Choice Spots A well-chosen showroom location decreased advertising expenditures and pulled in droves of customers from the get-go for Allen & Allen Co. Lumber & Hardware.
Opening a new showroom isn’t just a way of increasing sales. It also can raise the overall profile of a pro dealer’s business. That was clearly the case at two-unit, San Antonio, Texas–based Allen & Allen Co. Lumber & Hardware, which was somewhat overwhelmed when it launched a 10,000-square-foot showroom in the city’s booming north suburbs that spurred a 30 to 40 percent increase in sales.
“We were behind the eight ball for awhile when we opened because we were busier than we expected,” says Bobby Joe “Buzz” Miller, Allen & Allen’s president. According to Miller, response was so overwhelming at the $2 million facility that phone lines were jammed with the volume of calls and the company actually had to cut back its hours for a period. In the showroom business, “you’ve got to anticipate success,” Miller recommends.
The key factor that led to this “good problem” for Allen & Allen was the showroom’s location. Anchored to a busy section of State Loop 1604 and surrounded by residential housing developments and new retail shopping centers, the showroom catches the eyes of 75,000 commuters daily. “Even though it’s not your typical retail store, you’ve got to think about convenience with a showroom, and that means location, location, location,” says Miller. “It’s raised our whole profile.”
Some of that increased awareness came from high-visibility, custom lit signage on their property, right next to the highway—an investment that quickly paid for itself by eliminating the need for outdoor-advertising expenditures.
Like other pro dealers getting into the showroom business, Miller quickly found that site location, along with maximizing his showroom’s square footage, were important strategies to success. “There’s a reason you see a branch bank or grocery store from the same company on every major intersection these days: People don’t want to go out of their way to shop,” Miller says. “We bought a piece of property in the middle of a growth area in anticipation of building our showroom there.”
Pro customers appreciate a high-profile location, too. “When they opened up the north-side showroom, I used to tease them that they needed more phone lines because they were so busy,” says Jesse Warder, owner of Jess Warder & Son Homebuilders, a San Antonio custom builder that produces two to three houses annually. “But now, I can go in that showroom with my clients because they can get there, too—I met some folks there yesterday—and we can make a lot of construction decisions on the spot.”
A spot that’s been hot for Allen & Allen.
New Sales Driver Originally intended to catalyze millwork sales, Gove Lumber’s showroom is positively redefining the scope and profitability of the dealer’s installed sales efforts.
Launching a showroom breathed new life into Danvers, Mass.–based Gove Lumber Co. Founded in 1910, the fourth-generation lumberyard entered the new millennium married to its traditional lumber-and-masonry supply roots. But when it decided to open a showroom to boost its fledgling millwork business, the entire focus of the operation changed.
