The Kitchen Sales Coach Issue #25 - "Your Game Plan for Success"
By Robert Foltz, CKD
When I walk my dog at night, I enjoy looking through the brightly lit windows of my neighborhood. There’s a six-bedroom house a block from the beach that’s huge, with a giant TV and some black leather sofas. Yet it’s plain white inside and out. The walls have little or no art, the furniture is sparse, and there’s almost no landscaping. It looks incongruent.
Here’s a multi-million dollar house on the beach that is, as they say in Texas, "all hat and no cattle." Is your business like this? Does your showroom have beautiful displays, great signage, and marketing materials, yet your business systems are a struggle? The kitchen business is first and foremost a people business. Your business needs systems to handle the people who work for you and the people you serve so that you, the business owner, can free yourself to expand your business.
A great showroom is only half the package—the same way a great house with no decor is only half the package. Great systems make for great service, great sales, and great referrals. Believe me, prospects are walking into your showroom everyday with cash and they’re paying attention to the small details that they see and hear.
In this issue, I’m going to talk about training, systems, and how to shore up your business by hanging some art on the walls of your showroom!
Are You Working in the Business or on Your Business?
Are your sales down? Is it the economy or is it something else? Do you have a beautiful showroom with no one coming in the door? When they do, do they want to write you a check or are they frustrated, confused, or worried?
Take a real look at your business. Print out your sales numbers for the last 12 months and compare them with the previous 12. Look at your margins. Are they up or down? Are you cutting prices just to stay in business or are you making up for lower volume with increased profit margins? Nationwide, Richelieu sales were up 12 percent in September. Keeping hardware, plumbing, and lighting sales in house is one of the easiest ways to direct more of your customers' money to your bottom line instead of to someone else’s.
Next, look at how you’re spending your time. Are you working more than 50 hours a week? Are you working nights and weekends? Are you measuring every job, meeting every customer, designing every kitchen, supervising every installation, and solving every problem? If you’re the cog in your business, then you’re the clog in your business!
An effective business system will enable you to take more time off and make more money. Great business systems make it easy for you to manage multiple showrooms and sell your business when you’re ready to retire.
Systems are the tools and procedures that allow the same quality of service and pricing for each customer. Whether the prospect comes in with $10,000 or $250,000, systems enable your staff to handle the situation in exactly the same manner. Whether you have one showroom or ten, systems ensure that customers have the same experience no matter when or where they encounter your business. Everything from the preliminary estimate and design to the final proposal and contract are completed precisely the same way.
Every dealership should have a system for quickly estimating a good preliminary investment parameter for a prospect. Design drawings should be systemized so that anyone in your organization is able to read and present them to contractors, allowing your customer to be served with well organized, attractive, and descriptive project parameters. Contracts, change orders, collections, and job management procedures should be so consistent that any member of the team can pick up the job file and know exactly what needs to be completed next or answer a question for the client if the project manager is away from the office. Good systems will ensure that you have only the employees you need and that every one of them is giving you value for their time. Systems should be in place for handling referrals, paying commissions, handling overtime, communicating with employees and contractors, and placing new product lines.
Wouldn't you like your business to have these kinds of systems? It’s easier than you think and doesn’t take very long. I recently changed the commission system for one dealership. The owner wrote me saying he has increased his margins by 50 percent and everyone who works for him is making more money, too. The benefit has paid for the cost my services more than 100 times over (perhaps my fee was too low).
Whomever you use to help you through this process, pick someone who is dispassionate about your business and can look at it critically. Members of the SEN Design Group (www.sendesign.com) have access to a school and coach that provides them this information. In addition, independent consultants, coaches, and trainers like me should be an asset to your business so that you can create the systems that will help you be prosperous!
Look Outside for Profits
The Kitchen Sales Coach is focused on bringing value and fresh ideas to the kitchen and bath retailer. Outdoor kitchens are my newest tool for improving your profits and increasing customer loyalty. Now, I know what you’re saying: "Outdoor kitchens! Are you kidding me, Robert? I’m having trouble selling INDOOR Kitchens!"
All I ask is that you open your mind, stop whining, and take three to four hours of your time. It will be profitable time—not be wasted time!
In your market area, go to any patio or outdoor grill business to learn the category by browsing like a consumer. See what’s selling in your area and how much businesses are charging. This should take about one to two hours of your time including the review of the notes you’ve written.
Next, take the average home of your customers and develop three ‘canned’ designs; a three-cabinet area, a five-cabinet area with a refrigerator or sink area, and a larger seven- to nine-cabinet area. Obviously, use your market area and typical house to determine the layouts. Have your interns or junior designers do the legwork for the project.
Since your expertise is cabinetry, price out the stainless steel cabinets (Danver is one of the best) and plastic cabinetry (In & Out Cabinetry offers high quality products). Then have a stucco professional price out an island.
Congratulations, you now you have all the information you need to market your new outdoor kitchen expertise to your existing customers.
Now is the time to find additional sources of revenue and be more value added to your clients. The patio and grill specialists you spoke with may become your new allies. Stop sending them your customers and use them as a resource for your business. This business is an extra source of revenue and is easily marketed to your customer base.
About Robert Foltz, CKD
Robert Foltz, CKD is experienced in all areas of the retail kitchen and bath business. As a manufacturers' representative, his experience and expertise can help improve your business. He also works as a sales trainer, consultant, and personal coach.
With 23 years of experience in every area of the kitchen business, he has personally experienced the most common mistakes all business owners and sales people make. He has used that experience to develop a formula that will help you avoid those common mistakes and to dramatically accelerate your success.
Robert can be reached at and his work can be seen on www.KitchenSalesCoach.com.