Minneapolis—One of the things that makes the CarpetsPlus Color Tile buying group unique is, instead of holding two conventions a year, its members take turns hosting a “summit” at their store in lieu of one of the conferences. This year’s summit not only gave attendees an opportunity to visit area stores from two members—Jerry’s Floor Store in Spring Lake Park and CarpetPlus Color Tile in St. Louis Park—they were shown the group’s latest merchansiding system, Define Your Style. Jason Kyzar, the franchisor’s director of marketing and merchandising, said while the new offering is a complete soft surface selling system, it was designed to work in conjunction with the buying group’s Color Tile Design Gallery for hard surface products which was introduced last year.

The major components of the new system include three display racks featuring products from Shaw Industries, Mohawk Industries and The Dixie Group. Central to the program is a stand alone Information Center which uses visual aides to help a consumer narrow her choices by focusing on style, durability and color, thus making the sale easier. “It educates the consumer on carpet styling, product categories, fiber brands and performance levels,” Kyzar explained. “The kiosk is not only designed to help end users determine their specific needs, it helps the salesperson qualify customer needs and begin the sales process.” As for the individual displays, each features carpet sample boards that are color coded in six style categories. These are then arranged by performance level. “It makes sense to the consumer,” Kyzar noted, “and it makes it easier for the salesperson to explain the added features and benefits as price points increase.”

Recognizing that many of its members do more than just sell to residential consumers, Carpets-Plus used the summit to unveil a couple of prototype displays, including one for those involved in Main Street commercial jobs. Kevin Logue, CarpetsPlus’ COO, said the purpose for showing the unfinished units was to get member feedback, something the group highly values. “We use our advisory board members for feedback every time we think about launching a new program—their input is invaluable. This time we wanted everyone attending to have a chance to offer input.” Those in attendance appreciated the effort put forth by the corporate office in completing their selling system and integrating the CarpetsPlus and Color Tile entities into one, cohesive unit. “The new rack, styling and consumer focused displays are the best I’ve seen,” said Michael Peters of CarpetsPlus of Wisconsin.

“The new direction of CarpetsPlus Color Tile is really on track.” Chris Moore of Wyoming Windows in Lander, Wyo., added, “The new system is very forth coming, the racks are fine-tuned and I like the direction we are going as a group.” Even the vendors were giving praise to the merchandising units. “The complete system is very consumer-friendly, starting with the Information Center,” said John Godwin, executive vice president of residential sales and marketing for Shaw. “The consumer can view the various styles supported by a logical step-up by feature, benefits and price points. Overall, it should make the purchase process significantly easier for the consumer. It should also make the salesperson a more knowledgeable seller which will reduce the confusion in the carpet purchase process and will definitely create more sales.”

In between visiting member stores to learn how they operate and getting their first look at the Define Your Style selling system the summit also included a full slate of educational offerings, including Warren Tyler, author of Floor Covering News’ Salesmanship column. Thirty-year industry veteran Don Lynch of Lynch Carpets in Howell, Mich., summed it up best when he noted this was the first summit he had attended and it was more than worth it, in fact, “it was the most educational, useful and enjoyable of all the conferences we’ve been to.”