| 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 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 afterwards 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 travelled 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 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, that means it’s time to start selling door to the customer!
The designer
will go out to his car and take a bag of kitchen 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 colour, 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!
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