To expand our reach, and to gain an even broader perspective, Floor Trends has built a small army of editors, contributing writers and columnists who are eager to share what they are learning out in the field.

The flooring industry faces some tough headwinds. I've had the good fortune to speak with literally hundreds of flooring retailers and manufacturers over the course of my career, and I'd like to share with you what I've learned from them.

Today, any business that's in the business of growing sales and building customer relationships needs to be a media company, creating content that connects and skillfully uses the most modern methods to get that content in front of potential buyers.

Different personality types have different communication styles and diverse ways of making decisions and achieving results. When connecting with customers, personality styles need to be recognized and carefully regarded if we want to consistently make sales.

We know that our success depends solely on customer satisfaction. In order to achieve that goal, our philosophy is simple: recruit, communicate, and train better than any company in the industry.

We had an opportunity to talk with Tom Jennings, vice president of professional development, World Floor Covering Association, about some of the elements of good retail service.

In May, I had the opportunity to travel Ashville, N.Y., to be a guest of Tarkett's on the set of Military Makeover with Montel Williams.

Buyers often base their buying decisions on beliefs about emotional circumstances or preconceived conditions rather than logic or sound information. Sometimes closing is about meeting the customer's prophecies, beliefs and expectations.

Thanks to technology, modern life runs at an overall frenetic pace. Studies suggest we've become so accustomed to and expectant of technology's immediacy that we are exhibiting measurably decreasing levels of patience offline, as well as on.

Floor covering is a multi-billion-dollar industry that is underserved by technology, but one digital marketing company is aiming to leverage it to help flooring retailers compete with the likes of Home Depot, Lowe's, and Lumber Liquidators.