January sales. They’re as regular as the seasons and the sun rising and setting every day. They have been used to keep the consumer spending after the constraints of Christmas. They’re a tradition, but not always a good one in my opinion.
Sales in general are not my sort of thing for the window industry in general. No company would genuinely give your £3k off a conservatory, or 40% off a house full of windows and doors. Can you imagine what a bank manager would say to you if you kept genuinely giving away thousands of pounds per contract sold? He or she wouldn’t be best pleased. Of course, that isn’t what really goes on. Businesses either work off a way over priced matrix or add thousands of pounds to the end price, just to be able to take it back off again. That’s what happens.
Not for me though, or the company I work for. I have covered this subject at least once or twice before, but it’s a subject I’m more passionate about this time of year. The industry still seems so dominated with companies determined to sell on the basis of price rather than quality. Companies still think that the best way to secure a customer’s business is to drop a house full of windows and doors from £15,000 to £10,000 at the click of a pen. I still baffles me that companies still assume that customers think that it’s a genuine discount.
So no January sales at our gaff. I am a firm believer in quality first, price second. Definitely a “fabric first” approach to the way we do business. We hold firm against customers that try to barter down a price as we maintain the healthiest profit margin we can. Whilst price will always remain an important factor in the decision making process, the most genuine way to sell our products is on the quality of our wares. As far as I’m concerned, over the top sales campaigns and discounts cheapen our industry – which is even more unhelpful as the industry is now starting to introduce more high end products.
The worst thing to do (in my own humble opinion) is for the industry to bring out high end products like Ultraframe’s Loggia, Evolution timber-alternative windows and doors or solid roofs and then slap a great big discount sign on them. These are supposed to be high quality products which can command a higher profit margin. Subjecting them to the same tacky discounts given to shiny white windows immediately takes away the polish off what should be a product people actually want to spend more money on.
This is just my opinion, but also a practice which has seen the business I work for make it 33 years in business. I know many of you however won’t agree with the above. So, all comments, good or bad, are welcome in the section below.
