What differentiates your business?

This common and sometimes perplexing question is arguably one of the most important for a retailer to prioritize and answer — especially an Independent retailer. Not only are you competing against Big Box chains and other local businesses in your categories, but you also face the challenge of increasingly value-conscious consumers who are cautious about where they spend their money.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR BUSINESS, AND WHY SHOULD CUSTOMERS CHOOSE YOU?

Matt Burkholder, VP of Martin Appliance offers a unique answer to this question: Training and education.

Located in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, Martin Appliance celebrated its 50th year in business in 2023, with six stores and approximately 375 employees. But back in 1973, Martin Appliance began as a service business with just one employee — founder Dennis Martin. When it came time for Dennis to hire a second employee, Matt considers it a “blessing” that his dad was that employee.

As early as two years old, Matt began tagging along with his dad on jobs and claims that appliances have “just always been in [his] blood.” Eventually he earned an official position with Martin Appliance — first on the appliance installation team, then sales and sales management, before accepting the role as vice president last year. What started as a childhood hobby and passion turned into a career.

And throughout his career, Matt has experienced, first-hand, the value of training and education. In fact, these initiatives are foundational to the culture and success of Martin Appliances, to the extent that they are included in the company’s core values under both team building and personal and professional development.

WHAT DOES MARTIN APPLIANCE TRAINING PROGRAM LOOK LIKE?

Referred to as “The Martin Way” by Matt, the program involves four to six months — yes, months! — of training and education in soft skills, technical skills, on-the job observation and hands-on learning. While it is certainly a commitment, it is, as Matt put it, “Time invested, not time spent.”

Rather than take a shortcut with one or two weeks of training and a reliance on YouTube videos, “The Martin Way” takes a quality and quantity approach that incorporates videos produced by NMG’s own Nationwide Learning Academy (NLA). New Martin employees begin watching videos from the NLA library during week two of training to develop fundamental knowledge around products and vendors that progresses throughout the training journey. Even seasoned Martin employees take advantage of newly released NLA videos to stay up to date on the latest products and technologies, because continuing education is just as crucial to providing top-tier service.

This is what differentiates Martin from its competitors. Employees are adequately equipped to serve customers with friendliness, service their appliances with confidence and build trust and rapport in the process, which in turn improves customer loyalty. Matt even noted that some customers ask for specific technicians by name.

Intentional investment in training also earns another type of loyalty — employee retention. Because Martin approaches this educational process as an opportunity to build a culture of camaraderie and community, employee buy-in is high. This time also gives Matt and the management team a chance to evaluate and nurture individual employees’ “God-given strengths.” And employees are treated as equals, with peer-to-peer coaching and accountability encouraged right along with good-natured ribbing and friendly competition. Overall, the team is inspired to find fun in the everyday, whether that is connecting over coffee each morning or sharing stories from the road at the end of the day.

WHEN ASKED WHY TRAINING IS IMPORTANT, MATT OFFERED SEVERAL KEY INSIGHTS.

First, Martin is not selling appliances, they are meeting people’s needs, especially in times of duress when replacing or repairing an appliance is an unpleasant experience.

Second, every person’s time is valuable, so Martin focuses on respecting customers’ time, whether that be with installation or repairs. Success looks like providing timely service and making a bad time good. And proper training makes all the difference.

This fits well with another Martin core value — serving and building relationships — which extends not only to customers and employees, but to competitors as well. Given the goal of differentiation, it may seem counterintuitive to be on friendly terms with competing businesses, yet Martin Appliance has found relationships with competitors to be a positive experience.

After recently losing one of their stores due to a fire, Matt and team received calls from other local appliance store owners, checking in and asking if they needed help. And on any given day, when one business has a last-minute need — say, for an out-of-stock part — another will step in and fulfill the need. The goal is service, no matter the recipient.

FUTURE TRAINING PLANS

In Matt’s own words, “2024 feels like 2019.” With inventory back to pre-pandemic levels and customers tightening their budgets due to inflation, knowing how to sell is crucial and that means getting back to the basics. Martin training program does just that, though Matt acknowledged a desire to shorten the four-to six-month training schedule — without sacrificing the quality of the program. One idea the team hopes to implement in the future is building a lab or classroom setting to create scenarios that mimic what Martin service employees would encounter out in the fi eld. The goal would be to offer more targeted hands-on training to help shorten the overall timeline.

In the meantime, Martin Appliance plans to continue leading by example when it comes to service in the appliance industry.

Matt’s final words for others in the business?

One definition of a professional “is somebody that makes a difficult task look easy. And selling or just meeting a customer’s needs is a difficult task. But with the proper training, you can make it look easy and then it’s an easier purchasing process for the customer… it really lessens the stress on everybody involved in the process when you’re well-trained.”

And lastly, “if training is on somebody’s to-do list, hopefully 2024 is the time where they tackle it and put a system in place and get it done, because it’s a difference-maker.”

Even if you need to start small, just start.