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Continuing Education Workshop

Taking Advantage of the Shutter Explosion
Four critical things to demand from component suppliers.

Shutter installations continue to show double-digit increases year over year in every region of the country. As the styles, materials and price range of shutters change, so has the customer’s demand for more education about the options available. So it’s no surprise that more window coverings fabricators are looking to add shutters to their product mix, or to broaden the range of shutter options that they already offer their customers.

But addressing this growing demand in the marketplace is not as easy as merely selecting a new vendor and offering its product. Local market fabricators need more than components and price lists. To be profitable in this industry, they need—and should demand—a deeper level of support from the shutter component suppliers. They should be looking for their suppliers to be more than just a vendor.

If you operate a successful window coverings business, then you’re aware of the challenge: How do you get your suppliers to help you market their products while they also help you maximize your revenues and improve your company’s overall profits at the same time?

One way to achieve all of these things is to select suppliers who genuinely understand your business and are willing to support you in expanding it, instead of simply selling you product. It would be useful, for example, if your supplier has actually been in your shoes, selling and installing window coverings to actual homeowners, and not just manufacturing and selling components.

In a recent survey conducted by the Thermalite Fabricators Association, they sought to better understand the biggest frustrations fabricators face when purchasing from shutter component suppliers around the country. The consensus was that there are four critical characteristics that must be present if you’re to enjoy a relationship with a supplier that’s free of product and support nightmares:

1. You don’t need simply another product vendor.

2. Position yourself alongside leaders and innovators

3. Insist on a step-by-step system for managing your growing operation.

4. Look for turnkey marketing materials

YOU DON’T NEED SIMPLY ANOTHER PRODUCT VENDOR
There are plenty of shutter component suppliers in this industry. The truth is that many of them have zero experience actually selling shutters to the end-users. They have zero experience fabricating finished custom shutters themselves. And they have zero experience installing shutters at the customer’s home. Most component suppliers who claim to have such experience have typically subcontracted out these installations. So they were never really on the front lines—with customers—where you live and breathe each and every day.

The question you want to ask is: Do they have experience as a local market retailer, a fabricator, and an installer themselves? If they do, they are in a position to help cut your learning curve down significantly and help you generate higher profits quickly. If they’ve “been there, done that,” they can share their own experience with you. And they can show you evidence of success in contributing to the growth of other window covering operations like yours.

In fact, look for a supplier who treats you not as a vendor treats a customer, but one who considers you as a Fabricator Partner.

POSITION YOURSELF ALONGSIDE LEADERS AND INNOVATORS IN THE INDUSTRY
Select a supplier who’s been leading the shutter industry—and innovating with new and better products in this industry—for years. The last thing you need is to be a guinea pig, learning lessons the hard way from manufacturers who are just learning themselves.

Shutters have gone through a remarkable transformation in the last few decades, with product and service options that savvy customers are demanding to know more about. For example, wood shutters have a tried and tested place in the market. There will always be buyers who want nothing but wood shutters.

But the truth is, over time, wood shutters will naturally swell, shrink and crack. Sooner or later, wood shutters will lose tension and perform poorly. The lacquer-based paint on most wood shutters is prone to discoloration and, of course, wood is highly flammable.

Alternatives to wood shutters have been gaining increasing market acceptance in recent years, particularly with the introduction of Thermalite Shutters into the market in 1988. Thermalite will never swell, peel, crack or burn, and the water-based painted finish ensures lifelong true color. In fact, fabricators selling and installing Thermalite in the United States offer a warranty so strong that it’s actually transferable to the next homeowner.

So choose a supplier that has considerable experience with its finger on the pulse of this dynamic industry. In order to distinguish yourself in a crowded and price-competitive marketplace, make sure the products you represent meet the quality standards your customers will demand, and ones that are proven to last longer than others in side-by-side comparisons.

INSIST ON A STEP-BY-STEP SYSTEM TO PROFITABILITY
Let’s be frank. Most window coverings suppliers will sell you their components, invoice you and hope that you will continue to buy from them with the least amount of effort on their part. It’s highly unusual for a supplier to provide you with what you really need: A step-by-step approach for growing—and managing—your fabricating business. Their interest typically is in selling you components, not in teaching you how to run a profitable window coverings operation.

So ideally, you want to look for a supplier that’s invested the time and the resources to develop the systems, and maybe even the proprietary software, you would need to grow your company. Their approach would specifically insure better cash flow, more accurate and easily managed inventory control, and a fabricating system so precise and predictable, that you’d never have to send materials back to them. Any system like this should also provide for the fastest guaranteed delivery times in the industry, setting you apart from your local competition.

An example of a proven system like this is offered by Danmer Custom Shutters. It’s called the BEST program, which stands for Business Expansion Support Team. It’s designed specifically to support fabricators in increasing revenues and improving overall profitability.

At the core of the step-by-step system is a proprietary software package called SmartShutter, which actually systematizes any window coverings business. Producing consistently more efficient operations and higher profits, SmartShutter features manage:

• Customer Tracking
• Job Tracking
• Scheduling (measuring and installs)
• Production
• Inventory and Purchasing
• Sales Commissions and Installer Pay
• Job Pricing
• Accounts Receivable

But make sure your support from a component supplier doesn’t stop at software. Operational efficiency and reduced costs will only be as valuable as your ability to sell the product and to install it satisfactorily. Of course, your supplier will take your call when you have a problem or question, but if they’re not in the business of selling to the end user—or in the business of installing shutters in the home—their support may be negligible.

Danmer’s BEST program, for example, walks you through every step of growing a shutter business, from A to Z: Sales Training, Installer Training, Shop Configuration, Marketing, Production, Pricing . . . everything you need in order to increase your revenues by up to 400 percent in as little as 18 months.

LOOK FOR TURNKEY MARKETING MATERIALS
Time and time again, the same complaint was heard from window coverings fabricators in the survey conducted by the Thermalite Fabricators Association: “The component suppliers in this industry are all the same” says Bill McConnell of Classic Shutters, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, “. . . they all want to sell me components, but offer very little help in the way of generating leads and closing the sales.”

Of course, fabricating a quality product and providing consistently good customer service is important. But you have to have customers that consistently choose you over your competition to have a growing business. Make sure that your component supplier helps you develop marketing materials that set you apart from the competition in your local area. These materials should include advertising templates for yellow pages, newspapers, magazines and home show collateral as well as Web site content, comparison charts and testimonials, direct mail postcards, fliers, etc.

What you’re looking for is a supplier with rubber-meets-the-road experience in developing retail marketing plans, generating and nurturing leads and converting leads to sales. So naturally, it would be helpful if your supplier had been growing its own retail operation for years, and has been able to use that experience to help grow the businesses of several fabricator partners throughout the country.

Whose fault is it when you’re frustrated by suppliers with a sell-at-all-cost mentality and a not-so-subtle disregard for your individual needs in growing your window coverings business? We say it’s the supplier’s fault. They claim to have great products and support, but do they really deliver? You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops for your supplier to provide you the services and support you need to outshine your competitors in your local area.