I was running 10+ kitchen and bath showrooms in 2012, and I struggled with getting designs out on time, inconsistent branding and quality between showrooms, friction between design and sales, and trouble qualifying leads.

Our sales had also become static. I realized we needed to quote more to drive more revenue—but our in-house design capacity was limited.

I’d had enough of feeling overwhelmed with work yet stuck in a sales rut. I wanted my teams focused on ‘designing to sell’—not busy work for low-quality leads.

I developed a centralized, process-driven team of staff designers who created quality designs and quick pricing for our sales team’s first prospect meetings. This way, they could sell prospects on a design retainer sooner (and scare off the tire-kickers who would never buy).

Initially, my sales team didn’t want to share designs and pricing so early. They thought they would sell more if they worked through revisions over time. But they were urged to follow the new process.

It took a lot of coaching to move away from a “design for free” mentality to one focused on engaging just the best prospects—but it paid off. Prospects got better designs and we quoted more. Leads were qualified sooner and we signed more design retainers. And, ultimately, we drove more revenue with less effort.

We strive to create long-term, profitable relationships with our customers by consistently delivering quality services. And we do it by investing in our design team.

Our designers receive kitchen industry education and are NKBA-certified. As a group we’re all proud members of these organizations: