SELLING TIPS
Ensuring a dealer’s products are in line with customers’ needs and promoting the creativity that can be achieved with mouldings can help expand sales and upsell customers on higher-quality and more diverse products. Suppliers offer these tips to dealers looking to boost their sales:
Show Them Off: “The best thing a dealer can do to boost his moulding sales is to put them into the showroom wherever possible, even outside of a specific moulding display,” says Versatex’s Kapres. “Put them on the outside of the building or in the siding displays or design center where there are related products. A product in use is the #1 best way to sell more.”
Use Displays: A display showing various options and ideas can spark creativity. “The more they show the upgrades available, the more people can visualize what it will look like on their project and decide to buy it,” says Royal’s Booz. “You don’t want it buried in a catalog where they have to go looking for it.”
East Coast Mouldings’ display features its varieties of substrates and profiles and includes scannable technology so all options can be consulted on a smartphone. “We’re using technology more to help encourage the use of mouldings and showcase our design options,” says Delbridge.
 East Coast Mouldings’ displays tie into the company’s GearScan feature, a patented technology that works with its ECMDGears mobile app to allow any profile to be scanned to learn features, species, sizes, pricing and other information. |
Stress Education: “We get some questions about PVC trim from emerging markets,” says Ply Gem’s Short. “As you move west and get into newer markets, the knowledge base is lower. More education on how to use and install is definitely needed in those areas.”
Royal Building Products uses a You-Tube channel with videos showing installation tips and has six experts in the field to aid installers. Boral has launched a fleet of six mobile training centers that serve as workshops and showrooms around the country. “They offer primarily an educational focus with a product message secondary,” Zimmerman says.
A key area of education for PVC mouldings is life-cycle cost, says Ply Gem’s Short. “Dealers should encourage customers to look beyond the list price to consider the lifetime cost of installing and maintaining mouldings. If they spend more on the front end, they will spend less and have a more efficient look over the product’s entire lifetime.”
Tap Into Resources: “To boost sales, dealers should use the resources available through manufacturers’ sales people as much as possible,” says Boral’s Zimmerman. “We find that builders often rely on their dealers to offer suggestions and solve issues. Dealers who lead the charge have their own sales team work with the manufacturers’ people to stay up to date and pick up techniques.”
