Do You Have Any Idea Where Your Showroom Is Headed?
As I travel the United States and Canada working with wholesalers on the showroom side of their business, I am amazed how few have any formal plans on where they want to take this important side of their business. In fact, I've yet to work with anyone that has put together a well-thought-out long-range (three-year minimum) business plan for their overall business. In this highly competitive market place with all of the acquisitions and mergers happening, I just don't understand how a business can thrive (even survive) without planning for the future.
That's the bad news. The good news is I have had the pleasure of working with five different wholesalers, helping each of them write a long-term showroom business plan. All are multi-branch operations. Revenues range from $75 million to $300 million. All have been in the showroom business for a number of years. None had any continuity in how these showrooms operated. From a design and layout point of view all were different. Very few were retail-friendly. Some tried to “protect” the plumber, others sold to anyone. All sold traditional plumbing wholesaler products - with very little diversification. None was treated as a profit center. All were part of a branch operation, with the local branch manager acting as the person in charge. Compensation programs were all over the place - but with showroom sales consultants grossly underpaid. Conversely, sales per salesperson were low and margins across the board were terrible. Now I did say there was good news, right? Yes, there is!