by Editor’s note: Brian McCullough, product solutions manager at Missouri Furniture, Appliances & Mattresses, recently responded to Home News Now’s coverage regarding Hillsdale Furniture’s move to dismantle its independent rep network. He shares his view on why he believes this was a smart move.
I think this is a positive move for Hillsdale. Covid taught them many things about their business — the vulnerabilities they faced internally and the challenges with the factories they worked with, their customer base and their product development needs.
Change is always met with criticism, but I feel they are making changes to try and strengthen their relationships and customer service all the way around. Having a sales team that is solely focused on their business and improved ordering processes will help them better maintain their current customer base while they develop new product and categories. This will also make them more important to the factories that supply them and improve their in-stock position.
More than likely, they are currently a limited category supplier to most of their customers. This should afford them the ability to work with and maintain their current customer base while they transition and grow to bigger and better things. I believe their transition is both calculated and well thought out.
As a current customer, we will continue to buy from them and support their vision of growth. I hope the majority of their current customer base feels the same and will continue to stick with them as they grow.
Big mistake letting all your sales reps go!!
Either top management did a horrible job or the reps were given poor direction with no inspiration to get the job done right. Customer service personnel are not meant to sell furniture. It’s as simple as that. Thomasville learned that lesson the hard way when they fired their entire sales force.