Its here again, a mattress salesperson’s favorite time of the year – Summer Mattress Selling Season! Where mattress sales abound and customers, like a cross between zombies and lemmings, flock to their local mattress shop to buy their new mattress.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about Memorial Day mattress sales.

1. Will you save the most money by waiting until Memorial Day. – Unfortunately, this is a common misconception. Most retailers have more aggressive pricing the weeks leading up to the final weekend. Since the holiday falls on the final weekend, most salespeople are out of time to get product shipped by then. This impacts their budget/goal, and their June paycheck. You are likely to save more by heading to the store before the holiday weekend. Plus, you will avoid the crowds, get better service, and can enjoy the holiday with your family.

A brand new European luxury sedan pulls up and a very well dressed lady emerges with her son. She is dressed in designer fashions head-to-toe and is using a $200 phone. Her teenager is sporting an outfit along with name brand shoes that is easily $250+ at retail, even on sale. The mobile service for her phone and her son’s matching phone (and I would assume husband and other siblings) could easily be a couple of hundred. That 60″ HD TV they just bought probably cost them $2,000 and of course another couple of hundred a month for satellite and Internet services for their home.

Well that didn’t take long. Sealy greatly improved their line and now Simmons is releasing their new mattresses for 2011. In a similar fashion, I thought Simmons got lazy with their mattresses. You had two supports – hard and soft. There were no handles and no edge support until you were at the World Class level. As a salesperson, and even a customer, you got the feeling that they really didn’t care.

Whether it was a reaction to Sealy, or just a long overdue wake up call, Simmons is back with a vengeance. Foam encasemnt starting at the Beautyrest Classic level and even handles on several models. Why is this so important? If you have ever tried to move or reposition a Simmons mattress, those buggers are heavy.

I want a firm pillow top mattress!

Unfortunately, the combination of those four words cause way too much confusion in mattress stores. The reason for this is that the mattress customer and salesperson are not talking the same language. Most likely when a customer comes in asking for a “firm pillow top mattress,” they are reacting to a bad experience, either poor alignment or excessive body impressions in their current mattress.

When the average salesperson hears “firm pillow top mattress,” they probably don’t even hear the word “firm.” Instead, they immediately begin showing the customer pillow top mattresses that they claim are firm, but will cause the very same issues that brought the customer in there in the first place.

Improving the Mattress Shopping Experience

1. Get rid of the Discounters – For some reason it seems that everyone who once sold used cars suddenly decided to enter the mattress industry years ago. Nothing is more frustrating to consumers than having to “haggle” over mattress prices. Thankfully the Internet, and more competition is slowly making this antiquated selling process go the way of the dodo. A trained monkey could discount. There are much more important things to helping someone get a good night’s sleep than “taking another $100 off that set, if you buy right now.” Consumers are getting smarter and realizing that if the retailer can suddenly cut the price in half, then just maybe they were already priced too high. And most likely, you will never, ever get a good value in a place that only emphasizes discounting an inflated price.

My Four Favorite Stupid Sales Promotions

Mix & Match – This is the most bogus promotion ever. First off, unless you are a company made up of morons, you will never have a bunch of leftover boxes to sell. Second, Federal Law now prevents retailers from selling mixed sets because they are tested as matched sets for fire safety. When I worked the floor during one of these promotions I refused to mix. I simply gave customers a matched set for the advertised mix & match sales price. That is always the right and ethical thing to do. When a mix & match promotion is on, usually you are getting a lower quality box. It may be nearly as good, but the cost savings (if any at all) has to come from somewhere. Even if it is structurally comparable to the matching box, why would you want something that looks different? That is just stupid, especially if you can go to the next store and get a comparable or better MATCHED SET for the same or less!