Staffing for Cabinet Distribution
At the recent Chicago conference of the North American Building
Material Distribution Association (NBMDA), I had the opportunity to
moderate two panel discussions conducted by the association's
Kitchen/Bath Distribution Alliance (KBDA). Our speakers addressed
two subjects of vital interest to cabinet distributors and
whotailers: "Finding and Keeping Sales/Design Personnel" and
"Controlling Warehouse Costs."
The speakers selected for the first session were Dave and Suzy
Reese, president and v.p., respectively, of Reese Kitchen
Distributing, Inc. of Indianapolis, and Matt Hibbard, the Lima, OH
showroom manager for Superior Kitchens of Toledo. Reese
Distributing is an Aristokraft distributor with two existing
showrooms, plus a third scheduled to open this spring. Superior
Kitchens features Merillat/Amera cabinets plus other lines
displayed in five showrooms. Both distributorships sell both
wholesale and retail.
Suzy Reese is a registered landscape architect who has transitioned
to kitchens. She supervises the high- end sale and design of custom
kitchens, while husband Dave concentrates mostly on the sale of
stock cabinets. Reese's success in custom kitchens (more than $3
million in annual sales) reveals that the specialization of sales
and design personnel for stock versus custom can pay off in terms
of sales and profitability. Suzy Reese's lines include Heritage,
DBS, Mouser and Decor'.
Comments from the speakers, as well as KBDA members, confirmed the
existence of a problem that kitchen and bath firms are facing on a
national level: staffing. This is largely due to the fact that job
opportunities exceed the current supply of qualified people. The
high-end custom cabinet business poses special staffing problems,
due to the complexity of the jobs and the high expectations of
homeowners.
Some strategies
What follows are some of the thoughts expressed by Dave and Suzy
Reese on the subject of finding and retaining qualified cabinet
salespeople and designers:
- Recruiting: "We identify the market we want to
sell and the expectations of those customers," notes Dave Reese.
"Good personnel can sell to a range of price points, but there's a
limit. We look for a good match. When experienced personnel with
good attitudes aren't available, we hire for character and train
for skills. Good character implies the intent to do the job right
for the customer."
Says Suzy Reese: "My division's market is broken into two categories: custom and high-end custom. The custom cabinet customer may just want a more unique finish or door style than stock or semi-custom offers, or a more creative design than stock cabinets can support. The high-end cabinet customer wants a personalized kitchen reflecting his or her individual tastes and personality. This is a challenging and exciting assignment for a qualified salesperson/designer. However, a few of these customers have such unreasonably high expectations that it's almost impossible to design and install to their satisfaction. I feel it's better to lose such a job than to have a dissatisfied customer.
