An exceptional tool to increase sales volume, profits and speed up product selection
BY PETER SCHOR
Showroom specialist
For The Wholesaler’s June issue, I will be back to the K/BIS 2007 post-show round-up of “What Was New and Hot in Bath and Plumbing Products.”
Every year, I take on one or two new plumbing wholesaler showroom clients in a one-year consulting/coaching “soup to nuts” relationship. Every single detail is deeply thought out and extracted from the industry’s most “successful proven models.” I am in the seventh month of this work with a 5,000-square-foot new showroom that currently involves the pre-promotion of the showroom to all; staffing the showroom; setting up marketing/advertising; and building out the support pieces such as map directions from various branches, product line card, a registry card, quotation long forms and much much more.
I assure you that you will read about this showroom in The Wholesaler and K&B magazines by the end of the year and forward. This is my best work! Many things such as sophisticated “Product Niche Marketing,” which I wrote about in my showroom column a few months ago, has allowed this wholesaler to own many exclusive, semi-exclusive and limited distribution product lines. Most of their other manufacturer partners will not open up another wholesaler showroom within 90 miles without the courtesy of a call to my client and have an open discussion. This plumbing wholesaler is building a showroom powerhouse fortress for a lifetime of success!
When the 5,000-square-foot plumbing wholesaler showroom client is close to opening the showroom, we will have a four-hour “Plumbing Contractor Success Program,” showroom driven, during which they will be given tools and empowerment that they have never heard before. Examples: The plumber is supposed to charge more money for installing a Dornbracht faucet than a Delta. When your customer goes to the home center, they lose/you lose; how to play and win the game of “plumber’s poker” by backing off product costs of a lump bid, eliminating fear of loss, talking about making more money in chalk board exercises, and lot more value.
Besides my facilitation of the showroom success program, I will be bringing along a well-known plumbing contractor magazine columnist who will talk about “Flat Rate Pricing and Mark-up.” The afternoon event will be followed by a Showroom Open House for the plumbing contractors followed by various open houses for other groups. At an exact set time on the event invitation, “How to Make Money with Showroom in 2007!” will be presented. There will also be a special “Rebate Program” for those who do not want to participate thru the traditional channels of distribution. Do you like it? Do it! Hire me or someone else to orchestrate all of the details.
Some industry wholesalers and retailer showroom owners might think that I am same person who conducted Kohler’s Registered Distributor/Dealer Showroom Programs; 42 of my own two-day city showroom sales skills and generic bk seminars which traveled across the U.S. from 1988-1996. While that is true, I also became completely open to study and master the best and most current showroom practices in the industry!
Pre-printed showroom quotation long forms
In the first paragraph, I mentioned some of the “tools” that showrooms must have to succeed. One such tool is the pre-printed showroom long quotation forms. This form is one of the keys to selling bigger packages, making more money, cutting down the sales process time, not getting shopped, being able to quote consumers and trades easily on various complete bathrooms and kitchen sinks who are just budgeting, and numerous other benefits we all want! This type of form is used by many very successful decorative plumbing and hardware showrooms in the U.S. Please e-mail or call me and I will identify a few showrooms within a 90-mile radius of you that use this type of form.
Before I get into the details and give you reasons and the benefits why, let me attack the fundamental challenges that the plumbing wholesaler and DPH-type showroom have in using this “tool.” I ask you to read two articles from The Wholesaler: February 2005, “The Three Keys to Showroom Success,” and March 2005, “Developing Solid Ways to Control the Showroom Selling Process.” I would be glad to email you pdfs or fax you these two profound showroom columns.
A quick refresher -- the “Three Keys to Showroom Success” are:
- Qualify clients
- Who sent the client into you showroom?
- Who is buying the product?
The second article, “Developing Solid Ways to Control the Showroom Selling Process,” has tons of solid content that you must read.
You must know that the pre-printed quotation long form is used for one complete bath to a complete house of products. It is not for someone coming in looking for one or two bath/plumbing products. The reason that this “long form” may mean very little to the majority of readers is that many consumers who come into your showroom sent by the plumber or the builders are “told” to look at one or two specific upgrade products ONLY! Here you have no control or little chance in selling the complete package.
Fundamental challenges -- easy to overcome
I ask you to stay loyal to your plumbing contractors, whenever possible. If the plumbing contractor is controlling the specification of the bath/plumbing products to the builder and consumer, you and he will both lose! The plumber is thinking of lower-priced product, most competitive low bid, and will specify products only that he knows how to install. The most successful volume plumbing wholesaler and DPH showrooms in the U.S. will market to the architects, consumers and builders to use their showroom and coordinated services in the early stages before they break ground -- and before they reach the plumbing contractor. If your showroom staff can read a 1/4-inch scale architectural plan (and the eighth inches) and have the PK skills, you can sell this complete bath or house service. Some of today’s leading bath/plumbing showroom selling skill levels are so highly regarded in markets that they charge a $75 to $150 an hour fee refundable against the purchase of the whole package from your company. I just conducted an advanced bath course for 110 people at an ASID Chapter (interior designers). Many ASID professionals (design/build) shared that “we are all not experts in baths and we are willing to pay our fee of $75 to $150 per hour to that showroom, refundable to them specifically against the purchase of the entire package by someone else.” This is if they are not buying the goods. These interior designers are highly motivated to make sure the bath package is purchased from you in order to get their fee back.
How to use showroom quotation long forms
The complete bathrooms and other area rooms should be on a horizontal 8-1/2-inch x 14-inch piece of paper. Don’t spare the paper and descriptions as these forms have multiple purposes such as master job release forms transferred on to actual invoices. Then put these forms in a manila folder and note on the outside of the folder the dates that client called to order product for release to the job site. Individual sheets should be made for master bath, guest bath, typical tub secondary bath, and typical shower secondary bath sheets. I would leave the name of the bath off the top so you can write in the name of person using bath or the plan call number such as Bath #2. Then separate sheets on powder room; kitchen sink; vegetable preparation sink; wet bars sink(s); and more.
Inside each bath should be every possible thing that could go into that bath and can be sold by your showroom. Leave almost nothing out, although most showrooms will leave out decorative traps and water supplies line out. Obviously, you know the drill, yet as an example of products in a master bath that you might forget to mention are the options such as medicine cabinets. Just because it is not drawn on the plans does not mean the client may want them. Tub waste, shower drains, toilet tank levers, whirlpool/air massage tub, all bath accessories -- 18-, 24- and 30-inch towel bars, paper holders, towel rings; robe hooks, shower doors, towel warmer, steam generator, magnification make-up mirrors, hand showers (both wall mount and deck mount), etc. Don’t leave out bath accessories and non-plumbing-type products because the plumber does not want to buy them. These products need to be sold to someone else -- builder, consumer, etc. The same thing goes for a kitchen sink: instant hot and cold, purified water, chiller unit, soap dispenser, sink, and yada, yada, yada.
These forms are extremely beneficial for multiple bath architectural plan take-offs (about which you will get umpteen tips in the March 2005 article I mentioned earlier) that will “speed up” the process of plan take-off before you meet with the client. Please e-mail me if you want the PDF of that article.
You will note when looking at the pictured form the following: Quantity ordered and you make the plan take off like you are going to sell everything possible in each room. When you get to the medicine cabinets and they are not drawn in, you put in the quantity and a question mark (?). If, when meeting the client, they say no to medicine cabinets, you change the ? to 0 quantity.
You can change the pictured photo of the form to fit your needs, for example release date and invoice number. Notice, “Fixtures” and an open space to the right. This is for the “Color”. Where it say’s trim finish is for the “Metal Finish” throughout the bath. In the “Description” field comes the variables. Please read the articles I referenced earlier in this article for all the variables. The short version in the “description” is dependent of the client and client’s client relationship. For instance, if a client did not pay you a fee to specify, and you got the strong feeling they are going to shop it to hell, you could put in the description under lavatories “self-rimming oval.” On the far right side of the form in the open space, you could put the model number like K-2905 for the lavatories for your own staff. When the client wants a copy of the quote, you fold the flap of the quote form eliminating showing the model number. If the client is not paying for services, they are not entitled to get the model numbers. This is a win (them) and lose (you) scenario.
Then note the bottom of the quote form, “all quotes are good for 30 days.” Note the freight added depending on your company policies. Important, note the signature and date authorizing that these are the final customer’s choices to be sent to the buyer. This covers two issues. One, “I never ordered this product” is another way of saying “I now realize I do like what I ordered.” The second good reason is that when the buyer receives the quote, they will see their customer signed it and might take it as they made a commitment for him to buy it from you!
At the beginning of this article, I said that these pre-printed quotation long forms have a lot of benefits. The key to selling bigger packages, larger volume and higher gross profits is mostly self explanatory. A good example of cutting down the process time is “pick the lavatory set for bath #2 and I will match all the other faucetry and bath accessories that you will need.” The long forms also keep the client from asking “what is my price on each item?” in the bath selection process. They can’t eliminate having a toilet in the bathroom, but they can lower the cost by discussing with you the lower price alternatives.
See the March 2005 article for not getting shopped. If can only say selling the package price if it met the budget, then why would the consumer have to see each product priced out. The long quotation form enables you to quote consumers and trades easily on various complete bathrooms and kitchen sinks or a whole house that is just budgeting for the bank. There are numerous other benefits we all want.
Thank you for being open to new possibilities and remember the June issue showroom column will be a K/BIS 2007 post-show “what’s new and hot bath/plumbing product” wrap up.
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 through his website www.dynamicresultsonline.com.