Parnerships Enhance DPH Firm's Success

Industry partnerships always have value, but this is even more true during hard times.

My family’s decorative plumbing and hardware business has locations throughout Arizona and in Las Vegas, which were hit especially hard during the recession. Recently, though, there have been concrete signs of a comeback. Home buying is beginning to increase again, and we’re seeing more home remodels as well. We are finally “feeling the love,” and the love we feel is much more free flowing and easier to come by than it was a few short years ago.

At the start of the economic downturn, we felt like an orphaned child – adopted by not one parent but dozens – and we, in return, adopted others as well. We worked very hard during the recession to make as many friends in the industry as possible to share resources and contacts and to support each other. Now, as more consumers start emerging from the shadows to make purchases on kitchen and bath products, our family business has established a network to keep all of that love “in the family.”

For such a long time, things were easy. We, like a lot of others, were living the good life. Arizona is sunny and gorgeous and thousands of people were moving here and buying homes. We hardly had to advertise or really even work to make sales. All we had to do was open the door and we seemed to have business.

When the housing market crashed, our business luckily still had great fundamentals, in terms of broad inventory and fantastic operations. However, the customers were harder to find.

The most important thing we had was our reputation, and it was time to go out and leverage it. It was time to reach out to our community and tell our story and hear the stories of others.

FORGING PARTNERSHIPS

In the run up of those many good economic years, there was a lot of consolidation in the industry, and we were one of the last independent family businesses left. So we started having individual meetings with cabinet makers, countertop companies, tile shops, appliance distributors, flooring stores and everything in between. We started telling our stories to each other, sometimes beginning with a salesperson or manager and then continuing on up.

We invited these companies into our showroom to take a tour, learn what makes us special and meet our people. Then we would go to their showrooms and do the same thing.

Referring a company is important, but referring “my friend Jeremy Smith from The Studio at Central Arizona Supply who will take care of you” is a much more solid endorsement. This is the part of the interview process in our “adoption proceedings.” We might like each other, but we needed to see if there would be love.

This started out as a way to refer and to be referred, but it also helped us to become experts not only in our products, but in the overall kitchen and bath market. As it turns out, the old adage is true: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

We were now able to guide our customers to the best local businesses in each category, and by going to these showrooms, we were up on the latest product and styles beyond our own. So when we were talking about our gorgeous oil-rubbed bronze faucet, we could discuss the great countertops that it would look best with.

Today’s clients seem to be more aware that their shopping in local businesses can make a huge difference in their community, and many seem to want to make that difference. We are just making it easier to do that – while at the same time helping to enhance the perception of our own legitimacy in the client’s eyes.

Many companies have fallen by the wayside during the recession, and customers can be fearful of investing their money in a company that might suddenly disappear – taking their money with them. So endorsing a business to your trusted clients helps to ease their mind.

QUALITY MATTERS