Selling Fixtures: Start A New Cash Flow?

“You must have a plumbing-showroom manager who has experience and is passionate about the fixtures and fittings business, because it’s completely separate from selling the stone and tile fabrication and installation,” Wills contends. “It should be treated as such until the entities meet and create a comprehensive design together.”

While that may seem a bit extreme, Tim Maicher, director of marketing for Lumberton, N.J.-based manufacturer Blanco America Inc., says a good sales person is key to helping buyers assess their needs in a faucet.

Click picture to enlarge“A good place to start is with the faucet they have now,” Maicher says. “What do they like or dislike about it? How do they use it? Do they wash things in the sink such as pots where a spray arm with force would be helpful? Do they need a tall faucet for filling big pots or watering cans?”

Other questions include what style and finish they’d like the faucet to have, where it will be positioned (which relates to the sink they select and how it will fit with the countertop), if they’re interested in water-saving features, and if they have a disability such as arthritis that would require a handle that’s easy to manage.

“Each question carves down the options,” says Maicher.

And, he adds, it’s only the less-confident salesperson who sells faucets based on price alone.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE?

Even the shop that doesn’t have space for a separate fixtures showroom shouldn’t be discouraged from taking a line, however.

At Trindco, Adams says adding faucets simply required making some space in the showroom for the two Kohler-branded displays required when the company signed on with that manufacturer, and developing the necessary (also Kohler-required) sales materials.

“We had already worked with our supplier to know what the anticipated lead times were with the models and finishes we are representing,” says Adams. “He came out and talked about some of the features and benefits of the different products that they offer.”

More recently, he adds, Kohler came out with a 40-page book showing which accessories fit with which sinks, as well as the colors and finishes that work well together.

For Adams, the biggest issue with selling fixtures may come down to the same concern he had when his customers bought them from someone else: lead times.

“If someone wants something other than what we normally offer, we know to either steer them away from it or help them understand it’s going to delay their project,” he says. “It’s important to coordinate the ordering, and we don’t want to have a countertop sale slowed down because of a sink or faucet that was on back order.”