David Barker draws some vital observations from the experience of three successful senior ‘home specialists’ that’ll help steer through any rough passage.

Times are somewhat interesting for British businesses right now. Political uncertainty seems to be having an impact on businesses.

But let’s be realistic - this isn’t the first time our country’s experienced choppy waters like these over the past few decades. And you know what? There are plenty of experienced people around who’ve been in your shoes before.

The latest issue of our newsletter tackles Brexit in the kitchen industry, giving you some practical pointers on how you can navigate troubled times.

In life, deadlines drive decisions.

Whether it’s moving house in time to get the children into the right school catchment area, hot-footing it to the shops before they shut, or ordering a pint at the pub when the bell goes, the reality is that most of us are familiar with the way that deadlines can force us to take action we would have otherwise taken much slower, or not taken at all.

In the word of kitchen sales, it’s no different.

As the weather starts to cool off, things are hotting up at Inspire KBB HQ. Everyone is into 5th gear, ensuring we deliver on our clients’ marketing strategies.

Thankfully for me, our Senior Project Manager, Charly Turnbull - the Queen of Implementation - is on hand.  Charly is a vital part of everything we do at Inspire KBB, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce her.

Something important happened to us last month. 

We became KBSA Corporate Members.

As you probably know, the KBSA is a ‘home specialists’ association dedicated to upholding high standards of design, supply, installation and customer service throughout the KBB industry.

And we see that as important.

At Inspire KBB we’ve been working so hard these past few weeks, I briefly stopped to look up and was shocked to see it’s August tomorrow!

That means we’re smack bang in the middle of — summer holiday time.

We’ve been fortunate with some good weather over the last few weeks (yesterday excluded!), but now the children are off, the flip-flops purchased and the time by the pool or beach starts in earnest. 

And I don’t doubt that you’ve earned it too!

You may have heard the phrase, ‘Content is King’?

It’s often used in the context of business growth and marketing, and the idea behind it is simple: To get enough attention to convince a prospect that you’re the right choice for them, you need to be creating content that they can engage with.

Content that educates and informs.

Content that cajoles and compels. 

Content that nurtures and content that sells. 

In the kitchen industry, there’s little that’s more important than the content you put out, for the simple reason that the transaction you’re bidding for is a considered one.

Brexit.  The word you’re sick of reading, the subject you’re sick of talking about.

But if you think this email is just going to be 300 words of bleating on about Britain’s exit from the European Union, think again.

Like most industries, lots of kitchen and bathroom retailers have concerns and worries about what will happen when the UK leaves the EU, and some of those concerns may be valid. 

However, it’s certainly shouldn’t be all doom and gloom, and today, I just wanted to shine a light on a positive news story I read recently on precisely this topic.

I was having dinner with a friend of mine last week, chewing the fat about all manner of topics.

My friend’s name is John, he’s a lovely man, and – among other things – he’s a mortgage advisor.

And inevitably, we ended up talking about business, and about the various different marketing strategies we’re both deploying to get more customers and grow our businesses.

One of the things that became really obvious during the conversation was the truth of what’s known as “Pareto’s Law”, otherwise known as the 80:20 rule.

In this month’s edition of Inspired, your kitchen marketing newsletter brought to you by Inspire KBB:

David Barker explains why kitchen retailers shouldn’t compromise on pursuing their target market, and how to home in on the right kind of customer.

It goes without saying that if you’re serious about success in 2019 and beyond, you need to be thinking seriously about your digital footprint.  

Before the internet revolution, what mattered was your reputation – who knew about your business, what people said about your business, and how easy it was to find information about your business.

And none of that has changed. It’s just evolved.

Now. rather than just asking around among their friends, or ringing you up to find out more about what you do, your prospects are busy searching online for the information they need.

When it comes to marketing a kitchen business, the current perceived wisdom is that digital media is where you should put the majority of your spend.

And not just digital media; targeted digital media.

The best example is Facebook.

Kitchen retailers have flocked to Facebook in their droves, thanks to the promise of super-specific targeting.

Now, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with targeting.

We can all identify with the buzz that comes when you have a customer ‘sign on the dotted line’ and say yes to a new kitchen.

It’s very fulfilling.  And the bigger the job, the bigger the buzz.

And what many kitchen retailers have realised, is that often a bigger buzz comes when you’re able to get a different sort of customer to sign on the dotted line.

You see, selling direct to consumers is important, but you’ll do all of that sales and design activity for what is, in reality, a one-off project.

Here’s a troubling thought for you:

Last week someone in your area bought a kitchen. 

They weren’t a price shopper, and they wanted something stylish, good quality and long-lasting, so they spent good money on it too.

Here’s the problem: they didn’t buy it from you. 

Not because they considered using you and then dismissed it, but because you weren’t even on their radar.

Okay, so it didn’t turn out to be the warmest of bank holiday weekends, but the sun definitely appears to be shining for kitchen retailers, after a somewhat mixed start to the year.

I was on my travels last week, visiting several kitchen retailers, and for the most part, they’re all experiencing the same thing:

The last month or so has seen an uplift in the number of leads and sales coming through the doors…

I’m occasionally a betting man, but I prefer to take risks that I have more control with.

But I’d certainly put a hefty wager on the fact that there are several big kitchen companies that you know you’re better than…

Wren?  Magnet?  IKEA?

They’re probably cheaper than you, but the chances are that the quality and service you provide is on a different level.

As you can imagine, I speak to a lot of kitchen businesses; some clients, some prospects, some friends.

And what I’ve realised, is that the vast majority of them have the same problem when it comes to getting leads and making sales.

 It’s not that they don’t have ideas about how to get more customers. In fact, in lots of cases, they’ve got ideas coming out of their ears.

 But what they don’t have is time to implement those ideas.

In this month’s edition of Inspired, your kitchen marketing newsletter brought to you by Inspire KBB:

David Barker reports on the marketing strategy inspired by an octogenarian taxi driver.

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If I asked you what the most important asset in your kitchen business is, what would you say?

There are all sorts of potential answers:

Superior products, terrific showroom, high-performing staff, manufacturing facilities and plant, the list goes on and on.

But I’d like to propose that there’s something even more important than that…

Someone asked me recently, what's the greatest sale you ever made?

It took a while to consider it, but here’s the story...

I know a guy who’s a tremendous salesman.  A natural.  Ice to Eskimos, coal to Newcastle, the whole thing.

He also spends money like it’s going out of fashion.  It’d be slower to set fire to the stuff!

He was telling me about his latest purchase the other day, and it got me thinking about an old truism - as relevant in kitchen sales as it is anywhere else…