Addressing the Key Choke Point of Your Plumbing Showroom Business
“Let’s see the product.”
The ability of plumbing showrooms to compete in the future hinges on the ability to fulfill this simple request — online and in-store. And the inability to deliver means you’re invisible to your online shopper and less effective than you could be with your in-store visits.
Let’s explore the one factor that drives success and failure in each case — your digitized company catalog. If you don’t have one — or if you’re breaking your back trying to make or update one — you’re up against two hard truths:
Truth #1: Today’s shoppers demand and expect to find anything they want to see online. Retailers and wholesalers with big budgets can easily squeeze out local guys and gals by being first in the search rankings every time somebody with a bathroom or kitchen project wants to see product.
Truth #2: If you get somebody in-store and are still thumbing through catalogs to show them product, you’re wasting their time (and your rep’s) and squandering the opportunity to capitalize on your friendly, face-to-face advantage.
Tying your online presence and in-store experience together all takes a good digital back end that can showcase your entire product portfolio — down to specs and model numbers. Some showrooms hire online marketers or their cousin to make and update websites. This is a waste of money. In most instances, you could quintuple your budget and still not have a slick online/in-store product experience like the big boys.
Addressing this choke point gives you a way out of being a part-time webmaster and lets you focus on the thing that really makes you money: Your in-store experience and knowledgeable staff. It’s all about focusing on your strengths. And believe me, websites and databases aren’t it.
What if you could, at one stop:
• Showcase your entire product portfolio to prospects and customers, in an easy-to-browse environment that looks as good as Lowe’s website — without having to pay a third party to update your product database and website every time?
• Sell and display your updated portfolio at will, letting your reps easily make and display custom catalogs to show home project folks and contractors on the showroom floor?
• Include spec sheets for any product with a single click?
When you can do stuff like this, you’ve mastered your plumbing showroom business’ choke point. And you’re ready to compete in the 21st Century instead of being the next one to fall in the current wave of consolidation and going-out-of-business sales.
Click here to find out more about how save money while evening the playing field — online and on the floor of your store.
If you’re interested in a simpler, more effective way to compete, this short video (one minute and forty seconds, to be exact) highlights our answer to the dilemma. Get in touch if you’d like to explore!
