Dave Morrow, In2Furniture
www.in2furniture.com

1. We have invested heavily in sales training. In good times, you don’t have the time to invest in improvement. People are also not as likely to eliminate bad habits when they think their old system works.
2. We have refined our market focus. One of the ways we did this was through customer surveys, which gave us valuable information, and is basically free. We have also hired an outside consultant to help us work through this process.
3. We have looked at ways to increase our revenues using existing staff and resources. We have always provided facility services for clients. Usually this was something we did for our clients as they were buying new furniture. With the current economy, we have now realized that we need to market these as stand alone offerings.
4. We have also looked to more actively justify our products and services to our customers in dollar terms. In these times, CEOs are looking to save money or increase efficiency. Many companies have downsized staff, and so they are doing more with fewer people. Our new objective is to show CEOs that we have the tools to make their existing staff more productive.