February, 2009

How to Prep for the Busy Season

Take advantage of slower times to make sure that everything in your store—including your employees— is ready to make the sale.

By Bob Heidenreich

The idea of a thorough springcleaning isn’t a concept that applies only to homes, you know.

When times are slow, both in the construction and lumber/building material industry as a whole, and in cyclical deck building work during the year, it’s critical that you take advantage of every possible opportunity to capture a potential sale.

That’s why, every year in the naturally slower months of January and early February, we take advantage of this relative down time as a chance to make sure that our showroom and store is the very best it can be.

We take pains to make sure that everything we display is absolutely spotless, and that all of our signage is updated. This also gives us a chance to really examine what it is we intend to sell and push hard in the coming year.

So what does that entail?

For instance, our deck showroom— which I believe is absolutely critical for both making sales and in capturing upsell opportunities—covers around 2,400 sq. ft. We want every one of those square feet to help us make sales.

To make sure we present our materials in their best light, we completely strip our showroom and get rid of any old product that we no longer carry or want to carry. We pull out the bins and sweep behind them and make sure every sign reflects the correct, updated price for the material we show. (We also do that in our regular store.) We make sure that no cobwebs exist anywhere in the nooks and crannies, and both power wash decking samples and hand-wash every piece of glass in the room. We examine every deck display and replace rails or risers that may have been scuffed or scratched during the previous season.

We also examine all our inventory, because we want to make sure that as a specialty lumberyard, we’re selling items that others, such as the big boxes, either don’t or can’t sell. We want our offerings to be as unique as they can be. Every foot of our showroom must carry its own weight and translate into profitable sales for us.

When you review your own showroom, try to approach it as a customer would. Make sure all of your signage is up to date
and that your SKUs are properly updated, as well. Put any new literature you’ve received from a manufacturer close to the product it refers to. While we absolutely want to “talk and walk” with every customer who enters our showroom, having literature available close at hand and not tucked into one set of shelves at the front or rear of a showroom lets you take advantage of a customer’s interest when he or she expresses it.

And make sure your sales staff is fully up-to-date on every product you’re displaying in your showroom. Do mock walkthroughs and make sure your sales people can explain every product and that they are aware of upsell opportunities for which each product is suitable. (Lighting, decorative columns, etc.)

And as long as we’re talking about spring-cleaning, don’t forget that your slower times are the perfect opportunity to expand that “tidying up” philosophy to all of the information on your website; to all of your old or outdated literature, and to your employee and company files. Go through every one of your trucks and examine the tools or other equipment that goes with the vehicle. Check that proper insurance information is in every vehicle and that tabs are all current. Make sure, if you have a music system in your stores, that your licenses for that are current. Once customers start streaming through the door, interested in buying or updating their decks with newer materials, you want your focus—and that of everyone on your staff—to be on selling.

BOB HEIDENREICH is the owner of the 30-employee Deck and Door Co., in Apple Valley, Minn. He has been selling decking and home improvement projects for 26 years.