The Commercial Furniture Misconception
The biggest misconception in the furniture industry is that ordering a chair is a simple order. When I first started specifying office furniture, I learned from price books. I read them from front to back trying to absorb every little piece of information I could. When you flip through any price book you suddenly get overwhelmed with the options and the numbers on every page. I will always tell you that I am not a numbers person so having to read all these pages with numbers really shocked me. My entire college career I switched my major to avoid the hard math classes and the fields that required calculations and numbers.
The complex piece of a chair order is that every option and every adjustment take a part number to communicate to the factory how to build that super special, custom chair to your client’s needs. I was so surprised when one chair had a part number that was 12 letters and numbers long. The downside to so many part numbers and options available is that it’s so easy to mix up a number and get a completely different chair.
The complex piece of a chair order is that every option and every adjustment take a part number to communicate to the factory how to build that super special, custom chair to your client’s needs. I was so surprised when one chair had a part number that was 12 letters and numbers long. The downside to so many part numbers and options available is that it’s so easy to mix up a number and get a completely different chair.
Furniture Pricing
The next part of furniture that involves numbers are pricing, discounts, and margin. The amount of different pricing schedules, contracts, and discounts available to customers is really shocking. When I first learned how to price furniture at a dealership, I was always surprised at the list price of each piece. We all use list price as a base and then we take a percentage off (discount) to come to a final sell price. The percentage off list varies based on the customer’s access to contracts. Each contract available has its own pricing structure, discounts, and sometimes even a whole new set of list prices. Margin is the fun part of the numbers, because it decides how much profit the business is going to make. Margin is where you move the sale price of an item to where you need, to balance making a profit vs the client’s budget.
Numbers are such a huge part of the furniture industry that if you stick around long enough you will find that you can discount from the list in your head and get close! Part numbers will even start to stick with you, so you can quickly find the mobile pedestal or height adjustable desk in the catalogs. When I started in the furniture industry, I was terrified of all the numbers, but with practice and time I have gotten comfortable. I can appreciate the thought and intention behind the hundreds of pages of price lists. Most people in the furniture industry just want their customer to get that super special, one-of-a-kind chair.
Numbers are such a huge part of the furniture industry that if you stick around long enough you will find that you can discount from the list in your head and get close! Part numbers will even start to stick with you, so you can quickly find the mobile pedestal or height adjustable desk in the catalogs. When I started in the furniture industry, I was terrified of all the numbers, but with practice and time I have gotten comfortable. I can appreciate the thought and intention behind the hundreds of pages of price lists. Most people in the furniture industry just want their customer to get that super special, one-of-a-kind chair.
