From the desk of David Barker, Inspire KBB
Hi there,
It’s David Barker here.
I’m the owner at Inspire KBB, - we help retailers all over the UK to build a better brand, generate more leads, and sell more kitchens.
How do we know what works? When I joined my family’s kitchen business it wasn’t exactly going great guns.
It was in a great location, but it’d been neglected for a while (mainly by the previous owner).
Inside 10 years, my father and I increased the turnover eight-fold, and the process we used to grow that business is exactly what we’re using to grow our current kitchen clients’ businesses, and it’s working for them too.
So, how do you ‘8x’ the turnover of a kitchen business?
On the face of it, the answer is pretty simple: work out who your potential audience is, then reach them with a strong, consistent marketing message and dominate a few media channels in the region.
For our kitchen business:
We became the most recognisable brand across our market because our message was clear and delivered very creatively. Our awareness levels rocketed.
We started making it on to our potential customers ‘mental shopping list’, often well before they were ready to start looking for a new kitchen, but certainly by the time they were ready to obtain their ‘three quotes’.
We knew how to make the sales journey a positive one for our prospects – we informed and even entertained them, which gave us the edge to compete and actually win the work.
Anyway, enough about us. Let’s talk about you.
If you’ve read this far, then you’re probably interested in the idea of getting more leads into your business and selling more kitchens.
And if you’re like a lot of other businesses in this industry, getting more leads isn’t your specialist subject.
Instead, you specialise in providing really beautiful kitchens.
That’s most likely your bread and butter. Your day job. What you think about when the lights go off at the end of the night.
You’re probably not an expert at getting the customers in the first place, but you ARE an expert at delighting them once they’ve come in.
That’s not to say that you’re sitting around without any customers coming through the door – you might be busy, but there’s no predictability to your ‘busy-ness’; one month you might be rushed off your feet quoting, supplying, installing, and the next month you might be scratching around trying to get enough work to pay the bills.
If that’s you, then you’re not alone – most kitchen retailers I’ve come across are in the same state, and the reason why is very simple:
Marketing isn’t what they do, and it isn’t what they like to do either.
But here’s the problem…
You don’t build a business that provides a good income for you and your family and gives you security now and in the future without getting good at sales and marketing or accessing someone who is good at sales and marketing.
Take any big or successful company, and you’ll find this eternal truth: they’re probably good at what they do, but the proficiency of their product and/or service delivery is matched by the quality of their marketing.
Sure, being good at what you do will probably take you some of the way. Word of mouth and referrals are great, and if you do a good job, you’ll start to get them trickling in.
But they’re not reliable. One month you might get five, the next month you might get none, which makes it very hard to predict your turnover and income as a result.
By relying on word of mouth for your ‘customer acquisition’, you’re effectively leaving your business to chance, and when your business is your livelihood, you probably don’t want to leave it to chance.
There’ll be a whole bunch of reasons why you got into business, but I’m willing to bet that having your own independence, generating your own income and being able to provide for your nearest and dearest were pretty important factors.
And chances are, they’re still pretty important factors, and the reality is that it’d be foolhardy to leave those things to chance.
Which is why ambitious kitchen retailers need to move beyond the ‘feast and famine’ existence and move towards a situation where they have a predictable, rhythmic flow of leads and customers.
That’s only achieved with marketing, and that’s exactly the aim of the work that we do at Inspire KBB with our clients.
Our focus is on helping our clients to become the ‘go to’ kitchen supplier in their area, which means that when people want a new kitchen, you’re automatically part of the conversation, and you’re automatically one of the ‘three quotes’.
And in essence, the way we do it is simple: we make sure that the potential customers in your area get to know you, like you and trust you prior to their need, and then we engage with them on a deeper level once they’ve put their hands up and expressed interest.
In other words, you’re known before you’re needed.
At Inspire KBB, we specialise in creating a ‘sales and marketing system’ that:
Builds your brand in the local area, and positions you as the ‘go to’ company for kitchens
Elicits trust in your product and service
Educates, informs and entertains your target market, bringing them closer to you
Generates you qualified leads and helps you turn those leads into business.
Right now, either you’re thinking that you want to take things further and have a conversation with us, or you’re thinking, ‘I agree with everything you’re saying here David, but I think I can take care of the marketing myself’.
If you can, then that’s absolutely fine. But if you’re like most other kitchen and bedroom retailers out there, then it probably isn’t the case.
Here’s what’s stopping you…
In my experience, while a lot of kitchen retailers know that they need a sales and marketing system, there are two things stopping them (and probably you):
1. Time. With the best will in the world, you just don’t have the time required to build this system. You’re already up to your neck in it, dealing with invoices, customers, staff, and the ‘to do’ list never gets completely checked off.
The idea of adding some marketing to the list to move things forward just isn’t feasible – it might go on the list, but it won’t happen.
2. Knowledge. You don’t know what you don’t know. Sure, you might be able to learn how to do some of the stuff you need to do, but, as we’ve just said, you probably don’t have time.
Marketing in the 21st century is much harder than ever before – there’s more choice than ever before, and getting each platform right requires time, effort, thought and skill.
The chances are, you’re struggling with at least one of these elements; and if you’re anything like most other kitchen retailers out there, it’s probably both.
Which leaves you with two options:
Struggle on, hoping you might find a bit of time to do some marketing, knowing in your heart of hearts that it’s always going to be a ‘side of desk’ job and that your business and income will probably be stunted as a result; OR
Get someone else to do it, giving you a fantastic chance to reach your goals.
There are absolutely no prizes for guessing what my recommendation is.
I’ve always said that you should stick to what you’re good at and bring in experts for the stuff you’re not good at.
And if you’re not a marketing expert, and you don’t have the time or inclination to become one, then the good news is that all is not lost – Inspire KBB can do it all for you.
At Inspire KBB, we’re sales and marketing specialists.
We work with kitchen retailers day in, day out, building strong, efficient, sales and marketing systems and delivering our specialist sales training to help them attract your potential customers, generate them more leads and make them more sales.
And we can do it for you too.
But before we talk about ‘packages’ or ‘products’, I just want to invite you to have a conversation on the phone with me or one of my trusted Marketing Consultants. We can advise on what’s working well right now for kitchen retailers, and we’d genuinely like to understand more about what you need help with.
It’ll take 20 minutes (30 minutes tops), and in that time you can tell us a bit more about your business, we’ll tell you a bit more about ours, and then we’ll tell you exactly what we’d be doing in your business to build your brand, generate you a steady stream of leads and sell more kitchens.
Once we’ve given you that information, you’ve got two options – you can go away and do it yourself, or – if you’d rather someone else did it so you can focus on what you do best – we can talk about some of the services we offer.
To book your 20-minute chat, all you need to do is email us at: hello@inspirekbb.com
Or, give us a call on 0121 796 5340.
Thanks for taking the time to read this – we look forward to speaking to you soon.
Kind regards,
David Barker
Managing Director
