Auburn, Wash.—In an effort to make carpet salespeople instant yardage experts, The Yardage Bible has been launched. Designed to provide an easy-to-use, hand-carriable yardage readout, there is a great difference in what the Yardage Bible can do for salespeople in comparison to old yardage pamphlets of years gone by, noted Ron McNamara, the program’s owner. “The Yardage Bible allows the salesperson to look up the actual room size and compute square yardage, square feet and length needed off a 12- or 15-ft. wide roll. It computes the number of seams per room, seam replacement and provides a layout. Yardage Bible can be used to calculate which direction to run carpet most economically and for best placement of seams. It automatically compensates for seaming requirements. “Above all else,” he continued, “the Yardage Bible program has been made simple and easy-to-use.

Yardage is sometimes hard enough to figure for some people, why complicate the issue with a learning curve on a computer program? With this fact in mind, we design ed this program to make every one an instant program operator—no learning required. “You simply put in the room size in length and width boxes,” he explained. “That’s all you need to do. The program computes square yardage, square feet and length needed off a 12-ft., 13-ft.X6-in., or 15-ft. width roll instantly. It figures exact width in inches, number of seams, shows a diagram of the room, and even shows recommended seam layout. It even tells you how much padding you will need. It can be used for both carpet and vinyl. The Ez Yardage button allows you to put in the square feet and tells you the size you will need.”

One of the best things about the Yardage Bible Program is that it is affordable, noted McNamara—only $249. “This program allows you to move away from arithmetic and yardage issues to selling broadloom and having fun. It is also a ‘real world’ program in that it knows to place seams at least one foot from the wall. It knows that real world carpet widths are not 12-ft., but 11-ft.X10-in. Accurate Numbers “It gives the mechanic two inches on each seam to make the proper seam,” he explained. “It is not necessary to fudge by adding an extra couple of feet if you’re not sure. The program is accurate—all you have to do is measure accurately.” “Where it has been a tremendous benefit to us is,” said Bob Jones of Barrett’s Flooring in Brookings, S.D., “the speed of the sale. When a customer comes in she gives you an approximate room size, you can go to the program and immediately compute the footages for her and show her where the seam placement will be. The speed of it gets her confidence. At that point, all you have to do is give her the results.

It shows basic diagrams and it really helps the salesperson close the sale.” Paul Carter, who owns five stores in the Northwest including the JB Factory in Bellevue, Wash., agreed with Jones and said, “When a customer comes in says, ‘we have a house that is 920-sq.-ft. and we’re looking at this carpet which is 12 feet wide,’ we can punch the information into the program and it will tell us exactly how many yards we need. So, now we know for a 920 square feet job it actually takes 965 square feet to do the job correctly with 12-foot material. “Secondly,” he explained, “for my people who are fairly inexperienced, and I have three of them, they can put a room in the program and it will show a diagram of exactly how it will lay out, how many feet of material it will take and where the seams will go. They can print that out and show it to a customer—it takes about two seconds to do.

Concerning pattern match situations, if you give me a 36X18-sq.-ft. pattern match I have to think about it for a while. With the program, I can figure it out immediately. It tells me where the seams are going to be, how much waste I’m going to have and everything. “The program speeds up the sales process and it gives you a picture to show the customer and installer. You can take that to the mechanic and say, ‘this is what we showed the customer, this is the way we want to lay it out—lay it out exactly like this and we won’t have any problems.’ It makes life easier for everyone. I’m real pleased with it.”

Enhancing Credibility With a changing environment in the floor covering industry, noted McNamara, a computer program enhances store credibility and overall professional impression. The guy down the street that fumbles with paper, pencil and calculator, and the time it takes with unknown results, risks being left behind in a competitive landscape. “The Yardage Bible does not require support to run or training, digitizers, new computer systems, learning curves, scratching of heads, etc.,” concluded McNamara. “The program is based on the book, which is the best-selling one of its kind in North America. The Yardage Bible Program expands and enhances upon a proven winner.” For more information on the Yardage Bible computer program, call 253/ 333-8700. —Louis Iannaco