When selling flooring at a full service specialty store, your offerings are often compared to a box store that wishes to place the primary emphasis on the product itself, rather than presenting it as an element of an installed floor. This type of outlet prefers to sell product first, and services only as required, as product is usually what they do best.
As a specialty retailer, your best option is to take the opposite approach and build the value into offering a superior service experience. When describing installation, be careful not to “de-mystify” the process too much. When the installers’ efforts are made to sound too easy, you will find it more difficult to build value into your pricing.
Examine how other industries build value into their offerings. When a quality restaurant is “selling” their chef’s abilities, they will brag about his training, sensibilities, creativeness, uniqueness, etc. They would never say, “That dish has only four ingredients and the seasonings come pre-packaged. You could likely do it yourself”. That is exactly what we are telling our customers when we say, “the planks simply click together” or “this vinyl doesn’t even require adhesive”.
Remember that our customers desire a beautiful kitchen floor in their home, just as the restaurant’s customer wants a well-prepared meal served on a plate. Sell honestly, but don’t give away the recipe!
Tom Jennings
