Sleep is a daytime issue. That’s the main lesson sleep expert Kim Lemke taught attendees at a Las Vegas Market seminar hosted by the Specialty Sleep Association.
This is connected to the bedding industry in two ways. First, sleep sells, not mattresses. Second, a retailer can use scientific data to sling mattresses all day, but they need to practice what they preach.
Lemke, who specializes in sleep science and cognitive behavioral therapy, uses the concept of a sleep balloon to emphasize the importance of daytime activity to sleep.
Each day, we fill up our sleep balloon by doing things like exercising and getting direct sunlight. At night, we let the air out of this sleep balloon to recharge our bodies. But if we don’t fill up our balloon enough, that’s where sleep problems happen.
Therefore, the connection between good sleep and better sales is undeniable. Lemke offered several interesting statistics that retailers could take home to their teams to teach them about the importance of sleep.
Three statistics stood out in particular that can help illustrate the effects of sleep on sales.
- Sales professionals who sleep less than six hours a night see a 10% decrease in closing rates. That’s a significant decrease and one that can easily be avoided by explaining how each person needs 7-8 hours of sleep in order to function at their fullest the next day.
- Sleep-deprived workers cost U.S. companies $63 billion in lost productivity. Lack of sleep means a lack of productivity, which could also end up costing retailers more than just money.
- When a salesperson loses one hour of sleep per day for a week, they experience a 9% decrease in contract closures the next day.
Taking this concept even further, if employees know and understand the concept of the sleep balloon, this will make it easier to explain it to customers and help them understand that sleep is a daytime issue.
Once they understand that sleep is critical to performance and health, you can introduce the idea of the sleep balloon and how everything we do during the day affects our sleep at night.
The irony that mattress salespeople — who sell the concept of better sleep every day — are themselves not well rested is not lost on Lemke. If anything, it’s a better reason than ever to practice what you preach.
