In an every competitive market, your ability to reach, close, and keep your customers yours - and do it better than any of your competitors - could be the most important factor in whether your company can survive and grow in today's market.

Regardless of whether or not you are the best guy in your market area, it won't matter if you can't reach potential customers - and even more importantly, close the sale - and turn opportunity into revenue for your company. This is the time where you put on your sales and marketing hat, and you have to know how to wear it for your best benefit.

Here's a relevant scenario that I deal with almost on a daily basis: I get clients that tell me that "We do really top notch quality work, but how do I compete with the 'hacks' that are doing two or three jobs for below my cost - and doing all of them badly - and then skipping town?" The "hacks" that I hear about are the guys that are doing granite countertops for $19.95 a square foot and making life pretty miserable for the established shops in a market area.

My answer to this scenario has a number of caveats but most of the way you will need to work around this issue is to have a few general assumptions. The first assumption is that you have to remember that some people ONLY want the lowest price - regardless of the quality or level of customer service that you provide. You will have to accept that fact that some customers will run to the lowest bidder like lemmings racing to the sea.

The customer you need to focus on is the one that you know you have better than a 50% chance of landing. This is a customer that will still want a low price, but maybe has not done their due diligence very well. They may be more receptive to the logic of why "the lowest bid does not always make the best job." Perhaps you can provide a better buying experience for your customer than the guy that works strictly "out of his truck."

One of the questions that people are always asking me is, "Is a Showroom absolutely necessary?" The answer to this is going to depend on the level of your clientele. If your projects generally require a place for you to meet with the end user, then a showroom or office conference area may be more appropriate than meeting in your living room or at your kitchen table. Some folks like the "homey" atmosphere, but believe me, when you have kids or dogs interrupting the decision making process (been there - done that) you'll really start looking at having a dedicated area that is set aside to work with your customers - sans "associated distractions,"

If a showroom or customer area is where you want to go - how big should it be and what do you want to get accomplished there? As far as the size goes - and remember this - every square foot of production area that you shift towards sales and marketing is one less square foot of floor space dedicated to getting your product out the door. So how do you make a good decision?

I recommend you consider every means possible to sell your company to your client - but not at the risk of decreasing your ability to produce. Many guys are using a blend of a small area dedicated to sales and education - about an eighth to a tenth of your total shop space. Use your dedicated customer space wisely. Showrooms that have vast open expanses, with nothing but color samples hanging on the walls - are not going to impress anyone but the guy who designed the layout. Many shops are integrating video screens and running looped videos on stone and their own companies - so that while customers are waiting in the sales area they can actually learn something while they are waiting to approve a slab or meet with you to discuss a project detail.

Remember that most people are "tactile" they like to touch and feel the stone that may be going into their homes. If you have the space available - a vignette is a perfect sales tool to show the quality of the work you do. It doubles as eye candy in your showroom, because now you can show customers what "your" seams look like, and how you do "your" edge details. You can show the difference between a stone that has pitting in it - like Baltic Brown - on a table top in front of a light source like a big window - so that you customer has the opportunity to see things for themselves, and make a more educated buying decision. This will save you time and anxiety in the long run, as your customer will already know what they are getting before you deliver it to them - because you took the time to educate them.

But what if you can't afford the money for a showroom, or you just don't have the free space to dedicate to "eye candy?" The next best thing I have found is posting a "virtual" showroom on your company website. Don't have a website? You'd better, if you want to be "in" the future of this industry.

If you don't yet have a website, the first thing you need to do is purchase a domain name and establish your official website address. This can be usually done for under $20 dollars per year. For a very small monthly hosting fee (around $14.95 a month) you can have a web site hosted with tons of bandwidth and as many of your domains as you want to build websites for. And if you can't afford a Webmaster to build your website - there are many applications available that you can use to build your own website. If you have a Windows based PC, Microsoft Publisher is included in the MS Office Suite. If you are working with a Mac, then iweb is a dream to use. I have worked with both - first MS Publisher, then with Apple's iweb, and needless to say - I do NOT use my PC any more - I do EVERYTHING for my websites on i-web! But that's just my own opinion. God bless ya, which ever application you choose just do SOMETHING! NOT having a website in today's market is like trying to run the 100 yard dash with a ball and chain attached to each of your ankles.

In today's business environment, having a website for your company is soon going to be a pre-requisite for attracting clients. There are few cheaper ways to promote your business than to use the web to it's best advantage.

The bottom line is this: having an cost efficient and beautiful showroom is a luxury and a tool that can be really effective - but only it's planned out correctly. Having a website will be a "given." To have both - priceless.

Until next month...

Best Regards & Happy Fabricating!!

Sales, Marketing, Showrooms & Website Uses are subjects that are taught every month by AZ School of Rock. For more information, contact Kevin M. Padden by phone at 480.309.9422 or via e-mail at info@azschoolofrock.com

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