Browse, click, collect or deliver. This is the process that many of us have gotten used to over the last few years thanks to the power and ease of the internet. Sites like Amazon allow us to buy almost anything you can think of and have it delivered to us the next day. Takeaways can be ordered from sites like Just Eat and Hungry House and delivered to your door. Even a great deal of home improvement products can now be bought online and either delivered or picked up from a local store. But there is a recurring pattern. All of these processes require no face to face human contact at the point of sale. So could our own window and door industry ever end up in the same position? And should salespeople be worried about being done out of a job!?
Personal touch
I guess the first thing to look at is the level of emotional attachment for a homeowner when it comes to window and door purchases. If a homeowner decides to plough some time, effort and research and decent levels of money into a purchase of new windows and doors, then it’s more than likely they are going to want a more personal level of service when they go to see companies. That means salespeople are going to be very much needed.
Customers will want to use a sales person to get to know about the company, the product, the service, and then make a more informed choice before they purchase. At the end of the day they are the main purposes of a sales person in a company, and then to get the sale of course.
But what happens when someone doesn’t really care that much about new windows and doors? The people that now they need replacing but only wants something that will “make do”, rather than considering them as a bonafide and important home improvement product? Well these are the people who may benefit from an interface with a screen and order their product online. So, no need for a salesperson here.
The technology
There are of course commercial sites in the industry already that allow a homeowner to size up, specify and then order their new windows and doors. It’s mainly doors. At the moment though, these are the exception rather than a rule. The traditional means of purchasing windows and doors via showrooms and salespeople is still the main way homeowners do business with installers.
And in reality, it’s also the easy way. By allowing a salesperson and the company to take control of the purchasing process, all responsibility on getting the products, sizes and services right is put on them, rather than the homeowner. Should a homeowner wish to buy online, it is then up to them to measure their new products absolutely right and get the specification right. In the real world, it’s rare that such a vital home improvement goes 100% straightforward. Hence the current method being still very much the popular one right now.
But this situation may not always be the same. As technology and what you can do online becomes more advanced, it’s becoming more and more likely that a company will find that perfect way to be able sell windows and doors via their website, easily, and crack a solution that makes purchasing windows and doors of any quality and type simple enough that salespeople aren’t necessary.
The showroom
Like anything valuable and expensive though, many will still want to see a product before they buy it. You wouldn’t buy a car without seeing it and taking it for a test drive. You wouldn’t buy a kitchen before seeing an example of the products you want. Windows and doors are the same. A showroom remains a powerful tool for any installation business.
It’s the perfect way to show to potential customers exactly what you offer, and helps them develop a sense of what the business is all about. This sort of environment will always be something a showroom can create, but a website cannot. And to have an environment like this, you need salespeople.
Changing roles
I think though that the roles of salespeople are changing and changing quickly. With the internet giving unlimited amounts of information, and the sheer number of products available, salespeople have to be designers and consultants rather than salesmen and women. People want to be advised and guided on their purchase to make sure that their home looks as good as possible with their new windows and doors. That means us sales lot have to have a huge understanding of our products, how they work with the property, and guide rather than sell. Those that guide well and work with the consumer will find that they don’t actually need to do that much selling as the time invested with the homeowner should seal it for them anyway.
Salespeople are dead. This is the dawn of the designer!
As always comments on this and anything else on DGB are welcome in the section below.
I hope the days of the salesman isn’t nearing an end as how do you show and inform people the difference in quality between your product and the next. Trouble is with the majority of Internet sales is that people are just price motivated. Whichever price they find the cheapest they will order online. No regard to quality at all. A customer usually thinks a window is a window and that they are all the same when people who are in the industry know this is far from true.
An interesting post Jason. I think that like your comments, many of the ‘salespeople’ are now actually designers and advisors, helping consumers sift through the myriad of choices there are on the internet. Many of the smaller successful retailers also combine the role with surveying too, more like technical building advisors talking about Building Regs, planning permissions, drainage build over agreements ( conservatories and extensions).
I think there will always be a role for a ‘front line’ person to interface with the consumer – what that job title is or becomes is a moot point.
People still buy from people. In the glazing industry, the role of the sales person is changing to a place where value is added. Offering options which add security, energy savings or design improvements and then delivering service through to completion.
The old adage; “Nothing is bought until a sale takes place…”will always be the case, whether face to face or online. ‘Sales people’ will always have a role to play, as long as they are Sales Professionals and not order takers. A true Sales Professional must have the required attitude, skills and knowledge needed in today’s competitive and fast moving market place (this includes ‘live chat’). They should never be seen by the customer as a ‘salesperson’ but as an ‘adviser’, consultant, facilitator, knowledgeable in their product and the current marketplace, someone the customer can trust and someone who helps… Read more »
Salespeople get added value in the sale so from a buyer and seller hope salespeople will continue. We have to many order takers and not salespeople in our industry and I do not call pressure selling a sales person.
How many salespeople try to upsell the benefit pre-compressed foam sealing tape rather than silicone as a way of sealing and other products we can upgrade consumers to ?
We need added value and we need salespeople even if we have to refer to them as designers
Designer – Adviser – Sales Superhero; I don’t care what they are called because there’s virtually none left to call any kind of name working from showrooms. Maybe someone could design a sales Hologram because there’s few flesh and blood ones around. Its not obsolescence but no presence – that’s the problem The recession dispersed many installers who, knowing nothing else, started their own home based businesses to survive. Now that things have picked up, they are not going to give up what business they have, but try to supplement it with a bit of sub-contracting work to fill in… Read more »
You have to work the customer Paul , not to scam them , but to find out what is important to them , then work out if you can offer it , but if they are absolutely price driven , and there are plenty , then they will get the service, quality , mess, warranty and generally the respect that the price dictates. Though there are plenty of customers who want to see an office at least and a land line to phone up , it gives them confidence. I am sure there are any number of one man bands… Read more »