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What do the kitchen cabinet door, price, design, and quality have in common?
If
a customer isn’t fully satisfied with each and every aspect of the four areas,
then put quite simply, the designer won’t make a sale.
A designer may chat about these areas after they have finished the market
demonstration. He may say:
“Now… there are four areas that I need to get right for you today
– I need to find a kitchen cabinet door that you’re happy with – something you
can see yourself living with for many years to come. I
also need to show you examples of the sort of quality you can expect from our kitchens. If you don’t
really like one of the doors please tell me – in that case, there’s no point in
me continuing to design the kitchen then. If you’re happy with the door chosen
& the quality we’ll then design the kitchen together, pricing it up
afterward if you’re happy with everything. Now I’ll be completely ‘up-front’
with you – if you’re happy with everything including the price, I’ll then ask
for your business. We don’t do pressure – as I mentioned earlier I’m employed
by the company and you can always come back to us, but as I’ve traveled for
over 100 miles I’d be a mug if I didn’t ask for your business – is that OK with
you?”
Most
people’s answer to this onslaught might well be, “You can if you want,
but as I said earlier I’m not making a decision today.”
To
this the kitchen designer would then probably say, “That’s fine. No
problem. It’s just my job to ask!”
However, what the designer’s done here is put the thought into the
customer’s mind.
Maybe just maybe now they would consider making a decision on the day if they
were happy with everything including the price.
As
the designer has a first view of the kitchen, he also asks questions
like, “So what do you like about your present kitchen?” – “How do you
find the wear-and-tear?” – “What kind of door would you prefer?” During
this process, the designer is also looking for clues as to what kind of
lifestyle the owners have. He will be wondering to himself if the owners might
have any dogs or children that might dictate the type of kitchen cabinet door
required. He will also be looking for clues as to how much the customer might
be able to afford, and whether or not it might be appropriate to ‘pitch
finance’.
Once
the kitchen designer has established to himself the style of door that the
customer is looking for and the price that they are willing to pay, which means
it’s time to start selling the door to the customer!
The
designer will go out to his car and take a bag of kitchen cabinet door samples
into the house- but only the ones that he wants you to see!
He’ll
begin by taking out a couple of doors that he knows you won’t like. Then he’ll
suddenly ‘hit’ you with the one that he wants you to pick.
This
is the door that has all the characteristics that the customer wants – it’s the
right color, style, and quality, but more importantly the designer already
knows that he can design a kitchen in it within the customer’s budget. Once the
customer has ensured the designer that they’re very happy with that particular
door, the designer puts the rest of the doors away – and leaves the one sample
door out. It’s then time to move onto quality.
The designer will have already brought into the house some samples that indicate
the quality of the kitchen construction. Samples such as a small drawer, a
hinge, a piece of worktop, and a selection of handles. It’s easy for the
designer to compare the quality of the kitchen that he is demonstrating with
‘scare stories’ in the press. One small example is the designer handing over
the sample drawer to the lady of the house. She drops the drawer down to a low
level and says something like, “Wow!
Feel the weight of that!” This is one of the reasons that it
isn’t generally too difficult to convince the customer that the quality offered
is excellent.
Once
the designer has finished designing the kitchen itself, he has to ‘sell’ the
concept to the customer. If the customer has given a low budget initially, it’s
then up to the designer to ‘sell’ a design to the customer according to how
much they can afford to spend. Assuming that the customer is then very happy
with the way the door looks, the quality offered in the kitchen and the design
itself, it’s then down to the final part of the jigsaw – the price. The
designer then has a whole set of new skills up his sleeve in order to present
the price effectively… read on!
