FLOOR COVERINGS
A room-size rug is to be preferred when practicable for a small bedroom, because it causes the room to appear larger than does a combination of small rugs, yet many bedrooms are being artistically furnished today with small scatter rugs.
Since the bedroom is closed off from the other rooms, one can be more daring in the choice of floor covering; it is not necessary to blend the coloring to the other rooms. New pastel floor coverings in plain and floral tones offer endless opportunities for bedroom use and color need be considered only when selecting a pattern now that there is no longer any set method of dictating the type of pattern especially adaptable for bedroom use. Today, it is merely a matter of personal preference and good taste, the only requirement being that one keep in mind the general color scheme of the room.
In Colonial and Early American bedrooms, small hooked rugs add a note of color and decoration to the room. In modern bedrooms, scatter rugs in lovely pastel colors add a new, interesting note.
DRAPERIES: GLASS CURTAINS, VENETIAN BLINDS
In the bedroom today Venetian blinds serve to soften and control the light; draperies are used more or less for decorative purposes. The draperies may match the spread, pick-up the color tone of the rug, or repeat the color of the boudoir chair, chaise lounge, or the accent color used in the accessories. Venetian blinds may be used in a variety of colors with matching or contrasting tapes. In many instances, sheer curtains are used as draperies, crisscrossed and tied back in the manner of the formal drape. Usually light weight materials are used for bedroom draperies the material varying according to the type of room. In the more formal room satin and lightweight damask draperies are used. In the informal room printed draperies, crepes, voiles, or candlewick are used.
While glass curtains may be used with Venetian blinds, in many instances they are used instead of the blinds. They are made of net, voile, marquisette, muslin, organdie, or any sheer material. In color, they are white, off-white, or pastel. Preferably, they are made with double fullness of material, and hung either to the sill or the apron.
A popular item now being added to many bedrooms is the small dressing table with detachable skirt. The dressing tablet may be artistically placed in front of the window and the skirt made of the same material as the draperies. In this way the draperies serve as a frame for the dressing table and create a beautiful picture. In many instances where a customer is interested in investing in good bedding but cannot afford to buy the entire bedroom suite at one time, it may be well to suggest a box spring and mattress on legs with detachable headboard and a small dressing table with detachable skirt. An inexpensive chest of drawers completes the ensemble. Later the box spring and mattress can be used on the regular bed, the dressing table maintained or moved into the guest room, and the chest of drawers used in another part of the house.
"PLUS" SELLING OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUMMER
The bedroom offers excellent opportunities for the salesman to interest the customer in "summerizing" the house. During the summer, heavy spreads should be removed and light, washable spreads substituted. Cotton curtains, spreads, summer weight blankets, slip covers for chairs, scatter rugs to replace large rugs, new dressing table skirts, and summer pictures and other accessories are all within the realm of summer sales.
Although all the rooms in the house offer wonderful opportunities for summer sales, the bedroom best adapts itself to opportunities for this "plus" selling.
FURNITURE
Bedroom furniture usually is shown and sold in suites. As ordinarily displayed on the floor, closely crowded and with the bed in short rails, the pieces of a suite appear so much alike that an unimaginative customer will find them monotonous and uninteresting. This means that the successful salesman must find words to picture the suite as it will appear against the varied and colorful backgrounds and accents necessary to bring out its beauty and individuality.
There is no sound artistic or practical objection to the use of pieces from different suites in the same room; provided, of course, that the resemblances in proportion, line, and coloring are sufficiently marked to ensure harmony. This is the only way in which antiques can be used, and it is no less effective with modern pieces. This point is particularly important in the sale of furniture for a child's room or a small guest room, which will not take a full suite in any case, but which will offer a valuable opportunity to sell broken lots. Stress the fact that use of unmatched but harmonious pieces is modern practice, that such pieces give interest and individuality to the room, and that ensemble grouping is as desirable in the bedroom as in the living room or sunroom.
THE BEDROOM SUITE
When a customer asks to see a bedroom suite, but gives no further hint as to her preferences, several questions enter your mind immediately:
How many pieces can she use?
What wood, finish, style, and type of design is she likely to prefer?
Has she been looking at furniture elsewhere?
How much can or will she pay?
Photograph by Grignon.
Figure 44.—"Right and left" twin chests offer a practical new decorative treatment for contemporary rooms and may be used singly or combined into one unit. Included in this grouping are "right and left" twin beds using the same decorative treatment as the dressers. A turquoise green tinted transparent lacquer finish is used on this unusual suite to give an iridescent effect. The large "pouf" hassock is upholstered in turquoise blue pin-dot satin. The Axminster rug has large multi-colored cineraria flowers on a soft grey background.
Do not ask any of these questions at the outset. Normally, the first actual question is whether the furniture is for use in her own room. If the answer is "Yes," she is likely to acquaint you at once with her ideas, if she has any well-defined preferences. In the absence of such a lead, take her at once to an attractive suite, never at either extreme of your bedroom patterns.
The ideal starting point is an open-stock pattern, complete both with beds and with a full assortment of cases. If she is at all interested in this suite, probably she will tell you at once that she cannot use all the pieces. This naturally will lead to information as to the size and character of her room, its woodwork, walls, and floor covering, whether it is to be used by two people, and if so, whether she prefers a full-size bed or twin beds.
LIMIT NUMBER OF SUITES SHOWN
In any event try to gain a fairly clear idea of the room, particularly of its size and available wall spaces, before you show a second suite, as this information will help you to cut down selling time. In the absence of a voluntary and positive statement, do not ask how many pieces she wants. Once on record, she may stand pat; otherwise there always is the chance, even if she plans to use only three pieces, that she may buy a full suite, using the extra piece, if necessary, in another room in order to get a pattern that particularly pleases her.
Bedroom suites are so much alike in general appearance, and usually displayed in ways which so thoroughly rob them of individuality that it is dangerously easy to show too many. Baffled by the prolonged attempt to compare a multitude of minor details and to picture a long succession of suites in her own room, the average customer may be expected to become confused, lose confidence in her own judgment, and decide either to "think it over" or to "look further."
Partitions, dividers, and model rooms speed up the sale of bedroom furniture because they make it possible to preserve a more marked appearance of individuality among the suites thus separated. They serve also to confine the buyer's attention to the suite under consideration, and to reduce the likelihood of confusion and indecision by enabling the salesman to show only such suites as promise to be acceptable. For the same reasons the box method of arranging an open bedroom floor usually is to be preferred to arrangement in rows. The exact method of boxing must be determined by the location of floor columns and the number of pieces shown in a suite.
BUYERS DO NOT WANT TO SEE ENTIRE STOCK
It is important to limit the number of suites shown to the minimum necessary to effect a sale. Obviously, this is possible only in the degree that we learn enough about the buyer's tastes and the details of her room in the earlier stages of a sale to keep away from all unsuitable merchandise. Most women do not care even to look at unsuitable merchandise. They want to see the right thing, measured in terms of fitness for their own purposes and use.
The woman who shops for a dress, hat, or coat in a modern store neither expects nor desires to see the entire stock or any considerable part of it. She is comfortably seated in a well-lighted room which contains little, if any, exposed merchandise. The salesperson, after a quick mental appraisal, asks a few leading questions, and brings from the stockroom one, two, or possibly three models, carefully chosen on the basis of suitability, size, and style. If these are rejected they are removed, and a second small selection brought out. Unsuitable merchandise is not seen by the customer, and the possibility of confusion and indecision thus is reduced to the minimum.
SEE ACTUAL ROOM, IF POSSIBLE
In important bedroom sales which are worked up in advance of the customer's visit to the store for the purpose of actually making selections, it is important for the salesman to see the room to be furnished if possible, or in any event to secure measurements of the floor and wall spaces. This will eliminate guesswork and enable you to have the suite you want to sell set up under such conditions, and with such accessories and related merchandise as will bring out its individuality. Even in ordinary floor sales sometimes it is desirable to have a suite taken off the floor and set up in a situation where it can be seen to the best advantage.
STEPS IN SELLING A SUITE
As a means of summarizing certain factors which the salesman constantly must keep in mind, let us consider in order the steps to be taken in conducting a normal floor sale of a bedroom suite:
Meet the customer and take her to the suite with which you have decided to start the sale.—Throughout the entire interview, whether it results in an immediate sale or not, the customer must be aware of a degree of courtesy, alert and intelligent interest, patience, and attention to her comfort and convenience noticeably greater than she is accustomed to receive in other stores or from other salesmen. This is fundamental, and indispensable to successful salesmanship.
Show the first suite.—This suite is a "trial balloon." You do not expect to sell it, but rather to use it as a means of gaining necessary information about the customer's tastes and needs and the room to be furnished. "High light" the set in a few words, and then keep still and let her talk if she is willing to do so. Remember that you are not in position to instruct or even to advise her as to what she ought to buy. Your first duty is to find out as soon as possible what she wants to buy, or at least what she does not want to buy. In "high-lighting" this suite, avoid superlatives, and statements which may set up resistance. Do not, for example, proclaim that it is the latest, the buyer's favorite, or that you have a suite just like it in your own home. Make your introduction as interest-compelling as possible, but base it on some such noncontroversial subject as wood, style, or beauty of design. If she says nothing, turn to the case nearest her, comment on its wood and finish, run your finger lightly along it, and try to get her to do the same thing. Then say something interesting about the style, the design, or the manufacture. If there still are no signs of real interest, shift to the subject of her room, and begin to draw out the information you require. This should stir her interest. If not, move on to another suite which you know will look well in her room, and begin all over again.
Courtesy American Furniture Mart.
Figure 45.—Square upon square offers a new decorative theme in this Ipswich bedroom group. This suite combines the simplicity of contemporary design with Early American charm. The 4-row Axminster rug illustrated is in one of the new hooked designs.
Remember to point out any "gadgets" which the suite may have—special shirt drawers, locks, secret compartments, jewelry compartments, hidden box, stocking drawers, or drawer mirrors. All of these items offer "plus" selling features and many times are a factor in the sale of a suite. Be sure you have examined all of the suites on the floor thoroughly so that you have discovered all possible gadgets and opportunities for "plus" selling features.
Unless a customer shows such a keen and unusual interest as to warrant the belief that an immediate sale is possible, do not spend too much time with the first suite.
Courtesy of American Furniture Mart.
Figure 46.—An Early American bedroom grouping ideally suited to American homes. Simple in design, it is rich in American tradition, for it is the type of furniture first used in this country by the original settlers. Scaled to fit a medium-size room, the furniture is sturdy, practical, and decorative. Made of maple and finished in a rich, red-brown tone, a suite such as this is adaptable to rural or urban homes.
Show the second suite—a contrasting type.—Since all things gain in individuality and distinction by contrast with their opposites, usually it is good salesmanship to show a second suite sharply different from the first in appearance. If you watch some salespersons at work, you will see that they move slowly and regularly down one aisle and back the next, taking each suite as it comes, however closely it may resemble the one before it. At best, this method wastes time, while with many customers it results in weariness, confusion, and a well-defined suspicion that the salesperson is only an order-taker. In general, move toward the sale by longer but fewer jumps, and show contrasting types in the effort to heighten the buyer's interest, and to arrive as quickly as possible at an understanding of her likes. We know, for example, that some women prefer slender, delicately designed bedroom furniture, while others want bulk. It is quite impossible to judge their preferences from their appearance. Suites shown by the method of contrast will uncover this and similar preferences immediately, and thus speed up the sale.
Assuming that you pick the second and all succeeding suites in the light of increasing knowledge of the customer's tastes and the size and decorative character of her room, move forward slowly. Since you are not guessing blindly, but acting in the light of knowledge and taste, you must assume that the buyer will be interested in what you are showing, and take ample time to develop her interest.
Remember that the customer must like the appearance of any suite at which she is looking and regard it as well suited for her own use before she will consider buying it. Emphasis upon the beauty and distinction of wood, finish, and design, and skillful use of the "room-picture" method of presentation should precede emphasis upon construction and price. However, construction becomes an important factor when you reach the second suite just as soon as you see signs of acceptance for appearance and decorative fitness. If no such signs appear, move on to the third suite.
Show just as many additional suites as may be necessary but no more.
Close the sale, if and when possible.—There is no simple formula for closing a sale, and no set point in the sales interview at which to make the attempt. Notwithstanding a vast amount of theorizing on the subject, the only rule of practical value to the salesperson appears to be the old rule of experience and common sense: Try to close any sale the moment you have reason to believe the customer is ready to buy; not before, and not after.