“We were doing less than $5 million, but since we’ve started with the showroom, we’ve almost doubled our sales in two-and-a-half years,” says Sandy Gove, vice president of sales and marketing at the now $9 million, two-unit firm. Almost half of those revenues come directly from high-profit millwork sales generated by the showroom, a category that accounted for less than $500,000 in 2000, Gove says.
Starting in 2002 and partnering with its Enfield, Conn.–based distributor A.W. Hastings & Co., Gove invested $800,000 to launch the Marvin Window and Door Showcase by Gove Lumber Co., a 5,000-square-foot facility dedicated solely to displaying and selling high-end Marvin windows and doors. Gove relied heavily on Hastings, a dedicated Marvin distributor, to help it navigate the course of designing, building, and getting the showroom up to speed. “Soon after we started talking to Gove, it became clear they were trying to evolve their business,” says Keenan Burns, vice president at A.W. Hastings. “That vision fit very well with our all-inclusive showroom program.”
According to Burns, Hastings is a “sales, marketing, and services” company that helps pro dealer firms expand their business through service and education. For dealers participating in the program, A.W. Hastings offers everything from financial modeling and marketing support to architectural assistance and sales force education. “Gove is a perfect example for us,” says Burns. “[Since opening the showroom,] they have set up a completely separate business unit within their company.”
The showroom focus, in turn, also has spurred other revenues for the dealer. Prior to launching its showroom, installed sales was a small part of Gove’s business. “But once we opened the Showcase, it just totally exploded,” Gove says. “Our installed sales were over $1 million last year.” Those increased revenues taught the smallish company a lesson about the showroom world: Once you build it, you’d better be ready to adapt to its needs. “If we didn’t have installed sales, 30 percent of our business would turn around and walk out the door,” Gove says.
Instead, the only doors those patrons are walking through every day are the ones that were purchased from—and in many cases installed by—Gove Lumber.
Pulling Through Dealers in Brentwood, Tenn., are benefiting from the upstream showroom services provided by two-step distributor Parksite Plunkett-Webster.
Still not sure about taking the showroom route? You may not need to if someone else blazes a path for you. That’s the idea behind the new PPW Building Idea Center in Brentwood, Tenn., which Batavia, Ill.–based distributor Parksite Plunkett-Webster (PPW) uses to serve 15 to 20 of its lumber dealers in the area. Launched in September 2004, the 5,000-square-foot facility features EnviroShake roofing, Nichiha fiber-cement siding, a DuPont StormRoom shelter system, GroundScape rubber mulch, Maine Ornamental post caps, Deckorators deck railing, and seven full-sized composite decking displays.
“A lot of dealers don’t have showrooms at all, and for some of the products we sell to be successful, we felt it would be a service to our dealers if we could display the products in use,” says Scott Thomas, marketing director for PPW. No sales are made at the Idea Center, though, which was fully funded by PPW. Instead, the distributor refers customers to its core dealers in the area, whose contact information is prominently displayed on the facility’s walls.
“They send their contractors and architects to visit us, and then we drive the customer back to them,” says Thomas. When dealing with pro customers, salespeople ask where the builder usually buys materials and steer him or her there. But while the showroom is designed to highlight PPW’s partners, Thomas stresses that it’s open to everyone, general public included.
So far, that’s worked out just fine for PPW’s dealer network in the Brentwood market. For example, the facility has already generated commissions for Floyd Sommers, a builder sales rep at two-unit, Franklin, Tenn.–based Huskey Truss & Building Supply, one of PPW’s partner dealers in the area. “I’ve got a free showroom and free employees working for me over there,” says Sommers. “By the time my customer sends the homeowner over there, it’s a done deal. My sale is already made.”
