Show & Tell

Showrooms are an integral part of many remodeling businesses and while kitchen and bath specialists and design/build remodelers would appear to have a particular need to showcase a variety of products and designs, exterior contractors who specialize in roofing, siding, windows, doors and related products find showrooms equally beneficial.

For all the current talk about online presence and social networking, an old-fashioned bricks-and-mortar presence is still very much part of the marketing plans of remodelers of all types and geographical locations.

A survey of Qualified Remodeler readers reveals that showrooms are important to respondents. Nearly half of those who said they operated a showroom in conjunction with their business had done so for more than 10 years. Less than 5 percent reported closing an existing showroom in the past year. Of those who did close a showroom, only 17 percent said they did so because they didn’t feel it was effective.

Remodelers with showrooms are generally happy with their investment. A quarter of respondents ranked the effectiveness of their showroom at 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most effective. Another quarter ranked effectiveness between 8 and 9.

No Single Standard

There is no single standard as to what makes a showroom or how it works for a remodeler. Kitchen Kraft Inc.’s showroom in Columbus, Ohio, is unique, president Jim Deen says. “We’re in a historical part of downtown, and we’ve taken a brick home built in the late 1900s and converted the first level into a design studio — not even a showroom but rather a studio. We have a couple of vignettes and all the samples for cabinetry, wood flooring and hardware, but that’s really about all we show here.

“We’re more of a boutique or a design studio, very humble and very personal,” he says.

For plumbing, lighting, appliances and countertops, Deen refers clients to other showrooms.

The studio’s central location in downtown Columbus is an additional advantage. “We’re not in a suburb catering to only that suburb,” Deen says.

The 1,000-sq.-ft. showroom helps reduce overhead. Deen doesn’t believe that a larger showroom necessarily translates to more sales. Further, the necessary overhead for a large space can undo a remodeler in difficult economic times. “If I were in a half million dollar showroom with a million dollars invested in real estate, I don’t know if our doors would be open right now,” he says. “I know of a lot of people who did close their doors because they couldn’t maintain the overhead.”

Nevertheless, Deen believes a showroom is important. “I don’t think size matters,” he says, “but you need to have a physical presence and be able to show your clients what a cabinet is going to look like and how it is constructed,” he says.

Deen didn’t always have a showroom, he relates. “We started out 15 years ago with some laminate samples on a key chain and maybe four cabinet style samples in the trunk of a car. We’d set up appointments, go to the house, do the design on a laptop with 20/20 CAD and close the deal,” he said.

Of course, he says, “We were selling $10,000 kitchens. If I tried to do that today with $50,000 kitchens, [potential clients] are going to laugh. It just doesn’t work at the higher end.”

Work Your Way Up

Deen advises designers and remodelers to start out like he did. “Start from the ground and work your way up,” he says. “If you’re a seasoned designer and you can do high end, it might be nice to set up with a cabinet dealer in town and use their showroom. You’re going to pay a little more because you’re not buying direct, but you’re going to save a lot in overhead by not having your own place.”

At his own showroom, Deen encourages appointments but will try to accommodate walk-ins. “I think today people want to see, feel and touch, and they feel more comfortable with a physical location,” he says.