Should Showrooms Reflect The Demand In The Area?

After yet another late night debate/argument with @GlazingGuru the other day, the subject of showrooms and what to put in them came up.

Nick was of the opinion that if it is in a showroom it will sell. I get that. If that’s all you choose to do as a business then that is of course what you will sell. But my thoughts were that a showroom should also be based around the demand in your area, depending on the size of your business.

For example, the business I work for is a small family run concern that has been in business for over 30 years. We started with timber, but as PVC came along, the demand from customers in the area we served very quickly turned to PVC. We now get very, very few leads for timber, and nothing, absolutely nothing for aluminium. So, we have tailored our showroom to cater for the demands from our clients.

I believe that this is the right way to do it. I am all for diversity and difference, giving the customer choice. But I do think that by giving the customers in our demographic too much choice, and products that we know from experience our clients don’t buy in this area, we would be wasting both time and precious showroom space.

I don’t believe that it is just as simple as saying that because it’s in the showroom it will sell. Nor do I believe that a showroom should force products that are of little interest onto the public. I believe a business and it’s showroom should steadily evolve around the varying demands of it’s clients. If that means people ask for PVC and dismiss other products, then so be it. By all means perhaps try and filter in a different material to test the water, but going gung-ho into a totally new market would be overly brazen.

I know that up North where I am the market is far different to where my good friend Nick is down South. I know from what he has told me that aluminium is far more in demand up there, hence the showrooms reflect that. The same goes with timber. So my argument in reverse would work well there. Ali and timber is a big thing again in that area of the country, so why push PVC in places that clearly want wood?

This is a debate, this is only my opinion. If you agree or disagree, your comments are very welcome in the section below!