High Point Market Oct 2007

TRIP SUMMARY
Since we launched FurnishWEB in January 2006, I have enjoyed attending the High Point Furniture Market and this was no exception. I try to visit each of our customers and many potential customers. Although the week includes a ton of walking and my feet are aching by the time its over, it's always a good time.

Over the past three markets in High Point I've seen plenty of sour faces and the pervasive mood has been low. The talk has consisted of the Las Vegas market build-up, plants closing, lower sales volume, personnel turnover, and more competition for dwindling retail demand. Recently there has been a clear association identified between the housing market woes and slumping retail furniture sales as reported in the Raleigh News Observer. However, I experienced a definite mood upswing this market.

Many people (sales reps, sales vice presidents, presidents, buyers, marketing managers) told of a good market with good orders. They were smiling and seemed optimistic about the future. I guess they could be faking, but most of these people I've visited for several markets and, as an industry supplier, they have little reason to fool me. So I'm going with the positive vibes I felt during this market. I'm hopeful for a good winter season and the industry beginning its recovery in 2008. I expect many of them to sign up with the FurnishWEB family to bring more efficiency to the sales/customer service process ... they'll need it with the growth resulting from the market rebound.

WELCOME A.R.T. FURNITURE
FurnishWEB was again well received at the market. A press release was published in the Furniture Today's Wednesday magazine during market announcing that A.R.T. Furniture had launched their FurnishWEB extranet. Several people stopped me to let me know they read the article. How cool is that?

MOBILE FURNISHWEB BETA
We had more sales reps than we needed who were interested in beta-testing our newest FurnishWEB release, FurnishWEB Mobi. This is a slimmed down version of FurnishWEB designed to operate on the small web browsers available on many PDA phones (e.g. Blackberry, Treo). We've started with product data, inventory, and a photo. So far the response has been great. The sales reps think its great to pull out their cell phone and quickly get inventory status ... and the customer are very impressed. We're enthusiastic about FurnishWEB Mobi and looking forward to its imminent release .... stay tuned!

2006 Las Vegas Market Report

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

WE'RE BAAAAACK....
Our return trip was eerily reminiscent of the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but we made it... eventually. Four cancelled flights, 2 different airlines and 1 rental car later we arrived in Greensboro, NC, where our car was parked. Miraculously, our luggage made it too, albeit to Roanoke, VA. Somehow it was able to take a plane closer to our home than we were!

The return journey turned out to be a great metaphor for market: we covered a lot of territory, got inadequate and uncomfortable sleep, but ultimately accomplished our mission.

THE PLAY BY PLAY
We arrived at market on Sunday to meet with existing customers before the party officially began. I must say I was equally impressed and skeptical after touring Building B via freight elevators! The escalators were covered in scaffolding and the people moving elevators were (and remain?) MIA.
Training existing customers on Sunday was a great way to start our workweek. The reps at AAmerica were a happy, friendly group even before we showed them FurnishWEB. During the demo we got wonderful feedback from reps that were already using our product (who needs training anyway?), heard stories about reps that received new placements because they had instant access to product availability, and got requests to turn on more of the application : "We want orders, we want orders!" It was music to our ears. Or maybe that was thet opera singers on the 8th floor...

Monday's lesson is one I'd like to pass along: "Don't underestimate what people can accomplish." Unbelievably Building B was all put-together by Monday morning - no more scaffolding! Lesson #1 was quickly followed by Lesson #2: "Wear comfortable shoes!"

I had had visions of Vegas being this consolidated wonderland where we wouldn't have to do as much walking. In my dreams the Good Witch whispered sweetly in my ears, "Your not in High Point anymore."

But even when the escalators were swiftly moving throngs of people, there was no getting around the walking - over 2 million square feet of it! (Note to human resources: hire more sales people before the next building is completed!) Check out the market review published in Furniture Today.

Tuesday ended with the best meal of the week. Special thanks go to Jon Jorgenson of Intercon Furniture and his thoroughly charming and captivating significant other, Julia. Thanks also go out to our friends at Upward Technologies for nourishing our spirits.

Wednesday was a bit of a blur. Weather was expected back East and our flight for Thursday was preemptively cancelled, so we finished up our sales calls and began reflecting on our week during the journey home...

LEAVING LAS VEGAS
We left Vegas with several very encouraging leads that we will let you know more about after they sign on the dotted line. We remain extremely excited about the potential within the industry and about our product.

Thanks to all the reps who shared their love of FurnishWEB with us. My personal favorite was the one where a Pulaski Furniture sales rep was able to connect his Blackberry to his laptop and email hi-res photos to a dealer while parked at a rest area. Now that's my idea of selling!

Lastly to finish the orginal metaphor: we're looking into ways of sending our product out ahead of us via that mass transportation sytem in the sky called Marketing. And just as we felt after finding our luggage, we know that our new clients will be both relieved and excited when they see FurnishWEB waiting for them after a long and frustrating journey of faxing, phone calls and emails.

Wake up Dorothy, everything your looking for is already here!

• online order entry (won't you miss the slippery, curly FAX paper?)


• automatically emailed acknowledgements (fahgettaboutit!)


• online order status (no more phone tag!)


• powerful sales reporting (no programmers required!)


• online invoicing (show-me-the-money!)


• accesss to hi-res photos and the ability to share them (ooh-la-la!)


• online product availability (can you say 'SOLD!')

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