Driving high traffic to your showroom

 

BY PETER SCHOR
Showroom specialist

One of the many areas of expertise that I have developed over the last 20 years of my career is the consulting and coaching of bath, plumbing, kitchen and building-related manufacturers in the field of sales, marketing and public relations. In other words, helping them “take their products to the market in every aspect.”

In our bath/plumbing and dph type showrooms -- wholesalers, wholetailers and retailers -- there are many very unique and proven methods to reach your target market. These methods include advertising in a multitude of vehicles such as magazines, newspapers, cable tv, radio, the internet and much more. There are

many methods of driving traffic to your showrooms, such as holding special events for niche groups and consumers. The key to success with all advertising, marketing and public relations is learning exactly how to do it right from successful “models” and customizing it to your geography (area) and demographics (people),

One of today’s goals for many showrooms is becoming “The Branded Choice” of bath/plumbing and decorative hardware showrooms in your market place!  These “well branded” showrooms sell at much higher sales volumes and profit margins; the greatest challenges are providing impeccable service and keeping current on all matters to stay on top of the pack. Those of you that have followed my past showroom columns, such as “I Branding” and “Creating The Experience,” know that these are key ingredients for incredible success. Learn how to “I Brand” your showroom. You don’t have to be the size of Kohler to “Brand” your showroom in your marketplace.

Remember the “Creating the Experience” showroom columns: You can make a 10-cent cup of coffee at home, buy a 75-cent cup of coffee at Winchell’s or Dunkin Donuts or  a $1.00 coffee at Krispy Kreme; yet, people line up at 25,000 Starbucks stores for a $5.00 latte! Create the experience in your showroom. Value-added is expected in today’s market place.  Again, I am offering to e-mail you a pdf file of these two past articles on “I Branding” and “Creating the Experience” upon your request.

Let me be specific about one great simple and effective method of reaching your target market -- professional trade buyers and specifiers. It is called “Target Marketing” and it has become more sophisticated than ever before. Thirty years ago 75,000 computers a year were sold; today 75,000 computers a day are sold. The data base has become greater than ever before in collecting in-depth information from the market you want to reach. You would not believe the information you can receive if you are willing to pay the price and if you have a method for using it.

I want to tell you about INFOUSA (www.INFOUSA.com), the leading and largest provider of sales leads, database marketing, e-mail marketing and market research solutions to help clients grow their sales and increase their profits. This is a $600-million public company with four million customers. INFOUSA has several divisions you would be interested in -- two of these are easily accessed on their website: 14 million U.S. businesses and 210 million U.S. Consumers.

What I love about INFOUSA is that you can build your target profile on their extremely user-friendly website; if you get lost or need to ask more questions, you can get a real live person, called a “marketing consultant,” who is assigned to answer your questions. This is why they ask you to do a baSIC register online so they can serve you with “high tech and high touch.” Try it out: Call John Baker, marketing consultant, 866/805-1691, ext. 6718, or e-mail him at john.baker@INFOUSA.com. He has always, like the rest of the staff of INFOUSA, served me well. For you inquisitive minds, there is not one penny that I receive for referring you, but the satisfaction that you are being served!

Building a professional trades target market database list for your showroom

Here is the process: Go on www.INFOUSA.com and create an e-mail account so that you can go back in from time to time and review all the past files you have created. You will also be sent an e-mail assigning a live marketing consultant who won’t call you unless you call them. I would then skip instructions 1, 2 and 3 and press Start. Next, select the type of business with keyword search. Every business category has a “SIC Code,” i.e. plumbing contractors are 1711-05 and residential interior designers are 1521-09.

The trades I would target are plumbing contractors, builders, remodeling contractors, interior designers and architects. I would add kitchen and bath dealers to my list. Although some buy through their buying groups such as SEN and BKBG, you want to identify those who will work with your showroom and your intent in selling them bath and kitchen products from the wholesaler side, too. I would positively add in the “Real Estate” category as they buy and sell dreams and can steer clientele to your showrooms. I would skip size of business and credit rating unless your company sees value in this.

Remember, the more in-depth the data, the more expensive it gets. Next select geography of choosing an option around an address, the zip code of your showroom, and number of radius miles around your showroom. As a norm, most showrooms take a 90-mile radius except in very dense population areas, where the radius is much lower. What is really great is that you can play around and alter your choice to fit your needs, or you can call and get live assistance. You can also order, free of charge, the catalogs of all the SIC Codes and services. It might be something that you Plumbing and hvac wholesalers might want to target their markets.

Next, I would skip other popular selects unless you want to do faxes. You then review your selections: Un-check unwanted SIC Codes and clean up. Next is Research Results; first click on the free Market Research Report. They will e-mail you a breakdown of each SIC code. You will be able to cut down cost dramatically by eliminating most of the “details included.” Then save your selection.

You then call your INFOUSA marketing consultant. He or she will have a copy of what you did so far. You will have a breakdown on every trade and Real Estate Company and group so you can control/downsize the costs. It is very important that you get each group broken down so that you can do specific trade group mailers. Then eliminate most “details included.” Tell them if you want information sorted. Perhaps cut back the costs by going from a 90-mile to a 60-mile radius. You will then ask them or tell them how you want the data base. This is very important toward automated outside services. You want a Master Copy with telephone numbers so when the showroom is slow, you can make some telephone calls. You want a Data Base that you can give a local mailing house or INFOUSA has the complete mailing service.

Buying an initial Target Market List might seem expensive, but it is inexpensive in relationship to the cost of advertising and other marketing. It is a one-time cost that can be used all year long in sending messages such as announcing new product lines and hold special showroom events. You can then narrow down the list of an effective target group. As it says, Target Marketing means you can reach the people who buy, specify or influence the decision where bath, plumbing, kitchen and related products are to be purchased. Being the brand of choice comes from good communication and marketing.

Target market mailing pieces

One of the best methods for targeting your market is “Target Postcards.” The best-kept secret that I have found is Modern Postcard (www.modernpostcards.com). Their website is extremely user friendly where you can actually design your target piece online just by following their instructions. I have had dozens of plumbing/bath wholesaler showrooms that I have consulted with use this and are blown away by the ease of doing it online.

You send them the digital images, photos, logos, text and instructions. They lay it all out.

On the site are an offer for free postcard samples, free catalog, and a lot of information and guidance. I highly recommend using “oversized target postcards.” You can stay in the guidelines of the largest for bulk mail or do something even larger that would fit in a 1st class envelope. These oversized target postcards can be used to advertise new products, services, and events for the showroom. They make great trade show or consumer hand-outs. 

Best tips for target postcard mailing

Since I am limited in space for this column, let me give you some “laser best tips” for a successful target piece: The picture must be high impact! Please go with an oversized target postcard. They won’t read your message unless the image grabs their attention. Take a picture of your knock-dead showroom and please use a professional photographer. You can also use a picture of a complete bathroom from your favorite manufacturer (such as Kohler) or you can show a colleague of four to six manufacturers’ products that you have exclusively or semi-exclusively. Please know that these manufacturer would gladly co-op the cost in advance.

Before you make the final decision on the photo for the mailer, get the opinions of others and build a consensus. Step back and ask the questions, “What would you do if you received your mailing piece?” Would it stimulate enough interest to get you to read the message?   

The message is equally important for the professional trades and real estate people. Here is the framework of some good messaging: your showroom hours; location and/or map; other contact information. Years in business and who, what, where, why, when and how.

Talk about your best and most well-known branded showroom lines so they know what to expect. Using manufacturer names and their logos should bring you lots of co-op money including mailing costs. Last quick tip:  I suggest to many of my consulting showroom clients to buy a quantity of Modern Target Postcards with the pictures on it and “customer tailor” the messages to each trade group and real estate from a local printer. Some showrooms use the target postcard to explain their services and use it as a business card and/or take with me reminder of your showroom.

Remember, the Three Commandments of Successful Showrooms:

• Qualify clients
• Who sent the clients into your showroom?
• Who is buying the products? Each time it could be a different trade buying or influencing the decision to work with your showroom.

In my next monthly column, I will explain to you exactly how you can target consumers in the resale home market and build up a strong daily traffic flow of qualified consumers. Your target market message is completely different for the consumers. In the first 90 days of a home purchased in the middle to upscale resale market, 55% of the consumers have cable tv installed. In the same 90 days, studies show that 58% of these same consumers are spending money in their baths and kitchens.  Those who reach the consumers first at the time they close escrow with target marketing have the edge.

Peter Schor, president of Dynamic Results, Inc., is an educator, motivational speaker, consultant, coach and writer in our industry and many diverse others. For the past 17 years, he has conducted 100 educational programs yearly, including 34 industry conventions. Schor has great expertise in the field of showrooms and has won many industry awards. He also works with manufacturers in the field of sales, marketing and public relations. Schor can be reached at 1491 Ivy Arbor Lincoln, CA 95648, phone 916/408-5346, fax 916/408-5899, e-mail pschor@dynamicresultsinc.com or www.dynamicresultsonline.com.