Sleep is nothing to mess with; most of us spend a third of our lives horizontally dreaming away the stresses of the day. Ron Trzcinski, owner of the Original Mattress Factory, wants to make sure we do that on one of his mattresses.
For 10 years, Trzcinski has honed his approach to selling “direct from the factory.” The Original Mattress Factory, on State Road, produces mattresses in about a dozen varieties and sells them at nine retail locations in Northeast Ohio. Outside of the Cleveland area, Trzcinski has eight other factories and more than 50 stores.
His approach to selling is simple. Anyone who has heard one of the company’s radio commercials has listened to Trzcinski himself explain it: The Original Mattress Factory sells mattresses comparable to those of the competition, but at a much lower price. The idea came to Trzcinski after he left Sealy Inc., the world’s largest mattress manufacturer.
He worked there for nearly two decades, the last 11 years as company president.
“I thought I could make a bed as good as the national brands, maybe even better,” he says. “If I could just look at the cost structure of where money goes into the bed, meaning the distribution channel, I could eliminate those steps and sell people products that are as good or better for a lot less money.”
How did Trzcinski convince customers his product was as good as the brand names with which they were familiar?
“We decided we would do it in three ways,” he says. “We would show the people how we make them, so they could see it, they could feel it, they could look at it and they would know it is good.”
The second step was comparing his product to the mattresses created by the big names in the industry. Trzcinski bought competitor products with the sole intent of slicing them open — a sort of mattress autopsy — and allowing his customers to compare for themselves.
“We were really having our product sitting next to a national brand product,” says Trzcinski. “The theory here was to take the mystery out of what is it that is so great about these national brands that I should pay more.”
The final step to sealing a customer’s trust was capitalizing on the experience Trzcinski and many members of his staff had in the industry. It was important to let customers know there was a history there and Trzcinski simply didn’t just one day decide to start making and selling mattresses.
“It was the third leg of the stool,” he says. “Yes, we make them and show them to you. Yes, we’ll cut open (competitor mattresses) and yes, we understand this business. We’re in it and we’ve been in it.”
It is both the quality and simplicity that Trzcinski brought to the Original Mattress Factory which he believes has fueled its success. People don’t want to get bogged down in the gauge of wire used in a bed or the type of springs, he explains. They just want comfort.
“People are looking for real simple things,” he says. “How do I get a good night’s sleep for a good price and what’s good for my back.”
