End of an Era
I know it's Saturday and I don't want to bore or bog you down you with a lot of reading. Just scan this to get the high points. It's an article that was written in 2008 for Draperies & Window Coverings Magazine by a top executive in the drapery industry. It applies to trends happening now and to many of the niches we are in. I think it's an important read because it can help you shape your strategy. Trend predictions are very interesting to me. Good to hear what other people have to say. It's true! And watch as things unfold. Compete with Walmart? We don't want to and we don't have to.
End of an Era
© September 2008
by: Steven C. Bursten
Powerful trends were unseen, but underway
before the downturn in home building and the upturn in gasoline prices. Now, it
is evident: We have come to the end of an era. Our industry has hit a wall.
There are not enough appointments. That means the typical dealer sells less and earns less. That means fewer openings for decorating consultants.
Yet, a new era with new opportunity is
opening. There will be winners. There are already losers. The action you take
in the New Era will determine your success. The house you live in, the car you
drive, the vacation you experience all will be decided by decisions you make
today.
New
Trends Create New
Peter Drucker, my favorite author, tells
how you can profit from this break. He states, “The highest calling of a manager is to seize opportunity to cause
growth.” And, “
Your job is to act on the break before competitors catch on. Drucker calls it, “A future that has already happened, we just have to have the eyes to see it.”
Four Trends to Profit in the New Era:
There are four trends that have already
happened. These are breaks with the past that are opening a new era of opportunity.
Here are the trends and how you can profit from them.
1.
Advertising and marketing
2.
Product innovation
3.
Traditional retailing
4
Competition and education
1. Advertising
and Marketing
Media advertising is dead. Forget
newspapers, radio, TV and yellow pages. Are there rare exceptions? Of course.
Yellow pages still work in resort areas where vacationing condo owners don’t
have friends to ask for a recommendation. TV can work for multi-million-dollar
businesses with savvy, innovative managers. But, on the main, media is dead. So,
if media doesn’t work any longer, what does? Only two things work today, and
are likely to work for years to come: the
Internet, in all its forms, and person-to-person activities.
• Internet Web sites, Search Engines and Pay Per Click—It once was pretty simple. Throw up a Web site for $500 to $2,000 as an online brochure. Unlike printed brochures, you didn’t have to reorder after 1,000 customers viewed it. Unlike a TV ad, it didn’t disappear after 30 seconds. Websites, online day and night, 24 /7/365, have been a place for customers to learn about you after they
know who you are. Once you got your story
the way you wanted, you could leave your Web site alone and let it work for
you. That was then. This is now.
Today, everyone has a Web site. You
cannot afford to pay for print or broadcast advertising to create awareness and
send customers to your Web site. In days gone by newspaper advertising would
give you immediate leads and pay for itself, and your weekly ad would create
residual, long-term awareness so customers would call you. Today you can’t
afford this repetition. That means no one knows who you are. If they don’t know
your name, they won’t call you.
Today, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for customers to find you.
When customers search Google for a product you sell—say draperies, blinds or
motorization—and then enter your city or ZIP code, you want to be one of the
top 10 listings right next to Google’s map of your area. The problem is it
takes more than money to make it work. You must constantly change your Web
site, add blogs and post to them frequently, you must add new pages or Google’s
bots crawling the Internet will pay you no mind.
To get results, prepare to invest up to $1,000 monthly or be part of a manufacturer or industry group or franchise that knows and understands this medium.
• Activities
and Personal Promotion—The
second form of marketing that works in the New Era is personal promotion. To
succeed requires initiative, pro-active behavior and drive. Generally, we
resist knocking on doors, passing out flyers, mailing and calling past
customers and aggressive self-promotion. But, the fact is, it works. It is the
one constant that has worked for the nearly 50
years I have been in this business.
2. Product
Innovation
Constant product innovation is an era now
past. Yes, there always will be new products.
Drapery Stores Disappear—The “blinds era” wiped drapery stores off the map. They no longer exist. Only a small percentage of dealers understand draperies today. Yet, custom drapery is the growth opportunity. The break happened this year as blinds businesses suffered sales losses serving mid-income customers, new construction and existing home sales markets. Yet, full-service window coverings businesses are growing. I define full service as selling a balanced mix of all products: draperies, blinds, shadings and shutters plus creative ideas. This requires consultants who are well trained on draperies and window treatment design, in addition to alternative products.
Full-service
window styling serving upscale customers is the one category experiencing broad
based growth—even record sales in 2008. The “product” in this New Era will be
distinctive, personal design and creative ideas. Fashionable, upscale customers
will not accept less, and they have the money to spend.
3. Traditional
Retailing
Traditional retailing means a store for
walk-in customers to buy things. Hundreds of stores opened across
Future growth for quality custom products
will be shop-at-home by educated independent and franchised businesses. As the
growth era of in-store buying ends, a new era opens with vast opportunity.
• Upscale
Customers Want At-home Service. No store-based retailer can sell the luxury
market
—homes over $500,000 in value—without a
strong shop-at-home strategy.
Upscale customers have money. They are
buying high-fashion window coverings. Middle-income homeowners need their money
for gasoline to drive their cars. Upscale customers are not do-it-yourselfers.
They want someone else to measure for them; to write specification orders; to
bring product samples to their homes to show under their lighting and with
their furnishings. The more that draperies grow in demand, the more that
do-it-yourself, in-store selection will be yesterday’s news.
• Consultants
Must Become Entrepreneurial—The impact goes beyond the store. In the
traditional retailing model, customer appointments are wholly provided to
consultants. That doesn’t work today. No one is getting the appointments they
need to keep all their consultants busy. In the New Era sales
consultants must be more entrepreneurial.
They must develop some of their own leads or suffer less income. There is no
choice in the New Era.
4.Competition and Education
Competition is not dead. It is
flourishing, made even worse by the economy as dealers cut prices on commodity
products. But there is a way to beat the endless number of van operators who
sell cheap because of low overhead. There is a way to beat big money stores
with beautiful showrooms. There even is
a way to beat Internet operators with endless selection and easy access.
• Education Is the Difference—Competing on price is dead, for professionals. You can win with education. What does a professional know that others might not? A professional sales consultant with a structured system often can sell at prices 20 percent above a low-priced competitor. The difference is knowing how to sell concepts instead of commodities, how to promote ideas instead of products, how to create emotional desire for a beautiful room instead of comparing prices to competitors.
You can master these techniques. But, be aware, they are selling techniques, not decorating techniques, not product knowledge and not ordering experience. Selling techniques means knowing which customers have money, where to find them, what motivates them to buy, how to advertise. Know them, and the words to use on the phone and in person that will make them want to buy from you instead of a low-price competitor.
• Start with Sales Training—Read books and listen to tapes by Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins. Read Frank Bettcher’s “How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling.” Consider DVD recordings offered by this magazine and Window Coverings University Online. There are many ways you can educate yourself, but take action now if you want to compete in the future.
End
of an Era
The end of one era can open vast
opportunities to you in the era to come. The New Era will be based on Internet technology, personal marketing,
draperies, creative ideas, shop-at-home service to upscale customers, and
education to beat competition.
The
New Era will require
change. There is no question you can be a winner when you seize opportunity as
we break with the past.
This article is based on Steven C. Bursten’s actual experience with sales and financial information working with hundreds of window coverings businesses.
Bursten is co-founder and CEO of Exciting
Windows! a network of experienced and aspiring window coverings professionals.
He also co-founded the International Window Coverings Exchange,
profitability. Bursten encourages
questions and comments at steveb@ExcitingWindows.com
