A WHITE PAPER BY LARRY MULLINS.COPYRIGHT 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Nothing HappensUntil Something

is SoldAn important message to independent

home furnishings stores

LARRY MULLINS

Nothing Happens Until Something is Sold.

There are several fabulous buying groups out there.

Never, in the history of home furnishings, have

independent stores been able to offer such

remarkable values to their customers.

But the bottleneck is not buying.

The bottleneck is selling.

Nothing happens until something is sold.

Most independent home furnishings stores have an abundance

of stock. They have important retail skills in display and they

know how to sell. What they really need is traffic—someone to

sell to. Only then are they able to engage full use of their retail

powers to convert that traffic into cash flow and profit.

However, advertising does not work the way

it once did. People do not seem to be paying

attention. Especially when the Big Boxes

flood the market every week with full color

furniture flyers. They pretty much look alike

and sound alike, loaded with price-item deals and long-term

credit offers. However, by sheer volume they work. The first

rule is, don’t try to copy or compete with them. You will be out-

gunned. And, you have your own unique hometown story to tell.

My name is Larry Mullins. What I do is create

turn-key advertising programs for independent

home furnishings dealers. These programs

deliver messages that are proven to attract

record numbers of qualified buyers. I have done

this for countless stores, and I can do it for yours.

How can I promise this? What is my secret?

The simple truth is that, even in a recession, people are buying

furniture and mattress sets in your market. True, these prospective

clients are harder to reach. They are no longer paying much

attention to tired, sound-alike messages that are intrusive and

continuously claim to offer lower prices than everyone else.

But here is an ultimate truth you can take to the bank:

There is a huge number of qualifiedbuyers in your market area who

are silently begging for a home furnishings dealer they can trust.

These prospects would love to discover an empathetic

team of home furnishings experts who understand that

women want to create homes of extraordinary comfort and

beauty for their family to enjoy, and their friends to admire.

If this describes your organization, I can help you.

For the last thirty-five years I have created cost-effective

furniture advertising. First, I worked on the front lines as a

marketing expert for some of the largest and most successful

independents. Then, twenty years ago, I founded my own

company, UltraSales, Inc.

Yourprospects arenot lookingfor someonewho wants tosell them asofa or a

mattress setat a hot price.

Rather, theyare lookingfor someone

who willstrive to

help themimprove

their lives.

My business comes mostly from referrals by happy clients.

Most of these clients are independent furniture stores of all

sizes. A few are relatively independent Big Box franchise

stores.

If you have an ample inventory, reasonably competent

salespeople, and a sound reputation, I have a game-changing

program for you. And I do what I do for a small fraction of

what an on-site hired gun charges. (Most on-site companies

charge eight or nine percent of your volume plus per diem

expenses. I charge a two percent total fee. My company is

founded on integrity and trust, not contracts with tiny print.)

Regardless, the last thing you need is to bring in strangers to

take over your store and run cookie-cutter ads that scream

low prices.

How can I prove that I have a game-changing marketing program

for your store?

A few testimonials follow. My hope is they will help convince you to letme serve you and add your story to the list.

1. A THREE-DAY “FAST CASH”

STOCK REDUCTION.

“A Hell of a Sale! The Largest VolumeWeekend in Our History!”

Jeff Dralle, Co-Owner,Dralle’s Department Store, (641) 816-4158

DATE: FEBRUARY 15 - 18, 2013 PLACE: GREENE, IOWA

(Population 1,133)MEDIA COST: UNDER 6%

Larry’s Comment: Some of my clients have suggested thatthey would like a short term Larry Mullins event for a flat fee. JeffDralle agreed to test this sale. The promotion I created for himwas a remarkable success, Jeff reported a month’sbusiness in one weekend. You will, like Jeff, have exclusiverights to any Larry Mullins events in your market area if you addone to your arsenal of High-Impact strategies. As you know, asingle killer weekend can often rescue a flagging month.

2. A THREE-WEEK STOCK REDUCTION.

“Dear Larry and Staff, Thank you for providing us with a very successful salesevent. It exceeded our expectations greatly. Larry we are soappreciative that in this day of seventy, eighty, ninety andone hundred twenty percent off sales, you respected theintegrity of our organization and provided a very legitimatesavings event. You proved to us that your company is a veryreputable and honest one. We appreciate that. You can beassured Larry, we will be contacting you with next year’sadvertising schedule to work with you on another program.Our sincere thanks.”

Chuck and Nancy Kramer,I. Keating Furniture World,

Minot, Bismarck, Dickinson, and Williston, North Dakota.

3. FRANCHISES:HOW TO STAND OUT

FROM THE “LOOK-ALIKE”BIG BOX CROWD.

“For seventeen years I have owned a franchise location with atop 100 furniture chain. Our corporate partner, Larry Mullins,has an industry-leading Marketing and Advertising company,UltraSales. Being part of a 120-store family makes it difficult toput a locally ‘owned and operated’ stamp on our store. I havebeen authorized to use Larry’s custom High Impact events onceor twice a year. Larry’s expertise and unique style has madeeach and every event a great success. With Larry’s programswe have been able to measurably increase sales during whatare typically slower months without sacrificing margins … PLUSreinforce the critical fact that our store is locally owned andoperated … ‘Your Friends and Neighbors with National BuyingPower.’ Larry Mullins can assist you in running a verysuccessful High Impact event … just follow all the instructions,use his turn-key materials, and you will have a great sale.”

PAUL BARBARO, President,Slumberland Furniture of Willmar, MN

4. EXITING WITHGRACE, DIGNITY, andLOTS MORE MONEY.

“Larry’s time-tested plan for going out of business is detailed & laidout so there is no question what the next step is or when it willtake place. He got to know us and our business and I amconvinced that there is no one in the industry that could tell ourstory to our customers the way he has. With nervous anticipationwe prepared for the opening day and when it came we wereabsolutely blown away! For the first three days customerspoured into our store and sales were beyond our wildestexpectations! I am writing this on the fourth day of the saleand already our 7000 square foot store in a rural town of 1200people has grossed over $90,000. Thanks, Larry, for all you’vedone for us and for our business—it’s been a great ride!”

Dave & Alisha Riemenschneider,Kingsley Home Furnishings, Kingsley, IA

●● LARRY’S COMMENT: Dave and Alisha continued their blistering salespace. When their eight-week sale ended on Thursday, May 8, 2012, theyhad achieved sales of $573,000, with an advertising cost of under 5%. Tomy knowledge, this is the largest sustained volume of home furnishingsper square foot recorded in recent history.

5. TURNING A DIFFICULTCHALLENGE INTO ABIG MONEY-MAKER.

“This is the second time we have worked with Larry on a promotion. Oursis an out of the ordinary challenge as we merchandise our two storesseparately with different merchandise and different operating methods.Larry put them both together and made it work…wow did it work! Thankyou Larry Mullins and UltraSales for a record setting promotion. Turning adifficult warehouse move into an exciting and rewarding venture is quite achallenge. Larry has a rare understanding of what it takes to makeadvertising effective and do it in ways that build our stores as a “brand” inthe community. Larry spent the time and made the effort to learn aboutour business and get those facts into the ads…the best way we know toseparate us from the competition. This promotion pulled the most trafficwe’ve experienced to date—resulting in record-breaking sales. Our twostores enjoyed over 10,000 customers through our doors in a four-weekperiod. We didn’t have a counter at the warehouse, but traffic was superthere too.

“We are also pleased to say that we stayed on budget. Larry usedthe opposite of current wisdom: which says that print advertising no longerworks well. This is true unless you have the Larry Mullins touch. Larry hasan organized way to help us do a better job of getting ready and stayingfocused throughout the promotion. Perhaps our biggest challenge waskeeping our sales force excited, as they tended to get over-tired…a high-class problem. We can live with problems like this.”

Bob & Jeff Winter

Discovery Furniture & RoomMaker Furniture, Topeka, Kansas

6. A BETTER WAY:TAKE CHARGE AND RETIRE WITH WHAT YOU DESERVE.

“I had used a liquidator years ago and learned thatthey were the only people making money from thesale. So, when I decided to retire this year I turnedto UltraSales and Larry Mullins, the same folks

who helped me with a couple of very successfulhigh impact sales. The difference was that this time I

needed to get rid of every piece of furniture and accessory and Ineeded to pay creditors. My goal was to do 400% of my monthlyaverage and at a high profit margin. Without invading our store,UltraSales helped plan the event in detail, from advertising toname tags and voicemail, created all of the advertising while Ifocused on my staff, the sales floor and delivery. UltraSaleshandled production of the window signs, price tag art, radio spots,newspaper ads, and direct mail pieces, even name tag art. Larrycoached me with the media buying saving me a great deal. Larrywas always as close as my phone, when I needed him. I wasamazed that we had a higher profit margin than prior to the salewithout using item-price advertising! The bottom line is I reachedmy goals and I paid UltraSales a fraction of their value to me.”

MARTIN CATES

Retired Owner, My Favorite Store,Rochester Hills, Michigan

“After 30 years in the music business, I found myself looking for a newventure. I discovered a small leather furniture store in St. AugustineFlorida, just south of my home in Jacksonville. I immediately started myfurniture research, and found a series of articles written by Larry Mullinson the web at www.furninfo.com. They were common sense, insightfularticles about the furniture business. After barely a week of trainingwith the previous owner, I found myself all alone one Sunday. I don’tmind telling you that I was praying for guidance. In comes a pleasantcouple shopping for furniture. When I learned the couple I was workingwith was Larry and Joan Mullins, I explained to Larry that I had beenreading his articles and had been using them to learn about my newindustry. I told him that I wanted to work with him immediately. Sincethen we’ve done several promotions together, with each having greatersuccess than the previous one. As I write this, we are headed for thefourth record month in a row! Larry’s promotions are well planned withevery detail worked out in advance. His fees are reasonable, and Iespecially like the fact that Larry won’t allow me to fail. He makes surethat I do my part and monitors the progress. An advisor of Larry’scaliber, one who is moral and ethical as well as knowledgeable andexperienced, has been invaluable to me.”

Jeff Cohen,Owner, Leather by Design, St. Augustine, FL

7. WHY NOT CONSULT WITH THE BEST IN THE FURNITURE INDUSTRY

8. IF YOU ENCOUNTER AN EMERGENCYSITUATION AND THINK YOU HAVE TRIED

“EVERYTHING,” YOU HAVEN’T.

“Smoke from the forest fires here in Montana had been in theair for over four weeks and there was no end in sight.Customers were limited and new inventory was still arriving.I had thought about “high impact” sales, but after severalover the past year the results were not what they use to be.

I was talking with a vendor and he suggested I call LarryMullins from Ultrasales, as he was very successful in helping

business in difficult situations. I told him he was probably likemost promoters and I doubted he could help. I didn’t call Larry. The

next day Larry called me instead! He told me his advertising did not use much“price and item” efforts like most promoters. Rather, he would use new, benefit-driven techniques that tell a captivating story and attract customers who wouldcome to my rescue. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and I did! Hewas right!

Larry told a story in his ads that is credible and compelling. He told a story ofthe fire and our plight, and despite all the smoke in the Bitterroot Valleythroughout September and October the customers just kept coming, some evenwore masks to get to the store! While the fires were still burning we wereable, with Larry’s guidance, to do almost three months of business in eightweeks……and we didn’t use “price and item” once, which helped us getbetter margins!

After 20 years of promoting, I thought I had seen and done it all. It’s great tobe wrong once in awhile.”

Mark Brintnall,

Bitterroot Furniture, Hamilton, Montana

“Larry Mullins has been a contributing editor for

Furniture World Magazine for over 15 years. He

writes primarily about advertising principles,

advertising implementation, branding and

organizational leadership. Larry is a talented writer,

a tireless researcher and a life-long learner. He is a

keen observer of human behavior and one of the

most principled, hardworking, reliable, and committed

people I know. I hold him in the highest regard.

Anyone wanting more information on Larry can call

me at 914-235-3095.”

Russell Bienenstock

Russell Bienenstock is Editor-in-Chief of Furniture World Magazine (www.furninfo.com),

founded in 1870.

What others have done, you can do.I will provide you with a game-changing program for

two percent of gross sales, or I will work out a reasonableflat fee arrangement if you prefer.

If you see something you like in this menu, your first actionstep is to call me direct at (904) 794-9212 for a free, no

obligation consultation.Or Email me at larry@larrymullins.com .

If you don’t see anything that exactly fits your needs,contact me and I will create a custom program just for you.

Your options are almost unlimited.I offer many other event possibilities of all kinds ...

Anniversary Sales, Moving Sales, Conversion Sales,Remodeling Sales, and on and on.

LARRY MULLINSPresident, UltraSales, Inc.

THE ULTRASALES PROMISE:

SATISFACTIONIn Service. In Cost. In Quality.

In Every Way. No Ifs. No Ands. No Buts.No Small Print Contracts.

The Larry Mullins UltraSales Team

Do not underestimate the potential of yourorganization. Your vision for it could

actualize possibilities that may not yet berecognized by your associates.

Define, articulate, and lift up for them themost inspiring vision you can imagine.

LARRY MULLINS

Do not underestimate the potential of yourorganization. Your vision for it could

actualize possibilities that may not yet berecognized by your associates.

Define, articulate, and lift up for them themost inspiring vision you can imagine.

LARRY MULLINS