’Tis the season to be jolly!

BY PETER SCHOR
Showroom specialist

I am writing this article on November 8 from beautiful Central Delaware (Seaford) where I am attending the two-day Grand Opening events of a 5300-square-foot showroom called Elegant Designs. Elegant Designs is a division of Penco Corporation, a 58-year-old family owned plumbing/HVACR wholesaler, with six locations ranging from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours away from the corporate headquarters. This is Penco’s first upscale bath, plumbing and kitchen showroom, which happens to be off-site.

I am very privileged and honored for a full year to be contracted to consult/coach with their company in every detail, from “soup to nuts,” incorporating the best of the best of everything that I have learned from my 37-year-young industry career, and extracted from every successful model to perfection. Then crafted, customized and integrated into their culture -- and the deep plumbing contractor roots they have established.

I ask that you to keep a look-out in the February 2008 issue of The Wholesaler, when I will share a feature story with lots of pictures of this new showroom. The story line will have lots of value, but being candid and up front, I will not be revealing a bunch of intricacies due to their confidentiality on how we crafted their “Great Wall of China” with exclusive to semi-exclusive product lines; marketing/advertising campaigns based on sales and gross profit; and high-volume sales and gross profit margins only a handful in our industry are generating.

I wanted this “labor of love” of showroom consulting/coaching to be one of my very best, incorporating everything that I currently know and have gathered from the most successful showrooms in the U.S. and Canada. I also wanted to make a statement to those who might remember my small beginnings in 1988, when I launched full-time education to all segments of our industry. Penco Corporation, with vice president Jeff Peterson and their executive team and branch managers, gave great support to the outcome of this showroom. Their unwavering integrity and 100% commitment did the real work! Jeff Peterson is a third-generation plumbing wholesaler. He had the dreams and goals, and I supplied the roadmap.

Penco Corporation’s Elegant Designs Showroom (www.elegantdesignsshowroom.com) has become a member of the dpha (www.dpha.net), which I highly recommended to you all in many articles. They also became a member of the Decorative Forte Buying Group with the support/know-how of myself and the blessing of an ex-client plumbing wholesaler showroom client and wonderfully gifted showroom person, David Kursh of Bell Supply, Wilmington, Del. Bell Supply is located two hours away from Elegant Designs in Seaford.  Just proves there is a mind-set of “win-win” and high integrity thinking out there! Penco is a Kohler Premier Showroom with many other lines and is a member of Embassy Industries plumbing wholesaler buying group.

For you older plumbing wholesaler showroom people out there, Bell Supply was featured in a series on articles by me and others in The Wholesaler and other magazines in 1989. The article that the editor wrote was titled (from memory), “Small wholesaler showroom makes big splash and creates strong niche (surrounded by much bigger multiple location competitors)”. Remember to look out for the February issue, with a story and photographs called “Not just a pretty face!”

I highly recommend that you go to this web site’s archives and download my showroom columns from September 2006 to date. A personal e-mail to me and I will be glad to send you PDF article from my columns written prior to The Wholesaler archives on specific topics of your interest. Want to know how to attain exclusive and semi-exclusive product lines thru product niche evaluations? Want to know how to get qualified traffic in your showroom? Want to learn how to find the real “gold”? Go on the site/archives and pick what you want and need to grow your business.

Tis the season to be jolly?

This is the time of the year to think and feel in gratitude. If you cannot find gratitude in your existing state of where ever you are in your work or life, regardless of your current circumstances, you will never find gratitude in attaining new plateaus. Make a list of positive things that you are in gratitude for 2007. If it was the year from hell, say goodbye to it and start the year as in the Billy Crystal movie, City Slickers (1991), when his best friend, married, slept with the supermarket checker, and his friend said “my life is over”. Billy Crystal, said, “No, you can do life over and you can re-start it as of today.” He said, “Life is a do-over” wherever you are. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination!

During December find some time for yourself and review your showroom goals. Discover what keeps you back from reaching your goals and aspirations. Go into The Wholesaler and other showroom magazine archives and take in new information so you can grow your business for 2008. Remember Albert Einstein’s famous saying, “Definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!”

Diversify the showroom! With the softening of the residential market, how can you diversify your showroom for 2008, today! Got green? Then make a list of the green products you have in the showroom and promote it. What new profitable product categories can you add to your showroom? For example, look at shower doors (if Basco makes it any easier to capture this 50%+ gross profit category they would have to install them for you);bath furniture; magnification mirrors and lights; lighting; sauna rooms; ldc tv bathroom mirrors; and other goodies. How about whole house purification and air cleaners -- the two hottest items at the International Builders Show each year.

How can you add to the “value-added” services you perform by “Creating the experience?” Remember the “juicy” article I wrote in The Wholesaler on this subject in 2006? What can you do differently to create a more enriched “experience” in your showroom? How about an “outcall in-home service” charging $100+ per hour refundable against the full purchase of the products selected. How about creating an Industry Trade Partner Network Referral Program and related suppliers of tile, stone, appliances, and so forth. How can you create your showrooms as the showroom “Brad of Choice”? Remember, my column, “Branding is just not for products,” which appeared in The Wholesaler in April 2006. I slanted this article for the plumbing wholesaler showroom. The exact content of this article went in four major national magazines such as Selling Power, Visual Merchandising and Store Design, and was a Keynote topic at many conventions I worked with in 2006/2007.

Let’s check in on some of things you might want and need from the archives on the The Wholeslaer website:

• October 2006 -- Product Niche Marketing. How to position yourself with some exclusive or semi-exclusive product lines. Used by the largest plumbing wholesaler showrooms throughout it biggest growth years.
• November 2006 -- Go for The Gold. Proven showroom tract home upgrade program. The showroom, the outside salesman, plumbing contractor, builder, and consumer -- all win!
• January 2007 -- Finding The Right Solutions to Showroom Marketing Issues. Solutions for the “traditional” plumbing wholesaler showroom.
• February 2007 -- The Essentials of Time Management for Showrooms. The “best of the best” tips from the leading showrooms across the U.S.
• March 2007 -- Obtaining Knowledge and Know-how from Past Archives (2005 to October 2006). Profound  tips and secrets of showrooms success.
• April 2007 -- Navigating k/bis 2007. Even if you didn’t attend k/bis 2007, you will get insights on products that are on fire!
• May 2007 -- How to Increase Your Gross Profit and Volume. Three to four of the most sought pout solution to wholesaler problems and challenges.
• June 2007 -- What Stayed in Las Vegas will be in your Showroom Soon. Post-show k/bis 2007 latest products.
• July 2007 -- Using the Right Tools to Achieve Greater Showroom Success. Four profound keys to showroom success.
• August 2007 -- Driving High Traffic to Your Showroom Part I. Consumers...target marketing at its best!
• September 2007 -- Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Showroom: Part II. Professional Trades
• October 2007 -- Cultivating Professional Trade Partnerships. How to find the professional trade group buyers and specifiers and what they expect of you.

Is anyone reading this column? Is this information helpful? Please give me a sign by sending an e-mail at pschor@dynamicresultsinc.com. I hope that you enjoy the monthly showroom columns. Please e-mail me the type of information you would like to read about or solutions to your challenges obstacles, or problems.

The best of holiday wishes to you and your families! Health, happiness, prosperity and, most of all, have fun in 2008!                   

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, by e-mail at pschor@dynamicresultsinc.com or on the web at www.dynamicresultsonline.com.