Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
Issue link: https://idoi.epubxp.com/i/95501
SALES&MARKETING; (continued from page 54) vices. A condo project that has no garages may need retractable awnings. Retail stores that have no bay or dock doors but may need storefront or hollow metal door service. A homeowner that has a carport does not need garage door service but may need a new patio door system. By adding related products to your line up you can attack more markets in your area. That is why it is imperative to have a strong supplier that will help you learn as you go and support you and your customer through the purchasing and installation process. Hurdles and Pitfalls What other products should we sell? I suggest that you stick with related products. Rather than thinking about just doors, think in terms of access. This opens up a great number of product avenues for you. Below is a chart of some of the products that we added to our line up. Residential Commercial Entry and Patio Doors Storm and Security Doors Interior Doors Pet Doors Hollow Metal Doors and Hardware Storefront Doors Loading Dock Equipment High Speed and Traffi c Doors Retractable and Fixed Awnings Automated Access Systems Garage Flooring and Storage Aircraft Hangar Doors Of course this is just a small list of possibilities. The infrastructure of your service business is already there, just choose products that require a similar skill set. The key is fi nding quality products that your customers need or want. We were careful to choose higher quality products where the manufacturers provided excellent product support and training. Remember, when you are introducing new products to your customers you only get one shot to make a good impression. Convincing the troops – I remember the day I walked into the sales meeting and announced that we would be adding custom made, replacement residential entry doors to our line up of garage doors and openers. The group looked at me like I had two heads! There were a litany of reasons as to why that was the worst idea ever including "we don't know anything about entry doors", "our installers aren't carpenters" and my favorite was "they (homeowners) buy those from the lumber yard". The resistance was high to any sort of change that took our folks out of their comfort zone. The trick was convincing our sales people that there was a market for custom replacement entry doors that Home Depot and Lowe's could not sell, mostly due to their installation and service limitations. Their doubt persisted until we sold the fi rst couple of jobs. They were amazed that the customers wanted a builder grade garage door but were willing to spend a couple of thousand dollars on their entryway. It did not take long for the sales people to see that this "package sale" approach meant more commission in their wallets. We also had to take the mystery out of the installation process for our installers. This was done by "dissecting" the product with the assistance of a seasoned installer. Once they could clearly see that installing garage doors was more diffi cult, we knew they would do a fi ne job with the new stuff. Another way to get buy in is to designate a "resident expert". Rather than roll out the new product to the entire sales and installation staff, pick one person and let them lead the way in learning about the new products. Often they are happy for the recognition from their peers and that you trusted them with something new. VOLUME 45 ISSUE 5 2012 Continued on page 58 VOLUME 45 ISSUE 6 2012 57