It’s about getting more quotes to more potential customers

In this article:

• Simple steps to boost kitchen showroom sales growth
• Improving workflow between sales and design staff
• Using a Trusted Design Partner to generate more kitchen quotes

Running a kitchen showroom is expensive. There is a lot to consider: retail rents, display investments, payroll, and marketing, to name a few. This makes sales growth your top priority.

But, there are “soft” challenges that showroom owners and managers may not realize can limit sales. The main one is not reaching your full sales potential because you’re unable to get more designs done and quotes out.

This article introduces simple steps to boost your sales growth by improving the workflow between sales and design staff and using Outsource Kitchen Design to provide more kitchen designs.

More Quotes Means More Homeowners Purchasing

Your sales team wants to sell and earn more commissions. The lack of design output and quotes hinders them (because they can’t chase more potential customers) and leaves them competing for limited design resources. That’s not a good formula for sales growth.

Fortunately, this issue can be solved with some creative thinking.

“One solution showroom owners and managers may not realize exists is that they can boost kitchen design output by changing their design process. This allows them to quote and sell more. Taking the initiative to use OKD as a Trusted Design Partner makes that happen,” says OKD founder Mike Toth.

What does that look like? It’s simple. OKD’s design team supplements our customers’ existing design resources to boost your sales. This isn’t about shaking up your team or introducing disruptive methods. Rather, OKD provides unlimited design support while keeping your design and sales team intact.

There are a few ways our customers do this.

Some showrooms centralize their design process with a designer who coordinates all designs for the showroom’s sales team, while others prefer that each sales team member designs directly with us. OKD’s design packages account for each scenario and are tailored to their strengths.

Let’s take a look at a few scenarios.

Solving Kitchen Showroom Challenges

If your showroom works the way it always has, it will continue to get the same results.

“Most kitchen showrooms don’t have the organizational resources of big businesses, so they need to innovate. Of course, with limited resources comes limited time to conceive fresh ideas, train employees and implement new design output methods. A successful kitchen showroom needs to be in constant motion to get sales and profit and survive,” says Mike Toth.

Showrooms are often unable to boost design output and are not in a position to recruit and pay additional designers. Without innovation, their limited design resources are allocated to existing projects instead of quoting new customers.

That’s a tactical mistake. If a showroom depends on in-house designer’s output, it limits potential sales. This approach overlooks and compounds the struggles between salespeople and designers. Designers can only complete so many designs, but salespeople need more than they can supply.

Case Study #1: Design Process Diagnostic Removes Barriers

Favorable, long-term market conditions stirred demand for this Florida Gulf Coast showroom’s staff, but that made it harder to fulfill quotes.

“Our sales teams and designers began to frazzle. We realized that some were so overburdened creating kitchen designs they’d burn out. There was a lot of wasted energy going on,” says the Gulf Coast showroom manager.

When he reached out to OKD, we conducted a Design Diagnostic (a diagnostic of the process for converting sales lead info into a completed design and quote). It included:

• A deep dive into their current design and quote process
• Average design completion times
• Quantities of revisions per design
• Design and quote formats
• The uniformity and quality of designs
• Searching for bottlenecks

Once concluded, OKD presented a “Top Ten” list of design and quote flow suggestions that removed obstacles to keep the sales team motivated and selling. Design packages were then built around these suggestions.

“OKD’s review of how we designed and quoted, then finding areas for improvement, was something we couldn’t have done on our own. They reviewed our methods from the outside-in and quickly saw what was holding us back,” said the showroom manager.

Ultimately, the showroom increased sales and reduced costs, which led to greater employee retention.

Case Study #2: Reinvigorating an Outdated Showroom

A Midwest kitchen showroom owner, referred to OKD, wanted to reinvigorate his outdated kitchen showroom’s design approach.

“Our kitchen showroom designed the same way for years, and we never knew just how limited we were. We had become complacent, not realizing there were other methods. We spoke with OKD about our quoting ‘pain points’; the design support we received from them has really benefited our process,” says the showroom owner.

One improvement was to guarantee the designer received accurate information before beginning a design. Designers would like to work through a design quickly and accurately, but the sales team or customers sometimes give incomplete or poor information. This problem isn’t unique. Many kitchen showrooms begin designs with bad information. Such a timewaster for the design team!

We had to fix that – and fast. We took the results of the Design Diagnostic and asked more questions about the showroom’s customers, cabinet and appliance brands, and particulars about how they worked. We then created a custom Online Design Intake Form that captured all design information required for a fast and professional design. This form could not be submitted until all mandatory fields were completed.

The steps needed by salespeople to request an online design were reduced, greatly simplifying the process for an overwhelmed design staff. OKD also offered insight to better understand how kitchen designs differ for each customer type (i.e., commercial, residential, high-end, online, and economical). The forms include questions with drop-down options to guide salespeople with limited experience. A summary of the design submittal information is kept for both salespeople and the designer.

The benefits of these intake forms to kitchen showrooms are significant. It reduces revisions (which are real sales-killers and timewasters) and allows OKD designers to guarantee a three-day design turnaround, leading to more consistent and timely quotes.

Remember, potential customers buy from kitchen showrooms that get it right the first time. This requires keen attention to detail, clarity of the customer’s expectations, and consistent procedures. Presenting a timely customer quote matters.

Simplifying your Design Quote Process

Choosing OKD as a Trusted Design Partner means forging a long-term relationship to support all aspects of your design quote process.

“I knew I could sell more, but I couldn’t figure out what was missing. Now, I see our potential with design support from OKD. I felt stuck thinking that we had to keep working with our existing design resources. Now we see there’s a more profitable way of working!” says one showroom owner.

Many kitchen showrooms share similar problems, yet each has its own methods and challenges. Our designers listen and learn during our review and adhere to the KISS (“Keep It Simple Stupid”) philosophy. OKD designers adapt to your existing way of working, while our unlimited designs and quotes support your sales without disruption — which is what our customers want.

Long-term Solutions for Kitchen Showroom Design

OKD’s kitchen showroom design services provide showroom owners and managers with long-term solutions for sustained sales growth. Our Design Diagnostic service and design assistance make it easy for businesses to keep their teams and customers happy.