Alex Nemet, owner of Northeast Factory Direct and an extreme desert marathon runner, would never have imagined that this year would be his most successful yet; his hot tub sales are up almost 60 percent. Nemet says the important thing is investing in your customers and not a fancy showroom.
How important do you think attitude is when it comes to your success? // Your brain automatically picks up on all those negative things subconsciously, [and then] you start looking for it. I don’t even open a newspaper or turn on the news anymore. All I want to hear about is positive things. You have to get lean and take care of your customers and just have a good attitude. [Sometimes] it gets so slow that when that person comes in, people jump all over them. You’ve got to act like you’ve already sold ten hot tubs that day and [think about] what I can do to help that customer. Acting as if that customer was their grandmother going out to buy a hot tub and really holding their hand and taking them through the entire process from their [the customer’s] perspective and finding out what’s good for them, they’re always going to buy. People sense whether you’re trying to help them or whether you’re trying to help yourself.
Make salesmen read something positive. Every morning take a half hour to read something positive or motivational, bettering your craft as a salesperson. I’m doing tent sales and I’m doing home shows. We belong to networking groups. We do things out of the norm: we don’t do a lot of advertising and when somebody does give us a referral, we thank them.
Why do you think your sales are up? // I do whatever I can and give the tools that I can to help my sales staff. I support the sales staff, they support the customers and the customers support the business. We’re just working harder, that’s really what it comes down to. We’re working harder to help all of our customers. We’re working twice as hard for the same amount of business as a couple years ago, and when the economy turns around we’ll be stronger.
You can’t just wait in your store and wait for people to come in when it’s like this. We’ve built relationships outside of the business with landscapers that refer us, and they’re basically strategic partnerships. Also with chiropractors, we’ve been trying to build strategic relationships with them. I’m not just going to place a $3,000 full-page ad in the paper. I’m a couple of those away from being in big trouble.