Pursuing the New Deal

What does it take to sell new products to born skeptics, like builders? Learn a lot about the product, then prove its worth.

11 MIN READ
SALES OPENERS: Mark Woody, senior contractor sales leader at Spencer Home Center in Lexington, Va., examines a line of door hardware that Spencer began selling with great success a few years back. Like many other dealers, Woody believes he can gain a competitive edge by alerting customers to new products and demonstrating how to install them.

James Kegley

SALES OPENERS: Mark Woody, senior contractor sales leader at Spencer Home Center in Lexington, Va., examines a line of door hardware that Spencer began selling with great success a few years back. Like many other dealers, Woody believes he can gain a competitive edge by alerting customers to new products and demonstrating how to install them.

A Matter of Trust

When they’re pitching new products, dealers often encounter resistance from builders on several fronts. Some builders are married to certain brands. Many simply don’t like change. Most are looking for deals.

Daniel Griffin, a commercial sales specialist with a Lowe’s store in Woodbridge, Va., thinks his pro customers are receptive to new products now “because they are looking for ways to cut costs without compromising quality.”

Dealers can’t ignore price as a factor when they are marketing new products. But price isn’t the deal breaker some suppose it to be. “Anyone can sell on price, but it takes a professional to sell on quality,” says Mark Woody, senior contractor sales leader for Spencer Home Center in Lexington, Va., a retailer whose credibility with customers is bolstered by several employees who have worked for Spencer for up to 30 years. Woody himself has worked there for two decades.

Woody is among dealers who are convinced that sellers can nudge contractors beyond price by positioning a product as something “that adds value and saves them money,” says Kent Krauss, an outside salesman with 15 years’ experience at pro dealer Shelly’s in Souderton, Pa.

Jeff Schiller, sales manager with Westside Building Supply of Lynden, Wash., goes so far as to say that when dealers convincingly present a new product’s “outstanding features and long-term benefits,” contractors might be willing to pay up to 20% above the cost of products they already use.

“New products need to solve an existing problem,” explains Tim Plunkett, an outside salesperson with Ring’s End Lumber in Darien, Conn., which maintains an education center that hosts new-product seminars for builders and architects. “Rarely in my experience do lower prices generate interest [more] than quality.” He notes that his customers at first resisted Huber Engineered Woods’ AdvanTech flooring system as being too expensive. But they came around, says Plunkett, “once they saw the warranty, the [product’s] stiffness, and labor savings due to easier installation.” His customers also have switched to pricier Kleer PVC flat stock and exterior trim because of their perceived value.

Dealers are, in essence, selling themselves when they are touting new products. Each pitch can be viewed as a referendum on a dealer’s judgment. On that score, the jury is still out in some builders’ minds. “Salespeople from dealers and distributors aren’t always as objective as they should be,” says Magleby. He relies more on peers’ views before buying something new.

“A product’s track record is a big deal for me,” adds Rob Owens, vice president of operations for Jeff Benton Homes of Huntsville, Ala., which builds about 200 homes a year. “I’m not going to be a guinea pig. The product needs to be time-tested.” He’s tried out new products on his own home before offering them to customers.

“There are a lot of unknowns when trying new products,” says Annette Panning, marketing manager for Andersen Window. “Builders want to know they can trust the products they use. They also tend to like products that have been proven by others first.”

Peer review can make or break a new product, say dealers and builders, and has been known to fuel demand. Kuchan of ABC Supply says that before pre-finished fiber-cement panels emerged from suppliers, custom builders interested in the product’s curbside appeal sent out panels themselves to be painted before installation. And when Sattler Homes, a custom builder in Colorado, wants info about the latest in plumbing and electrical, it turns first to its subs. “We consider them our experts,” says Linda Zmieksky, Sattler’s production coordinator.

Consequently, dealers who can enlist select contractors in their marketing causes are more than half way home to selling new products or applications to a broader pro customer base. Before conducting its quarterly product-knowledge seminars, Spencer Home Center asks local, reputable contractors to try out a new product so the dealer can provide seminar attendees with a track record of use. “The sale is easy from there,” says Woody. Last year, Maine-based distributor Emery Waterhouse conducted six “category solutions” seminars for dealers and contractors that focused on power tools and fasteners. A third party administered those sessions, says Emery’s president Steve Frawley, to maintain their credibility.

About the Author

Sidebar Single