Defining product market fit is not an easy task for a stand-alone decorative plumbing showroom. It's especially complicated for showrooms that are a part of a multi-product brand that may supply PVF targeting plumbers, HVAC targeting builders or any of the many building products with re-distribution models.
Three simple steps to avoid losing quotes to the discount happy houses.
February 28, 2022
Once again, Martin, the spokes-gecko for Geico insurance company, is rambling on about their amazing customer call center, immediate, on-the-job appraisals, replacement value and tremendous low rates. We hear the same tired story from Allstate, Progressive, State Farm and all the insurance companies. It’s at the point where they never say the word insurance. That is because they are not selling insurance, they are selling peace of mind. Should anything happen to you or a member of your family they will make it all better. You have nothing to worry about.
In 2022, we expand the image of decorative plumbing.
December 10, 2021
We’re almost through the second year of the pandemic and vendors and showrooms are boldly sharing what they think will be popular in 2022. A common thread in many of these predictions is that people are starting to work bold colors and patterns into rooms. This simple prediction tells me it is time for the decorative plumbing industry to move outside — way outside — the chrome and white box.
The DPHA conference actually shuts down its exhibit hall during the speaker and roundtable meetings, allowing every attendee the ability to participate and network. The vendors know the conference schedule offers ample time for their customers to see their new products. They also understand that face-time away from others outside the exhibit hall is important in building stronger vendor-distributor relationships.
People do not care how things work. They just want them to work. If a problem arises, customers want it taken care of effectively and immediately. When was the last time you saw an automated chatbox on the internet answer the question: Why is my faucet leaking?
Ahh, the holidays. The time when families and friends gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year. What a special time...unless you are in the building industry. You are swamped with projects, struggling to get any product you can as your job timelines start to slip into 2022.
The internet is just as accessible to a builder with an office one block from your showroom as it is for a builder hundreds of miles away. Popular e-commerce sites do not think of regional boundaries when they create business plans. These digital companies focus on market segments that can be located anywhere — anywhere the internet reaches.
The old adage that people need to see an elegant faucet in order to appreciate it and to specify it has evolved into a myth wrapped up into a ribbon of hope.
I was visiting Salem Plumbing Supply in Beverly, Massachusetts, for the first time and had not a clue where to go. As I approached a counter sales person, Ralph Sevinor, the owner and one fine gentleman, saw me and grabbed my arm and said, “I want to show you something.