Hang around the furniture retail industry long enough, like Joe Milevsky and his staff at JRM Sales & Management, and you’re bound to see everything – the good, the bad and the, well, you know.
Like the retailer who invests in his business every day but has no clue how to produce a budget that creates positive cash flow. Or the store owner who is never sure what she should do with her best sellers – or what to do with the merchandise that sits on the showroom floor for months. Or the marketing director who invests month after month in advertising but has no way to measure if it’s working.
Any of this hit close to home? Relax. Milevsky and his staff at JRM Sales & Management aren’t here to judge. The Home Furnishings Association’s newest Solution Partner is here to help. JRM Sales & Management was founded 19 years ago – to help retailers get a better perspective on their businesses so they can thrive in today’s competitive retail environment.
Milevsky and his staff draw on decades of experience from the furniture industry. Before joining forces, JRM’s team worked in retail stores like Levitz, Haverty’s, Norwalk, Cantoni, Ethan Allen and La-Z-Boy.
Although JRM focuses on the uniqueness of all their clients, Milevsky says small retailers would be wrong to think their problems are unique. “It’s often the same problems we’ve dealt with before but perhaps on a different scale,” he says.
That’s where JRM’s expertise comes into play.
“There’s not a problem we have encountered with one of our clients that we haven’t already faced in our first life as retailers,” said Milevsky, who can boast that four of the last six HFA Retailers of the Year are JRM clients.
Different perspective
Milevsky says many retailers think they have one problem only to spend a couple of days with JRM to learn they have a completely different problem at hand. “We’ve had retailers tell us they need more traffic – if they had more traffic in their store they’d be just fine,” says Milevsky. “But what we often find is the traffic is not really the main issue. It’s just there’s no one in sales management able to help them to improve the performance of their sales team. The sales staff is often viewed as clerks rather than professional salespeople.”
Milevsky says clients send their business financials to JRM prior to their initial 100% guaranteed on-site Business Performance Analysis. JRM then compares them to a vast array of similar retailers they have previously visited. This enables JRM to be fully prepared for that initial visit.
“That is fine, but it’s not my main focus,” he says. “I’m looking long term for them – not just a quick fix. The really successful retailers aren’t looking for quick fixes. They want successful practices they can put in place. Practices that can be measured and adjusted on the fly so that they’re set up for the long term. That’s where the greatest value of a JRM relationship exists.”
HFA members interested in JRM Sales & Management can receive a special rebate after using the firm’s post-analysis services. For more information, contact your member specialist at 800-422-3778.
