Making 2008 your best year ever

BY PETER SCHOR
Showroom specialist

How are you looking at 2008? Half Empty or Half Full?

Half Empty: The economy is soft and the residential building market is in a slump and won’t be turning around until the second half of 2008. 

Half Full: According to statistics from the National Kitchen and Bath Association, there were 10.9 million bath remodeling jobs in 2007, which is up 5.3% from 2006. Spending on bath remodeling was up 5.9%, to $70.2 billion. In spite of the housing slump, homeowners are investing in professional-grade options for the bath such as shower power, steam baths, air massage tubs, decorative faucets, and tons more. Want to accentuate the positive? Read this article -- or hire a showroom expert for 2008...me!

Also, be on the lookout for the February issue. There is a great story  and lots of good information coming your way! I’ll be providing a profile on Elegant Designs, a Division of Penco Corporation, a family owned independent six-location plumbing wholesaler that recently opened their first off-site showroom -- a 5,300-square-foot, state-of-the-art beauty. I was the educator, consultant and coach for this project for one full year from the inception to the Grand Openings.

What have you planned to do different in your showroom in 2008?

Do dogs like bones? Think about it, do dogs really love bones? You know, if you held a bone in your hand for your dog, your dog would run happily around you, jumping up and down with its tail wagging, and salivating in anticipating for a  mere bone. If you held a 16-ounce sizzling sirloin steak right off the grill in one hand and a bone in the other hand, which one would you dog choose? The sizzling sirloin steak, of course!

We humans are conditioned like our dogs to be happy and satisfied to attain the same results in our showrooms as last year (bones). The lesson is: Don’t settle for bones! You can change for the better -- regardless of the building slump and soft economy.

Albert Einstein defined the definition of insanity as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If you do what you did last year in your showroom, you will get the same results this year. Given current economic conditions, you will be disappointed.

Would it be okay with you if we made 2008 a much better year and made life easier? Life, for most of us, is doing what we know. When we get to something that is foreign in knowledge, it makes us feel uncomfortable. It is our current paradigm -- our model, theory, perception, assumption or frame of reference of how we or our collective industry see things. Remember, stay open to new information and remember: Nothing less than greatness has ever been printed into the record books!

Here is a list of 33 ways to increase your sales and gross profits; save time and increase productivity; and improve your showroom. I am sure that you are already doing many of the things on this list. Pick the ones that apply to your showroom and do a few at a time. As you’ll see, many of these were previously referred to in earlier columns; to access them, visit the archives.

1. Green -- Go to the archives of Kitchen and Bath Design News and log in “Green” and you will come up with articles, books and newsletters. Then identify the Green products that you have existing in your showroom. Ask your manufacturer partners to identify their Green products, if any. Then add to the qualifying process to ask your clientele if they have a Green priority.
2. Outcall Service -- Create an outcall service charging $100 per hour to come to customer’s homes to determine what will fit in their applications. The cost is refundable against the purchase of the goods by the consumer or recommended trade.
3. Product Additions -- Discreet Green tags on showroom products that meet showroom criteria; how about all the non-plumbing connection products you can sell the builder or consumer directly? Like shower doors, saunas, outdoor spas, kitchen cabinets, ceiling fans, lighting, magnification mirrors with lights, cleaners and polishes for the products you sell, and lots more! How about whole house purification systems, indoor air filtration and floor warming. You can brand your showroom for these types of products. 
4. Qualify clients more effectively.
5. 10-80-10 Rule -- Not everyone was meant to be sold in your showroom.
6. Chart traffic hours and patterns
7. Schedule appointments for multiple baths at your slowest traffic times.
8. Showroom Flyer -- Every showroom must have a flyer of how your showroom works.
9. Silent Sales Aids -- Visual selection books and videos
10. Technical Information Files -- Have a file cabinet of showroom product technical information sheets.
11. Join select local professional trade chapters.
12. Attend and participate in monthly meetings.
13. Take table tops and display areas at vibrant monthly meetings.
14. Target open houses or monthly chapter events in your showroom.
15. Buy target market consumer resale home lists from www .infousa.com
16. Create a high-impact target market showroom postcard from Modern Postcards online www.modernpostcards.com to target consumers. Remember an incredible picture of a “knock-dead” bathroom or picture(s) of your showroom. Attain co-op money by using manufacturer’s logo or name.
17. Use an outsourced mailing service to do bi-weekly or monthly target mailing to create more qualified traffic in your showroom.
18. Put together a professional trade (all) profiled mailing list from www.infousa.com 
19. Create a high-impact target market showroom postcard from Modern Postcards online at www.modernpostcards.com for the professional trades. Use picture colleagues on your exclusive or semi-exclusive product lines and list the brands you handle on the other side. Attain co-op money with the use of manufacturer’s photo’s and names.
20. Hold showroom events for select trade groups like interior designers, architects and builders.
21. Remember and practice the 3 proven “Profound Keys to Showroom Success”: 1) Qualify clients. 2) Know who sent the client into the showroom.  3) Find out who is buying the materials.
22. Remember and practice the 4th proven “Profound Keys to Showroom Success”: Controlling the Process.
23. Use pre-printed showroom quotation long forms to sell bigger volume, increase gross profits and speed up the product selection process.
24. Charge $75 to $150-per-hour fees for putting together complete bathrooms and houses of  bath/plumbing, and kitchen equipment. All refundable against the purchase of the goods from your showroom.
25. Find out what were new and hot bath products and trends from K/BIS 2007 by visiting www.drknowledge.net  anytime of the year.
26. Read the K/BIS pre-show, show, and post-show issues of The Wholesaler to know what is new and hot in bath trends and products.
27. Know the Adult Learning Curve in Retention of  Information -- We retain 10% of what  we read; 20% of what we hear; 30% of what we see; 50% of things heard and seen; 70% of things that are repeated; 90% of those repeated and performed. It takes multiple times of repetition to own your new skills and information.
28. #1 most profound time management tip to increase time and reduce stress: You will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, get caught up! Everyday things repeat themselves. Think about it and then go back to the February Showroom column if you are not getting it.
29. Best 10 Time Management Tips --  1) Prepare next day daily list; 2) Schedule your time; 3)  Take time to sit and think, especially in January; 4) Organize a filing system;  5) Quickly process the stuff that hits your in-box; 6)  Work at work and do “home: stuff at home; 7) Keep your desk clean;  8) Use you time wisely; 9) Use your car time wisely;  10) Think creatively on shortening things that eat your time.
30. Re-read this article on a Complete Tract Home Upgrade Program of Good, better and best. The program is a “win-win” for all -- showroom, outside plumbing salesmen, plumber, builder, and home buyer’s who get to put plumbing/bath upgrades on their 30-year mortgage. A proven model for today’s showroom.
31. Product Niche Marketing for Showrooms -- Any of you that are fighting the competition who cut the prices of your exact product lines, you must do it differently for 2008! This is an article that was used extensively in my consulting/coaching from inception to opening with Penco’s Elegant Designs showroom. They are heavily insulated from their showroom competitors as they have many exclusive and semi-exclusive product lines. Learn how it was done.
32. February 2005 -- The Three Keys to Showroom Success: 1) Qualifying clients; 2) Who sent the client to the showroom?; 3) Who is buying the products? This article and its philosophy has complete “clarity” in the area of plumbing/bath and dph-type showrooms and has become an industry “model” of the most successful showrooms in the U.S.
33. March 2005 -- The 4th Key to Showroom Success: “Developing Solid Ways to Control the Showroom Selling Process.” Learn how to speed up the product selection process while increasing volume and gross profit levels. Find out how to control the specifications and quotations through rock-solid concepts.

I want to sincerely thank you for reading my showroom monthly columns for the last three years. I love the e-mails with your specific questions and being able to be of service to you! The best of well wishes for 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, e-mail pschor@dynamicresultsinc.com or visit his website at www.dynamicresultsonline.com.