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 58) The Payoff Perceived value pays – Why are homeowners willing to spend thousands for decorative doors for their front entrance but often request a quote on "the cheapest" garage door you sell? While that is not always the case, when this does happen it's usually an issue of perceived value. The garage door located on the rear of their home is out of sight and therefore has a much lower perceived value than the front entrance where they welcome their guests. When function matches up with fashion, fashion usually wins. Fine. Capitalize on that perceived value by selling them a high quality entry door that has a matching quality gross profi t attached to it! This same rationale applies to many of the other products previously mentioned such as awnings, automated access systems for pedestrian or vehicular traffi c and storefront doors. Loading the truck – Selling garage doors only is like the fellow that loads his truck with watermelons and sells them at the farmers market. While he sells great watermelons, what if someone wants cantaloupes or honeydew melons? Or maybe there isn't as much demand for watermelons this week. Since he has to load the truck until it is full anyway, why not fi ll it with all three? Especially since he can get more money for the other two types of melons. Diversity can be very profi table and help you meet customer demand. Support sagging sales – Since the horrible downturn in our economy in 2008, there just aren't as many garage doors sold nationwide. By adding a diversity of products you can support your sagging garage door sales and possibly replace the lost revenue and profi t. Each new product can give your organization something to get excited about. Simply put, there are more tricks in each 60 International Door & Operator Industry™ Dan Apple is president of The Apple Group LLC, a consulting fi rm located in Bonita Springs, Florida. His focus is assisting garage door dealers with profi tability and marketing. Dan served as president of Apple Door Systems in Richmond, Virginia for 33 years which grew to a statewide dealership with eight locations. He was the fi rst president of the Institute of Door Dealer Education and Accreditation where he was responsible for creating the industry's fi rst national accreditation program in 1998. Dan also served as a director of the Door & Operator Dealers Association and the International Door Association from 1994- 1998. For more information, contact him at 804.640.4253 or email: danielapple@me.com or visit the website at www.AppleLLC.net. sales person's bag and that means more selling opportunities. In our case selling the "other stuff " greatly shored up our sales which allowed us to not just weather the storm but to actually increase profi tability in the process. It's all about the profi t – As I mentioned earlier, the ancillary products you select should be highly profi table. How much so depends on your marketing efforts and local competition of course, but typically the products we added were more profi t- able than garage doors. While garage doors remained our core product, eventually 35% of our business was "other stuff " as my staff called it. After several years had passed I asked the same folks that looked at me like I had two heads if they would like to go back to just selling garage doors. The look from them was the same. Clearly they had accepted the fact that selling a diversity of products was in their personal best interest and the company's. Once they overcame the fear of the unknown, and saw that we could do anything we set our minds to, adding new products was easy. Summary The old saying, "don't put all of your eggs in one basket," is the rationale behind the notion of offering a diverse product line up. Are you a door systems contractor or a garage door dealer. Obviously you can be both. While maintaining your garage door business as the primary product, developing and marketing other related products can be profi table and have long term growth possibilities for your company. It's not easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. Successfully spreading your company's product wings takes three basic things. First you must determine what products your customers need and then choose quality products that offer substantial manufacturer support. Second, you must get buy in from your staff by prov- ing to them that it is a fi nancially rewarding initiative for them personally as well as the company's bottom line. Finally, you have to market your new products. You might have added the perfect entry door line to your offer- ing but if you don't tell your customers about it aggressively you will waste your time and money. Your customers trust you already for garage doors so cross selling related products is pretty simple. Selling more products to the same customers is an easy way to pump up your sales and your bottom line.