As a design-build leader, take a break and refrain from adding or removing anything from your business for a few weeks. Use this time to observe and learn before making any decisions. Don't rush to add new products to your showroom. Take time to re-evaluate your business strategy and prepare for the future.
Is your website meeting the needs of your market and team? It should be an extension of your brand, reminding customers why they trust you and offering frictionless support.
Do open houses truly justify the time, effort and money your team invests in them? And more importantly, are they effectively amplifying your brand's story?
Last month we talked about the importance of courting your designer market, and how to build a team supported strategy to take your good showroom brand out of its showrooms and win this business opportunity. Now to the next steps…
As a meeting with four designersabout our products
wrapped up, the conversation shifted from decorative hardware to this agency's discovery and specification process.
When was the last time a client came up and informed you that they would never work with your showroom again because their bathroom design did not turn out as they had envisioned?
I have been on the road, and it seems that showrooms not solely focused on the ultra-high-end market have experienced a decline in business. Generally, I am hearing statements like, "We are busy but down by 10% to 15%."
Every day, we receive promotional emails attempting to entice us to visit, shop and purchase branded products. Countless companies employ a "pushing, pushing, pushing" product approach, emphasizing style and price, hoping that one will motivate us to delve deeper. But, is that rare brand dive really enough? What are these mega brands are trying to “teach” us? The answer, my friends, lies at the bottom of email and on their home page. "Please visit our elegant store and let our talented design team help you create.”
The plumbing supply industry and our showrooms, as well as many re-distribution businesses, are run ERP systems that are based on the IBM AS/400 or DOS. Both originated in the 1980s. We are an industry that looks to shave pennies to scale and limit our operational invest. We live by “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and so we have gone for a millennia. But, the possibility of having a knowledgable consultant in our pocket might just change the way we employ computers in all facets of business.