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The Concrete Countertop Shop: Business Strategy 101 Part 2

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by Lane Mangum, VP Business Services, The Concrete Countertop Institute

Insider knowledge that will help you SELL your concrete countertops.

Relationship Marketing: the best tool you can use to build a successful business.

Remember that even if you have concrete that never cracks, is very stain and damage resistant, and looks great every time, you must be able to market it effectively; all the quality in the world doesn’t matter if no one sees it. This is where relationship marketing comes in. Relationship marketing is the art of networking with the influencers who will help you sell more product. In the case of concrete countertops, kitchen designers are the most powerful influencers.

relationships

Think about it. How many friends and family do you know right now who are remodeling their kitchens? None? One? Five? So if someone had made a beautiful concrete countertop for you and you wanted to give them a glowing referral, you would have maybe one to five people to refer them to. How many people do you think a kitchen designer knows who are currently remodeling their kitchens? Probably 50 or more. So who is the better source of referrals?

Let’s back up and talk a little about what a kitchen and bath designer is. A kitchen and bath designer is an educated professional who understands how to combine all of the elements of a kitchen or bathroom for a workable, livable space. (As shorthand, I generally use the term “kitchen designer,” but most of these professionals also design bathrooms.) Kitchen designers understand cabinets, countertops, sinks, faucets, appliances, floor finishes, lighting, tile and other design elements. They are like general contractors for the kitchen, and in fact some kitchen designers are actual general contractors.

Kitchen designers have showrooms where they display the cabinet, countertop, fixture and appliance brands they carry in appealing vignettes to help the customer make selections. They also keep a library of samples.

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The ultimate goal is to get your concrete countertops displayed in the high-end kitchen and bath showrooms in your area, creating a virtual sales force for your product. But before you can do that, you need to develop relationships with these professionals. Kitchen designers need to have confidence in you and your product, to know that you are going to do a good job for their clients. These relationships give you a dramatic advantage over any competitor who is not utilizing available connections and networking opportunity.

Partner

Step by step….

If you are just starting out in the countertop business, the prospect of getting displays in these fancy showrooms may seem daunting. But it all starts with a simple phone call, with the modest goal of getting an appointment. Kitchen designers want to keep up to date on all the latest products. They will be happy to receive a phone call simply introducing your company and asking if you can show them some samples. Usually they will agree to a quick meeting, but even if they don’t, they will likely agree to let you drop off some samples and a brochure.

When you get a meeting with a kitchen designer, you have three goals:

  • make a good impression
  • leave samples
  • educate

If the outcome of the meeting is that they are confident in you and your product, they will agree to keep the samples and show them to potential clients.

kitchen design show

Once you’ve done a good job on a few projects with a kitchen designer, he or she may want you to install a display in their showroom if they have space. Be aware, though, that even if you leave samples or install a display, kitchen designers will not actively sell concrete countertops unless they understand them. In larger kitchen and bath showrooms, there are often multiple designers who work for a vice president of sales. You may have convinced the vice president of sales to put a large, prominent display in the showroom, but if the individual designers are not educated about concrete countertops, they will steer customers away. Make sure that you educate all the designers, and check in at least once per quarter to see whether there are any new designers and to give them samples of new colors, new edge styles or updated brochures. Maintain the relationship.

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There are lots of other ways to develop and maintain relationships with kitchen and bath designers, as well as other design professionals such as interior designers and architects.

  • You can network at meetings held by the National Kitchen & Bath Association or the American Society of Interior Designers
  • have a grand opening of your shop
  • present to architects at lunch-and-learns

The same principles apply: Find the influencers, network with them to develop a relationship, and educate them so that they will feel confident in you and your product.

The power to create a successful, thriving business fabricating AND selling concrete countertops is within your grasp. Develope your website, get some materials to hand out, and go meet people who can influence your local market. What are you waiting for?

If you’re still a little uncertain about the details, get the 132-page book on How to Market and Sell Concrete Countertops, including actual call scripts for contacting kitchen designers.

The Concrete Countertop Shop: Business Strategy 101 Part 1

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by Lane Mangum, VP Business Services, The Concrete Countertop Institute

    Insider knowledge that will help you SELL your concrete countertops.

Concrete countertops are countertops. They just happen to be made out of concrete.

This fact should dictate your marketing and selling techniques: if you understand how countertops are most commonly and most effectively marketed and sold, you will be much more successful at marketing and selling concrete countertops.

                              1940salesman

This is not to say that concrete countertops being made from concrete is an unimportant or irrelevant fact. Concrete is, after all, the irreplaceable aspect that makes concrete countertops so beautiful, versatile and unique! It also pushes them into the high-end market, since they are custom-made from-scratch for each client. It doesn’t get any more homegrown and original than that! But keep in mind: these properties are merely great features of these particular countertops. Universal countertop marketing principles still apply. 

Let’s get practical.

High-end countertops are most commonly used in kitchen and bath remodeling projects, or in truly custom new homes. Large developments with cookie-cutter or semicustom homes are unlikely to use high-end countertops, since they want to use something cheap, fast and with broad appeal. Typically they are not interested in quality, character or craftsmanship.

Knowing this, think about how homeowners buy high-end countertops. They don’t buy them from a large builder like Centex. They don’t buy them at Home Depot. They seek out the countertop fabricator themselves, or they use an interior/kitchen designer to help them. 

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Let’s talk about the tools you need in your sales toolkit.

When seeking out a countertop maker, high-end countertop buyers (including the people you really want to work with: designers!) use the Internet to search. They do not use the phone book, except perhaps to find a plumber in an emergency. A website is one of the most important marketing tools in your arsenal. It can serve as an electronic brochure, portfolio and information source. It lends credibility and professionalism to your company. And it can generate leads for you.

A good website for high-end countertops needs only a few pages:

  • a home page
  • a contact page
  • an About Us page
  • a portfolio page
  • a product information page

The product information page is particularly important with concrete countertops, since novices tend to think of concrete as either looking like a public parking garage or being supernaturally immune to scratches, stains and general wear & tear. This is your chance to answer common questions such as “Does concrete stain?” and “Will it crack?” which will help prequalify your leads AND let potential clients see that you know what you’re talking about— if people can find it.

If you create a website without listing it, nobody will ever see it! It’s the equivalent of sticking a sign in your back yard–no one is going to see it unless you invite them over and point it out. That is why you need to use a contractor listing service; it’s like having an ad at the Superbowl. What you need is steady traffic stopping by your website, and the best, most reliable way to get that is through a listing service.

Now. A website is essential, but it’s a passive, impersonal form of marketing. So are print ads. I do not ever recommend print ads for startup concrete countertop businesses because they are so expensive in comparison to their rate of return. You will have many ad sales representatives trying to sell you print ads by saying, “One job per month could pay for the monthly cost of the ad.” Your response to that should be, “Why spend 100% of the proceeds from a single solitary job when I could be getting MORE jobs for a fraction of the ad costs by NOT using print ads?”

Carefully consider where you want your advertising budget to be–don’t make the rookie mistakes of spending all your money on useless ads that no one is going to see. It’s all about shooting at targets; if you don’t know what your targets are, you are shooting blind and you’re not going to hit the mark.    1154333866 1 

Unless you have Ninja superpowers, this is not the way to go. Knowing who you are selling to (your target market) is absolutely essential to every successful marketing strategy.

No, in order to be truly effective at marketing concrete countertops, you need… (drum roll please)…. relationship marketing.

To be continued….

What’s in a Name – Branding 101

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by Lane Mangum, VP Business Services

When choosing the name for your company, you need to have one word at the forefront of your mind: Branding. Your company name and tagline (like a company motto) should be short, succinct, and should communicate to people what it is that you can do for them. If it’s catchy, that’s great, but it doesn’t have to be. Let me give you a couple of broad examples that you’re probably quite familiar with:

UPS: What can brown do for you?

The Concrete Countertop Institute: Raising the standard.

Windows: I’m a PC, and this is MY Windows 7.

With a name like Smuckers, it HAS to be good.

As with any business, there is more to concrete than cement and water and aggregates. Yes, you need to know what you’re doing in the shop, but if you don’t know how to get your product noticed all the fabrication skills in the world won’t do you a bit of good.

Your main goal, when you’re deciding on a business name for yourself, is to come up with something that is unique enough to stand out, but not so unique that no one can remember how to spell it. Here is some creative spelling that you might want to avoid at all costs:

  • Kreative
  • Qwick
  • Concreet (yes, this is a real-life example)
  • Nu (in place of new)

                             brilliance stupidity

The last thing you want is your customer not being able to locate you online or in the phonebook because they can’t remember how the name is spelled. You also want them to take you seriously, and having a silly name will not contribute to that.

Almost as crucial as the name itself is the tagline, or motto. Taglines are vital because they provide additional information about your company’s values or goals in one glance. It does not have to be a sentence, and it does not have to be clever, but every company should have one. Here are some examples of successful taglines that you might consider:

Sateen Concrete: Quality, Craftsmanship, Style.

Sateen Concrete: Since 1998 (this really only works if the date is a decade or more in the past.)

Sateen Concrete: 100% satisfaction guarantee—every customer, every time.

Sateen Concrete: Rekindling the love between you and your house, one counter at a time.

Let’s recap what we have so far: Company name should be unique, it should have standard spelling, and it should have a tagline.    

book publishing company names

Let’s go more in-depth with the principals behind choosing a tagline. Whether you’re just starting your company or need to revitalize an existing business, you should know what your goals are. Your goals will shape your motto. 

Is your customer always right?

Do you provide the best value for the money?

Are you focused on great design?

These questions may seem simple, but the answers will not be the same for each person; they might be wildly different, in fact, which is why you need to know where you stand. And you cannot have everything—if you do cutting edge design, your customer might not always be happy with the result. If your bottom line is a satisfied customer, you might loose money on a project. There is nothing wrong with any of those goals, and nothing wrong with having one specific focus. But you need to know what that focus is. Decide what you want your company to be known for, and follow through. This will attract the kind of clients that you want, and you will build a good reputation for yourself and your business.

One thing you should always do is Google a prospective business name. If there are several million results, you’ll want to go back to the drawing board. If there are only a few hundred thousand, that is more reasonable. It will also make it easier to get the website that you want. If you use a name that hundreds of other companies are also using, odds are not in your favor that someone who tries to look you up will find you, and not your competition. And you definitely need your company name (or some variation of it) as your website address. Websites are non-negotiable these days; at the absolute least you need a Facebook Page. See for yourself which email address looks more professional:

Info@sateenconcrete.com
Sateenconcrete@yahoo.com

If you want to build trust with new clients (of course you do), this is where you need to start. They need to know who you are and how to locate you besides a telephone number.

It is not difficult to come up with a unique company name. You can always add your last name (as long as the spelling is straightforward!), or your city to the business name to really narrow those search results.

Forbs Custom Concrete
Harrison Concrete Design
Brooklyn Concrete Fabrication
Des Moines Countertop Construction

Also keep in mind that when customers are just browsing for someone in their area who can build them a concrete countertop, business names are sorted alphabetically, and the closer you are to A, the easier you will be found. On that note, do avoid scholastic impersonations, such as A+ Concrete. Again, you want people to take you seriously.

Once you have a solid brand, get your name out there! You can get business cards for the cost of shipping to hand out to prospects and for networking purposes; attend local chamber of commerce meetings; be a sponsor for a high school team; put pictures and testimonials on your website that will show people what your company can do. The power to create a thriving business is in your hands!

Happy branding….