance or technical support, sell? In the narrowest sense of the word, maybe they don't. But they do communicate with customers in many different ways, because at its heart effective selling is nothing more than effective communication. So every contact with a customer has implications either on the next potential order or what they'll tell others about their experience with your organization. And it will make or break you as a business because the facts are it's far more profitable to retain customers you already have than it is to get new ones. Happy customers are one of your best assets, so you need to look after them. Which is why every person in your business should participate in some form of a sales training program. They need to understand how to sell so they can appreciate why effective 'communication' with customers is critical to business success, and the role they play in that sales process. But none of this absolves your salespeople of responsibility! In fact, the most responsibility still lies with them, because selling isn't only making a promise, but delivering on it. If they can't work in tandem with others in your business to ensure that this happens, then the sales process ceases to be effective and you've lost a customer. Andy represents The Fortune Group, which provides leadership development, sales training and change management solutions for management, sales and business teams. Integrated programs combine customised workshops with in house coaching tutorials to reinforce and accelerate the learning process. Visit us at http://www.fortunegroup.com.au Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_G_Klein

Some Interesting Comments About Sales As A Profession

In the UK there are 766,000 sales people and 545,000 marketers, yet of Britain's 300 HND or degree level business courses only three have sales modules, whereas more than two hundred have marketing modules. Maybe this is why: "Sales is neither understood nor accepted by many" Two other facts: I did a scan of the curriculum of 15 MBA courses, and not one of them mentioned sales, lots on strategic marketing though: The only official recognition for the selling profession is "The Diploma in Sales" available through a number of specialist marketing bodies and a few business schools around the world. Here are a few more interesting thoughts. Pick up the business news of any news paper and find an article on sales. Page through a business magazine and find an article on sales. When did you last see a heading "Sales force drives Acme plc to 25% growth", or "Competitive sales wins give Acme plc increased market share"? The top and bottom of it is you don't! It seems that reported business success is down to strategy or cost control or new products. Of course there is truth in these but when did you last get a call from strategy trying to sell you something. Cost control is finite, there are still only 100p to a pound and those new products generally speaking don't sell them selves. As selling is the real wealth creator why is it not understood or publicised? I have a simple view of this. It is a view that reflects our British nature. Basically sales people are disliked. People do not like being sold to, the ultimate insult is likening someone to a double glazing sales person. Of all the white collar professions the easiest one to measure is sales. A sales person has a target, if they make it they are great and if they don't they are fired. A bit black and white but closer to the truth than many would care to admit. Have you ever wondered why the Jobs section of the Daily Telegraph (sorry to promote this broadsheet, but they do have a sales column) has so many sales director vacancies? Companies no longer recruit sales people rather they call them Account Managers or Business Development Managers. The truth of the matter is that most sales people are insecure, which is not surprising really, and that the profession is under recognised and undervalued. Addressing these two issues is fundamental to achieving a successful sales force and a successful company. Money and sales trips are only part of the answer, the real answer lies in saying "Thank You" when a big order comes in, or praising the sales force rather than beating it up when things are not going well. Achievement is a sales person's biggest motivator and that is what really needs to be understood. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Chiswick

Growing Your Business Profits

Grow your business profits using dollars you have already spent on inventory! Today is a great time to revisit the idea of bartering! With organized barter more automated and efficient, it is a terrific time to take advantage of the increased buying and spending power in addition to the cost savings to operate your business. Many retail stores are closing their doors due to the lack of business and cash flow. Most retail stores believe that by slashing their prices they will cause more customers and traffic to the store. This might be true for that moment, but isn€™t the real objective to gain NEW customers and LOYAL customers? If a store has the inventory and capacity to increase sales without it affecting their hard cost of doing business, barter is a win/win situation. Barter customers bring other cash customers when they talk about the experience. While barter can drive new customers to your store, the new customers can tell their friends and family about their experience and you can gain cash business at the same time you are moving that inventory or filling excess capacity. Example: A business or retail store owns inventory and it is moving slower then expected or needed. Meanwhile the business owner has some immediate business needs that are critical to their business. If the business owner can market their inventory through an online barter website and attract new customers to purchase some of the items for full retail using barter credits, the business owner can then purchase the items for the business using that revenue rather than spending new money! Some examples might be new store signage or printing and advertising! The idea situation is the use the new barter revenue to advertise and bring in additional cash paying customers. Don€™t forget that your new barter clients will be loyal to you and also help promote your business as long as they continue to feel like valued customers and receive excellent value and service from your staff! Barter clients should be a welcome addition to your business and treated as friends. Remember they are also business owners and understand why you are bartering and want to help you grow and prosper in your business also. Cost of Barter: You might wonder what joining a barter organization might cost and also the fees associated with bartering. The fees to join or membership costs vary from each trade exchange. Most exchanges charge anywhere from $195.00 €" $495.00 and up as a membership application fee and monthly fees range from 0-$20.00 per month. Trade service fees on transactions vary from 10% trade or 5%- 8% cash on each transaction. The thing to remember is that you are paying only a transaction fee on what you purchase or sell. In addition consider that many times you can apply for a line of barter credit and spend into the system before you even make your first barter sale! Your local trade broker will also assist you by bringing you new customers to pay the trade credit line back! What credit card company or bank will do all that for you? In fact a great trade exchange will establish a barter budget for you to follow so that you aren€™t taking too many trade credits above what you will be spending in the system. In the barter economy your products and services are more important than your credit score. You can use your inventory to secure a barter loan and make improvements to your business! Consider how leveraging money you have already spent into advertising or maintenance or other ongoing expenses like printing, or landscaping, repairs or equipment maintenance or even purchasing new equipment can add additional profit and cutting costs to your bottom line. Consider how leveraging money you have already spent into advertising or maintenance or other ongoing expenses. Increase sales and profits with money you already spent! Whether you are a service related business or retail store you can benefit by increasing your customer base by up to 10 €" 15% and reducing overhead costs by spending that new found revenue back into your business and YES even consider giving yourself a raise in barter revenue to spend on personal needs. Turn that downtime or excess inventory into what you need or want for yourself and your business. I encourage any business that has a vanishing commodity such as advertising space, hotel rooms, empty seats or room in a cafe or restaurant to use barter to capture that potential lost revenue and turn it into future purchases and increased sales! Need more information on how Bartering can add to your bottom line profits? Ask The Barter Coach! Kathleen (Kathy) Smart is the President and CEO of SmarterIdeas Inc. http://smarterideas.com, and one of the founding principals with the International Business Academies Limited, http://ibalnet.com, an Atlanta Georgia based LLC Kathleen has had over 26 years of experience in helping business owners succeed. Kathleen hosts her own internet based radio programs where she interviews local business owners and individuals who can bring inspiration, information and education to entrepreneurs and business owners. Over the past year she has interviewed, teacher of the year, Ron Clark, Blue Man Group and many others. Her show is designed and dedicated to educate and inform entrepreneurs and business owners with information that can give them the tools that can help them turn that corner in their life or business. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathleen_Smart

7 Simple Tips to Create Success Within the Sales and Marketing Industries

It doesn't matter what the marketing or sales opportunity that you're in is, there are always a few things that remain constant in order to achieve success. In this article I would like to talk a about 7 tips to creating success within the marketing or sales industries; actually these tips can be used by anyone involved with business. Here are 7 simple tips to creating success within the sales and marketing industries: 1. Be Punctual There is nothing worse than someone that is always late; it's rude and unprofessional. If you're supposed to call or meet someone at a certain time then you've got to be punctual. Showing up on time shows that you're professional and you respect other peoples time. No one will ever take you serious if you're constantly showing up late. 2. Warm Up the Client The best way to warm up a client is to become their friend. In a way I would rather have people view me as their friend than just some sales person or business man. When you're able to find some common ground with a person you'll have a much easier time transitioning into you your business. 3. Knowledge You've got to know your product and business inside and out. Remember that people aren't just buying a product they're buying you; the second they see that you don't know what you're talking they'll decide right then and there that they don't want to do business with you. 4. Adapting To Your Buyer Every one of your buyers or clients will be different from the other. You can't say or do the same thing over and over; you've got to adapt to your buyer and make them feel comfortable and relaxed. 5. Trust Building a trust bridge between you and your client is one of the most important things you can do. This can be done by accomplishing the things that I've mentioned so far. Once you've established that trust you don't want to do anything that could ruin it. 6. Have a Plan Don't be one of those business men or women that think they can "wing" their presentation. Have a well thought and organized plan and you'll see that your presentation will go much smoother. 7. Closing If you do all the things that I've mentioned above then closing will be easy. The key to closing a sale is make sure your clients understand why they need whatever it is that you're selling. Once they feel the need for your product or service closing the sale will be the easiest thing you've ever done. I've been trained and mentored by some of the best online marketers on the web today. Our team is one of the best in the business. I would love to help you make a change in your life, and help you learn how to make money online. Take a look at http://www.todaysbiz.org/ and make a change in your life today! Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Michael_Sanofsky

How Can Smaller Retailers Find Better Replacements For Their Point of Sale Software?

Technology changes so often that businesses often have difficulty deciding when to replace their technology. This is especially true for growing retail businesses that use point of sale software packages to process such things as customer transactions and inventory. Here is a brief guide that can help smaller retailers find better replacements for their POS software applications. It includes suggestions that can help small and medium-sized retailers find ways to improve their efficiency, customer service experience and their bottom lines by choosing point of sale packages that are more appropriate for their needs. Here are some suggestions for small retailers. --Don't buy more POS software than you need. Many small retailers tend to overspend on point of sale software packages because they think they can use the extra features when they expand operations. This isn't always a good idea because most small retailers don't have enough inventory or sales volume to justify using more complicated POS software packages. As a result, it might be a good idea to find point of sale software applications that can be customized to fit the needs of a smaller business. Doing this can save the smaller retailer money and frustration because they won't to need to worry about features that aren't needed to effectively run their business. --In addition, look for point of sale software that is easy to use. Many small retailers have trouble growing their businesses because they have a hard time managing their inventories and how they provide customer service to their clients. Using POS software that is easy to use can solve most of these problems because it makes it easier to doing things such as interacting with customers and keeping physical inventory counts. In addition, it can also help smaller retailers establish better habits that can improve the way they manage their store's overall operations. As a result, using point of sale software that is easy to use can help a smaller retailer grow its loyal customer base and improves its overall efficiency. Here are some suggestions for medium-sized retailers. --Look for point of sale software that can help you control inventory "shrinkage" and improve the overall experience for your customers. Most medium-sized retailers who would like to grow into bigger entities have trouble controlling inventory shrinkage. Furthermore, they also tend to suffer from customer service growing pains that result from making the leap from a tiny store to a bigger store. These problems can be corrected if medium-sized retailers look for point of sale software that helps employees control inventory "shrinkage" and improve overall store efficiency. There are many fantastic point of sale software packages that can help medium-sized retailers control inventory shrinkage, price integrity and the customer's over-all experience. This makes it a good idea to look into these packages because they can provide very good long-term value for a medium-sized retailer. --Furthermore, a medium-sized retailer should also consider point of sale software that is fully compatible with its pre-existing technology. Many cashiers have first-hand knowledge of the nightmares that happen because a cash register has failed them in the middle of a transaction. These nightmares happen because most medium-sized retailers don't consider thinking about the compatibility of its point of sale software with its pre-existing technology. This makes it important for a medium-sized retailer to ask their vendor for technologically compatible point of sale software. Doing this will make your cashiers' jobs easier. It will also make many of your customers willing to shop more often at your store. As a result, finding technologically compatible point of sale software might be the best way for a medium-sized retailer to improve its bottom line. To buy POS software and to find out more information, please visit pos cash registers and restaurant software. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_J_Thomas

Mattress Retail and the Naming Conspiracy - How to Shop and Compare

Unlike most branded retail products, the mattress retail business uses model names without numbers and, because of the totally unrelated names, it is almost impossible to compare and shop models from one store to the next. This "conspiracy" makes it very difficult for the consumer to take advantage of the price guarantees offered at virtually every mattress retailer. The most common question heard by salespeople in the business is, "How can I compare models and shop for best price when the names are different everywhere I go?" The complaint that usually follows is "The price guarantee I see everywhere is worthless. It's a joke. Comparisons are impossible." Accurate comparisons of like models are essential to the effective utilization of the price guarantee advertised by most mattress retail dealers. A typical price guarantee might read, "We'll beat anyone's price by at least 10%." Some retailers will specify that it must be the same brand and model. With the model names being different everywhere, those retailers are able to exempt themselves from ever honoring their advertised guarantee. Some retailers require that the price be an advertised price, but most retailers don't advertise the model names in their ads, and that pretty much let's them off the hook. Consumers cannot shop ads if the model names are not in them, and shopping the competition is extremely difficult in person when the names are different everywhere. It doesn't take long for the consumer to realize that there is a "conspiracy" in place to defeat the use of the "advertised gimmick" called the "price guarantee." The frustration turns quickly to irritation and the consumer is left with nothing but mistrust for the mattress retailer and his sales staff. I don't know how many times a day I had customers tell me, "you guys are just like used car salesmen." The mattress manufacturers would love to have the model names standardized amongst retailers, but the retailers will never let them do that. The manufacturers would save a lot of money, since they have to pay people to come up with new names for every model, every year, for every retailer. They have to tweak the different models in very minor ways in order to keep them slightly different. Those minor differences cost the manufacturers a lot of extra money in modifying the production runs. The retailers want to keep the consumer confused. They want as many different specifications, different fabrics, different tape edges, different stitching patterns, and, most certainly, the different names. The confusion virtually negates the price guarantee because the salesperson can say that the models are different. "This one has a foam encased edge and the one you saw at the department store does not. I can't beat the price, but I can match it." The retailer I spent most of my career with allowed us to beat prices "as long as the models were fairly close." We had to spend a lot of time shopping the competitors to become extremely familiar with the similarities and the differences between the brands and the models in our market area. Unfortunately, that is not the norm for mattress retailers and their staff. Most retailers do not require their staff to shop the competition. The poorly educated staff is forced to "wing it" or to lie to the consumer in order to protect the price points. Some lies can be detected by the consumer and the salesperson loses. Some are so well camouflaged that the consumer cannot detect them and, in that case, the consumer loses. When the consumer loses and discovers the truth later (and he or she usually does) the retailer loses, the salesperson loses, and the industry develops a bad reputation. Trust presents a huge obstacle to overcome. The customer becomes afraid to make that purchase in the future, and the salesperson has a very difficult time getting past the inherent mistrust now permanently entrenched in the customer's psyche. Retailers wonder why the consumer usually takes three years to make that purchase...three years after he knows his mattress is no longer providing a "good night's rest"? The simple answer for mattress retailers would be to modify their game plan and to allow for easier comparisons through the naming process. That change will probably never come. The consumer needs to take charge. Comparisons are actually easier than you might expect. Once you have found a mattress you feel comfortable in and one which supports your spine properly, take notes on the following ten items: 1. Brand name 2. Model name 3. Basic Appearance (firm or tight-top, plush or softer top, or pillow-top) 4. Coil count (queen is the standard used now for quoting purposes) 5. Independent coils or tied together coils 6. Wire gauge (the lower the number, the heavier the wire) 7. Special foams (memory foam or latex foam) 8. Edge support (heavier gauge on the edge or foam-encased) 9. Regular price 10. Sale price These ten items, once noted, and taken with you when you shop the competition, will give you everything you need to find the "comparable" model at other retailers. The "cold white sea" of mattresses staring at you as you enter the store adds to the confusion. They all look pretty much the same, but items 1, 3, and 9 on your list will lead you directly to the correct area. The brand name will match, the basic appearance should be very similar (tight-top, plush, or pillow-top), and the regular price should be pretty close or within two to three hundred dollars (in most cases). The mattresses are usually displayed with the most expensive in the front of the store and the least expensive to the rear of the store. Brands are almost always grouped together. By the time you have approached the correct area, a salesperson will probably have arrived to greet and assist you. If you haven't already noticed signage announcing a price guarantee, ask your salesperson whether they have one and how it works. Bring your notes out and tell your representative that you are looking for ______ brand and ______ model that you saw at _____ store. Indicate the one that looks most similar to the one you selected at the other store and detail the specifications from your notes. Ask which one most closely matches the one you are looking for. If your salesperson tries to deflect you toward other product at this point be wary. Take charge and keep him or her on track. Don't be afraid to say that you are "locked in" to that particular brand. Ask your salesperson to check the specs to make sure that you have matched items 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Lie down to make sure that this mattress feels comparable to the one that you liked in the other store. If it feels the same after spending at least 15 minutes on it, then ask your salesperson to beat the price as guaranteed in their advertising or printed policies. Be sure to utilize the "apples to apples" final price including delivery, set-up, pick-up of the old set, and tax in your price beat. Be careful of high pressure add-ons to recoup the retailer's lost margin dollars. If your mattress retailer does not honor the price guarantee for one reason or another, you should ask for the manager to do it for you, or move on to another mattress retailer who will gladly accept your business. Unfortunately, mattress retail dealers are not likely to change their embedded (excuse the pun) naming "conspiracy." Nor are they likely to alter their "loss leader" advertising that is damaging their image, integrity, and standing in the eye of the consumer. The only solution to this dilemma is a more informed, a more detail-conscious, and a more demanding consumer. Shop with confidence, take charge, take notes, make the comparisons, and claim the price guarantee. Your shop for sleep is easier than your fear expects. Ronald Czarnecki, EzineArticles.com contributor and recently published author of "Shop for Sleep and Survive the Bite" offers consumers the first "how to" guide for mattress shopping. The career veteran of the retail mattress world breaks the "code of silence" and uncovers the map to the "good night's rest" we all deserve. For more information visit Ron at: http://www.shopforsleep.com or join him on his blog site at: http://www.sleeplessandtired.com Good night, sleep tight, and survive the bite! Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ronald_Czarnecki