Selling Fixtures: Start A New Cash Flow?

Just as sinks went from something the client bought elsewhere to a standard item in many showrooms, faucets and fittings may be the latest profitable add-on to countertop and vanity jobs.

Click picture to enlargeCertainly the reasons for offering the items are much the same. There’s convenience for the shop owner and for the client. And, with a variety of faucet manufacturers looking at fabrication shops as a natural place for expansion, something’s likely to fit your needs and those of your clients.

However, it’s also going to take some extra work in terms of preparing the showroom and the staff to sell these higher-end items.

MIDAS TOUCH?

Among the changes in the stone industry during the past decade was, indeed, the proverbial kitchen sink. Not all that long ago, most fabricators told clients to go to a plumbing supply shop or big-box store, pick out a sink, and have it delivered back to the fabricator for measuring the cutouts.

The advent of sink companies  that specifically targeted fabricators, however, helped change that.

“When we started this business nine years ago, I would say two percent or three percent of granite fabricators sold sinks,” says Brent Cohn, president of Mill Valley, Calif.-based Eclipse Stainless. “The fabricators were touching every sink they put in, but it wasn’t a profit center for them; it could sometimes create difficulties.”

Hunter Adams, co-president of Suffolk, Va.-based fabrication company Trindco Premium Countertops, agrees that his business’ decision to add sinks didn’t focus as much on dollars as on convenience.

“We carry sinks as a convenience to our customers and also a convenience to ourselves,” Adams says. “We had a lot of people who came in who weren’t sure what sink options they wanted. It was also easier for us if we already had the cutout files, so we started offering them.”

Today, the presence of sinks in the showroom makes it not only easier to do that cutout in a timely manner, but they add to the bottom line. The offer of a free or reduced-price sink can even serve as an inducement to a wavering client to sign a contract.

However, shops that latched onto sinks in a big way in recent years now notice that much the same arguments can be made for offering faucets and even plumbing fixtures.