My current couch is falling apart, piece by piece. It’s an Ikea futon couch and it was never meant to be my main couch but for some unknown reason (laziness) it has been in the living room for far too long, breaking down both itself and anyone’s back who sits on it for too long. God help you if you tried to sleep on it!
So my wife and I headed out today couch/sofa-shopping. We didn’t find what we were looking for at the Urban Brick so we headed down to Leon’s which we remembered spotting when we were on a tour of the awesome SteamWhistle Brewery a while back (that could be another post…) down by the Rogers Centre. Anyway, we walked in and started sitting down on couches. We put down our shopping bags and took off our winter coats and couch-surfed a while, hmming and hawing. I asked a lady a question regarding pull-out couches and she handed me off to Mike, who asked my name, introduced himself with eye contact, a good handshake and a smile. I like this guy already. The fact that he is well-dressed in not only nice clothes but ones that fit him properly gets him bonus marks on personal presentation. Anyway Mike pulls out a couch and leaves me to discuss with my wife.
A short time later we walk to him and he asks what I think, and I say I think that the sofa-couch is a bad idea! He laughs and we agree that a proper couch would feel better. I tell him we need to look around and try out some couches and he offers to put our bags and jackets behind the desk. His stock is rising…
He leaves us alone for the appropriate amount of time (a good sales person KNOWS when that is…) and by the time he re-appears we are down to 2 possibilities. Mike assures me both choices are good and customer-favourites, i.e. big sellers. I’m not sure that’s true, but it’s okay, because a good sales rep is supposed to reassure the customer that they have made an excellent choice, no matter what they pick. I fish for a discount which is politely ignored. I like that confidence. He is not pushy and not needy. It makes me want to spend money because I believe high-quality stores do not need to discount all the time.
Anyway we decide on a couch that is nicknamed “Fiona”, which I think looks strong and elegant but practical, and my wife agreed, but I think it also had something to do with the Shrek movies we recently watched together that I got her for Christmas!
The couch felt good and was within our budget, and Mike was a confident but calm and non-pushy salesman who understood genuine rapport-building, and so what the hey, we even ordered the upsell Scotchguard!
Our new couch is to be delivered Saturday, and we can hardly wait. Tonight as my wife and I sat on our current Ikea futon couch I cursed it several times and told it that it’s time was up and it had to leave. I don’t care if I hurt it’s feelings, because everyday it hurts my back!
Sayonara Futon! Hello Fiona! (Well, at least on Saturday I can say that…assuming there are no problems with delivery!)